INDIANAPOLIS — Florida could tell when it started to happen. Gators smell blood, and these Gators had seen this scene enough before to know what was coming.
With about 10 minutes left in their 71-59 Final Four win over North Carolina, the Tar Heels’ shots started falling just a bit short, their passes going just a bit awry, their feet moving just a step slow on defense. With five minutes left, they were doubled over, pulling on their shirts and tugging on their shorts. Florida’s suffocating full-court press and seemingly endless depth had claimed another victim.
“You can always see that. They weren’t hitting their shots, they were making careless turnovers, making silly fouls. You can always tell when you’re wearing down a team,” said point guard Justin Hamilton, who watched as his 10-deep Gators team wore out yet another opponent and close the game with a 25-9 run.
The Tar Heels, blessed with a 7-foot center and as talented a starting five as any in the country, had lead 50-46 with 10 minutes left; but fatigue was an opponent you can’t post up or dribble around.
“At the five-minute mark they started grabbing their shorts and bending over,” said forward Brent Wright, who had a team-high-tying seven rebounds. “They weren’t making shots and they weren’t getting back on defense. Our style is to play 40 minutes of pressure, try to get up and down the court and see which team is in better shape.”
Apparently the Gators were; or at least they were able to wear down UNC with their depth and style of play. After all, Florida does have the deepest bench this side of the Portland Trail Blazers.
Ten Gators came in averaging 13 minutes or more, and all 10 got at least 13 minutes last night; they all scored. As a matter of fact, the Florida bench outscored UNC’s reserves an amazing 37-2 behind backup point guard Brett Nelson, who led the team with 13 points and four assists, and threw in six boards for good measure. He had seven points in UF’s game-winning 12-3 run.
“They just threw the waves at us, that was certainly a factor. This is the first time this year we’ve had a fatigue problem,” said UNC coach Bill Guthridge. “That run certainly hurt us and probably we had to expend so much energy to catch up that that could be a fatigue factor. We got going in the second half and probably expended a lot of energy there. And then came the foul problems and the fatigue.”
And the press. The full effect wasn’t evident early as UNC had just one more turnover than Florida in the first half (7-6). But the insidious effects showed in the second, when the Tar Heels turned the ball over 10 times to Florida’s four, and saw their stirring NCAA run come to an end.
“We just kept playing and playing the game, playing our style of play, and kept fatiguing them and fatiguing them,” said senior guard Kenyan Weaks. “Their players were unable to perform. We just kept going at them.”
And the finally got them.
