Jimmer Mania is off to the pros. The Florida Gators are off to the Elite Eight.
BYU guard Jimmer Fredette came into March Madness with a lion's roar, but left stuffed and mounted in a hunter's trophy room. The senior trudged off from his postgame press conference with a bloody, bandaged chin, a swollen left eye and a noticeable limp.
He was the top scorer of the night and a fearless competitor, but Fredette's opponent — the second-seeded Gators — were the superior team.
“I saw the blood on his jersey. I saw him cut,” recalled Gators guard Kenny Boynton. “He definitely worked for every shot.”
Five beats one. Fredette practically begged, borrowed and stole for his 32 points, shooting 11 of 29 from the floor. Florida guards Boynton and Erving Walker and forwards Alex Tyus and Chandler Parsons all scored in double figures — a near-perfect display of brute force and balance — to knock out third-seeded Brigham Young in overtime, 83-74, and advance to face Butler game in the Southeast Regional final.
“You had nine,” freshman center Patric Young said to senior center Vernon Macklin, the game's lone starter not to score in double figures.
“Should have made a free throw or something. Could have been all five guys.
“We're a five-way threat,” he added.
In overtime, the Gators' starting five appeared stronger than they were in the second half, a byproduct of a deep rotation. Boynton and Parsons each hit three-pointers in overtime as Florida outscored BYU 15-6. At that point, Fredette looked spent, and with 36.2 seconds left and the game no longer in doubt, his head coach, Dave Rose, subbed out the senior, who shook his head as the pro-Cougars crowd cheered him one last time.
“It's tough that it's over. It hasn't really sunk in yet that it's fully over right now,” Fredette said. “They definitely had fresh legs, and they were ready to go in that overtime.”
The pace was set from the opening tip. Florida dunks were quickly followed by spot-up jump shots from BYU.
The Gators jumped out to an early lead, hitting 10 of their first 13 shots. Boynton, nursing a sprained ankle, latched onto Fredette like a Post-It note, at one point blocking one of the guard's patented off-balance jumpers, which led to a Parsons three-point bucket for a 17-8 lead with 14:50 to play in the first half.
“Sometimes we didn't play as well as we wanted to,” Boynton said. “I knew before the game he was going to take a lot of shots. As long as he takes a lot of shots to do it, and it looks difficult, then I did my job.
Still, the Cougars fought back. Fredette is a sneaky scorer near the rim, and with the Gators contesting his outside jumpers, the senior slipped inside for six points and added a steal and two assists during a 22-10 run as BYU snatched the lead, 32-30, with 2:56 left in the first. The score was knotted at 36-36 at the half.
“I never heard a guy's name so many times in one week,” Young said of Fredette. “But he's for real. We got lucky in some ways.”
Midway through the second half, the BYU band struck up the “Rocky” theme. It was a fitting anthem, as their prizefighter was cut. Fredette, who'd fallen hard onto the hardwood several times at that point, checked his chin for blood. He was quickly bandaged during a TV timeout, then scored the next five points, including a 30-foot jumper, to tie the game, 63-63, with 4:59 to play.
The game then bled into overtime when Parsons missed a contested layup with a second remaining, setting up the one-for-all theatrics of the Gators.
“We have confidence in all of our guys,” said Macklin. “This is a special team.”
