Just over two weeks ago, the Florida Gators basketball team was at its lowest point of the season after suffering losses to South Carolina and Vanderbilt. The team played its worst offensive game and its worst defensive game back-to-back that week.
Now, Florida is riding a high with four straight routs of high-major teams, all by more than 20 points. The Gators are fresh off their biggest win of the season. Arguably, their biggest win in several seasons. The 88-66 upset of then No. 8 Kentucky on Saturday was Florida’s largest margin of victory over the Wildcats in the 90-year history of the series between the two teams.
The Gators now sit as the No. 17 team in the country, and barring a major plummet, are a lock for the NCAA Tournament, a feat Florida has not had since the 2014 Final Four run. Florida coaches and players mutually agree that one team meeting changed the outlook of this team and is to thank for recent successes.
The player called meeting took place two days after the loss at home to Vanderbilt. Players and coaches came together and laid everything out on the table. They told each other their opinions about what they had seen transpire over the last several games and what they thought needed to change. The Gators haven’t look back since. Whatever was said and took place in that meeting resonated with the players.
“I don’t want to take any credit for it,” Mike White said about the team meeting. “As a coach, as a staff, you want your guys to communicate and take ownership … So we ended a long film session, and it was just kind of a spur of the moment deal. We said, ‘Guys, let’s pull up a chair and let’s just talk. I’m going to give you some of my thoughts and I want you to give some of your thoughts and I want him to give you some of his thoughts and we’re going to talk and we’re not going to leave this room until we get some stuff figured out’. And they were awesome about it. They embraced it. Kasey [Hill] talked a lot. John Egbunu talked a lot. Some of our older guys — Devin [Robinson] talked a lot, Canyon [Barry] — and they just recommitted to each other, to play for each other. Recommitted to rebound and defend at the highest level possible. Funny, we’ve been really good in those areas the last four, and it’s led to good offense as well.”
In recent years past, a meeting like that might not have been as productive. They might not have responded with the attitude this team has played with in the last four games. There is something different about these guys, to listen to criticisms and to have the maturity to go back to the drawing board and do something about it.
“There were some challenges from certain guys to other guys, and there were some challenges from our staff to certain guys,” said White. “We just got some stuff out in the open. There wasn’t a lot of sensitivity, either, and that’s been huge for these guys lately, to allow their teammates and to allow their staff to be real with them. It’s been huge. Our guys are realistic. Right now we’re in a good place where we understand that we’re not great at this, we’re pretty good at this. When we focus on this, we’re pretty good.”
As the Gators prepare to play their third game in six days at Georgia on Tuesday, this new sense of maturity has come at the perfect time. The last time the Gators and Bulldogs met, it was a dogfight that Florida finally settled in overtime with an 80-76 win at home.
The Gators were not sharp defensively in that game, as they allowed 25 points from Georgia’s J.J. Frazier and the Bulldogs had a 41-32 advantage on the boards. Florida will have to bring the same mentality they brought for Kentucky and for the other previous wins to be successful playing the same Georgia team in a much tougher environment.
“Third game in six days against one of the most physical teams that we’ll play all year and a team that gets you thinking,” White said. “There’s a lot of prep that goes into playing Georgia. The quick turn, and that’s another reason it’s such a big test. In a perfect world, you don’t want to have 48 hours to prepare for Kentucky at home. And in a perfect world, you don’t want to come off a big, home win with a really quick prep to play at Georgia either, but at the same time, it’s an opportunity and it’s a test. It’s a challenge to see how we respond.”