ESPN's "College GameDay" bus outside of the O'Dome Friday in the run-up to Saturday's show and prime-time showdown of ranked teams.
UF Seeks 'GameDay'-Worthy Performance in Prime Time
Saturday, March 1, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – He has one of the most explosives offenses in the country, but the improvement of the Florida defense is the chief reason why the 2024-25 Florida Gators have played themselves into a national-championship contender.
That defense, however, let the team down Tuesday night at Georgia, if only for a dozen minutes, but it was enough. By allowing the Bulldogs to make 15 of their first 20 shots (five of them 3-pointers), the Gators fell behind by 26 points, a seemingly insurmountable deficit, especially on the Southeastern Conference road.
But UF stormed back and actually took a two-point lead into the final minute before UGA made the difference-making, game-sealing plays in the closing seconds.
"Being down 12, 15, 17, that's going to happen in this league," Florida coach Todd Golden said. "But you can't be down twenty-freaking-six. You just can't"
One stop in that final minute could have meant an epic victory – one of the greatest in program history – but instead a six-game winning streak and all its momentum came to a screeching halt that Golden hopes was ear-piercing enough to carve a permanent place in his players' heads as they head into the month of March.
A team with championship aspirations does not want to be lamenting 12 bad minutes when they exit the month of March ... and the NCAA Tournament.
ESPN college basketball analyst Seth Greenberg
"[Florida] is too good to play the first 10 or 15 minutes the way they did the other [night]. That's not the essence of who they are, and as a coach that had to be frustrating," ESPN analyst Seth Greenberg said Friday. "On the other hand, when they're good, man, they are good."
Greenberg is in town because the Gators are that good. ESPN's popular "College GameDay" show pegged Saturday night's key SEC showdown between No. 3 Florida (24-4, 11-4) and No. 12 Texas A&M (20-8, 9-6) as its weekend's profiled venue and will broadcast live from Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center Saturday morning from 10 to noon.
ESPN announced a week ago that the show was headed to UF for the first time since 2017. Three days later, the Gators were in Athens and lost for the first time since Feb. 1. To get back on the winning track, they must right themselves against the Aggies, one of the most physical and defensive-minded teams in the country.
"They've got to understand that [defense] has to be a constant," said Greenberg, who took in Friday's practice alongside "GameDay" colleagues Rece Davis and Jay Williams. "You can't spot people and then play from behind in the NCAA Tournament because the pressure changes. These are just games. The NCAA Tournament, if you don't get stops early and [teams] gain confidence and you're a No. 1 or No. 2 seed, you have a whole arena rooting against you and it sucks the life out of you. … I'm sure that's a point of emphasis. They're too good."
Greenberg said the Gators need "to understand" this. They do. And, yes, that defensive mindset was a point of emphasis when the team returned to practice Thursday. The coaches did not mince words, The players were still feeling the back-side bite of the Bulldogs. The session turned into a high-intensity (and chippy) 90 minutes that refocused on the mission.
This is a mature team, led by a trio of seniors, that knows what's at stake both now and down the line.
As senior guard Will Richard put it late Tuesday night after scoring 30 points in defeat: "We'll respond real good. It was a wake-up call. Won't happen again."
A case can be made those defining 12 minutes at Georgia were an outlier, but that case also can be countered with a reminder of how Missouri came to the O'Dome and torched the Gators with red-hot shooting on the way to a 19-point first-half lead and eventually left with an 83-82 win, UF's lone home loss of the season.
When lapses become lessons they're worth it … as long as they're before the third week in March.
Sophomore forward Alex Condon (left), who returned after missing two weeks with an ankle sprain, and the Gators need to band together and get back to the 40-minute mentality they (mostly) displayed during a six-game win streak that ended Tuesday night at Georgia.
Also worth mentioning, however, are the moving pieces the Gators were dealing with – again – at Georgia, as forward Alex Condon returned to the lineup after missing four games with an ankle injury. Condon spent his 21 minutes knocking off two weeks worth of rust, but also was playing in rotations with 7-foot-1 center Micah Handlogten for the first time in nearly a year (Handlogten had been playing with the scout team before opting out of his medical redshirt season). Sometimes these things take a little time. And repetitions.
Condon finished just 1-for-7 from the floor on his way to nine points, three rebounds and some post-game dental work, after taking an elbow to the teeth. He'll play with a mouthpiece for the first time Saturday and will need it against an Aggies squad that ranks first in the country in offensive rebounding. The Gators will need him to inch closer to the 11-point, team-best 8-rebound guy he was before the injury.
"I think we do a good job of rising to physical challenges," Golden said.
If UF has designs on a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament (and the Gators do), it needs this game. The must-win-for-seed circumstances will repeat themselves in the final two regular-season games next week – at No. 6 Alabama Wednesday, then home against Ole Miss – and on into the SEC Tournament at Nashville, Tenn. Then comes the must-win-or-else time of year.
"It's important to finish the right way," Condon said.
Golden, ever the believer, believes they will.
"We have a really good team," he said. "You've got to be able to deal with some adversity and trust what this team has shown over the last 28 games. I'm still thrilled to be the coach of this team. I think this team has a chance to have a great end of the year, and I'd still feel that way even if we don't win [Saturday]. I think we've done enough to prove to ourselves that we have a chance to play deep into March."
And what better way to kick off a deep March run, then to be at the center of college basketball's universe on the first day of March? The Gators want to assure everyone they belong there.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
