GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Florida men's basketball team has a big opportunity on Saturday when No. 4 Auburn in town.
"You’ve got to start taking advantage of some of them," coach Mike White said on Friday. "And we have with a couple, but you want to play postseason and you want to play in that one tournament as opposed to the others, and you’ve got to win some of these."
White is referring to securing a Quad 1 win in hopes of boosting its resume for the NCAA tournament.
At this time the Gators have yet to secure a win against a Quadrant 1 team, going 0-3. UF will have three chances the next three games to attain that elusive Quad 1 team: Auburn, LSU and Baylor.
"I don’t think any of them are do or die," White said. "I don’t think you put your team -- especially this team -- in the right mindset to execute (by saying that). But our guys also have to understand and we all have to understand that at this time of year -- really from now to finish, really from the first game to finish -- you’ve got to take advantage of some of these opportunities."
First up are the Tigers, who recently saw its 15-game winning streak end against in-state rivals Alabama.
"I’m really excited for it, it just shows how much like focus is gonna be into it," Keyontae Johnson said. "Gives the freshmen like a good chance to see how it’s going to be. Going to be a sold out game, SEC conference game, too, so feel like everybody’s going to come out with a lot of energy."
"Having a Top 5 (team) come and play here at our home gym is a big opportunity for us to definitely get better, first and foremost," Kerry Blackshear added. "But also build that tournament resumé we know we need."
Auburn's resume has been no where near as difficult as Florida's. The Tigers have one true road game this year and ranks 162nd on KenPom. However, that does not mean that Bruce Pearl's team is not talented.
They will arrive to Gainesville as the oldest team in the SEC. The Tigers are led by fifth-year player Austin Wiley, who is the No. 2 rebounder in the conference and is shooting at a 58% clip. Isaac Okoro is second on the team with 56.5%, while point guard J'Von McCormick has 77 assists to his 31 turnovers.
They’re doing a great job of getting to foul line. They’re offensive rebounding rate is really high. I think with Wiley healthier, they’re playing through him more. They’re good, really good," said White. "They’re really good. Super active. They play so hard. Again, they just keep you off-balance with different ways they defend ball screens and special teams situations. Baseline and sideline out of bounds. Pressing situations. They’re always going to be prepared to play really hard, as well.”
Ball security will be big for Florida on Saturday, the last time these sides met Auburn forced 19 turnovers and scored 20 points from them.
“ Every game in this league you have to value the ball at a high rate," stated White. "We’ve gotten better with that over the past month with our decisions, but we’re not where we need to be. We’ll the to handle the ball and make as good of decisions as we’ve made all year against this defense. And really, more than anything, if we’re going to turn it over we might as well kick it up into the stands or throw it to me over on the bench. The pick-6s against these guys, they just convert at such a high level. Live-ball turnovers are scary against these guys.”
The loss to the Crimson Tide has allowed Florida to see a gameplan that works against the Tigers. Alabama defended at 32 percent and forced 21turnovers on its way to secure a victory over then unbeaten Auburn.
“I think they turned them over a little bit, so they had some guys keying on getting stop," said Blackshear. "I think that’s what we who we are, a defensive team. We got to be active, got to be in the gaps helping each other out. If we do that, I think we give ourselves a good chance to win.”
"I seen that their point guard, he was driving to the basket and like getting fouls," added Johnson. "So I feel like we just keep driving, try to play inside, we should get outside shots and hit three’s.”
Florida's matchup against Auburn tips off at 1:30 p.m. ET on CBS.
"Our guys will be ready, they’ll be ready," White said. "I’ll be surprised if we don’t play really, really hard. I think our focus will be on point, but it’s a Top 5 team. We’re going to have to execute the game plan and make some shots and play with poise and value the basketball and do all those things. It would be nice to have a chance down the stretch versus these guys."
