Florida’s men’s basketball team went face-to-face against the top-ranked team in the country on Saturday and came up short. It trailed for nearly the whole game against the superior Volunteers, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t encouraging signs for the Gators in the 73-61 loss.
Florida was down 17 early in the third quarter in Athens, Georgia, looking for anything to shift the momentum. An easy rebound floated up for UF, and a sea of Gator hands reached up for the ball. But the big paws of Georgia forward Caliya Robinson soared above them all to snatch the rebound and make the easy put-back.
It didn’t matter when guard Andrew Nembhard stole the ball in the final minute of the game off a full-court press. It didn’t matter if he dished the ball out to guard Noah Locke in the right corner for a late three.
The Gators men’s basketball team has been in a rut all season.
Florida guard Delicia Washington had been there before.
The Florida men’s basketball team hasn’t lost three-straight games this season. But it’ll have to pull off a major upset if it wants to keep it that way.
The angry mob of Florida fans is all over Twitter as of late, fully equipped with torches and pitchforks. Especially after the men’s basketball team lost to Auburn on Tuesday night.
Gators coach Mike White thought his team was on the turnaround.
Florida guard Jalen Hudson drove to the basket and watched the ball fall through.
Fans of the Florida women’s basketball team could dream for the first three quarters on Sunday.
All Florida could do was watch as Kentucky guard Tyler Herro drained an open three-pointer from the right corner.
The Gators walked into the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, without one of the most important elements in the game of basketball: height. The team was down its starting 6-foot-1 forward, Kristina Moore, after she injured her arm Sunday against Arkansas, and her absence was evident from the first whistle to the last.
There was a moment where it was up to redshirt freshman forward Isaiah Stokes to guard the paint.
KeVaughn Allen had very little time.
Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson did his best Superman impression on superhero night at the O’Connell Center. He took flight and snagged a lob thrown from under the basket by fellow freshman Andrew Nembhard and emphatically slammed it down.
The Gators tried to get one last shot off before the buzzer sounded. They had an excellent opening quarter on Sunday against Arkansas and were up by 12.
The Florida men’s basketball team can best be compared to a seesaw this season, with its offense on one side and its defense on the other.
It was the pace.
The game could have been a blowout.
Losing a game is one thing. Losing in the exact same way, over and over again, has to be torturous for Florida men’s basketball coach Mike White.
Solutions by The State News
