Last Saturday, Florida was shockingly defeated by Auburn, as the Tigers won their first game in Gainesville since 1996. The loss snapped a five-game win streak for the Gators, as well as a home winning streak that spanned since January of 2025.
It hit the Florida fanbase hard. Evidently, it hit the Gators even harder.
Golden switched things up
Florida head coach Todd Golden revealed the Gators changed their approach to Wednesday's South Carolina matchup in Columbia, unsatisfied with the final score and performance against Auburn.
"We practiced really hard on Monday, which we usually don't do," Golden said after Wednesday's win. "That's usually a really light day for us. But none of us were satisfied with how we played, and we wanted to get back out there and compete and practiced hard again yesterday."
The win over the Gamecocks was quite the bounce back for the Gators, as they won by a staggering 48 points. It was a much different contest than last season's matchup in Columbia, where a last-second Will Richard basket propelled Florida to victory.
"It was the answer that we needed coming off Saturday," Golden emphasized. "And as we talked about before the game, we had a bad taste in our mouth following that loss at home to Auburn, and the only response that would have been acceptable was coming out with a great mentality, both physically and mentally, over the course of 40 minutes, and I thought our guys did a great job from start to finish."
Looking ahead
The Gators will now turn their attention to welcoming No. 23 Alabama to Gainesville Sunday, a headliner game that will broadcast on ABC. The Tide present a unique challenge for Todd Golden's squad, and with all the controversy surrounding their acquisition of former G League player Charles Bediako, the entire nation will have eyes on this game.
Still, Todd Golden wants his team to remain focused and continue doing what it does best.
"Obviously, very satisfied with how we played, but we have to have the same approach and mentality as we did to prepare for this game, whether that’s mentally getting yourself to a spot where you feel like you just lost or whatever, and you’re just getting ramped up and ready to go. But we won’t be satisfied going into Sunday. We’ll have really good prep these next couple days."
"Now, we get a day off tomorrow and get a couple days of prep for Alabama coming in on national TV on Sunday.”