KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Full 40. Full 40. Full 40.
It's a phrase that has come up often among Florida's head coach and players this season, and one that was uttered several times Saturday after Tennessee managed to stave off one of those UF-fashioned comebacks and sent the Gators home from Thompson-Boling Arena with a 63-58 road loss in Southeastern Conference play.
What if the visitors hadn't played giveaway in the first half with a careless 11 turnovers, and instead showed some poise against one of the nation's top defenses? What if a 15-point half-time deficit had been, say, maybe eight, instead? And what if the energy the Gators rolled out on both ends the final 15 or so minutes had been there the first 15?
"We have to figure out how to put an entire 40-minute span together," UF grad-transfer forward
Kerry Blackshear Jr. said. "That's what separates teams that make it far in the [NCAA] Tournament and teams that might exit early. We have to figure it out. Time is running out, but we have to do it."
Fourth-year junior forward John Fulkerson scored 22 points, including a killer five in the final two-plus minutes, and led a quartet of Volunteers into double-figure scoring by hitting 11 of his 15 field-goal attempts. Tennessee (16-13, 8-8) shot 48 percent in the first half and led by 19 early in the second before Florida (18-11, 10-5) came alive on offense against the league's No. 1 scoring defense and went on a 25-7 tear that reduced the Volunteers' lead to just one possession and set up a finish that was as thrilling as it was improbable.
"We dug ourselves too big a hole," UF coach
Mike White said after the program lost for fifth time in the last six trips to Rocky Top, and for the 10th time in 12 since 2003. "We were pretty good the last 12 minutes of the game. If we had been that good for 40 it would have been a more competitive game, Obviously, that said, I loved the resiliency and the fight of our guys. We fought to the bitter end, but [Tennessee] made the plays down the stretch."
The Gators, after shooting just 33 percent and playing giveaway with those 11 turnovers that turned into 13 points for the Vols in the first half, trailed 48-29 with less than 12 minutes to go. Nine minutes later, the Tennessee lead was just 55-54 — thanks to nearly 69-percent shooting — when freshman wing
Scottie Lewis batted a Vols pass out of bounds with 2:23 to go and just two seconds on the shot clock. UT inbounded the ball from the sideline and the best it could do was get it to the 6-foot-9 Fulkerson a couple feet above the top of the 3-point line and closely guarded by Blackshear.
Fulkerson — with just one 3-point attempt (a miss) in his 104 career games — launched a desperation heave as the shot-clock buzzer sounded.
Swish.
"It was that kind of day for him," said Blackshear, who led UF with 20 points and nine rebounds. "He played with so much intensity the whole game, he deserved it."
Said Fulkerson: "I was talking to Kerry Blackshear down at the other end and I was like, 'That was God right there. He said 'good shot,' and I was like, 'I really can't take credit for it."
The Vols got credit for it, though, and it hurt.
"That was deflating to see that go in," Florida freshman guard
Tre Mann said.
UF, however, didn't give in, but answered with a putback by Lewis to make it a two-point game. At UT's end, Fulkerson had a rare miss and the Gators came down the floor with a chance to tie or take the lead. Mann, whose nine second-half points helped feed the rally, had a wide-open look at a 3-pointer, but the ball rattled in and out.
Tennessee followed with guard Jordan Bowden (10 points, 5 rebounds) seeing an alley down the right side of the UF defense and charging downhill for a layup. It missed, but Fulkerson crashed the glass — with no box-out resistance from the Gators — and power-slammed the follow to put the Vols back up four.
Blackshear's two free throws with 27 seconds again cut the margin to two, but free throws from guard Santiago Vescovi (11 points, 4 assists) and Josiah-Jordan James (12 points, 8 rebounds) were sandwiched around a Florida miss and closed the matter.
The defeat left UF in a tie for fourth place in the SEC standings, with Mississippi State pulling even with a win at Missouri, and LSU moving a game in front with a home defeat of Texas A&M. Two games remain in the regular season, followed by the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn.
"I understand our ceiling, which I believe is still very high," Blackshear said. "I think we're getting closer. We just have to figure it all out."
UF freshman guard Tre Mann drives for a layup late in Saturday's loss on his way to nine points off the bench.
There's a lot to unpack relative to consistency. Three days earlier, Florida turned the ball over a season-low five times in beating LSU 81-66 in what was the closest thing to a 40-minute performance to date. Against the Vols, the Gators more than doubled those turnovers in the first half alone, then had just three in the second on the way to scoring 41 (as opposed to 17 in the first).
Florida famously came back from deficits of 21 against Alabama and a school record-tying 22 against Georgia for big wins earlier this season. Both of those were at home. The Gators had their chances in this one, but the margin and environment proved too much.
"I think the negative — the holes we put ourselves in — is bigger than the positive with the comebacks we've made," Mann said. "We shouldn't be in that position."
No, they shouldn't.
A full 40. For now, it's Florida's holy grail. The search continues.
