Bill Belichick and Mike Tomlin were in the Amway Center stands for Saturday’s NCAA tournament game between top-seeded Florida and snarly Pittsburgh. No doubt the two NFL coaches were drawn to the promise of bodies slamming into each other for 40 angry minutes, for such was the preview on this scrap for a Sweet 16 spot.
The toughest guy on the floor, however, was not a vicious shot-blocker or a soaring power forward but a patient and disciplined point guard named Scottie Wilbekin.
He truly is the thick hide on the 34-2 Gators, and if Wilbekin had accepted coach Billy Donovan’s offer to transfer last summer during his second career suspension, there would be no top seed for Florida, no 28-game winning streak and no talk of rumbling all the way to the Final Four.
Saturday’s 61-45 stiff-arming of No. 9-seeded Pitt tells that story better than ever.
Where would the Gators have been without Wilbekin’s 21 points on a day when long-range catalyst Michael Frazier II missed 7 of 9 from 3-point range?
How close might Florida have been to a second-half meltdown if not for Wilbekin scoring 13 of the Gators’ 15 points during the one worrisome stretch where Pitt started punching back?
And how about that rainbow 3-pointer flung in on the run by Wilbekin at the halftime buzzer, a shot that nobody else could have taken because nobody else was trusted by Donovan to have the ball?
“I don’t shoot too many running 3s,” said Wilbekin, “but it went in and I was pretty happy about it.”
Or at least as happy as the senior from Gainesville will allow himself to be. The job of winning a national championship remains in his hands, for he is the one player who makes that goal attainable.
On Saturday, for instance, Scottie took a seat with the Gators up 13 points with less than seven minutes to play and pretty much ready to put this game to bed. Just 90 seconds later, Pitt had closed the gap to eight points, benefitting from a couple of disjointed Florida possessions and a panicky drive by Kasey Hill, the talented freshman who will run the show here next year.
Back came Wilbekin, and up stepped a highly partisan sellout crowd to its feet, and the rest of the game was watching Scottie slice down the lane for one twisting layup after another.
“Our offense isn’t really designed for one player to do something,” said Wilbekin, who came into this game with a modest average of 12.9 points per game but was an easy choice as SEC Player of the Year just the same. “The ball was in my hands in late-clock situations, and I was able to get down the lane. I think we had good spacing so I was able to finish the play, whereas if their big men would have stepped up, I would have tried to find Patric (Young) or Will (Yeguete) or somebody else.”
That sounds about right. Those who doubt Florida’s ability to win it all do so because the Gators have no superstar scorer. Counting times where two players were tied, Casey Prather has led the team in scoring 11 times this season, Frazier nine times and Wilbekin eight.
Wilbekin does everything else, however, and does it well, from triggering the Gators’ full-court press to finding Frazier for 3-point tries in transition to picking up every opponent’s best scorer. Pitt’s Lamar Patterson scored just eight points Saturday with Wilbekin in his face. He averages 17.4.
“When you give it up on the defensive end and when you’re the point guard,” said Donovan, “there’s a physical toll that your body takes over a period of time.”
That’s why Wilbekin may have looked a little glum on the bench as the final seconds ticked off, sore from one of his knees knocking somebody else’s and altogether gassed. What’s going through his mind is a tired tale by now, too, how Wilbekin sat out Florida’s first five games, including a buzzer-beating loss at Connecticut, for violating an unspecified team rule. Donovan told him to look elsewhere if he couldn’t toe the line, and kept Wilbekin away from team practice for many weeks when the decision was made to try again.
“He’s a guy that loves challenges,” said Donovan, “and what I was presenting was a real challenge because I kind of painted a picture that said, ‘I don’t believe you can do it or you will do it.’ I said, ‘Time will tell,’ and I think he thrived on that.”
On to the Sweet 16 round, at least, for the fourth consecutive year, the Gators thrive right along with him. Whether its stately UCLA or surprising Stephen F. Austin that comes next, Wilbekin will always be on point, and it won’t be that rambling mural of body art that defines his toughness.
It will be his fearless handle on this hot wire of a season, and for as long as it takes.
About the Author
