Four games remain on Florida basketball’s regular season schedule, and if the Gators want to continue playing beyond that, they will likely need some big wins.
Based on the latest bracketology predictions from Andy Katz (from February 14), Florida would be a 10-seed if the tournament started today. Adding in the loss to Arkansas earlier this week may take that even lower.
At this point in the season, the Gators have played half the games of some teams around the country (with a 10-6 record) due to COVID-19 and the break following Keyontae Johnson’s collapse. How that will be factored in is yet to be seen, but Florida does not have much wiggle room in these final two weeks of play.
Of course, head coach Mike White gave the typical answer for any coach when asked if tournament odds were coming into discussion.
“Every game is big, every practice is big,” White said. “I’m not worried about anything bigger than that. If we are, we’re holding ourselves back from where we’re trying to get to as a team in terms of our development.”
Still, it should be expected that the sense of urgency is rising in the program right now, even if no one admits is.
“Urgency should be a constant,” White said. “It shouldn’t be something that wavers throughout the season. I think as human beings, it’s naturally probably a little bit easier to get intrinsically motivated when you know it’s do or die … But the best teams have that all year.”
The problem, White pointed out, is Florida hasn’t had that constant sense of urgency all season. There have been practices and games where the team was completely locked in, but also times when enthusiasm and focus lacked.
Both of those sides to the Gators showed in Fayetteville on Tuesday night. From a poor start that led to a 15-point deficit to a blazing comeback, and finally back into a hole again, Florida just could not find consistency in the game. That has been an ongoing struggle this season, and the untimely pauses did nothing but add to it.
“A lot of guys maybe were a little too eager just to play a game,” White said. “And sometimes with these young men, the excitement of playing a game translates to the excitement of putting up shots as opposed to playing the game the way that we were playing it when we were playing well … We took a couple bad ones early. And now you’ve got teammates looking at each other saying, ‘Heck, you just took that one and I was open, now it’s my turn to take one.’ And obviously, championship teams don’t do that.”
As it stands, the Gators have four more opportunities to prove they are a tournament team. The SEC has a date set for make-up games, but there simply aren’t enough dates left to reschedule all of the postponements around the conference.
Florida cannot depend on an added game or two at the end of the season. It needs to execute well and leave no doubt. Once again, the Gators hold their fate in their hands in the final stretch.