The Florida basketball team has been nearly unbeatable at home this season.
The Gators are 12-1 inside the O’Connell Center, a record that includes eight double-digit victories.
That bodes well for UF’s next game, when it hosts Alabama (14-9, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
But it also presents a glaring problem that Florida (16-8, 7-4 SEC) has tried to overcome all season long: The Gators have struggled to play with the same level of effort and intensity after wins than they have played with after losses.
But after winning three of their last four games — and after an impressive, bounce-back game on Tuesday against Ole Miss after dropping a road game to Kentucky last Saturday — the Gators are hoping they may be inching closer toward a solution.
"There are lot of things that we need to correct and some things that we didn’t do perfectly," White said after UF’s 77-72 win over Ole Miss. "But did we bring it the last two days? Did we work, did we play with pride, did we play hard? Absolutely."
Florida will get a chance to prove it on Saturday against the Crimson Tide, who currently sit in ninth place in the SEC.
Offensively, Alabama is mediocre at best, ranking ninth in the conference in field-goal percentage (42.7), 10th in three-point percentage (33.3) and 13th in points per game (67.8).
Florida will be forced to limit Alabama senior Retin Obasohan, an experienced 6-foot-2 guard who averages 16 points per game and is eighth in the SEC and second among guards in field-goal percentage, at 46.4 percent.
In addition, Alabama is coming off of three straight wins, including a one-point victory over No. 15 Texas A&M on Wednesday, and has won four of its last five. And with just three more home games left this season, Florida can’t afford to waste an opportunity to earn a victory on its home court.
"(Ole Miss) was a big game for us," forward Devin Robinson said. "We dropped an egg last game to Kentucky, and we just needed to get back on that roll that we had."
Contact Ian Cohen at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
Devin Robinson dunks during Florida's 87-83 win over Arkansas on Feb. 3, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.
