Florida 72, South Carolina 46: Light up, Michael Frazier

We should've known when Michael Frazier II opened the scoring in South Carolina with a three. We should've known when Carolina couldn't stop him — at all — en route to five threes in the first half. We should've known when Frazier had more points (15) than the rest of the Gators combined (13) in the first half.

Then he went and burned the whole place down.

Frazier hit 11 threes, a new school and SEC record, and scored 37 points, tying Joakim Noah's record for points by a Florida sophomore, as the Gators torched South Carolina, 72-48.

And at halftime, when Florida led by a mere two points, this looked like a close game.

The Gators streaked out to a 7-0 lead in the first half before Carolina reeled them in with rebounding and hustle, and opened the second half on an 11-1 run — with the aid of zero Frazier threes — before Carolina punched back with a 6-0 run of its own.

Then Frazier continued his Johnny Storm impression, making four threes in an 18-0 Florida run — one three to begin it, two to extend it and one to finish it.

Florida was playing decent defense and stuff, I guess, but Frazier added two more threes — and two free throws off a technical foul assessed to South Carolina for a student throwing something on the court — to finish with his 37, the most points scored by a Gator since Noah exploded for his 37 against Georgia in 2006. Florida finished the game on a 33-11 run — or, you know, the number of points you score on 11 threes, and the number of threes Frazier made.

Here are all 11:

Florida's other 10 players who saw the floor scored 35 points; the four seniors who started with Frazier had just 22 — and on 21 shots, matching Frazier's 21 shots. Scottie Wilbekin had as many points as Jacob Kurtz.

Didn't matter.

For one night, Michael Frazier II was the best human being playing basketball in the world, and his teammates were more than happy to feed him. They'll be happy for him tomorrow, too — and then they'll get back to work on preparing for Kentucky, and the prospect of an unprecedented perfect 18-0 season in SEC play.

That's what this team does: It works, and hustles, and shares, and overachieves, and it sometimes looks like the best team to ever wear orange and blue. Tonight was one of those times.

What more can I say?¹