GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – You remember that Auburn loss? Right. What happened after? 12 wins in a row and one of the four No. 1 seeds in the tourney.
Where are the Tigers? They are watching at home after finishing 17 and 16. I mean, Vandy is a good team, no question.
But would you want to face Florida again? Hmm.
Vandy could have that chance as they are in the same bracket, and like last year. This team knows how to rebound off a loss, the only thing in common in the Golden era.
They are down, but not out.
You can doubt them, and they feed off it. Gators guard Boogie Fland told me last week that this team was not respected during conference play. How is that going for them now? Yes, they were blown out by Vanderbilt, so they still get to play another game. But is Coach Golden going to admit a loss is good for the team?
Uh.
Golden said, “No. It can help. We’ll learn from it, and I won’t say we’re glad we lost. Is it more challenging if we wanted to win the national championship, if it was like 20 in a row, yeah, that is a challenge. When you do lose to your guy’s point you can really drill on some areas that you need to improve on, when you’re winning, that is more difficult to teach, difficult to hold accountable, but now we don’t have that issue after a loss. Hopefully, we respond that same way we did after the Auburn game on January 24th.”
Calling all Rowdy Reptiles! You are needed in Tampa.
For Florida. The benefit of a home court advantage was a mirage last year in March.
Truth be told, they did not need it.
This season, the Gators are back as a number one seed … And after their loss in Nashville to Vanderbilt.
The rowdy reptiles are called on again. Because the journey starts in Tampa.
Remember, the Gators were in the West bracket. I mean, Raleigh, San Francisco, then San Antonio. Even in the South region, no bracket is easy. In this reporter’s opinion, there is no simple path to the Final Four except by winning, but having Tampa and Houston as your hubs to the Final Four. That is more like it, and after Nashville.
To Coach Golden, you need an extra-large helping of orange and blue Friday. That feels right.
Golden said “I think its fantastic, we have had a lot of travel this season, all of our doing going out to california, going to vegas, new york in the season, we been going on the road a lot so to be home here in tampa and to be able to play, I think is great for us and it should be really good to prepare this week and knock on wood, we have had great support all year and I imagine our games being in tampa that we should have a great crowd and we hope that everyone comes out and supports the Gators.”
Tip/off of the first round for Florida is at Friday at 9:25 pm ET at Benchmark International Arena playing either Lehigh or Prairie View A&M.
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