Last season, Florida’s women’s basketball team went out in much the same way it played all season: with a whimper.
Then-redshirt junior Carlie Needles took the final shot of the season’s final game — a missed three-pointer — which allowed Auburn to run out the clock in a 71-49 rout on March 4.
But despite the convincing loss in UF’s first game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, coach Amanda Butler’s tone after the game was still opportunistic.
“We've got a lot of areas we have to look at and change and grow from, learn from,” Butler said after the game.
And a year later, her hopeful sentiments have come to fruition.
Heading into the 2016 SEC Tournament, No. 25 Florida’s 22-7 record is a nine-win improvement on last year’s disastrous regular season.
But while such a stark improvement is a surprise to spectators, it’s no surprise to Butler at all.
“It was almost immediately following the end of last season,” Butler said of when she thought this year’s team could be special. “There were just indicators everywhere that this was just gonna be a really special group.”
A lot of the credit for the turnaround belongs to the team’s newcomers — two of whom made postseason All-SEC teams.
Simone Westbrook, a junior college transfer, has been a spark from beyond the arc at times. But she’s been an even bigger force on the defensive end. She leads Florida with 67 steals and her effort and tenacity landed her on the All-SEC Defensive Team.
And her newcomer counterpart Eleanna Christinaki, a freshman from Athens, Greece, has perhaps been even more important.
Christinaki leads the team in assists, is the second-leading scorer and has grabbed the most rebounds among the team’s guards.
Her all-around production resulted in her being tabbed for the All-SEC Freshman Team.
But the credit is not theirs alone. While those two have done their parts individually, it’s been the team’s depth as a whole that’s carried it this season.
Butler has become known for her mass substitutions. The tactic results in balanced production, with the ability for different players to break out on a night-by-night basis.
“That’s been our hallmark all year long is you don’t know exactly what it is we’re going to do, you don’t know exactly who it is that’s gonna have a great game,” Butler said. “You just know something is going to happen where we maximize on one of our potential positives.”
The Gators open SEC Tournament play against Kentucky, which soundly beat LSU, 79-71, on Thursday. In the lone regular-season meeting between the two teams, Florida beat the Wildcats 85-79.
However, Kentucky is one of the hottest teams in the conference heading into Friday’s matchup, as the Wildcats are riding a seven-game winning streak.
But Florida is prepared. Having won its last two games, the Gators clinched a bye in the first two rounds of tournament competition.
With the bye and the momentum coming off of two wins, Butler hopes that, like last year, her team can end the season the way it’s played all year. Only this time, instead of with a whimper, it’ll be with a bang.
“It’s always a battle when we play them and I’m sure it will be a great matchup,” Butler said.
Contact Ethan Bauer at ebauer@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
UF coach Amanda Butler claps during Florida's 53-45 win against LSU on Jan. 17, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.
