TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Make no mistake, the Florida Gators will have their hands full Tuesday night when they face Alabama at Coleman Coliseum. Three nights ago, the Crimson Tide went to Tennessee and basically dominated the seventh-ranked Volunteers, preseason favorites to win the Southeastern Conference, and now are home and no doubt beaming at a chance to stake a claim to sole possession of first place in the league. It'll take everything the Gators have not just to win the game, but be in the game.
And that's exactly what the Gators — these rejuvenated, thankful and grateful Gators — are expected to give.
"We rediscovered our love and joy for basketball," junior shooting guard
Noah Locke said this week. "It was all kind of missing there for a while."
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
By now, everyone knows about and empathizes with the altogether unique adversity the UF basketball team dealt with following the stunning collapse of forward
Keyontae Johnson at the outset of its Dec. 11 game at Florida State. The Gators were frightened for their friend and teammate. They were emotional. And, frankly, they were in no mood to deal with basketball.
The days that followed — with Johnson incapacitated in stints at two hospitals — were spent mostly in grief counseling or support sessions with one another. No basketball practice. One by one, games were canceled, until the decision was made to basically shut down the program for what ended up being a 15-day hiatus over the holidays. Most of the players were relieved to step away from it all and go home to be with their families.
They returned Dec. 26, took the floor for the first time together the next morning and three days later opened the SEC season with a 91-73 road win at Vanderbilt behind a crisp and energetic performance the likes of which surprised even Coach
Mike White.
Junior guard Noah Locke (right) and his UF teammates have a new and grateful outlook on the basketball opportunity before them ... and they're playing like it.
"We talk about playing with gratitude a lot in this program," White said Monday, adding that he thought his team was competing hard before the Johnson incident punched a hole in the team's collective gut. "I also think there's probably a certain sense of playing
for him. He's a beloved guy. They love the guy as we all do. I think those are pretty fair statements."
But what's also fair is taking, on the whole, what the Gators had taken away from them into consideration. Locke definitely has sensed as much. No one on the team was closer to Johnson. The two came in together as freshmen in 2018, lived together and and started alongside one another for basically two-plus seasons. He loves Johnson.
But, to be fair, Locke also loves basketball, like his 14 teammates. And not only were they separated from the game for an unusually long amount of time post-Johnson, but they also — like every program in the country — had to deal with the months of uncertainty, the masks, the social-distancing, the testing and the positive tests, the quarantines, the contact tracing and … well … you get the idea.
It was a lot on the plate for young men accustomed to lives revolving around basketball, academics and just plain hanging out. In an instant, all of it, as they knew it, was gone. The basketball, the routine, the precious camaraderie. Poof.
And then, on top of it all, there was Johnson being taken by stretcher from the floor of the Tucker Center in Tallahassee.
"Guys were in quarantine and we never got a chance to really practice together, or even just be together — the fun parts, you know?" Locke said. "And after the situation with Keyontae, we all talked about how much we missed playing with each other and being with each other and how much we just wanted to be back out there on the court together."
Two practices on Dec. 27 were rusty and not very good. The first of two on the 28th wasn't very good, either. Yet, the Gators went to Nashville, Tenn., on the 29th, routed the Commodores on the 30th, returned home for a pair of practices Thursday and Friday, then put a sold all-around performance together Saturday in beating LSU 83-79 in the SEC home opener.
Since returning from the hiatus, UF has scored 87.0 points over the two games, shot 55.8 percent from the floor, out-rebounded opponents by a plus-6.0 margin, and been stellar with effort and hustle plays.
Junior forward Colin Castleton (12), named Monday as the SEC's Co-Player of the Week, has been a fired-up difference-maker in UF's two SEC wins to open the season.
"Losing Keyontae made us realize how close we are as a team and made us realize how much we've taken that for granted," said sophomore guard
Scottie Lewis, who has elevated his game this season, especially since Johnson's exit. "We all know now — we've seen it — how basketball can be taken from you at any time. If you're going to be out there playing the game you love, then go out there and get it. That's what we talk about in our pre-game speech. We're approaching the game with respect. That's all our mindsets."
And having Johnson — aka "Coach Key," as his seat on the bench now says — back in the fold, if only as an inspiring, reassuring presence, has meant the world to each player.
"When you make a good play and you have something fun and energetic on the court, and then you look over and see him cheering for you, it makes you want to just go 10 times harder," said junior forward
Colin Castleton, who scored a career-high 23 points in the win at Vandy, then poured in 19 of his 21 points against LSU in a big, tide-turning second half Saturday on his way to SEC Co-Player of the Week honors. "It's cherishing to see how quickly he came back and how positive he is."
It's also infectious.
Everything about UF's circumstances has been.
"We're just juiced and happy and thankful to be out there together again," Locke said. "We're not taking anything for granted. We're taking advantage of the opportunity we've been given."
