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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Alex Murphy attempts a layup during Florida's win against Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center.</p>

Alex Murphy attempts a layup during Florida's win against Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center.

Alex Murphy played through bloodshed on Tuesday night.

During Florida’s 79-61 loss to LSU, the redshirt junior forward was trampled by LSU players under the basket as he attempted to block a first-half shot.

The game stalled momentarily when Murphy noticed his right arm was bleeding and blood was dripping on the court.

The staff cleaned up and Murphy took an early leave to get treated in the locker room.

But while Murphy returned and scored a season-high 10 points in just 12 minutes of action, the Gators could not stop the bleeding, as they dropped their first home conference game since 2012.

Florida coach Billy Donovan had a humbled answer when asked how does he fix the team’s lack of discipline displayed in its 18-point home loss to LSU on Tuesday night.

"I don’t know," Donovan said. "I don’t have any answers in terms of that."

Donovan said the team works on developing discipline.

The coaching staff tries to recreate situations in which their players would need to display discipline, but he’s still not seeing the results.

"I think what happens sometimes to these guys is they get so consumed with themselves.It’s not like ‘hey I’m not scoring’ or ‘hey I’m not throwing the ball’ it’s not like that," Donovan said. "They want to play well first and then they want the team to do well. The mentality is wrong. They’ve got to flip that to the point of doing their job."

And after the home loss, Murphy had nothing positive to say about his team or his individual performance. He and his teammates were noticeably upset about the new two-game conference losing streak that replaced their previously pristine winning streak.

"It doesn’t matter. Team game, we got beat by those guys, it’s as simple as that," Murphy said. "I’m not thinking about myself."

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In the past, Murphy hasn’t been one to shy away from the fact that he’s been struggling in shooting from the charity strip and beyond the arc.

This season, Murphy is making just 60 percent of his free-throw attempts and has yet to sink any of his eight baskets from long range.

"Sometimes when you’re shooting a bad percent from the free throw line, you’re gonna stop shooting," he said. "You’re gonna stop attacking the rim aggressively because you don’t want to go to the free throw line. That’s something that I can’t do. I’m not gonna do that."

Murphy’s refusal to turn down his aggression paid off on Tuesday, as he made all four of his free-throw attempts, but neither he nor Donovan were in any position to celebrate the success.

"They played harder than us and they executed better than we did," Murphy said Tuesday night. "They beat us in all facets of the game tonight."

 Follow Erica A. Hernandez on Twitter @EricaAlyssa

Alex Murphy attempts a layup during Florida's win against Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center.

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