With emotions high, Gators respond to adversity, White in comeback win

It’s important to acknowledge how Saturday started for the Florida men’s basketball team to appreciate the way it ended, with an 81-72 win over Oklahoma State, the third-largest comeback under coach Mike White.

White spent the morning with his team in a hospital room at Shands, visiting center Jason Jitoboh.

That evening, White was calling out his players in the locker room at halftime as they trailed by 13. 

With emotions high, both bigs out and starters being benched, UF had every excuse to mail it in the second period. 

“They could have easily hung their heads and people would have felt bad for them,” OSU coach Mike Boynton said of the Gators. “There’s a lot going on with that team right now.”

White’s team has been through a turbulent month, which started with three straight ranked opponents to open SEC play for the first time in program history. Florida lost all three games coming off a two-week layoff due to COVID-19 issues within the UF basketball program.

The Gators got back on track with three SEC wins in a row, but star player Colin Castleton suffered a shoulder injury after their losing streak was snapped at South Carolina. 

Florida then dropped back-to-back games at Ole Miss and Tennessee, losing Jitoboh (Castleton’s replacement) to a season-ending eye injury in Knoxville. 

Jitoboh’s teammates and coaches visited him in the hospital Saturday morning following his surgery Friday. The UF players had just lost two of their brothers — and both of the team’s centers — to “significant” injuries in an eight-day span. 

“It’s gotta be extremely tough on these guys,” White said. “Emotional day.”

Of course, this year’s group has handled these emotions before. 

The day after Castleton was hurt, UF rallied from a double-digit deficit to defeat Mississippi State, 80-72. And following Jitoboh’s injury, the Gators played admirably with a depleted frontcourt at No. 18 Tennessee.

“I thought the mental toughness we displayed in Knoxville was off the charts. Off the charts. To have a chance to win that game with all the adversity that this group has gone through, I was really proud,” White said.

White expected more of the same Saturday against Oklahoma State, especially after the visit to Shands. 

Point guard Tyree Appleby said Jitoboh’s spirits were high in the hospital, and the players vowed to go out and “win one for J.”

It didn’t look promising at the break, however, with the Gators trailing by as much as 16 in the first half. 

“I told these guys, ‘I did not see that coming.’ We are coming off a game where we played as hard as you can play. We left every ounce of energy, fight, and level of physicality up in Knoxville. This is a hard-playing team. This is a physically tough team that we have here,” White said. “Then just to lay a dud there in the first was shocking.” 

Shocking wasn’t the only s-word that White used in the locker room when addressing his team. 

“Whatever Mike White said to his team at halftime was a lot better than what I said,” Boynton quipped. 

White calls Gators ‘soft’ at halftime 

White criticized his players in the harshest terms, calling them the dreaded four-letter word that no athlete wants to hear. 

“Soft. Soft. That’s all he said, soft,” Appleby said of White’s halftime speech. “He said we weren’t playing to the best of our abilities. He knows we’re better defensively. We held the previous three teams to about 20 in a half. So, he knew what we could do, but we just had to do it and step up. He just said we’re soft.” 

White wasn’t done sending a message. 

He also benched forward Anthony Duruji and guards Phlandrous Fleming Jr. and Brandon McKissic at the break and turned to three seldom-used players — forward Tuongthach Gatkek and guards Niels Lane and Eli Kennedy — to start the second half. 

“We knew we had to shake something up,” White said of the lineup change. “Sometimes, honestly, you hate to admit it as a coach, but sometimes you are trying to tick a guy off or two. You’re trying to make a statement. Let’s just throw this lineup out there and maybe it will ignite somebody, and it did.”

That somebody was Fleming, who caught fire with 10 second-half points. He made all four foul shots and knocked down both of his three-point attempts, the first to pull the Gators within one and the second to put them up by seven with four minutes left. 

Fleming was more motivated by what White said at halftime than his decision to sit him. 

“Don’t nobody call me soft,” Fleming said. “I responded great. I’ve been through so much. I’m an old guy, 23 years old. People calling me soft or putting me on the bench … that doesn’t upset me or anything. 

“But if Coach takes me out, let me cheer on my team. And then when I get back in, I’m playing well. But they started off the second half perfectly. So, we built off them and I’m happy that [Coach] did that.” 

Gatkek had career highs in points (8), blocks (3) and rebounds (3), while Lane posted a +14 with two blocked shots in 13 minutes. Fleming finished with 14 points and was one of four players to score in double figures, led by Appleby with 21. 

Defensively, UF forced 12 second-half turnovers and allowed just five made field goals over the game’s final 17 minutes.

“Our guys responded in a huge way,” White said. “No one likes to be called soft, but we played soft in the first half. We just did. Part of that is Oklahoma State played very tough and confidently, but we were good in the second 20.”

In the final game of a turbulent month, hours removed from visiting their teammate in the hospital, the Gators’ character was on display Saturday in the comeback win over Oklahoma State. 

And afterward, the Cowboys coach tipped his hat to Florida.

“You gotta give them credit,” Boynton said. “Give Coach White and his staff credit for keeping those kids’ spirits up. And obviously to go on the road and lose two this week, to come home and not have a great first half, there’s something internally that they’re building that’s good. And it shows the character of their guys to not hang their heads. 

“Just lost their backup center, who was playing well, best player’s out (Castleton). They had reasons to feel self-pity, but give them credit for not doing that. For showing what true competitors do.”