Once again, Florida was unable to play up to the expectations that come with being in the Top 25. On Wednesday night, the Gators will try to at least leave voters with the memory of a victory as they hope to remain in the poll.
After suffering yet another loss while ranked, the No. 20 Gators look to bounce back when they host Radford.
Florida (8-3) began the season at No. 9, but fell 93-75 to then-No. 4 Ohio State on Nov. 16 and 57-54 to Central Florida on Dec. 1, defeats that dropped it out of the rankings Dec. 6.
The Gators moved back into the poll Monday after knocking off then-No. 6 Kansas State 57-44 on Saturday. A few hours after the new Top 25 was released, however, they lost 71-68 in overtime at home to Jacksonville.
Florida shot 35.6 percent and had 17 turnovers. The Gators led by seven in the second half, but shot 23 of 34 from the free-throw line for the game and missed four of seven foul shots in the extra period.
"We find a lot of ways to sabotage ourselves," coach Billy Donovan told the team's official website. "We got up by seven and there was nothing that they did to get back into the game."
Erving Walker scored a season-high 21 points and Vernon Macklin had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Gators.
Florida responded to its previous two losses with wins of 50 and 19 points the next time out. Even a convincing victory Wednesday probably won't be enough to keep the Gators ranked next week, however.
"In order to be a great, great team, you have to be able to handle prosperity," Donovan said. "This has been a good group. They have handled adversity. They'll bounce back. I'd be very disappointed if we didn't play really, really hard on Wednesday."
Florida hasn't lost consecutive non-conference games at home since December 1996, and its next opponent doesn't appear to pose much of a threat. Radford (2-8) has lost eight in a row and is one of the lowest-scoring teams in Division I, averaging 55.6 points while shooting 36.5 percent.
The Highlanders are coming off a 64-50 defeat at North Carolina-Wilmington on Saturday.
Radford's top scorer, sophomore guard Gorkem Sonmez, is averaging 9.9 points. The team hasn't lost nine in a row since a school-record 11-game skid during the 1989-90 season.
"Our guys play hard and we're improving in certain areas, but we're still struggling to score enough points to win," coach Brad Greenberg said.
The Highlanders are 0-13 against Top 25 teams.
This is the first meeting between Radford and Florida. The Gators are 13-0 against the Big South Conference - 11-0 under Donovan.
