The sluggish begin to start the season is a distant reminiscence. The Florida Gators are hooping.
To start the season, Florida struggled to search out footing beneath the brand new regime, with new items occupying essential roles on the ground. Amid a frightening out-of-conference schedule which included six Quadrant-I losses in as many video games to start the yr.
The spell of painful losses culminated with the Gators’ first loss to a crew exterior of Quad-I when Texas A&M traveled to Gainesville on Jan. 4. They fell to 7-7 (0-2 SEC) with indicators of bleak future for the rest of the 2022-23 marketing campaign. Nonetheless, since then, Florida has carried out at an uber-productive stage to reel off three straight victories behind elite defensive efforts and opportune offense.
It began with a get-right victory over former head coach Mike White and Georgia at residence on Jan. 7 earlier than snowballing into two assertion wins over LSU and No. 20 Missouri. The win over each units of Tigers has proved the Gators to be a resilient, competent squad with a possibility to make an surprising run on convention play down the season’s stretch.
Now, the chance to increase that win streak to 4 comes in opposition to the crew they final misplaced to in Texas A&M. Enjoying for the second time in 14 days, head coach Todd Golden spoke to the advantages of enjoying to avenge a loss to the Aggies with the bitter style of the loss nonetheless freshly looming.
“Useful for us, I believe, as a result of, you already know, we are able to go and have a look at the tape and it is fairly contemporary,” Golden mentioned throughout media availability on Tuesday.
“The humorous factor is, we’re just a little totally different already than what we had been in that recreation. So, you already know, a few of its totally different, however we are able to go see, particularly within the first half, we did not assault issues very properly. The second half, although, we had been just a little free with the ball. We will be higher and we really feel like if we are able to make some smaller changes going into the sport, it is gonna give us a superb shot to compete.”
Within the final contest between the 2 SEC foes who’ve produced back-to-back thrillers, with every aligning within the Aggies’ favor, the Gators have fallen sufferer to the fixed defensive stress Buzz Williams’ squad utilized. This season, Florida turned the ball over 20 instances — with ahead Colin Castleton (six) and guard Trey Bonham (seven) accounting for 13 mixed — because it was stricken by the TAMU trapping of Castleton when he touched the basketball.
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The wrestle caring for the basketball continued at factors in latest contests, though the Gators’ prime 15 protection has elevated the unit to reign victorious.
It is an space that stands above the remainder as a tweak Florida could make to probably cut up the season sequence.
“Clearly, a approach for us to discover a solution to win tomorrow night time we have now to take higher care of the ball. It was an space we have been nice [at] all yr. We weren’t nice the primary time we performed these guys at our place. Not nice Saturday [against Missouri]. It has been an emphasis for us and one thing we have been specializing in as we get nearer to the sport.”
Golden and Co. will “lean again into that recreation and see” the areas in want of changes to ideally produce a flipped consequence from the three-point during which the top coach feels Florida underperformed.
“We did not really feel like we performed very properly, and a part of [that was] A&M performed properly, aggressive defensively, however we really feel like we are able to play lots higher. And, you already know, with these tweaks, we really feel like we’ll put ourselves in a greater spot.”
Implementing and executing these fixes — like scheming straightforward retailers for Castleton when he attracts double groups — will probably be paramount to the Gators’ success on Wednesday night time.
The Gators will journey to School Station on Tuesday night in preparation for Wednesday’s 7 p.m. ET tip-off with the Aggies.
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