In the renewal of a strong, annual Southeastern Conference rivalry, No. 21 Tennessee heads south to play Florida on Saturday afternoon in Gainesville, Fla.
However, the two programs meet under slightly different circumstances than what both are accustomed to, especially at this point in the season.
The Volunteers (11-4, 1-1) slipped two spots in the latest AP Top 25 rankings after a conference-opening loss at Arkansas, but the news was worse for Saturday’s foe.
After being tabbed as third in the preseason poll, the Gators (10-5, 1-1) faced an early group of contests that were tougher than most and accumulated four defeats against non-SEC teams.
Coach Todd Golden finds his team afloat in uncharted waters – unranked as defending national champion – considering most of the top clubs dine early on the non-conference schedule. His club, however, fell to powerhouses Arizona, Duke and UConn plus unranked TCU.
Florida squared its SEC record after a strong game Tuesday that changed significantly after Bulldogs big man Somto Cyril was ejected. The Gators stormed away to a 92-77 victory.
Boosted by 21 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and three steals from Thomas Haugh, the Gators outscored the Bulldogs by 14 points in the second half.
An enthusiastic crowd helped, too.
“I felt like this was the first game where we played a really good team this year where we have a little bit of an advantage … playing at home,” Golden said. “When we played Arizona, we played out in Vegas, they had a huge crowd. When we played Duke, obviously it was at Cameron Indoor. UConn, we were playing in New York (City).”
Haugh leads Florida with 17.5 points per game, while Rueben Chinyelu averages 10.3 rebounds.
Similarly on Tuesday, Tennessee played much better versus Texas than the conference-opening 86-75 defeat at Arkansas last weekend.
First, the foul shooting that coach Rick Barnes decried (12 for 23, 52%) was much improved (21 of 29, 72%) in the 85-71 rout of the Longhorns. After being outrebounded 36-33 Saturday, the Volunteers dominated the Longhorns in points in the paint with a 44-18 edge.
However, nothing was better than Ja’Kobi Gillespie, the feisty senior who netted a career-high 34 points.
“I thought he was really locked in starting (Monday) after Saturday’s game and in our film session,” Barnes said of his point guard, who averages 18.7 points and 5.7 assists per game. “The boatload of mistakes we made at Arkansas, he came out yesterday and you could tell he was really locked into doing his part individually, more defensively than anything.”
Only two other players average double-digit point totals, freshman Nate Ament with 14.7 and fellow big man J.P. Estrella at 10.5.
The 6-foot-10 Ament and Jaylen Carey pull down 6.5 boards apiece.
The Volunteers have dropped the past three matchups in north Florida, but they hold a 9-4 series margin in the past 13 games dating back to the 2017-18 season.
The Gators claimed the previous meeting 86-77 in the SEC tournament final last March.
