Saturday was an exciting day for the Gators, as they stormed from behind in the second half to upset No. 2 Auburn.
Auburn became the highest-ranked team that the Gators had ever defeated at home in program history, and it sparked a court-storming celebration that will cost the UF administration $50,000. Most importantly, it strengthened the Gators’ chances of making the NCAA Tournament.
From an emotional standpoint, the victory felt more like an Elite Eight win than the typical regular season SEC win.
And now, the Gators (17-10, 7-7 SEC) have to find a way to compose and refocus themselves and do it all over again on Tuesday against No. 18 Arkansas. Some of the bracketologists believe that the Gators need to beat either the Razorbacks or No. 6 Kentucky in the regular season finale to feel good about their chances.
Arkansas (21-6, 10-4) would appear to be the easier of the two games, which makes this another must-win Quadrant 1 opportunity. A loss would basically cancel out all of the good that they achieved by beating Auburn.
Coach Mike White said that the coaches haven’t changed their approach with the players since the Auburn game. They’re going to continue to emphasize improvement instead of the end result on game days. If the players maintain that mindset as well, then there won’t be a letdown against Arkansas, at least as far as effort goes.
“I do think wins like that can help you potentially with confidence if you don’t allow complacency to creep in,” White said. “Our approach as a staff is always going to be consistent, and it’s growth. Win, lose, win by 20, lose by 20, great practice, bad practice, and, for the most part, again, these guys have been very good, at least very good in practice consistently. We’re going to come in and talk about some of the things in the last game or practice that we could’ve done better, and we’re going to watch it to a certain extent.”
The Razorbacks’ strength is their defense. They rank fourth in the SEC in field goal percentage defense and 12th nationally in KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency rankings. They’re going to make things tough for a UF offense that has had a difficult time putting the ball in the net to begin with this season.
“I think they’re consistently committed,” White said. “They’re connected. They’ve got very good individual on-ball defenders, of course. They swarm to the basketball. They’re very sound. They’ve got very good length on the wings. They’ve got speed and quickness and length at the guard positions.”
Center Jaylin Williams leads the way for them on that end of the floor. At 6-foot-10 and 240 pounds, he can bang with the best of them in the low post. He ranks seventh in the league in blocked shots and is averaging 1.4 steals per game. He also is just one of two players in the conference that is averaging more rebounds per game than Florida’s Colin Castleton at 9.6.
“He’s all over the floor defensively, one of the better defenders in the country,” White said. “He’s an anchor down there for them. I don’t know the kid, but he seems like he’s a really quick thinker. He just seems like a high-level IQ guy, and then, offensively, he’s very, very good in addition, to complement his defense.”
Guard JD Notae is the sparkplug for the league’s fourth-ranked scoring offense. He ranks second in the SEC with 18.5 points per game, and he’s 13th in the conference with 3.4 assists per game. He’s no slouch on the defensive end, either, as he leads the league with 2.4 steals per game.
“We’ve got to be able to contain JD being that he’s one of the top-2 scorers in the league,” UF guard Phlandrous Fleming said. “So, we’ve got to be able to contain him, and Williams is a trainwreck. He’s a force, and he’s great on the defensive end. So, we’ve got to be able to work our offense around Colin and work our offense off of each other. I think we’ve got a good opportunity. I think we’re going to do well against them. We’ve just got to stay with our edge and stay with our mentality of defense.”
That last sentence that he said will be the Gators’ biggest key in this game. If they can stay focused on the task at hand, they’ll have a chance at padding their postseason resume even more. If they’re still on cloud nine following the Auburn win and are already thinking about playing in the NCAA Tournament, they could get blown out on their home court.
Fleming thinks that the ups and downs that this team has experienced this season have prepared them to handle their latest bit of prosperity.
“We just remember what we’ve been through,” Fleming said. “We have had some tough losses and some great wins also. We stay humble, stay grateful for this opportunity, and we take it one game at a time. Amnesia. We forget about the [prior] game and just go on to the next one, not worried about rankings and the next game after that or anything. We just worry about the moments that we have coming up.”