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Friday, March 29, 2024

A trait of all young teams is inconsistency.

For the Gators, this trend has defined a season filled with surprising wins and crushing defeats.

Never has it been more evident than in the past three games, when the Gators followed their strongest win of the season with a two-game span sure to haunt them for weeks to come.

UF routed then-No. 14 Vanderbilt 86-64 before losing by a combined 41 points to Arkansas and No. 7 Tennessee.

Coach Billy Donovan addressed the past two games with a simple mantra: Move on. If the Gators are to rebound and continue to grow, short-term memory will be a key factor for the inexperienced group.

Saturday's home matchup with Georgia will provide them with an opportunity to do just that.

"I was proud of the way our guys played and competed, but I'm not into the moral victory that I'm happy with that, but I saw strides. This is a 16-game schedule, and we're at the halfway point. To me, it's how do we come out and respond, not for what happened against Arkansas, but for what happened against Tennessee."

In the Gators 18 wins this season, they are beating opponents by an average of nearly 22 points per game. In their losses, discounting the 2-point loss to Mississippi, UF is falling by 17 points per contest.

This discrepancy has made the Gators a tough group to predict. Donovan said a loss is a loss, regardless of the margin and hopes his team continues to attack, regardless of their recent struggles.

"I have to instill confidence in those guys to shoot the ball, because I do have belief," Donovan said. "The one thing that gives us a chance to win and compete, even with our lack of size, is that these guys have an air of confidence and they do believe in themselves."

The Gators will search for their better half Saturday against the Bulldogs (11-9, 2-5 SEC).

If UF plans to improve, 3-point shooting must become a focus.

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In their five losses, the Gators connected on just 21.7 percent of shots from beyond the arc. In wins, UF is hitting 42.1 percent.

Tennessee hit 13 from downtown on Tuesday, including six - one more than the entire UF squad - by senior Chris Lofton.

"Three-pointers change the face of the game," guard Jai Lucas said. "You can't really win games without defense, so everything needs to pick up a level."

Lucas said the Gatos will continue to shoot the ball and remain confident in doing so.

"That's one thing we'll always be confident about, because everyone believes they can do what they do the best and we have a lot of good shooters. One thing about shooters is that once you stop shooting, that's when your confidence goes and then you really won't hit shots."

After the tough road trip, Lucas said the Gators are happy to return home. UF is 13-1 in the O'Connell Center this season and should rebound against a struggling Georgia team playing without second-highest scorer Billy Humphrey, who was suspended for three games after being arrested and charged with underage possession of alcohol early Thursday.

"It's a really weird feeling," guard Jai Lucas said. "Two straight 20-point losses, I don't care who you are, it's no fun. We're getting that itch where we want a win real bad. We'll probably come out with the most passion and aggression we've had all year."

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