Winning plays, like this one by a floored Will Richard in the win over top-ranked Tennessee, had been the Gators' calling card this season, but were mostly absent in Tuesday's flat performance in the loss to Missouri.
Gators Out to Reset, Remember, Resume Who They Are
Saturday, January 18, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After one of the most intense, physical and (yes) chippy practices of the season Thursday afternoon, Florida coach Todd Golden called his players to midcourt of Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center and praised them for their passion. It was the Gators' first time on the floor since Tuesday night's disappointing home loss to Missouri, a performance absent the squad's usual effort and enthusiasm. Associate Head Coach Carlin Hartman
As they were about to break, UF associate head coach Carlin Hartman asked for a minute. Hartman reminded the group that, to a man, each of them had gotten here the hard way. No McDonald's All Americans. No five-star recruits. Their most acclaimed players transferred from hoops hotbeds of Belmont, Iona and Florida Atlantic. The starting forward had three scholarship offers. What's more, no member of the coaching staff was highly regarded as a player in his day. Hell, even the head coach was a walk-on who became an NCAA Tournament starting point guard.
His point?
"We played with toughness, energy and physicality because we're hard-hat, lunch-pail, under-recruited and under-appreciated … all of us," Hartman told them. "We lost our way the other night."
Thursday was the first step toward finding that way again, with the goal a more recognizable version of the fifth-ranked Gators (15-2, 2-2) on the home floor when they take on Texas (12-5, 1-3) Saturday at the O'Dome. Not the slow-starting bunch that trotted out against Mizzou with its first top-five ranking in six years and promptly got punched in the mouth to the tune of a 19-point first-half deficit.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
UF went to war in the second half against the Tigers, fighting to get within a possession several times late, but never able to get that crucial stop before falling 83-82 for the program's first home loss in more than a year.
A painful lesson about dealing with praise and prosperity hit 'em on the mouth as hard as the Tigers did.
"When you start to think you're nice and start to get comfortable, stuff like that happens," sophomore forward Thomas Haugh said. "It's just that simple."
And sometimes "stuff like that" is exactly what a team needs.
"I give a lot of credit to Missouri. I thought they played really well. I thought they came in ready. I thought they came in with more intensity, more physicality, and set the tone for the first 20 minutes of the game," Golden said Friday. "I thought we played relatively well in the second half, but we had dug ourselves too big of a hole to climb out of. So, for me, it's about recapturing that intensity and that physicality. I think that defines who we are and why we've been so successful to this point."
If Alijah Martin (15) and the Gators aren't the more energized and harder-playing team, they will take their lumps in the SEC.
The Gators were reminded that anything short of the band of orange-and-blue brothers that crash the glass, sell out for 50-50 balls and play with their hair on fire – all calling cards of this team through the first 16 games of the season, but missing to start the 17th – won't do in this league.
Golden told his guys as much.
Carlin personalized and crystallized it all.
"Everyone took his words pretty much to heart. It was like we got to thinking we were all that," said sophomore forward Alex Condon, who was named SEC Co-Player of the Week on Monday, but would be the first to say he didn't live up to the billing in the loss to the Tigers a day later. "What makes us good is competing harder than other teams. Against Missouri, we didn't do that. We got to thinking we were nice, came out very sluggish to start and were chasing ass the rest of the game."
Yeah, that pretty much summed it up, considering Missouri, a very good offensive team, made 14 of its first 22 field-goal attempts, including seven 3s, through the game's first 13 minutes to build that 19-point lead. The margin was 16 at the break and remained in double-figures for a good chunk of the second half before the Gators' too-little, too-late rally.
UF outscored Mizzou 48-33 after intermission, but it was the 50-34 deficit in the first half that led to the ferocious practice. Thomas Haugh
"You saw what happened [Thursday]. Guys were almost fighting out there," Haugh said. "We love each other, but this is what we needed. A loss like that is going to kick everybody into overdrive. The SEC is crazy-good this year and you can't take a single day off, no matter who you're playing. We know that now."
The Longhorns will trot out a starting unit that features three players who have scored at least 29 points in a game this season, including a slam-dunk 2025 NBA lottery pick in freshman wing Tre Johnson, the SEC's scoring leader at 18.7 points per game.
"They're a team that has very good talent, has the ability to put it all together on any given night, and, just like with Missouri, unless we come out with a different mentality, it's going to be a tough game," Golden said. "We need to give ourselves the best chance by the way we come out, but we respect them and understand that they're a very, very good team, and if we don't compete the right way, it's going to be a very difficult game."
That much, the Gators know. That's important.
But not as important as remembering who they are and what got them here.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
