GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) 鈥� Nothing will convince Florida coach Todd Golden that was a positive.
Not even six consecutive wins and .
鈥淚 get it, but I鈥檓 not with it,鈥� Golden said Monday. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to definitely learn from it. We鈥檙e going to use it to our advantage, for sure, but I鈥檓 never going to be like, 鈥極h, man, I鈥檓 glad we lost.鈥欌��
The Gators (26-7) landed a despite getting thumped by Vanderbilt in the semifinals of the league tourney. Florida got punched in the mouth early and never responded, a disappointing 鈥� some might call it eye-opening 鈥� showing before the Big Dance.
Golden is hoping the 17-point setback serves as a wake-up call for a team that up to that point. The defending national champion Gators open their repeat bid Friday night in nearby Tampa against the winner of a play-in game between Lehigh and Prairie View A&M.
鈥淲hen you do lose, you can really drill down on some areas that you need to improve on,鈥� Golden said. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e winning, I think that鈥檚 more difficult. It鈥檚 more difficult to teach. It鈥檚 more difficult to hold accountable. But now we don鈥檛 have that issue off a loss and hopefully we respond the same way that we did after we lost to Auburn on January 24th.鈥�
The Gators looked downright unstoppable during their streak that included an average margin of victory of 20.5 points. But they seemed off against the Commodores, missing 10 layups, turning the ball over 14 times and allowing wide-open looks from 3-point range.
Was it a blip? A bad matchup? Or maybe something more foreboding?
Golden insists it was a one-off performance, not a sign of something being wrong or a blueprint for how to beat the best rebounding team in the country.
鈥淭he great thing for us is we have already been an iteration of ourselves that we need to be to make a deep run,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檝e been over the last two months. So we need to get back on track to what we were.
鈥淲e have been playing like the No. 2 team in America since January (6th). We know what we鈥檙e capable of. We know what that looks like. We just have to go back out and do it.鈥�
The Gators have responded all season, whether it was stringing together wins after losses or answering questions about perceived flaws: Can they close out tight games? Yes. Are they good enough from 3-point range? For sure. Do they have consistent contributors off the bench? No doubt.
Florida started the season 5-4 and was unranked by January. But the Gators have since figured out how to mesh dual point guards Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee, how to get more shots for sixth man Urban Klavzar and how to best utilize the most dominant frontcourt in school history, a lineup that features Rueben Chinyelu, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh.
The group was good enough to go toe-to-toe with Arizona, Duke and UConn early and good enough to reel off 12 straight in SEC play late. Now is it good enough to repeat?
鈥淲e want to bring the fight to everybody,鈥� Golden said. 鈥淲e do that more often than not. We talk a lot to our team about being the mentally and physically tougher team. 鈥� Vandy got us because they ran to the fight quicker than we did.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 allow anybody else to dictate how we play. It鈥檚 really important that we take pride in that and take the accountability that it鈥檚 on us and not on anybody else.鈥�
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