No. 23 Florida seeks bounce-back win against Alabama (Feb 02, 2018)
Florida coach Mike White was understandably an unhappy man after Georgia beat the Gators 72-60 on Wednesday night.
No. 23 Florida was outrebounded (by nine) and shot just 36.5 percent from the field. The Gators also missed 15 field-goal attempts in a row in the second half and 20 of 21 at one point during the final 20 minutes in a shaky performance.
Now the question is whether Florida (15-7, 6-3) can bounce back from the putrid performance on Saturday against Alabama in an SEC game in Gainesville, Fla.
The Gators can ill afford to play another clunker.
However, the problem is that Florida has been inconsistent this season, playing great for stretches and then struggling during others.
They made it back to the Top 25 recently -- a loss in this game will certainly knock them out, although the loss to Georgia already might have done that -- but have split their last six games.
White didn't like the team's effort against Georgia.
"I'm just disappointed," White said. "We've shown more fight than that."
Graduate transfer guard Egor Koulechov said the Gators need to come through on offense when the time is right. And put forth a more consistent effort.
In some games and for stretches, they've played with urgency and played up to their ranking.
Sustaining that effort has been the issue.
"It's up to us to make more shots, too," Koulechov said. "Eventually, you have to make plays. That's what it comes down to."
White said his team also didn't display enough of a physical presence. He did not like what he saw early, and things did not get better.
"They set the tone," White said. "The first 10 minutes, I didn't feel good about it at all. (Overall), they played with more edge than we did."
Jalen Hudson (16.2 points per game) and Koulechov (14.5 points) are the team's two leading scorers. Florida has plenty of firepower with four players who are averaging in double figures.
But so does Alabama, which boasts four players averaging at least 10 points per game, topped by Collin Sexton (18.7 points) and John Petty (11.5 points) -- both freshmen who lead a rather young team.
Alabama (14-8, 5-4) is coming off a 69-60 loss to Missouri and is 5-2 in its last seven games.
The Tide are about to enter a challenging patch of games. Alabama will play four of the next six on the road.
This will be Alabama's fifth game this season against a team in the AP Top 25. The Tide have a 3-1 record in those matchups and so they won't back down.
Alabama coach Avery Johnson said he knows how good Florida can be if everything goes the right way.
"You're playing against another outstanding, well-coached team," Johnson said. "(It's) a team that has veteran leadership. They're deep in terms of their 3-point shooting, their versatility."
The Gators certainly have the tools. They just haven't been able to put the pieces together consistently yet -- something that would make White a much happier man.
