Gators Freshman Forward Omar Payne Deserves More Minutes

A pleasant surprise, in a season of unpleasant surprises.

That's Florida freshman big man Omar Payne. The 6-foot-10, 223-pound Kissimmee, Florida, native has made the most out of his limited time on the court for the Gators. As well as he has played, especially as of late, he should play more than he does.

Here is why.

The Gators basketball team is 10-4. It is also on a three-game winning streak, including two to begin conference play. Currently, the Gators sit at third in the SEC standings. Good, right?

Sort of.

It has so far been a bit of an up and down year. They have suffered a few miserable losses like the 63-51 beat down they took against in-state rival Florida State and the 62-59 loss to unranked UCONN, who is ranked eighth in its own conference in the AAC.

And Florida has also looked bad in wins, like when it only beat Towson by six and was losing to 8-8 and unranked Marshall at halftime, at home.

Fans and media alike, through 14 games, still have no idea how to answer the question, "Is Florida any good?"

Insert Omar Payne.

Remember, even with these tough looks so far this year, the last three games have undoubtedly been three of the best all season for the Gators.

And in all of those contests, Payne has played double-digit minutes, including a season-high against Alabama with 30. Granted, that game went to double-overtime, so obviously that adds more time to achieve more minutes, but even without the extra periods he still would have played over 20 minutes.

He has only done that two other times this season, and one of them came in the game immediately before Alabama against Long Beach State, where the Gators won by an unbelievable 39 points, 102-63.

I am not saying that Payne is the sole reason that UF is playing better basketball as of late. There are multiple reasons for that. Andrew Nembhard is finding his groove, Noah Locke is shooting the ball better and Scottie Lewis is coming into his own to show everyone why he was the No. 1-ranked small forward in the country just to name a few.

But Payne being more involved is still up there at the top of the list.

Outside of being a poor free-throw shooter at only 36.8 percent, he is efficient everywhere else in his game. The 4.4 points and rebounds per game come without always getting a lot of time on the court, which shows how positively he affects the game even with just a little bit of time to work with. He is also just under averaging a block per game at .9, which is rare for someone that doesn't always play double-digit minutes.

But more important than the stats, he is a cup of coffee for this team that tends to doze off.

It has been a critique of coach Mike White since he came to Florida. In his first year, the Gators made an Elite 8 run so nobody complained, but he appears apathetic at times. Especially when UF is losing, it doesn't seem that he ever rips into anyone or shows much emotion to change the narrative of a losing effort.

And sometimes, it also seems that the players follow suit.

The FSU game was the best example. The entire game Florida was getting embarrassed and it didn't seem like anyone was that upset about it.

Also, as good as graduate transfer Kerry Blackshear Jr. is, he is not an incredibly emotional player either, and he is more of a technician than a scrapper.

Payne gets his hands dirty on the floor. He goes after loose balls and plays hard, versatile defense. The freshman always provides a great change of pace from Blackshear and gives the defense something totally different to defend.

But why not have both?

This is already a small team, and Payne has the size and athleticism to guard multiple positions. Blackshear shouldn't have to be off the floor for Payne to be on it.

As the old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

So when Payne comes into the game and gets one of those blocks, or earns a few tough offensive rebounds or leaps over somebody for a put-back dunk, why take him out?