Thanks to their recent success and a well-timed upset, the Gators are right back in the thick of things.
Entering Sunday’s 1 p.m. matchup at No. 14 Tennessee (15-4, 3-2 Southeastern Conference), Florida is on a four-game winning streak and playing some of its best basketball of the season.
That, combined with South Carolina’s 68-62 upset of No. 1 Kentucky on Tuesday, has given the Gators (15-5, 4-2 SEC) hope that they aren’t out of the SEC race despite dropping their first two conference games.
“The SEC is up for grabs with Kentucky losing (Tuesday) night,” freshman guard Kenny Boynton said. “We’ve just got to keep getting wins, and I think our next game will probably be our biggest game.”
With a win against the Volunteers in Knoxville, the Gators might have a chance to jump back into the top 25 and establish themselves as one of the top teams in a league that has only one team without a conference loss, Vanderbilt (5-0 in SEC play), and six of 12 teams with two or three conference losses.
“There’s 10 more league games left,” junior power forward Alex Tyus said. “Anything can happen, and if we do what we’re supposed to do, we can be right there at the top.”
Tennessee has dealt with adversity following the dismissal of forward Tyler Smith and dropped its last two games — 78-63 at Georgia and 85-76 against Vanderbilt — but the Volunteers have proven they have potential to pull off an upset, toppling then-No. 1 Kansas 76-68 on Jan. 10.
“That would be huge,” sophomore point guard Erving Walker said. “Tennessee’s a highly ranked team. They’re a good team with or without Tyler Smith, so we’ve got to just be ready going in.”
Over the last four games, UF has shown signs that it might be kicking into mid-season form: effective full-court defense and high-percentage shooting against Georgia, mature late-game play against South Carolina and Arkansas, balanced scoring against LSU and improved rebounding throughout all four wins.
“We’re confident right now,” Walker said. “We’re playing really well, and it’s all starting in practice. We can’t get big-headed.”
The Gators played one of their most complete games of the season Wednesday night, with Walker, Boynton and Tyus scoring more than 20 points apiece.
Wednesday night was the first time three Gators had 20-plus points since Brent Wright (26), Matt Bonner (21) and Udonis Haslem (20) did so in UF’s 106-64 win over Bethune-Cookman on Dec. 19, 2000.
The trio has been on a tear in conference play, as Walker is averaging 19.2 points per game on 62.2 percent three-point shooting, Boynton has scored in double-digits in every SEC game and Tyus posted a 14.3-point, 6.8-rebound average in six league games.
But Walker said he, Boynton and Tyus can’t beat a team like Tennessee on their own no matter how well they’re playing at this point of the season.
“We need more than just Alex and Kenny. We need everybody,” Walker said. “We need Vernon (Macklin), Chandler (Parsons), Erik (Murphy) and Ray (Shipman). It’s got to be a team effort.
“We can’t make a lot of mistakes, especially on the road, against a good team like that. We’ve got to be focused.”
