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Thursday, March 28, 2024

As UF guard Nick Calathes sat on the bench following another stellar performance, Coach Billy Donovan approached his young player and gave him a shot of reality.

BI told him on the bench today,C Donovan said. BIf you embrace this and think you have it all figured out, you?ll be making the biggest mistake of your life.C

As Donovan noted, Calathes still has room to grown, but in a 91-52 throttling of lowly Florida A&M, Calathes was about as good as it gets.

The freshman scored 20 points, dished nine assists and grabbed eight rebounds in the win. This was his third straight game of more than 20 points, and in the last two contests he has garnered 18 assists to only three turnovers.

Donovan, much to the ire of the UF crowd, chose to sit Calathes for the final 4:52, ending any chance of Calathes becoming the Gators' first freshman to ever record a triple double.

BWe?re too young to play for Nick Calathes to have a triple double,C Donovan said.

The lopsided victory was a game of runs for UF (9-1), who trailed FAMU 5-2 in the early moments, before exploding a 24-point run that put the Rattlers away for good. The second run came following intermission, when UF poured on 17 unanswered points and held FAMU scoreless for almost seven minutes.

BIt just keeps pouring on,C said Adam Allen, who scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. BWhen FAMU gets down we sense that and we just keep pushing it.C

In a blistering shooting performance, the Gators would lead by as much 47 in the contest. UF shot 63 percent from the field and hit 12 3-pointers on just 24 attempts. Donovan was pleased with his team?s effort and offensive execution.

BI thought that offensively this was the best game we?ve played this year,C he said. BI was really pleased with our unselfishness and the way we passed and shared the basketball.C

After playing its third game in six days, the Gators will have some time to rest as the team takes 10 days off before heading to Jacksonville to face Georgia Southern.

BIt?s going to be a good time for us all to get together as a team and find out a lot about ourselves,C Allen said.

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