Florida entered the week ranked in the top 10 and with its sights set on a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. But after a second straight loss Saturday, the Gators and coach Billy Donovan were talking National Invitation Tournament.
No. 8 Florida (19-6, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) fell 75-70 at home against Tennessee (13-12, 5-5 SEC), breaking a 19-game home winning streak and marking the first time UF has lost back-to-back games since 2009-10 — a span of 61 games.
The Volunteers came into the game 0-7 on the road.
"Coach Donovan wrote it on the board (after the game)," UF guard Brad Beal said. "We're 7-3 in the league right now. He said the way we're going we might be in the NIT if we don't turn it around right now."
UF lost by 20 points against Kentucky on Tuesday, and much of the same mistakes followed the Gators into Saturday's game. They were outrebounded 36-30, turned the ball over 15 times and shot poorly from the field until the final minutes when the game was already out of reach.
Tennessee led by as much as 17 in the first half, as Florida struggled right from the opening tip. An easy layup in the lane from Tennessee guard Trae Golden with 13:09 remaining put the Vols up by one, 11-10, and started a 15-2 run that they would never look back from.
"We thought going into the game that we were going to be pretty confident and we were going to practice hard," Beal said. "But we didn't practice hard and it ended up showing tonight. Coach Donovan even said that. He said he had a feeling we were going to come out pretty slow and we ended up doing it."
Tennessee started to run away with it after Florida forward Will Yeguete went down with an injury just six minutes into the game. Yeguete turned the ball over in transition but chased down UT forward Jarnell Stokes and blocked his fast-break layup attempt before landing awkwardly under the basket.
Yeguete suffered a concussion and a large cut above his right eye that required about 10 stitches on the play.
"I didn't see the play," Donovan said. "I do know when I got over there he was knocked out. He wasn't even conscious; he wasn't even awake when I was over there. I was a little bit concerned there, and he finally woke up but he didn't know where he was at."
Donovan said Yeguete failed a concussion test and won't practice on Sunday. He is doubtful for Tuesday's game against Alabama.
Already slim on numbers with guard Mike Rosario and forward Cody Larson out, Donovan was forced to play his starting five for the majority of the game. Yeguete's absence hurt Florida inside, where Tennessee outscored Florida 36-14 with 17 second-chance points off 12 offensive rebounds.
"These are kind of the experiences where you get hardened a little bit," Donovan said. "Our team needs to be hardened a little bit. We need to be more battle-tested, battle-weary so to speak. We need to go through some of that stuff."
Beal and guard Kenny Boynton led Florida with 16 points each, while forward Erik Murphy finished with 12. Tennessee's Golden led all scorers with 17, while Volunteers forward Jeronne Maymon added 15 points and 11 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.
In an extended postgame speech to his team, Donovan said he brought up the 2007-08 Gators as an illustration of what could happen to this year's team. That year, Florida started 18-3 before losing seven of the last 10 and ending up in the NIT.
"We're at a tough stretch for our team," Donovan said. "We're 7-3 in our league after 10 games. We have six games left. ... I don't feel like we don't have the opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament. I was just using it as an example of don't take for granted what you have in front of you."
Contact Matt Watts at mwatts@alligator.org.
After Saturday's loss to Tennessee, Florida coach Billy Donovan compared this year's team to the one from 2007-08, which started the season 18-3 before losing seven of the last 10.
