The Florida Gators have been the perfect example of one step forward (or maybe two at times), two steps back this season.
In a season of uncertainty and inconsistency, the Gators put together one four-game winning streak in late January, but failed to string more than three wins together at any other time.
Now, stringing wins together is the only option. As Florida heads into SEC and NCAA Tournament play, it will have to play its best basketball of the season to avoid an early ticket home.
“We go win two games and come back and lose a game,” said sophomore guard Tre Mann. “I just feel like it’s different where we know how much is at stake now. I don’t think we’re going to take a game off, or a day off, or a practice off anymore just because of what’s at stake now.”
Florida ended the regular season on a sour note with a loss at the buzzer to Missouri and a second half breakdown against Tennessee.
That Gators essentially played their way out of a double-bye in the conference tournament, and will now play the winner of Texas A&M-Vanderbilt on Thursday.
It will take four wins to come out as the SEC Tournament Champion. But Auburn did it as the five-seed in 2019, so it is a long road ahead, but far from impossible.
“Nobody’s happy about losing,” said junior forward Colin Castleton. “It kinda sucks we couldn’t get the job done those last two games. But in the end you gotta move on. You gotta get ready for what’s ahead of you. So we’re just preparing for our first game, whatever that may be. We’re just ready to compete.”
If Florida does manage to make a run, four games in four days will be brutal on the players’ bodies.
With that in mind, head coach Mike White took a different approach to preparations for the SEC Tournament than he has in years’ past. Rather than going hard these last few days, he gave the Gators a day off on Tuesday outside of light individual workouts.
White said Florida was extremely banged up in the final stretch of the regular season, so he wanted to enter the postseason mentally and physically refreshed.
“We’ve had more to deal with mentally than any team in college basketball,” he said. “Fatigue is often physical, but I think the mental fatigue is just as important. Sometimes that mental fatigue can make guys look physically tired and banged up, and not have the pop that they normally have physically. I do hope with the way that we’ve rearranged these last couple days will give us a little bit of added extra pop.”
The road to and through March Madness is a long and challenging one. And the Gators only have two players in Castleton and Noah Locke who have ever even experienced an NCAA Tournament.
Right now, the focus is solely on the conference tournament, but the message from Florida’s leaders will remain the same in the weeks to come.
“There can’t be any slip-ups,” Castleton said. “That will be my main message moving forward. Everybody’s gotta be focused, on high alert. You only get this opportunity a couple of times in your life, so you got to cherish it.”