It's amazing what one win can do for a team in a funk.
After losing three straight - and back-to-back games for the first time all season - UF's win on Sunday put the No. 17 Gators (23-5, 9-4 Southeastern Conference) back in the right frame of mind.
"It was a much-needed win," junior guard Steffi Sorensen said. "Any time you lose three in a row, that's never good. I just think it felt good to play like our old team."
The old team she is referring to is the one that used its depth, distributed the ball evenly and didn't rely on one or two players to bail it out.
Nine Gators scored against the Gamecocks and three reached double figures.
UF also had balanced rebounding, with seven players tallying at least three boards.
Those stats most resemble the team that had won 22 games before.
"When we're in the locker room, it felt so good to just actually be able to sit there, knowing that (UF coach Amanda Butler is) not going to come in there (and get on us)," Sorensen said. "After us losing so many games, it just felt like, 'Man, can we be on the other side where we're the ones cheering, not the ones angry at the world."
The win was complemented by nice timing, too. UF has a bye week before playing its final regular-season game at rival Georgia on Sunday.
Even Butler said after the win against South Carolina that it felt like her team had gotten the monkey off its back.
"There is a little bit of relief," Butler said. "One of the reasons why this team has been so special this year is because they're confident. And when you hit adversity, your confidence, obviously, is tested and sometimes shaken, and I think that's what we experienced."
If UF wants to put the exclamation mark on what has been one of the most decorated seasons in school history, it will need that confidence and swagger back against the Bulldogs and into the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.
Junior forward Sharielle Smith felt like even in its slump, her team wasn't ever far from regaining its swagger.
"I never had doubt in my mind that we couldn't get it back," Smith said. "It was just something that we had to do."
Now that they've done it, the question becomes whether they can maintain it.
Sorensen seemed confident in her team's ability to keep it up and resemble the team that drew a target on its back by winning so many games.
"It did feel like, 'OK, maybe we're on the right path now,'" Sorensen said. "We're getting back to our normal selves."
Even one game can make it feel like old times again.
NCAA SEED PROJECTION: UF dropped to a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament according to Charlie Creme's Bracketology on ESPN.com this week.
Creme, who predicts the field of 65 each week, once had the Gators projected as high as a No. 3 seed after their win over Tennessee on Feb. 8.
