Colleges

Time to rebound is now

Florida, which has lost three of four, has one regular-season game left to fix itself.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published March 4, 2007

 When No. 5 Florida hosts Kentucky at noon on today's senior day, the Gators will get one final shot before the SEC tournament to right a ship that has veered badly off course.

One last chance to prove it hasn't completely fallen apart before every game takes on the urgency of one-and-done.

Over the past two weeks, the Gators have fallen from No. 1 to No. 5 and lost three of four games, two to unranked teams. But Florida coach Billy Donovan won't panic, just yet.

"It's really hard, because I'm with them every day, to be overly critical of them losing a couple of games when you take the whole body of work these kids have done over a long period of time," Donovan said. "There is something different when you have every game that you're supposed to win. I don't think our kids are bored, they are human beings. They are not going to play up to other people's expectations all the time."

The Gators' biggest problem, Donovan believes, is their shaky defense. In their loss Tuesday to Tennessee, Florida allowed the Vols to shoot 66.7 percent in the first half, 58 for the game. In the loss Feb. 17, Vanderbilt shot 57.1 percent, and struggling LSU shot 51 percent on the Gators Feb. 24. And after holding opponents to less than 30 percent shooting from 3-point range earlier this season, since Feb. 17, the Gators have allowed 38.5 percent from beyond the arc.

"We talk amongst the players and we all think it starts on the defensive end," junior guard Taurean Green said. "We play defense for 15 or 20 seconds, then for the last 10 or 15 seconds we break down and they get a bucket. That just drains all the energy out of you.

"Now that we've lost three of the last four games there are people out there talking, 'Oh, Florida's not that good, they are stumbling, they are going downhill.' But we know what the problem is and it's up to us to go into practice and fix it."

They need it fixed this afternoon.

Today's game has no bearing on the SEC regular season title or the No. 1 seed in the SEC tournament; Florida has those wrapped up. What is at stake is the Gators' potential No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, Florida's chance to go undefeated at home for the first time since 1993-94 and its ability to prove to others what the players insist they feel among themselves.

"We're still pretty confident," senior guard Lee Humphrey said. "It's an important game for us because it's a chance to improve. You want to be playing your best game in March, and March is here."

Kentucky coach Tubby Smith enters the game amid growing speculation that his future may be in doubt. The Wildcats are 20-9, but just 9-6 in the SEC, and by Kentucky standards, that's not good enough.

"Certainly we've been struggling and as we go to Gainesville, we need to really play a lot better than we've been playing," Smith said. "I know Florida is coming off a tough loss to Tennessee, but they've got a lot of weapons."

Florida is trying to become the first team in the SEC to defeat Kentucky five consecutive times, and seniors Humphrey and Chris Richard will be honored before tipoff. But this could also be the final home game for the Gators' junior trio of Joakim Noah, Horford and Corey Brewer, whom many expect to forego their senior seasons.

"I'm not thinking about that right now," Noah said. "We're going to have to make decisions with our families and see what's best for us at the end of the season."

[Last modified March 3, 2007, 23:08:34]