Time to Find the Edge Again ... Or Else

DALLAS — In their meeting Monday morning, the Florida coaches kicked around options as far as previewing the Gators' yet-to-be-determined opening-round NCAA Tournament opponent. UCLA and St. Bonaventure, dueling 11 seeds in the NCAA East Region, meet Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio, with the winner advancing to face UF in Thursday night's second-round action at American Airlines Center.

Obviously, a "watch party" was in order, right?

"We talked about it," Coach Mike White said.

They also talked about the wisdom of gathering the players in a hotel ballroom with a bunch of stiff dining chairs versus letting them watch from the comfort of their beds in their respective hotel rooms. The former had its drawbacks, as well. Namely, the option of opting for video games, FaceTime, Instagram, whatever.

"It's 2018," White said. "I'm sure we're not the only team that has that view of their [players]."

No question about it.

But the mere notion that White was concerned about his basketball team — at this time of year, with the stakes so high — locking in for two hours and immersing itself in an informal scout says a lot about this group of Gators and its up-and-down level of competitiveness. Oh, they can be fierce, to be sure, as they demonstrated during that three-game winning streak to wrap the regular season, each time showing a killer instinct down the stretch that has been absent far too often this season. But they can also be, as White has mentioned on several occasions over the course of the campaign, almost too polite for their own good.

Even the players cop to that.

"We have competitors, there's no doubt about that. We see that every day at practice," graduate forward Egor Koulechov said. "Where we're lacking sometimes is with our emotion."

The UF team that took the court in the Southeastern Conference Tournament seemed absent of emotion, as it fell to Arkansas in the quarterfinals, despite having a two-game bye. The Gators showed some fight late in the game, flying around and playing incredibly hard, but it was a burst that came too late. For the outset, according to Koulechov, they were missing "that edge" that carried them in consecutive defeats of Auburn, Alabama and Kentucky, three eventual NCAA teams. Arkansas was the aggressor, the more hungry of the two, which sent the Gators into the next (and last) phase of the postseason, back to a place (not a good one) they've been in too often this season.

The dreaded dip in the rollercoaster.

Said senior point guard Chris Chiozza: "No matter who we're playing, we're going to try to get back to what we do, and that's defend, distribute the ball, and hit some shots."

The inability to do so to their standard, coupled with that rollercoaster demeanor, likely had something to do with TBS analyst Seth Davis, during Sunday's selection show, rather matter-of-factly dismissing the Gators (20-12) and picking them to lose whether they face St. Bonaventure (25-7) or UCLA (21-11) come Thursday night at 9:57 p.m. Davis did the same last year, picking 13th-seeded East Tennessee State over No. 4-seed UF in a first-round upset. Those Gators of Devin Robinson, Kasey Hill, Justin Leon and Canyon Barry openly took exception to the slight, then took it out on two weekend opponents, beating ETSU and crushing fifth-seeded Virginia on the way to the Sweet 16.

This year's version of the Davis disrespect will get locker room bulletin-board play, but White, noting "these guys are hard to tick off," isn't sure the affront will be all that offensive. After losing their SEC Tournament opener for the second straight year, there wasn't a lot of anger in the post-game locker room.

"A bunch of 'my bads,' a bunch of 'You're right, Coach, I didn't guard at the level I'm capable of.' Just a bunch of that," White said. "Again, these guys aren't really animated. Just really, really nice guys. Too nice of a group, really. I'd like to see them one day tear up a locker room after we lose, but that's not happening."

If it does happen, it'll mean the season's over, and it'll be too late.

"We'll have the edge back this time," Koulechov said. "We're coming off a bad game. It's back to the fun part of the rollercoaster."

For what it's worth, the Gators checked into their team hotel Tuesday and went straight to a dinner watch party and spread out on some cushy couches in plenty of time for UCLA-Bonaventure tip-off.

Gators Calendar

Time to Find the Edge Again ... Or Else

Players Mentioned

Chris Chiozza

Egor Koulechov

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