How to beat Florida
By Mike Montgomery
Special to ESPN.com
Editor's note: Throughout the Final Four, Stanford coach Mike Montgomery will be acting as a special guest analyst for ESPN.com.
Florida is a tempo team, and it won't vary from its game plan against Michigan State. The Gators' strength in numbers wears you down, and a fast tempo frees them up to get the shots they want.
You must stay in control and play your game against Florida. The Gators will try to force you out of it every second of the game -- they come at you with a burning desire to force turnovers with their fullcourt pressure. If you break it, you'll be tempted to shoot early in your offense rather than go into your sets.
|  | | Brett Nelson provides instant offense off the bench. |
For some teams, shooting early is the wrong choice. But Michigan State won't mind running with Florida, making the Gators pay when the Spartans break the press. And it's not a given that Florida will be able to press that much -- you have to score first to set up your defense on the out-of-bounds play, and Michigan State is a great defensive club.
Florida's press also won't have the same effect on the Spartans as it did against North Carolina. You could anticipate that stretch in the second half when the Tar Heels got tired. Michigan State has much better depth, and with two ballhandlers (Mateen Cleaves and Charlie Bell), the Spartans won't rely on one guy to bring the ball up the floor. Michigan State will attack the press looking for early offense.
As a team, Florida has the ability to score from lots of different angles. The Gators are not looking to go to one guy -- everybody has the green light to take their shots from where they're comfortable. And two or three guys can go for 20 points against you. You could start eight or nine different Gators.
That being said, Florida can be forced into taking bad shots if you're solid on defense. The Gators like to get points off turnovers, and if you force them into halfcourt sets, you can handle them. They'll use lots of ballscreens trying to force you to help on defense. If you stick with them, they can get frustrated and force shots.
But even if the halfcourt offense is stalling for Florida, it'll get points off the offensive glass. Everybody looks to board, so block-offs become difficult. If you can take care of the offensive glass, you'll be in good shape because they rely on those points. The Spartans lead the nation in rebounding margin (plus-12.9), so they could neutralize the Gators on the offensive glass..
Some teams might be tempted to leak out a player for easy baskets when Florida hits the offensive glass. That's a bad idea -- everybody needs to board the ball.
The Gators are also playing with a lot of confidence, getting better performances off the bench than from their starters. I'm amazed at their ability to distribute the scoring so that when Billy Donovan takes a guy out who has a hot hand, another guy steps in with the same scoring capability. I'm higher now on Florida than I was going into the Final Four.
Donovan has done a great job selling the depth, which works in this sort of fast-paced style. That's the only way to do it, by playing fullcourt. That way, kids get tired and aren't reluctant to come out. They also know that they'll be going right back in pretty soon.
For these young kids, he has them sold on winning. Down the road, priorities might change, but for now this works with freshmen and sophomores. |
