The last time Florida played LSU, the Gators were coming off an embarrassing 14-point loss to Tennessee that showcased their inconsistencies on both ends of the court.
Now, after an 87-74 home loss to Vanderbilt, and with just three games remaining until Southeastern Conference Tournament play begins, not much has changed.
Very little seemed to go right in Tuesday’s loss to the Commodores. It began with Vanderbilt center Josh Henderson’s 80-foot three-pointer at the halftime buzzer, and culminated with Florida’s 26.3-percent shooting night from the three-point line and VU’s 50.0-percent mark from the same distance.
Riding a two-game losing streak, Florida (17-11, 8-7 SEC) faces LSU on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. And with an approaching home matchup against No. 16 Kentucky next Tuesday, the Gators desperately need to replicate their last outing against LSU (16-12, 9-6 SEC), when they beat the Tigers by six points at home on Jan. 9.
"It’s going to be tough. I mean, every game in the SEC is tough," forward Devin Robinson said on Tuesday.
"We’ve just got to figure out what the problem is."
Lately, Florida’s problem has been finding any form of rhythm on offense.
Over their last four games, the Gators have shot 35.4 percent from the field and 22.7 percent from behind the arc, marks that rank worse than the season averages of every Division I team in the country.
Over that same span, UF is averaging just 63.8 points per game, 10 points fewer than its season average of 73.0.
The Gators are in an offensive rut.
"We’re just worried about getting better right now," center John Egbunu said. "We have a lot of errors we have to fix and we don’t have much time and that’s kind of our focus right now."
Florida’s improvement will need to start Saturday when it travels to face an LSU team that has lost three games in a row and four of its last five.
And with the postseason quickly approaching, UF will be looking to find some semblance of an offensive rhythm in the next few weeks.
"The NCAA requires one day off a week, and that’s probably what our guys need," coach Mike White said.
"They’ve probably heard enough of my voice right now."
Contact Ian Cohen at icohen@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
UF center John Egbunu dunks during Florida's 87-74 loss to Vanderbilt on Feb. 23, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.
