Be Careful Not To Wake Up A Slumbering Gator. Now somebody has got to pay for the disrespect.

 

It was a night for every Gator to Boogie Woogie -- especially Fland. (UAA photo by Maddie Washburn)

 

This was sloppiness dressed up as indifference. Then — just like that — Golden called timeout, flipped the switch everyone says doesn’t exist, and the whole thing changed.

They tell you all season long you can’t just flip a switch. Coaches say it like gospel, players nod like choir boys and everybody pretends effort is some permanent setting, not a dimmer.

Then Friday night happened.

Florida came out against Prairie View — a 35.5-point underdog that probably needed GPS just to find the arena — and promptly treated defense like an optional elective. The score said 15-15, which was less a basketball result and more a clerical error.

Prairie View didn’t belong on the same court, same time zone, or frankly the same weather pattern. And yet there they were, raining threes like it was open gym and nobody told Florida the game had started.

Five blind mice? That was generous. At least mice scatter. The Gators just stood there, hands down, watching uncontested jumpers like patrons at a Clay pigeon shooting clinic. A decent high school sophomore could’ve knocked down a few of those  — and Prairie View looked like a varsity team at the local rec center.

We’ve seen this movie before. Vanderbilt rang the bell from deep because Florida chose to live with it — a strategic gamble by Todd Golden that blew up when the Commodores shot 48 percent from three and laughed all the way to the box score.

This time it wasn’t strategy. This was sloppiness dressed up as indifference. Then — just like that — Golden called timeout, flipped the switch everyone says doesn’t exist, and the whole thing changed.

Close Out City.

Suddenly there were hands in faces, feet moving, urgency where there had been apathy. The Gators ripped off an 18-0 run, then another avalanche, outscoring Prairie View 45-6 over the final 13:30 of the half. The game didn’t just tilt — it fell off a cliff.

That’s Florida basketball. Pressure, paint points, bodies flying around like they’ve got somewhere important to be. Not standing around conducting a three-point seminar for the opposition.

By the end, it was a 59-point demolition — the second-largest margin in NCAA Tournament history and the biggest ever in a 1-vs-16 game.

Florida dropped 114 points, handed out 29 assists, shot 64.3 percent, and basically turned the second half into a highlight reel with a scoreboard attached.

Seven Gators in double figures. Thirteen players scored. Boogie Fland led the parade with 6x6 for 16. Thomas Haugh dished up a season high of seven assists. Alex Condon climbed the career rebound charts. And somewhere in all that, the ball never seemed to hit the floor without a Gator attached to it.

And then there’s Rueben Chinyelu, who quietly — or not so quietly anymore — set the program record with his 19th double-double. Nineteen. That’s not a stat, that’s a habit.

He talked afterward about wanting everybody to eat, everybody to feel it, even the deep reserves like Ollie Rioux getting their moment. That’s the part you can’t fake — the chemistry, the joy, the sense that this team actually likes sharing the stage.

But don’t let the warm feelings fool you. This was a game that doubled as a reminder. Florida can be dominant. Florida can be nasty and devastating. Florida can also drift into a fog where Prairie View looks like a problem.

And that’s the part that should bother Todd Golden more than anything — because if you can turn it on, you can also leave it off a little too long.

Around the SEC, everybody else handled their business… more or less. Tennessee won by 22. Alabama by 20. Arkansas by 19. Texas A&M by 13. Vandy squeaked by with 10.

Florida?

Fifty-nine.

Up next: Iowa on Sunday night. If this same Florida team shows up, do you Hawkeyes really want some of this?

Which brings us to a small memo up the road to Nashville: It’s not wise to piss off a team that can hang 114 and still feel like it left something on the table.

Let’s not get over our skis and all eat up with a win over tiny Prairie View, however, or you can quickly find yourself packing for home tomorrow.