The connectivity that has helped win six of seven SEC games and key Wednesday night's stunning upset of No. 2 Tennessee will to go next level on the road Saturday night at Kentucky.
Golden, Gators Seeks More Than Single Midseason Moment
Saturday, February 4, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Hugs. Jubilation. Celebration. Dancing. Bottle-water baths in the locker room. It all made for quite the scene Wednesday night, following Florida's 67-54 upset of No. 2 Tennessee at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. All of it was warranted, given the Gators' growth during these last few weeks of the Southeastern Conference season. In the hours that followed, Coach Todd Golden's phone blew up with congratulatory texts and calls, for all of which he was grateful.
And then he woke up Thursday and it was over. At least, that was the message Golden put to his players when they reported back to resume work in the afternoon.
The best teams know how to take on adversity, but just as critical they know how to move on from prosperity. That's exactly the charge the Gators (13-9, 6-3) face with Saturday night's road date against Kentucky (15-7, 6-3) at sold-out Rupp Arena. It took until February to ring up the first signature victory of Golden's first season.
Now what?
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
"I talked to our team about this … We don't want that [game] to be the highlight of our season," Golden said. "If we're looking back in May and we say, 'What was the best thing about this year's club,'' and the answer is, 'Oh, they beat No. 2 Tennessee at home,' that probably means we didn't make the [NCAA] Tournament or we didn't have a good run at the end of the season."
And that, after all, is the goal.
UF coachTodd Golden wants his team focused on the next big game, rather than that last big win Wednesday night against No. 2 Tennessee.
Some coaches avoid talking about postseason possibilities or even acknowledge looking at the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) or tournament projections. Not Golden, who admitted when asked Thursday to checking the metrics "every day." Golden has stated in the past the NET rankings don't mean a whole lot until February, so it's worth noting that the Tennessee win came on Feb. 1, so it would appear the NET flag has officially dropped, with the Gators now facing (pardon the pun) Golden opportunities with consecutive road dates against Kentucky (NET No. 31), then Wednesday at Alabama (No. 4) on the heels of knocking off the Volunteers, who came into that game at NET No. 1.
"It's all about the right approach and knowing our angle, which is trying to get to the tournament. That's it," fifth-year senior forward Colin Castleton said Friday. "I've talked some lately about this little stretch we're going through being a test for us to see how locked in we are and how we prepare as a team. Yeah, we got a big win at home. OK. But now we've had two practices and have to get on a plane and go to Kentucky. It's going to be a tough environment, with a packed stadium, and we have to understand how ready we have to be. It's a huge game for a team that wants to make the tournament."
The Gators could go into Rupp, play well and still come up short, of course. The goal is give themselves a chance, which means taking that phenomenal defense (that smothered the Vols) on the road, avoid the kind of slow starts that have undermined them this season (most recently, last weekend at Kansas State) and be in position — against All-America forward Oscar Tshiebwe and the improving Wildcats — in the final minutes to steal one at a place the program has won just 11 times in nearly a hundred years.
That means making shots, obviously, but there's also a required mindset. Recent Florida teams weren't great in similar scenarios and it cost them with ill-timed defeats.
Some history:
* 2016 — UF blasted ninth-ranked West Virginia in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge at home to start a run of three wins over four games and were comfortably in the tournament field, only to lose five of six late and became NIT fodder.
* 2019 — The Gators won five straight in February to redirect a teetering season, then lost the last three regular-season games, including an inexplicable (up six with six seconds to play) home defeat to Georgia in overtime.
* 2020 — After a smashing 22-point defeat of No. 4 Auburn, seemingly a statement victory, the Gators lost three straight, including a home meltdown after leading Mississippi State by 16.
* 2021 — Florida put together a four-game winning streak, highlighted by a 26-point wipeout of sixth-ranked Tennessee and a huge road win at No. 11 West Virginia, but then immediately got buzz-killed by a home loss to last-place South Carolina.
* 2022 — The Gators put together a run of four straight midseason wins, then got blown out on the road at Kentucky and chased that with a one-point defeat at Texas A&M, which had lost eight in a row. Hello, NIT.
Fifth-year senior point guard Kyle Lofton and the Gators want to keep the smiles going Saturday at Kentucky.
Castleton, the two-time All-SEC selection, was part of those last two seasons, with the follow-up to the win over Auburn particularly galling, given how the season ultimately turned out.
"Yeah, we beat Auburn. Who cares?," Castleton said. "That win was cool, but we still went to the NIT — and nobody wants to go to the NIT. I didn't come back this year to go to the NIT. And now Coach Golden and me and these other older guys are going to do everything in our power to keep us, as a group, connected and not get off the track of reaching our end goal."
To that point, Castleton and fellow fifth-years Myreon Jones and Kyle Lofton will try to hold their teammates steady and on point when things get rocky at Rupp, which they will. That's a given.
They're called "Rupp Runs." They're inevitable, they're loud and opposing players feel the pressure of a team backed by 24,000 Big Blue fanatics coming down on them all at once. At those moments, it has to be about poise, which is easier said than done, especially for players who have never experienced the largest crowd in all of college basketball; freshman, in particular.
"Those [young] guys have to understand we're not going to hear some of the play calls, so basketball instincts have to kick in," Castleton said. "If the five guys on the court can stay connected we'll be OK."
This, also, from former UF point guard and current director of player development Taurean Green.
"You can't be scared going in there," said Green, the two-time national champion who help engineer the 2006-07 Gators to back-to-back wins at Rupp. "And there's no funner atmosphere to experience than when you shut their crowd up."
He would know.
Freshman Riley Kugel is looking forward to his first house call in the Commonwealth.
"You can either fold when they go on that run or stay composed and battle it out and stay tough," he said. "Just get the job done at the end."
Doing so at the end will require a certain next-play approach from the beginning. Golden hopes that talking point was embraced Thursday, took root Friday and will show up Saturday night.
There are more potential highlights out there for the taking.
