Eight minutes into their contest against LSU is looked like Florida Basketball was en route to win by 30 as the Gators built an early 18-4 lead. That was followed by a 29-15 lead with seven minutes left in the half before Florida embarked on one of their worst stretches of the season to enter the locker room behind 37-31.
Florida got things back together in the second half and ultimately cruised to a 79-65 victory.
The win moves Florida to 24-3 on the season, and here are two truths and a lie for the Gators as Florida has four games left in the regular season.
Truth: This is the deepest the Gators have ever been
For a school-record fifth straight, the Gators had five players with at least ten points on the night. What's crazy is that one of them wasn't Will Richard, who literally had zero points on the night, while Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 19 points to go with 13 rebounds.
Alex Condon didn't play again as he looks to return from an ankle sprain, but what continues to stand out is that Florida isn't reliant on a single guy on any given night.
Truth: The win just meant Florida held serve in the chase for a #1 seed
As deep as the SEC is, LSU is one of the teams that will be on the outside looking to the NCAA Tournament next month.
Auburn, Duke, Alabama, Houston, and Tennessee all won on Saturday, so the win for Florida just made sure they kept marching forward to a
number-one seed but didn't change their margin of error.
The one good thing for Florida is that Missouri and Texas A&M lost, giving the Gators a two-game lead in the SEC for a top-four seed and a double bye in the SEC Tournament.
Lie: Florida is a tournament-proof team
The Gators could win the national title, and no one would blink. In fact, one could argue at +900 that the Gators are one of the better value bets out there compared to Auburn being +340 and Duke being +390.
But the seven-minute stretch to close out the first half against LSU is the type of stretch that can get you sent home against a better opponent in the tournament.
And while basketball is a game of runs, and Florida tends to be better than most and going to big runs of their own, it only takes one bad run against a team that clamps things down afterward for all of it to end.