Todd Golden has the Gators in the SEC driver's seat (Photo by Chris Spears) With six games remaining in the regular season, Florida is in the driver’s seat for its first Southeastern Conference championship since 2014. The SEC awards its conference championship to the team that wins the regular season. For NCAA Tournament purposes, the winner of the SEC Tournament gets the automatic berth. The Gators have a 1-game lead over Arkansas and a 2-game lead over Vanderbilt, Alabama,

Xaivian Lee was SEC Co-Player of the Week (Photo by Chris Spears) The very last thing Todd Golden wants is for the now 12 th -ranked Gators (19-6, 10-2 SEC) to bask in the glow of a win over the Kentucky Wildcats. Any win over Kentucky is a good win and should be celebrated but not at the expense of whatever and whoever is next. In this case, it’s South Carolina (11-14, 2-10 SEC), a team the Gators whomped by 47 points back on January 28.   Things are certainly different now.

The Gators end the week at 12-0 and look to continue building that resume with a mid-week game and another round-robin tournament this weekend.

There was no room in the Florida setlist for “My Old Kentucky Home.” Todd Golden’s group, now ranked No. 14 and climbing, treated the visiting Wildcats like a cover band playing the wrong song in the wrong key

Tommy Haugh powers up for two of his 17 points (Photo courtesy of UAA Communications) There were stretches Saturday afternoon at the O-Dome in which we were treated by a team that has elbowed its way into serious Final Four contention. When the Gators are focused, motivated and playing hungry the way they did during the 10-2 run that began the game with Kentucky or the 11-2 second half explosion that caused the 11,230 sardined into the arena to nearly blow the roof off the jo

Florida has the talent but has another case of the yips on Vault to put itself in a hole it could not dig out from of despite a stellar effort for the rest of the meet.

When Sumrall starts rattling off names — Jayden Baugh, Jayden Woods, VB 3, Myles Graham, Dallas Wilson — you can tell he’s not just checking a recruiting box. He doesn’t gush over stars; he zeroes in on ethic.

Xaivian Lee puts the clamps on Georgia's Blue Cain (Photo by Chris Spears) In assessing what went wrong Wednesday night in Athens, Georgia coach Mike White was asked about Florida’s defense, which held the Bulldogs to a season-low 66 points, a full 25 fewer than their second in the nation per game average.     “There wasn’t a hole,” White said. “There wasn’t a weak link.”   No holes. No weak links. Just a team that has grown comfortable in its own skin, a team that has come t

The Gators will play Marshall on Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m.

Xaivian Lee (1) works off a pick set by Micah Handlogten (Photo courtesy of UAA Communications) Here is a scary thought for you. As good as the 14 th -ranked Florida Gators have been, what happens when they suddenly start making shots?   Georgia found out the hard way Wednesday night in Athens. Determined to at least neutralize the Gators in the paint, they left the perimeter wide open. Bad decision. Very bad decision.   For only the third time all season, the Gators found th

Boogie Fland has been been directing the Gators flawlessly (Photo by UAA Communications) The Gators were hot when they rolled into Athens last season. Winners of six straight and already with a blowout 30-point win over Georgia in Gainesville. Another blowout was expected, but a funny thing happened on the way to an easy win. Georgia ran up a 41-16 lead before the Gators woke from their funk.   The Gators staged a furious rally, the likes we have rarely seen, in the second ha

The team struck out 39 opponents while giving up only 13 hits and the four earned runs.