Lander's Layup Line: Florida Gators Defense is Thriving

Strong defensive player has been a crucial reason to the Gators being off to an 8-0 start

The Gators defense has been top-notch out of the gate / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Gainesville, Fla. – It’s always great to see a ball rip the cords of a net. Points are being scored, and that's the most important thing for the Florida Gators, right? Right?

Wrong. Some of the best teams to ever play have been physically imposing and great defensive teams. 

There’s also a reason they say defense wins championships. It isn’t some unfactual phrase that someone made up to make themselves feel better when they go to sleep. 

And while this may be a little bit biased, the satisfaction of seeing an opposing team struggle to get good shots up and be ineffective on the offensive end is way more pleasing. It brings more energy to the court and really throws a team out of whack in all areas. 

Players begin to get frustrated that they aren’t seeing the ball go through the hoop and when that happens, that bad mojo can leak onto the defensive end, which is exactly what happened against Wichita State on Friday in the ESPN Events Invitational finals. 

The Gators absolutely dismantled the Shockers and the only reason the difference wasn’t worse than 37 is because the Gators started to take their foot off the pedal in the second half. In the first half alone, Wichita State only made six of their 32 shots. This great first-half effort on D led to a 37-18 lead by halftime. 

But the biggest talking point from this game could be the otherworldly run that the Gators went on. From the 7:26 mark in the first half to around the 17-minute mark in the second, the Gators went on a 27-0 run. So, what was a 21-18 lead turned into a 48-18 advantage. It gets even better though, if you extend the run to around the 13-minute mark, it turns into a 41-6 run for the Gators.  

Things like this make the game so much easier. When you’re having fun on defense, the offense almost feels like second nature. Like nothing can go wrong for you, which might have been the case for Florida in this one. 

Sure, this won’t happen every game, but that’s not the point. The point is that this defense has put its best foot forward through eight games so far and taken a total 180 from last year. 

A lot of that credit goes to Alijah Martin. Yes, some of the players returning have played a part, but watching Martin play defense is as beautiful as it gets. He loves it, he gets after every player put in front of him no matter the size of the opponent and makes their life a living hell. 

When you have a guy like Martin putting in that type of effort every single play, everyone else around him begins to follow his lead, which is exactly what happened. Rueben Chinyelu had four blocks, Walter Clayton Jr. had three blocks and a steal and three others recorded a steal as well. 

Even outside the steals and blocks, the Gators defense held their opponents to under 30 percent from the field and under 25 percent from deep. 

This isn’t a one off either. This is their sixth time in eight games that the Gators held their opponents to under 70 points. Additionally, their defense in this mini tournament hasn’t allowed either opponent to reach the 60 point threshold. 

And by doing this, it has given the sixth best NET rating in all of college basketball. That is better than teams like Kentucky, Kansas and Alabama, who are all ranked way above the Gators. 

If this defense continues on this path that they are on, there’s no telling where the Gators could end up when the season ends. But what I will say is that this type of defense is what gets you to March Madness and gives you a chance to win it all by the end of it.