The blew a 12-point lead Saturday against a Vanderbilt team that was next to last in the SEC standings.
SEC Tourney Offers Music City Do-Over
Thursday, March 14, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – As the University of Florida's bus pulled away from Memorial Gym Saturday night, the mood inside the vehicle reflected that of a Gators squad that had just squandered another double-digit lead and suffered an insufferable 79-78 gut-punch defeat in the 2023-24 regular-season finale against an inferior Vanderbilt bunch. Though the scene wasn't entirely unusual – post-game rides from opposing arenas after losses usually are dour – this one seemed different.
Upon arriving at Nashville International Airport about 20 minutes later, team officials were told the charter flight back to Gainesville would be grounded for maybe a couple hours due to weather down south. The bus was directed to a building off the tarmac, where the traveling party of about 40 de-planed into a holding area of barren walls and no furniture.
For the next 90 minutes, the only sounds that emanated from the room were an occasional faint whisper and tappings on laptop keyboards.
The Gators took the loss hard.
Exactly like they should have.
Florida coach Todd Goldenhad plenty to yell about during the Gators' last trip to Nashville just five days ago.
Coach Todd Golden said after the game that Vandy won by being better in areas that did not require talent – most prominently, with effort – and no statistic spoke to his point than the one that showed the Commodores, one of the worst rebounding teams in the Southeastern Conference, with a 21-6 advantage on the offensive glass, which led to 19 second-chance points in what eventually turned out to be a one-point loss.
Rebounding, it's often said, is desire and want-to. That the Gators showed this side (that they could be out-hustled) this late in the season had to be a surprise to the coaching staff; if not downright alarming.
"This team's done a really good job all year of not allowing that to happen. We just allowed it to happen in our 31st game," Golden said. "It's disappointing, but I think if it was the fourth game of the year and we didn't let it happen again, we'd be all right. So we're trying to use it as a good learning lesson, something to build off of and not overreact to it because our body of work has been good all year."
If such is truly the case, the version of Golden's high-scoring, elite-rebounding and ball-secure team will be the one that shows up Thursday night when the sixth-seeded Gators (21-10), back in the Music City just five days later, take on 11th-seeded Georgia (17-15) in second-round play of the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. Consider what UF does here as a precurser to what's in store when the Gators play in that other tournament next week.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
What better setting to atone for the one real laid egg of the season than in the league's preeminent event just two miles down the road from that Vandy debacle?
"I think you have to remember what [happened. It's got to be part of our motivation," grad-transfer forward Tyrese Samuel said. "You can't come out lackadaisical. Now, it's win-or-go home. We don't have time to just brush things off now. It's time to get wins and make runs in tournaments."
The UF-Georgia/Missouri winner will advance to Friday's quarterfinal round to face third-seeded and 19th-ranked Alabama (21-10), which earned one of the tournament's four double byes. Coincidentally, it was their 105-87 blowout of the Crimson Tide four nights earlier that set up the Gators for their flat performance against the Commodores.
Florida went into that game with a bit of a big-headed vibe. As if the Gators needed only to roll into the gym to win.
The proverbial "wake-up call" materialized. Or should have.
Charting the Gators: Tournament Tumbles Since winning the 2014 SEC Tournament on the way to the Final Four, the Gators have a rocky road (as in a 5-8 record) through the league's men's basketball event, only once reaching the weekend semifinals and four teams going one-and-done, including each of the last two seasons.
Year
Games
Site
Comment
2015
UF 69, Alabama 61
Kentucky 64, Florida 49
Nashville
Billy Donovan's final game as Gators' coach ends with loss to unbeaten, top-ranked Wildcats.
2016
UF 68, Arkansas 61
Texas A&M 72, Florida 66
Nashville
Mike White's first UF team gives regular-season champion Aggies a tussle.
2017
Vanderbilt 72, Florida 62 (OT)
Nashville
No. 2 seed Gators lose to Commodores for a third time, but shake off the defeat with a run to the Elite Eight.
2018
Arkansas 80, Florida 72
St. Louis
No. 3 seed Gators routed by Razorbacks squad with NBA pedigree in Chris Chiozza's final SEC tournament.
Andrew Nembard's 3-pointer with one second left shocks SEC regular-season champion Tigers, while Keyontae Johnson's posts a pair of rare UF freshman double-double in tourney.
2020
Canceled by COVID
Nashville
Tournament shuttered just four hours before UF-Georgia tip-off in second round.
Sophomore Tre Mann scores 28 of his career-high 30 in second half of loss to Volunteers, but nowhere enough.
2022
Texas A&M 83, Florida 80 (OT)
Tampa
After Gators storm from 17 back to force OT, Aggies' backup Hassan Diarra buries 3-pointer with 0.5 left in extra period for win in what turned out to be White's final game on UF sideline.
2023
Mississippi State 69, Florida 68 (OT)
Nashville
Five seconds after UF takes the lead, Bulldogs forward Tolu Smith converts layup with four seconds left for the game-winner.
"I think human nature took over a little bit," Golden said. "Not just our players, our whole program was like, 'Hey, we're pretty good,' and maybe we got ahead of ourselves a little bit."
Again, it was a mindset that was out of character with how the team had gone about its business this season.
"I mean, we're definitely sick [over the loss], but I think it's one you've got to keep learning from," said grad-transfer and recently crown first-team All-SEC point guard Zyon Pullin. "It brings you back to reality. It shows you that you could beat Alabama, one of the top teams, and then you can lose to one of the bottom teams. I think that we've really got to lock in and understand that we've got to show up every single game and do the little things. The little things matter."
The Gators aren't panicking, not even close. But they're mindful of the events of the last couple weeks and the pitfalls that came with them.
"Definitely not OK with the loss, but it's definitely not the end of the world either, and if we're as mature of a team and trending the right way as a program – which I think we are – we can use this as a good learning lesson," Golden said. "This should be a good reminder and kind of a centering for us like, 'Hey, we have the capacity to be really good, but if we don't play hard and we don't do those things that have made us what we are all year, then we can be average."
And being average this time of year will get an even worse bus ride than the last one. Way, way worse.
