Florida Gators
Miami
As far as challenges go, Gator women face a huge one Thursday at Tennessee
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 | Women's Basketball, Women's Tennis, Scott Carter
Soon after Sunday's double-overtime loss to Vanderbilt, Gators women's basketball coach Amanda Butler quickly steered her team's attention away from the recent past.
She had to. After all, the Gators (14-11, 4-7 SEC) play at No. 4-ranked Tennessee (22-2, 10-0) on Thursday night and must be mentally ready to upset the Lady Vols. Florida's only win at Tennessee came five years ago in a 95-93 victory in overtime.
“Obviously a huge challenge going into Knoxville,'' she said. “We didn't fare to well against Tennessee in Round 1. We're excited about that challenge.''
In the first meeting with the Lady Vols, Florida shot just 21.4 percent and never mounted a charge in an 83-40 loss on Jan. 13 at the O'Connell Center. The loss started a four-game losing streak for the Gators.
The Gators are 2-5 since last facing the Lady Vols, coming off back-to-back home losses to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt. The Gators had chances to win both games, but in the end couldn't get over the hump in the final moments.
Butler said much of that has to do with how the games started.
“The lesson that we're really trying to get a firm grasp on right now … if we can get a handle on our start, then we may be in a different situation the last two minutes, four minutes, five minutes of a basketball game,'' Butler said. “Our focus is: 'what can we do right now?' ''
When trying to snap a losing streak, Tennessee is about the last team you want to see on your schedule. Since taking over the Gators at the start of the 2007-08 season, Butler is 1-6 against one of her idols while growing up about two hours from Knoxville – Tennessee coach Pat Summit.
While the last two losses have been blowouts, Florida played evenly with the Lady Vols for three consecutive games, winning by 9 and losing by 4 and 2.
Butler expects the Gators to have a much better performance on Thursday than in last month's loss to the Lady Vols. After all, she started laying the groundwork immediately after Sunday's loss to Vanderbilt.
“Can you play poorly and beat Tennessee? No. You have to play well -- there is no question about that,'' Butler said. “We feel like we can play with anybody in the country.We know we didn't play anywhere near our best basketball [in the first meeting].''
