ORLANDO, Fla. — Billy Donovan didn’t recognize the team he coached on Thursday.
After Florida’s lackluster effort caused a minor scare against No. 16 Albany, the No. 1 overall seeded Gators regained their swagger in a dominant defensive performance against No. 9 Pittsburgh, advancing to their fourth straight Sweet 16 with a 61-45 win in a Saturday matinee at Amway Center.
Florida (34-2), which has won 28 straight games, will face the winner of No. 4 UCLA/No. 12 Stephen F. Austin in Memphis, Tenn., on Thursday.
“We didn’t play to our identity [Thursday] and I was disappointed by that because we really hadn’t done that all year long,” Donovan said. “I think it’s very, very easy to just kind of say, ‘Win, survive, we move on, everything is OK.’ I saw things inside our team that I just did not like. I just wanted to make sure they understood that and we got back to who we were.”
Holding its opponent under 50 points for the fourth time in the past seven games, Florida found itself, with 10 steals, while matching a season-low six turnovers.
Offensively, the Gators were forced to grind out points, with everyone but Scottie Wilbekin shooting 37 percent from the field and 2-of-13 on 3-pointers. The senior point guard came through, however, with a career-saving game, shooting 9-of-15 and scoring 13 of his 21 points in the second half, on a variety of drives and timely outside shooting. No other Gator reached double-figures.
“He’s a great point guard,” Pittsburgh’s Lamar Patterson said. “He took care of business.”
A back-and-forth first half ended with Wilbekin’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, giving the Gators a 27-22 lead they never would give back, as Pittsburgh opened the second half shooting 1-of-11, scoring five points through the half’s first 10-plus minutes.
A physical Panthers (25-10) frontline couldn’t win on the glass, while the backcourt couldn’t penetrate anywhere near the paint, slowly morphing Amway Center into Gainesville’s O’Connell Center.
Possession after possession, Pittsburgh watched the shot clock tick into its final seconds, the result of an offense without a hint of an answer, an offense which would shoot 37 percent from the field, led by Talib Zanna’s 10 points.
It wasn’t pretty, but Florida found a way to win. Since Dec. 2, that’s all the Gators have done.
“I think people try to find something wrong with this team at 34-2, and there’s not a lot wrong with them,” Pittsburgh coach Jamie Dixon said. “They’re old, they’re experienced, they’re by far the most physical team we’ve played. There’s a reason why they’re the No. 1 seed, and they showed it.”