Florida-Vanderbilt: Gators Feel Right at Home Visiting Nation's Wackiest Court

Written by Ryan Collins, Gatorsfirst.com Staff Writer

After the South Carolina game, I mentioned that Chandler Parsons was suffering through a career-low scoring drought during the last few games. To top it off, Parsons missed the front end of a bonus free throw situation, causing South Carolina to steal the victory. Motivation to end the slump?

Well, something lit a fire under ole CP, because on Sunday at Vanderbilt, Chandler exploded his drought bubble with a career-high performance. CP was 7-8 from three-point range, including nailing his first five, and ended the game with 27 points. His performance, combined with solid efforts from his companions, led the Gators to a 94-69 win on national television.

I don't know if it was looking at Vanderbilt's acid-trip of a basketball court or what. This may be the first game of the season (yeah, this was game No. 20) that I would hand the game ball to a player other than Nick "Wonderboy" Calathes.

Wonderboy did indeed have a solid game, but for Parsons, this was the game of his young career. The Vanderbilt fans started the game booing Calathes each time he touched the ball, but after CP lit fire, the boos were directed towards Parsons, and the crowd facetiously applauded Chandler's first missed three-pointer (with 2:44 remaining in the first half).

Chandler Parsons also led the Gators with eight rebounds, and both he and Nick Calathes had four assists. The assist leader for the Gators was Erving Walker (OPOTB) with six assists. Walker came off the bench and contributed 17 points and played more minutes than Alex Tyus. The team's most physical big man may be freshman Kenny Kadji.

The Gators played well. Hitting 60 percent of three-pointers strongly contributed. If these young Gators can hit so many three-pointers that a conference road game turns into a practice game for the bench players, they may be able to beat any SEC team. Florida now leads the SEC in three-pointers made, but is last at both rebounds and blocks in conference.

However, the defense actually impressed me the most in this game. The Gators ran a zone defense that puzzled the Commodores throughout the first half, allowing UF to pull away. It was nice to see the squad showing an ability to play traditional defense, an added dimension to the previous strategy: generating steals on full-court pressure.

Overall, the team’s effort was impressive for three aspects: winning on the road, hitting a ton of threes, and playing adequate set-play defense.

The Florida Gators return home to face Georgia this Wednesday at 8pm (FSN-Florida). The Bulldogs are winless in conference and 9-10 overall. Georgia has lost to Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Loyola-Illinois at home and is last in the SEC in points scored per game. Expect a Florida victory.

Projection: UF 78 UGA 62.

Any thoughts?

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