At this point in the season, Florida doesn’t have much to play for.
Outside of an unforeseen run through its final five regular-season games and the Southeastern Conference Tournament, the Gators’ season is essentially already over.
But despite all the turmoil, despite all the adversity and despite all the defeat, the Florida men’s basketball team still has the opportunity to bring out at least one positive moment from this otherwise abomination of a season if it can pull together just one more win.
One more win, regardless of the opponent, will give Billy Donovan his 500th as a head coach.
His first chance will be in Florida’s road contest on Saturday against LSU (18-8, 7-6 SEC), a team that straight up dominated the Gators (13-13, 6-7 SEC) in the first meeting this season.
In that 79-61 loss to the Tigers on Jan. 20 — Florida’s worst loss since its 79-59 loss to Michigan in the 2013 Elite Eight — the Gators shot 38.3 percent from the field, including an abysmal 18.8-percent mark from three-point range.
"To be honest, they embarrassed us here," redshirt junior forward Alex Murphy said. "I don’t want to say anything about payback, but we’ve got business to handle."
The Gators proceeded to drop five of its next seven games after being clawed by the Tigers, virtually eliminating themselves from being a top contender in the conference and handing away its opportunity to compete in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT.
But now, Florida is looking to ride the minor surge of momentum they gained from pulling out a 50-47 win against Vanderbilt on Wednesday.
It wasn’t a pretty win — with both teams going on extended scoring droughts throughout the game.
But it was a win Florida needed after a four-game losing streak.
"It felt great," said Murphy, who scored a career-high-tying 11 points in the win. "We played desperate, especially in the second half."
After Florida took a relatively commanding 42-35 lead with just under six minutes to play, Florida broke down in typical Florida fashion, allowing Vanderbilt to come back and take a 47-46 lead with less than a minute to go.
This scene has been all too familiar for the Gators, who had lost three of their seven prior games by just one point.
The plot looked to remain the same, but the Gators created the ending that had eluded them for the two weeks prior — one that saw them walking away victorious.
"You’ve got to snap out of that," Murphy said.
"Of course that comes into your mind, but you have to get rid of that quick because the game wasn’t over."
The road isn’t going to be easy for UF.
The Gators will be without their leading scorers — Michael Frazier II (ankle sprain) and Dorian Finney-Smith (suspension; violation of team rules) — for the second-straight game.
Without them, Florida will need to embrace the mantra of "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts," a saying Donovan has preached to his team all year.
The season may look lost, but at least one positive can still come out of it.
The Gators just need one more win.
Follow Jordan McPherson on Twitter @J_McPherson1126
