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Depleted UF survives DePaul

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 2000

GAINESVILLE -- In Florida's first Final Four run in 1994, the unofficial motto of coach Lon Kruger's team was "find a way." Those Gators rarely dominated but consistently played well enough at the end of games to win.

Such was the case again Saturday afternoon against DePaul, when Florida was missing the staples of success under Billy Donovan -- strong perimeter shooting, an endless bench -- but escaped with an 83-76 victory before a crowd of 11,125 at the O'Connell Center.

"In a long, long time, this is as probably as proud as I've been of our basketball team," Donovan said. "Our shots did not fall. With our offensive woes as they were, for us to play a team as talented as DePaul and still find a way, just battling and scrapping, I can talk a lot about the trust these guys have in one another and the heart and character they played with."

Tenth-ranked Florida, which played without leading scorer Teddy Dupay, who was suspended by Donovan last week, never led by more than 11. The Gators' lead disappeared with 2:49 left when Andre Brown gave the Blue Demons a 70-69 lead. From there, Florida won at the free-throw line, hitting 11 of 12 shots in the final 90 seconds, including its final eight.

"This reminded me a little of the Oklahoma State game that put us in the Final Four last year," said Donovan, whose team had taken seven free throws with five minutes left. "We were very tired emotionally and physically after the Duke game; those guys found a way to win the game. I think that was the situation today, and that's the most pleasing thing to me, fighting through personal adversity. It wasn't just one guy, but the whole team."

Not quite. Dupay, who had made critical comments about low turnout for Florida's first home game, was out with an unspecified suspension, leaving Donovan to rotate primarily seven players, which he called his least depth since "back with Joel Reinhart and those guys" in his first season. One sub who made a difference was sophomore Matt Bonner, who continued a strong start by scoring 13 of his 17 in the first half, with two three-pointers in the first six minutes.

"We talked about starting Matt, and he was a guy who probably could have deserved to start tonight," Donovan said. "I decided to have him come off the bench, because I felt like from an offensive standpoint we'd have our best offensive team starting, and once we started subbing, we wouldn't have enough scoring. It really worked well for us; Matt played a great game for us today."

Florida needed the boost, as starting guards Brett Nelson and Justin Hamilton shot a combined 6-for-26 and hit three three-pointers between them. Each had five assists, however, pushing the ball inside to center Udonis Haslem, who took a career-high 17 shots and finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Haslem was one of five Gators to hit free throws in the final 1:24.

DePaul also was missing a key guard. Freshman Imari Sawyer, the Conference USA Player of the Week, badly sprained his left ankle late in the first half and did not return. Sawyer had led the Demons on a 16-3 run to take a 39-34 lead, but Florida scored the half's final six points after he left and led 45-39 at the break.

Sawyer had trouble with Florida's defense, which forced 16 turnovers in the first half and 24 for the game, maintaining a harassing pressure that Demons coach Pat Kennedy said was a key to Florida's victory.

"Turnovers killed us," he said. "We worked hard against their press this week, but in order to beat Florida, we have to beat their pressure. They also did a great job at the foul line, and we did not."

Florida could use a full lineup for Wednesday's game, a rematch of last year's NCAA Championship loss to Michigan State. Donovan said Dupay would practice Monday, and his status for Wednesday would be decided after the two talked.

"I will meet with him on Monday, and there are some things he has to do to get back on our basketball team," Donovan said. "I really don't know if he'll play against Michigan State yet."

Saturday's crowd, which might have been sparse with the Gators football team playing in the Southeastern Conference Championship, was about 3,000 more than Monday, when Dupay made his comments. Kennedy called it a "hostile environment" and said that crowd is more of what he would expect from the program that Donovan has built.

"What Teddy Dupay said was 100 percent right," Kennedy said. "People might not like the way he said it, he might have overstepped his bounds, but he was 100 percent right."

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