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Tampa Brings March Sadness To Gators

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 14, 2009

Updated: 03/14/2009 01:22 am

TAMPA - Considering how the Florida Gators played Friday night, it would be easy to suggest they shot themselves in the foot. Nahhh, they would have missed.

The result was a 61-58 second-round SEC Tournament victory by the Auburn Tigers that sends them into today's semi-final round against Tennessee and by all probability ends 23-10 Florida's hope of securing an NCAA invitation when March Madness brackets are announced on Sunday.

The Gators fate was sealed when 5-foot-8 freshman guard Erving Walker's three-point jump shot at the buzzer to force overtime was blocked by the Tigers' Quantez Robertson.

"I saw it and I blocked it,'' the 6-foot-3 Robertson said. "Game over.''

But opportunity had already been lost.

In front of a crowd of 14,128 in the St. Pete Times Forum, Florida became the gang that could not shoot straight.

A night that started with promise ended with a blank stare.

The Gators connected on four of five three-point shots to start the game on the way to building a 25-17 lead. The rest of the night they hit four of 20 from outside the arch. Moving closer didn't seem to help. For the night, Florida hit 22 of 61 shots.

"The difference in the game was we really struggled offensively,'' Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "But Auburn had a lot to do with that. I thought their speed, their quickness and their strength really made it very difficult for our perimeter. And we didn't get a whole lot from them, but I thought that we played well enough defensively to at least give ourselves a chance to win.''

Thanks mainly to he-man work inside by sophomore forward Alex Tyus the Gators were able to keep their hopes alive until the end. Tyus hit nine of 17 shots on the way to 21 points while also pulling down 11 rebounds. The only other Gator to score in double figures was Walker, who hit five of 10 shots to score 12.

Take away the shooting performance by those two and the rest of Florida's lineup hit eight of 34 shots.

"We just could not find any scoring from anybody else, and I thought at times we had some pretty decent looks,'' Donovan said.

Sophomore guard Nick Calathes, Florida leading scorer with an average per game, managed only seven, hitting three of 13.

Still, against all likelihood, Florida found itself with chance until the end.

Auburn's Frankie Sullivan missed the front end of a one-and-one with 13 seconds that would have iced the win and the Gators sped down court.

Walker, Florida's most-accurate three-point shooter (41 percent) on the season, got open on the left side, caught the pass and fired. But Robertson sailed in from the right to get a hand on the ball.

Walker buried his face in his hands and had to be consoled by teammates.

"I think sometimes when guys cry, some people look at that as being a bad thing,'' Donovan said. "I think a lot of times it's a sign of a guy who really cares. I know that he cared.

"He made some plays that kept us around in the game. You know, maybe if it wasn't for a few of the shots he made, we wouldn't have been in that position.''

While Auburn improved to 22-10 and has a chance to improve its NCAA chances at 3:30 p.m. today against Tennessee, the Gators are expected to settle for a second consecutive trip to the NIT since winning back-to-back NCAA national championships.

"That's not for me to say,'' Donovan said. "We'll find out Sunday.''

Reporter Mick Elliott can be reached at (813) 281-2534.

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