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Florida 72, Florida State 47: Gators thrash Seminoles in Tallahassee

Florida's offense has been consistently good in 2012. Its defense is verging on greatness. And the Gators are right where a Final Four contender needs to be.

By Andy Hutchins
US PRESSWIRE

Here's the short list of records Florida threatened in its 72-47 win over Florida State on Wednesday:

  • Record margin of victory in the series (35 points in 1999-2000)
  • Record low points by Florida State in the series (30 in 1966-67)
  • Record low points by Florida State at Donald L. Tucker Center (48 vs. North Carolina in 2002)

    • Instead, Florida let Florida State's offense get untracked late — much like it did against Alabama State in its season opener — and only got that third record. What a shame, right?

    In front of mega-recruit Andrew Wiggins, whose FSU graduate parents were honored at halftime, the Gators thrashed a Seminoles team that didn't appear to be from the same weight class. Florida hounded FSU into 22 turnovers, and limited the 'Noles to 34.8 percent shooting. FSU also recorded just seven assists, a testament to how little production the Gators allowed from its half-court offense.

    And that made up for unspectacular nights on offense by almost every Gator. Mike Rosario and Kenny Boynton each had 14 points to lead all scorers, but needed 10 and 12 shots, respectively, to get those numbers; Michael Frazier continued his hot streak off the bench with 12 points on five shots, but scored all 12 after Florida took a 50-21 lead in the second half.

    Florida's lead ballooned to 37 points at 62-25 with just over eight minutes remaining, but Florida State finished the game on a 22-10, making seven of their 16 field goals on the night after that point, and got the final score out of record-breaking territory.

    What Florida fans can take away from this — other than the satisfaction of 2012 being the first calendar year in school history that has seen the Gators sweep the Seminoles in football, men's basketball, and baseball — is that Florida State is currently bad at men's basketball, while Florida is very, very good, and among the nation's top five teams at least.

    The Gators have their toughest challenge of the non-conference season, a trip to Arizona, up next, but what they have shown since playing uninspired basketball against Georgetown on the USS Bataan is the sort of form that gets teams to the Final Four. Playing as well as the Gators have so far could get Florida to the SEC schedule with an undefeated record.

    And I don't think we've seen the Gators' best basketball yet.