How bad was Vanderbilt's shot selection on Saturday? If you were taking a shot every time the team took a bad three-pointer, you'd be dead by now.
The Commodores bombed themselves out of a 12 point lead - and the game - Saturday afternoon in the SEC Tournament semifinals. Over the first 39 minutes of the game, Vandy took 30 three-pointers and made just five, handing Florida a spot in the conference finals. With the win, the Gators advance to face Kentucky for the league crown.
Vanderbilt led 40-28 early in the second half and kept the game close until the game's final five minutes, but then Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker took over. The pair was responsible for 17 straight Florida points that swung a one-point Vandy lead into a seven point UF advantage. The duo combined for 41 of the Gators' 77 points.
John Jenkins was unable to build off his stellar 29 point performance Friday against Mississippi State, gunning shots without caution and rarely finding the bottom of the net. Despite leading by double-digits, Jenkins and the Commodores were too often intent to put up bad threes early in the shot clock, allowing the Gators to make up the second half deficit in little time. Jenkins finished with just 10 points on 3-15 shooting from the field.
Florida had no answer for Festus Ezeli in the post, but he was utterly underused as the 'Dores settled for shot-after-shot from long range. Ezeli put up 17 points and nine rebounds on an efficient 7-9 shooting but couldn't come up big in the final minutes of play. Jeffery Taylor had a great 30 minutes of play as well before fading into the background late in the second half, leading the team with 21 points.
The loss will leave the 'Dores waiting to hear their NCAA Tournament seed tomorrow, but fortunately a dreaded 4-seed appears to be out of the question. Wins over LSU and Mississippi State likely made a 6-seed the worst the team can do, and many experts have Vandy looking at a 5-seed pending the weekend's results. We'll have the details and bracket as soon as they're released here on AoG Sunday evening at 5 pm.