Gators Close Regular Season on a Simple MIssion: Win at Missouri
Friday, March 4, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
Florida looks to snap a season-high four-game losing streak
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Gators cross the finish line of head coach Mike White's first regular season at UF here on Saturday night against SEC bottom-feeder Missouri.
Question is, will they stumble across or sprint?
Mired in a four-game losing streak, their NCAA Tournament hopes nearly comatose, the Gators (17-13, 8-9) need a dose of hope in the worst way.
Prior to the team's departure from Gainesville on Friday morning, White laid out the situation in clear terms heading into the season finale.
"Our backs are against the wall,'' he said. "We're going into it like it's a must-win game -- that's our mentality. To get us to .500 in league play. Hopefully it sparks a little bit of momentum to where now you've got a clean slate going into the SEC Tournament.
"We've got to have the anything-can-happen mentality there."
The Gators have dropped five of six overall and are coming off an 88-79 home loss to Kentucky on Tuesday night in their final game at the O'Connell Center before it undergoes a massive overhaul. A promising season a month ago has turned sour as Florida seeks to avoid missing out on March Madness for a second consecutive season.
In the loss to Kentucky, too many missed free throws were the primary culprit. The Gators missed more (21) than they made (16), which White called "demoralizing."
"It's crazy. I missed a lot, too,'' said center John Egbunu, who was 3 of 11 at the line. "We're attacking the basket and getting fouled. We've got to convert at the free-throw line. We've got to reward ourselves with the free throws."
Kentucky also grabbed 10 more rebounds, marking only the fourth time in 30 games an opponent owned a double-figure advantage on the boards, and connected on 7 of 10 from beyond the arc.
Fortunately for Florida, it won't be the only team on the court slumping Saturday night at Mizzou Arena. Missouri (10-20, 3-14) also enters on a four-game losing streak. The Tigers' last win came at home Feb. 16, a 72-67 victory over South Carolina. A 73-69 overtime loss at South Carolina kickstarted the Gators' current slide.
Egbunu, coming off a career-high 27 points and nine dunks against Kentucky, said there is no secret to what currently ails the Gators.
They are not playing as well as earlier in the season and must improve if they have any chance of defeating Missouri to pose any threat at the SEC Tournament next week in Nashville.
"We want to play in March [Madness],'' Egbunu said. "So far we have not really put ourselves in the best situation. Right now, we're just focusing on … [to] continue to get better and work on the things that we need to work on. Get back to defending at a high level and go to the SEC Tournament and try to make a deep run."
The Gators are tied with Alabama for ninth in the conference standings. As Egbunu points out, Florida's defense has started to melt of late. Florida has allowed opponents to shoot above 50 percent and 44 percent from 3-point range in its last three losses (Vanderbilt, at LSU, Kentucky).
For White, there are no quick fixes.
The Gators have been up and down all season, never winning more than three in a row or losing more than two in a row until their four-game skid.
"This team, from the first day of practice, we've had major consistency issues,'' he said. "Some nights we really shoot the ball well and some nights we can't throw it in the ocean. Some nights free-throw shooting wins us the game, and the next four games we can't make a free throw.
"Defensively, at times we've looked like a top-five defensive team in the country, and then at times we've had defensive lapses. It's just consistency."
The Gators are 3-2 all-time against Missouri, but since the Tigers joined the SEC in 2012, Florida is winless at Mizzou Arena. A season ago Missouri snapped a 13-game losing streak by knocking off the Gators behind 28 points from guard Namon Wright.
Regardless of how this one is dissected, Florida's only option to keep alive any hopes of an NCAA Tournament bid short of winning the conference tournament is to beat the Tigers.
That's the finish to the regular season White is after. The only one.
"We want to be a part of March Madness," he said. "This team has worked really hard. We haven't done all the right things down the stretch. Some if it is we've played some good teams.
"But can we make a push? We hope so. You hope to make some strides within the next week that anything can happen regardless of who you play. But you got to have success at Missouri."
