One NCAA Tournament coach was asking for divine intervention to help his team keep dancing in March.
It never came.
No. 16 seed Prairie View A&M drew defending national champion Florida in the first round of March Madness on Friday night and coach Byron Smith was asked during a sideline interview on TBS what it was going to take to hang with the No. 1-seeded Gators.
“They would need some help from the Lord,” Smith said.
He was certainly honest in his assessment and it never hurts to ask for a little assistance from above in the Big Dance as his team suffered an eventual 114-55 loss at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa.
Prairie View A&M was tied with Florida, 15-15, midway through the first half before the Gators went on an 18-0 run that forced Smith to call a timeout
He understood just how daunting it is to try to slow Florida.
“They’re very good. They’re very good,” Smith said. “We’ve just got to keep defending. Try to switch our defenses. Try to throw them off. But they’ve been very efficient. So, we’ve just got to keep plugging away.”
Things only got worse for the SWAC champions as the Gators ripped off a 45-6 run that pushed the lead to 60-21 at halftime to put the game away.
Florida was even able to get the tallest player ever in college basketball in 7-foot-9 Oliver Rioux into the game late to make history by both playing and scoring in an NCAA Tournament game.
The Panthers (19-18) have nothing to be ashamed of despite the blowout loss.
The program unexpectedly won its conference tournament as the No. 8 seed and beat Lehigh in the First Four to secure its first NCAA Tournament victory in school history.
