Florida freshman Devin Robinson said the Gators lost to the Kansas Jayhawks because they were afraid of losing.
"We weren’t trying to go out there and win," Robinson said. "We were just afraid, like we just got to hold on to the game and not lose and that’s what went wrong."
Ultimately, Florida’s fear won and the newly unranked Gators (3-4) squandered a 15-point halftime lead and fell to No. 11 Kansas 71-65 on Friday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Gators shot 53.6 percent and held the Jayhawks to 34.8 percent in the first half. But Florida’s field goal percentage dropped to 34.5 percent in the second half.
When the second half came around, Florida managed just nine rebounds while Kansas secured 24.
"I think the way we played in the first half with the ball movement, the spacing, getting to the points, we had some baskets at the rim on good penetrations and dump downs," Donovan said. "I thought we were pretty well balanced, we shot a high percentage, so these guys are capable and have shown signs of doing that. The biggest thing is being able to sustain that for 40 minutes."
Robinson, who started on Friday, scored a career-high 13 points and made two three-pointers.
Tonight, the Gators will have the opportunity to redeem themselves from the worst record they’ve had since 1998 when the team plays Yale (8-2) at 7 p.m. in the O’Connell Center.
"They’re a great team," Robinson said of Yale. "They don’t have any individuals that’s going to try to go for themselves, they are going to play together, play strong. So, I mean we’re going against a great team so we gotta play hard."
Florida has had little time to recover from the Kansas loss. The team arrived back in Gainesville from Lawrence, Kansas, around 4 a.m. Saturday morning. With one practice that same day at 5:30 p.m., Donovan broke down film and made corrections not even 24 hours removed from the game.
"What happened behind them and what they did is, doesn’t really mean anything. What they can do I think is take their past experiences and learn from them and get better," Donovan said.
But with Yale defeating reigning national champion UConn 45-44 on Friday, both Donovan and his players have to focus on the challenge ahead and move past the blown lead in the second half on Friday at Kansas.
"This is an incredible challenge because this will be another 40-minute game for us," Donovan said on Sunday. "Again I think one thing at this level, games come pretty quickly and you’ve got to be able to move from one competitive situation to another. We’ll have to do that (today)."
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Devin Robinson poses during the Florida men's basketball team's media day
