Todd Golden would love to extend a congratulatory hand to Will Richard (5) or any other Gator in a big win in a Quadrant 1 game like the one Wednesday night at Kentucky.
Gators Brace for Paddlewheel of Q1s
Wednesday, January 31, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
LEXINGTON, Ky. – After surviving a pair of late-game collapses on their home floor last week, the Florida Gators took some time to allow themselves to feel good about their current three-game winning streak. Eventually, though, they addressed what happened to allow Mississippi State (down 17 in the second half) and Georgia (down 21 with 12 minutes left) to make things entirely too close for comfort at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center.
"A month and a half, two months ago, we weren't getting leads like this against really quality opponents like we've been facing," UF coach Todd Golden said Tuesday. "We got over that first hump of being able to build those leads and now the second [hump], I think, will be when we do [build a lead] to not let it become tight, to not let it be a game. The great thing is, it's always easier to teach those lessons after wins, so we'll hang onto that and still focus on areas to improve but that's going to be the next step for us."
Golden would be positively thrilled if the opportunity to close out a double-digit advantage presented itself Wednesday night when the Gators (14-6, 4-3) face No. 10 Kentucky (15-4, 5-2) at sold-out Rupp Arena. The notion, however, that UF would be rolling along with a sizable advantage against the Southeastern Conference's historic power is not an easy one to envision. Not when the Gators have won just 11 times in 65 road games in the series, dating to the first Florida-Kentucky meeting 97 years ago.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
There is also far more recent history. On Jan. 6, UF led UK by seven with just over 12 minutes remaining in their matchup at Gainesville, only to let the Cats claw back and eventually steal an 87-85 road win, their fifth straight in the series and 10th in the last 11 meetings.
In the event history repeats itself, add closing out a lead to the bevy of other areas – such as transition defense, ball-screen defense and guarding the 3-point defense, plus offensive rebounding and taking care of the ball (as opposed to turning it over 19 games like in the Georgia game – that would show up on a pre-game checklist heading into a game against one of the most explosive offensive teams in the country. Fact is, Florida could play its best game of the season and not get out of Rupp with a win. Kentucky can be just that good at home (and has been for years against the Gators).
But what an opportunity the game presents.
And what a run of opportunities it tips off.
Grad-transfer point guard Zyon Pullin on the attack during UF's loss to Kentucky to open the league season.
The NCAA Evaluation Tool (aka "NET") is talked about all season, but it's about to become a daily topic of conversation for the Gators and the rest of the so-called "bracketologists," be them real or imagined. The NET is basically the real-time, organic power rankings system the NCAA leans on to seed its 68-team tournament. It rewards victories, of course, and gives weighted preference to who teams played, where they played them and who they beat.
The NET classifies games in four "Quadrant" categories.
Quad 1: A home game against a team ranked in the NET Top 30; a neutral-site game against a team in the NET Top 50; or a road game against a team in the NET Top 75. Quad 1s are elite victories and teams that stack a bunch of them build glowing NCAA Tournament resumes and are high seeds in March.
Quad 2: Home vs 31-75. Neutral vs 51-100. Road vs 76-135. Q2s are good, solid wins.
Quad 3: Home vs 76-160. Neutral vs 101-200. Road vs 136-240. These are mostly mid-major, "buy" games that high-major conference teams play in November and December.
Quad 4: Home vs 161. Neutral vs 201-362. Away vs 241-362. These are must-win "buy" games against mostly low majors that can be absolutely be cancerous to a postseason resume, if lost.
Just over a third of the way through the SEC schedule, the Gators have played six Q1 games and have lost them all. Obviously, that's not good. But they've also gone 4-0 in Q2s and combined for a 10-0 mark in their Q3 and Q4s. In other words, they have no bad losses.
Inside the Florida locker room, the Gators, to a man, may not completely understand how the NET numbers work, but they do know one thing.
"We need to win," grad-transfer forward Tyrese Samuel said.
Eventually they need some good wins against good teams. And they will be plenty out there for the taking the final six weeks of the season.
The next three games – at Kentucky, at Texas A&M and home Feb. 10 against Auburn – each will be Q1 opportunities. So will the home-and-home dates against Alabama, the road game at South Carolina (which has beaten both Kentucky and Tennessee on the road) and maybe even the rematch at Georgia.
When asked about his team's NET outlook Tuesday, Golden said he looked at every game as a "resume game" because every outcome impacts the NET numbers one way or another. That's true.
But he understands the bigger picture, obviously.
"For us to get to the tournament, we're going to have to win some of these games, as we all know, so I'm not necessarily stressing the importance of one over another in particular," Golden said. "A big part of what we do is process-over-result and being consistent in our approach and this is more about a good road opportunity against a [Kentucky] team that we played pretty well against [in Gainesville] and feel we let slip away. I think [the players] realize that, as well, and they're going to be ready for us. We should go in with a little confidence knowing that we can play with these guys, if we stay true to who we are."
CHARTING THE GATORS: SEC and the NET
A look at where Southeastern Conference teams stand in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings and their "Quadrant" status, which will change by the end of the day. Example: On Tuesday night, South Carolina leaped 11 spots with its road upset of Tennessee, while Florida fell two spots without playing.
