It’s been nearly a year and a half since the last time the Florida Gators were ranked. And that did not go over so well.
Rejoining the polls this week at No. 22, the Gators are more mature and have a stronger mentality than the team that found itself ranked 6th a season ago.
Though it’s been a season of ups and downs, Florida has finally found a bit of consistency with four consecutive wins. The Gators earned respect on a national level, taking down (at the time) No. 6 Tennessee and No. 11 West Virginia over the last two weeks.
As expected, head coach Mike White did not have much to say on the topic as he looked ahead to Wednesday’s matchup with South Carolina. He said he spoke with the team about handling the ranking very briefly before moving on to game planning.
“It means nothing,” White said. “Absolutely nothing. And the opponent means a lot, but really we’ve got to be most concerned with being the Florida Gators and being the best we can be on a daily basis. Everything else will take care of itself. We spend a ton of time talking about ourselves. Being our best version. That’s where our focus should be — where it needs to be — or shame on us.”
Veteran guard Noah Locke said that last season’s mishandling of success and expectations taught the players a lesson that they can now carry with them.
The recognition is great, but means little at this point in time.
“It definitely means a lot, but honestly we have to just continue to get better every day,” he said. “It’s definitely good to see it. We don’t want to get too into all of the being ranked Top-25 and start to let up on certain things and stuff like that. I just feel like we’ve got to continue to get better every day and just trust the process and understand that we have a chance to be really good, but we can’t fall into all that stuff.”
While the Gators must continue to keep that level-headed mentality, it is quite remarkable to see their growth despite everything they have endured.
This team could have packed up and called it a season following Keyontae Johnson’s traumatizing collapse in December. And no one would have held it against them.
At one point, White admitted that he and his staff discussed that possibility. They thought the guys might return to campus and want to hang it up.
Instead, the opposite happened. Especially once Johnson returned as a coach.
Locke said that he and his teammates rediscovered their love for the game.
“It just gave us that urge to go out there and play again,” Locke said. “I’m not really surprised that we’re playing well. That’s just something we wanted to do as soon as he got back. We were like, we’re going to take it to another level.”
With Florida playing its best basketball of the season, now is a time to reflect on the struggles and enjoy the success. But the Gators are far from content as they enter the final stretch of SEC play.
“We’ve got a ways to go. There were so many things the other day we didn’t do well, win or lose the game. West Virginia, as well. We’re all learning and going through a process of trying to be the best we can be. Offensively, defensively, on the glass, attention to detail, focus out of timeouts, a lot of things we can improve on.”