The meeting near half court has been documented.
Before the Florida men's basketball game last Saturday, a group of West Virginia players purposely began performing their pre-game routine close to UF's huddle. The two teams exchanged words and several shoves before they were separated by coaches.
As the two sides faced each other on the court prior to tipoff, they might as well have been looking into a mirror.
Florida and West Virginia are two eerily similar teams — they both have stingy, stoic defenses that rank 36th and 49th nationally in opponents’ points per game, respectively.
They both have elite rebounders in the Gators’ forward Dorian Finney-Smith (8.2 per game) and the Mountaineers’ forward Devin Williams (8.9), who rank top six in their respective conferences.
And they both have a streaky but talented set of perimeter players that are largely inconsistent from behind the arc — Florida ranks 11th in the Southeastern Conference at 32.7-percent three-point shooting and West Virginia sits in ninth place in the Big 12, at 31.1 percent.
But for all their similarities, they differ in the one area that matters the most: West Virginia is ranked No. 14, while Florida is unranked.
Mike White has been preaching defense to his team all season, especially with its inability to depend on outside shooting. Before their game against West Virginia, the Gators missed 15 of their 22 three-pointers at Vanderbilt. Against the Mountaineers, they made 12 of 20 from behind the arc.
West Virginia deals with many of the same problems as Florida, and yet, it has three fewer losses and a national ranking.
"I don’t want to say we’re trying to be exactly like West Virginia," UF coach Mike White said. "Although if we were, we’d be pretty good."
If Florida wants to be elite, this is who they must be.
And they must display it on Saturday against No. 20 Kentucky, not only because it would give White his second signature win in his first year as coach, but because the Wildcats are at their most vulnerable.
While UK does rank third in the SEC in points per game (78.1) and second in field-goal percentage (47.2 percent), it’s only shooting 32 percent from three, second to last in the conference, and allowing a middling 68.3 points per game, which ranks 100th in the country.
The Wildcats have also lost their last two games, including a seven-point defeat at Tennessee on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Gators have won five of their last six games by an average margin of 13 points, and have shot 47.2 percent over that span.
"I think it’s just been a combination of things," White said of his team’s improved play. "Roles have been defined a little bit more over time. Some of that is the staff and some of that is just guys taking ownership over it, our guys together helping define roles."
And it has helped that Florida has seen White’s preaching pay off — when the Gators have been great defensively, they’ve been able to compete with almost anyone.
“We're still a young team,” Finney-Smith said. “(But) we're starting to play for each other.”
Ian Cohen is the Sports Editor. Contact him at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
UF coach Mike White calls out a play during Florida's 87-83 win over Arkansas on Feb. 3, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.
