Eight games into the season, Florida isn’t where it would like to be.
The Gators (3-5) have dropped consecutive games for the second time this season and have yet to win back-to-back games.
“Has it been a rough start? Yes,” senior guard Steffi Sorensen said.
She attributed part of the bumpy start to a tough schedule that included then-No. 13 FSU and a Pittsburgh team that is now ranked No. 15, as well as playing a Rutgers team in Piscataway, N.J., on ESPN2.
Sorensen is hoping the experience from those games — all losses — pays dividends in future games and makes the team more composed in tightly contested ball games.
For a team that was expected to shoot the lights out this season, so far the squad has been shooting blanks.
“We haven’t shot the ball well all year,” coach Amanda Butler said.
In Monday night’s game against Rutgers, Florida was the victim of poor shooting due to an ineffective post game early on as well as the 1-3-1 zone defense the Scarlet Knights applied against the Gators that forced pressure, pushing UF farther away from the 3-point line and forcing the team to float around the perimeter.
The second half of that game saw UF play more to its up-tempo style.
The Gators did shoot marginally better in the second half and outscored Rutgers 24-23 after intermission.
“There’s definitely a sense of urgency,” senior guard Susan Yenser said. “I don’t see our team spiraling or even showing signs of spiraling, but this is the time where we have to keep it from spiraling out of control because our schedule doesn’t get any easier.”
With UF set to start Southeastern Conference play Jan. 3, the team has winter break to find its shooting stroke beginning with a trip to Old Dominion on Friday.
“It’s not like we’re a bad team,” Yenser said. “We’re a good team playing bad.
“At some point in time during the season, we’re going to be the team that we’re supposed to be, because right now we’re not.”
