Feb. 8, 2009 will always be a benchmark of the University of Florida women’s basketball program. That was the Sunday on which Florida beat Pat Summitt’s Tennessee Volunteers, 66-57, only the Gators’ third victory over Tennessee in 40 meetings.
Since then, coach Amanda Butler’s team has played poorly, losing four of its last five games to finish the season at 23-6 overall and 9-5 in the Southeastern Conference, earning the fourth seed in the SEC Women’s Tournament that began Thursday night at the Alltel Arena in North Little Rock, Ark.
Even the Gators’ victory over South Carolina on Senior Day wasn’t the prettiest, either, and it wasn’t indicative of the aggressive style of play Butler preaches day in and day out to her team. Now, coming off an embarrassing 84-75 loss to unranked Georgia in Athens, the Gators have a chance to redeem themselves once more against Tennessee, which eliminated Alabama 68-49 on the first day of the tournament. Tipoff for the game between Florida and Tennessee is Friday at 7:30 EST with the game being televised on Fox Sports Florida and the Sun Sports networks.
If there’s any good news to come from the late-season slump, it is that Florida got a Thursday bye along with top-seeded Auburn, No. 2 Vanderbilt and No. 3 Louisiana State. Butler thinks that an extra day can only help her team.
“I think the bye is crucial for us in so many different ways,” Butler said. “For us to get that extra day of preparation and rest is going to give us an advantage.”
The challenge for the Gators is to find a way to get back to how they were playing earlier in the season. Butler said the answer is simple.
“Our charge this week is very clear coming off our Georgia performance,” she said. “We have got to get better defensively. We’ve struggled defensively, especially on the road, and every game from here on out is a road game.”
Senior guard Sha Brooks seemed excited about the opportunity to chase the program’s first SEC title. She insisted the Gators were not out of it simply because they enter the tournament on a low note. Brooks believes the Gators can turn it around on defense.
“It’s a big opportunity because it’s so wide open,” Brooks said. “Anybody can beat anybody. We have to bear down this week and play great defense because our offense is created from our defense. Nobody really likes to play defense, but our team’s tough and we know what we have to do to make that happen.”
The key to the Gators’ early-season success was their full-court press. Because they are undersized (the tallest starter is 5-11 senior Marshae Dotson), the Gators have to stop teams from getting into a rhythm and setting up their offense. Lately the Gators have struggled to force turnovers in the press, which led to a bulk of their points early in the year.
One thing the Gators haven’t struggled with is their 3-point shooting and scoring. They are led by Brooks, who is averaging 16 points a game. Florida is shooting a solid 37 percent as a team from beyond the 3-point line.
“We’re going to score, we have good scorers on our team,” said junior guard Steffi Sorensen, who has hit 40 percent from 3-point land. “But we have to buy into it (defense) and make stops. People have to buckle down and focus on taking charges and do other things that will turn our defense into offense.”
Though there is no certainty as to who the Gators will play, it is safe to assume that the toughest opponent for Butler’s squad would be Tennessee. Though the Gators are 0-6 against the Volunteers in the SEC tourney and are 3-37 against them all-time, Butler seems confident her team can rise to the challenge and make lightning strike for the second time this season.
“That’s what exciting for us as competitors – to play the best,” Butler said. “We were successful against (Tennessee) this year with our teeny, tiny lineup and were able to mix things up. You game plan and you strategize about making little changes, but really this time of year it’s going to be which team is more determined to make their stuff work.”
GATOR BYTES: Seniors Marshae Dotson and Sha Brooks were just named to the All-SEC first team. … Trumae Lucas was named to the SEC’s All-Freshman Team. … Butler turns 36 Friday, and that could be a good omen. Last year on her birthday, Florida beat South Carolina 71-57 in the SEC Tournament. … A Florida victory Friday puts the Gators into the Saturday semifinals at 6:30 p.m. EDT against probably Auburn, which will play No. 9 seed Mississippi, a 65-60 winner against No. 8 Arkansas in the first game of the tournament Thursday. No. 7 Georgia advance to a Friday meeting with Vanderbilt after its 82-64 victory over No. 10 Kentucky. … The championship game is Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN2.