ESPN's Jay Bilas 'shocked' by Florida's demolition of Tennessee, balance on roster

Florida rocked the college basketball world when it unseated the last remaining unbeaten in the sport last week, taking down Tennessee 73-43.

It was a demolition, in every sense of the word. And it caught one of college basketball’s most prominent analysts off guard.

“I was shocked at the way Tennessee was made to look by Florida,” ESPN’s Jay Bilas said. “It was an amazing performance. But I think rather than kind of harp on what Tennessee didn’t do, to me I was just as impressed if not moreso with what Florida did. It was ridiculously physical and Florida was the one that was dishing out all the blows.”

The game was never really in doubt after the opening stanza. Tennessee took several minutes to find its first points, and by that point Florida had established its confidence.

Moreover, the way the roster is constructed at Florida really caught Bilas’ eye.

“I thought they smacked Tennessee and they never really recovered, and it just kind of kept getting worse for the Vols,” Bilas said. “But that group of guards, I don’t even want to say trio, they have a trio of starting guards. And Walter Clayton is a great shooter and just a big-time scorer. Will Richard, who does just about everything for them. And Alijah Martin, who transferred in from Florida Atlantic, who’s a stud.”

Clayton, a first-team All-SEC selection, leads the way at 17.2 points per game. Martin is not far behind at 15.9 points per game, and he brings some real grit to the table. Finally, Richard is averaging 13.3 points per contest.

That’s a lot of scoring from the backcourt.

Then you have the other half of the equation for Florida.

“As long as Florida doesn’t turn it over and they get a shot, they’ve got a great chance,” Bilas said. “They get like 42, 43% of their misses. So Alex Condon and then Rueben Chinyelu… and Chinyelu is big and strong and ultra physical. He can rebound, and one thing he doesn’t get enough credit for, when he sets a screen, you stay screened. And he gets a lot of his teammates open. He doesn’t have to score to have a big impact on the game, and he had a big impact in that Tennessee game.”

A big enough impact to thoroughly impress Jay Bilas.