On the road again: No. 3 Gators face Mississippi State in Starkville

Alex Condon (21) was named SEC Player of the Week (UAA Photo)

No time for attaboys. That’s the message Todd Golden is stressing to the Gators (20-3, 7-3 SEC), now No. 3 in both the Associated Press and Coaches top 25 polls. The Gators need to make sure the glow of beating No. 1 Auburn has faded away, particularly with a very tough matchup in Starkville tonight (7 p.m., ESPN2) with a Mississippi State (17-6, 5-5 SEC) team that plays like it belongs in the top ten at home.

“I think the biggest challenge with our schedule the rest of the way is not allowing ourselves to get too high or too low, depending on the result,” Golden said Monday before the Gators departed for Starkville. “Saturday is easy to pat yourself on the back and read the press clippings of how it's best win of the year and then not be ready mentally going into what I consider to be an equally as tough environment in Starkville against a really, really good team.”

Florida has been a mixed bag on the road in hostile environments lately. The Gators were clobbered by 20 in Knoxville to No. 5 Tennessee, a game in which the crowd got under their skin early and often. The Gators struggled to make shots and turned the ball over way too often. The defense wasn’t all that bad, but the offense never gave the Gators a chance.

One week later at Auburn, an equally tough road environment, the Gators were the picture of cool, calm and collected. When they fell behind early by 10 (15-5), the Auburn crowd was borderline psychotic but the Gators blocked out the noise, caught fire and outscored the Tigers 85-66 the rest of the way.

At Tennessee, the Gators couldn’t make a shot. Against Auburn, the Gators had one of their best passing games in Golden’s three seasons on the UF job with 22 assists that led to 48 percent shooting from the floor and 13 made 3-pointers. The ball was spread around so well that six different Gators nailed a 3-pointer.

Florida has shot the ball extremely well the last two games – 62-118 overall from the field (52.5 percent) and 23-54 from the 3-point line (42.5 percent). Florida’s 42 assists in the last two games are the best 2-game stretch of the season.

“I thought we did a great job moving the ball and taking care of it over the past two games, with the exception of like the first five minutes of the Vanderbilt game,” Golden said. “And I think that led to us being really, really hard to guard. Getting 90 at Auburn is an insane offensive performance. We made 13 threes, we made our free throws. I think we shot close to 60 percent from two. We did a great job in making them guard us through the extension of the shot clock and allowed their defense to break down a little bit, but we just took advantage of it and we made some shots, man. And when you do that, those numbers are gonna go up."

The Gators will need good shooting, finding open shooters with crisp passes and taking care of the basketball to score a win in Starkville. Golden believes Florida’s effort has to match or exceed what it took to win at Auburn to come away with a win tonight.

“It’s going to take a very similar performance that we had on Saturday to win at Starkville on Tuesday,” Golden said. “I know that’s hard for some people to wrap their arms around – Auburn was No. 1 – but Mississippi State is a very good team. Mississippi State is very good at home. They’re a top 25 team. this will not be an easier game. They’re going to be playing really well, they’re going to be fired up. I assume we’ll be top five going into this game. We have a target on our back. Our guys are learning that, especially after Saturday. We’re going to have to perform really, really well on the road Tuesday night to win.”

Game notes: Florida’s No. 3 ranking is the highest for the Gators since 2014 when they were ranked No. 1 … Freshman Urban Klavjar has come off the bench to go 5-5 from the 3-point line in the last two games, 2-2 against Vandy, 3-3 against Auburn … Second-leading scorer Alijah Martin, who missed the Auburn game with a hip pointer, is expected to be back in the lineup at Mississippi State … In Todd Golden’s two-plus years on the Florida job, the Gators have scored 90 or more points 20 times. Every other Florida coach to score 90 or more 20 times needed at least seven seasons to do it.

Condon SEC Player of the Week: Alex Condon, who had 17 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot in Florida’s win over Auburn was selected Southeastern Conference Player of the Week. Earlier in the week in the Gators’ win over Vanderbilt, Condon had 19 points, nine rebounds, four assists and a blocked shot. Condon was 14-16 shooting in the two games. Condon is just the eighth Gator to win multiple SEC Player of the Week awards.

Anticipated starting lineups

No. 3 FLORIDA (20-3, 7-3 SEC): Alex Condon (6-11, 230, SO); Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 255, SO); Will Richard (6-4, 206, SR); Alijah Martin (6-2, 195, GR); Walter Clayton Jr. (6-2, 195, SR)

No. 22 Mississippi State (17-6, 5-5 SEC): Cameron Matthews (6-7, 235, SR); Michael Nwoko (6-10, 245, SO); RJ Melendez (6-7, 210, SR); Claudel Harris (6-4, 200, SR); Josh Hubbard (5-11, 190, SO)

Coaches top 25: 1. Alabama 20-3; 2. Auburn 21-2; 3. FLORIDA 20-3; 4. Tennessee 20-4; 5. Duke 20-3; 6. Houston 19-4; 7. Purdue 19-5; 8. St. John’s 21-3; 9. Texas A&M 18-5; 10. Iowa State 18-5; 11. Michigan State 19-4; 12. Texas Tech 18-5; 13. Arizona 17-6; 14. Memphis 20-4; 15. Wisconsin 19-5; 16. Marquette 18-6; 17. Michigan 18-5; 18. Kentucky 16-7; 19. Clemson 19-5; 20. Kansas 16-7; 21. Creighton 18-6; 22. Missouri 17-6; 23. Ole Miss 18-6; 24. UConn 16-7; 25. Maryland 18-6

Associated Press top 25: 1. Auburn 21-2; 2. Alabama 20-3; 3. (TIE) FLORIDA 20-3 and Duke 20-3; 5. Tennessee 20-4; 6. Houston 19-4; 7. Purdue 19-5; 8. Texas A&M 18-5; 9. St. John’s 21-3; 10. Iowa State 18-5; 11. Michigan State 19-4; 12. Texas Tech 18-5; 13. Arizona 17-6; 14. Memphis 20-4; 15. Kentucky 16-7; 16. Wisconsin 19-5; 17. Kansas 16-7; 18. Marquette 18-6; 19. Ole Miss 18-6; 20. Michigan 18-5; 21. Missouri 17-6; 22. Mississippi State 17-6; 23. Clemson 19-5; 24. Creighton 18-6; 25. Maryland 18-6

UF FOOTBALL: GATORS ADD TWO TO FRONT OFFICE

The Gators added a pair of front office veterans to the staff Monday. Taking on the role of Associate Athletic Director/Football General Manager is Nick Polk while Benjamin Eisner will be the Director of Football Strategy.

Polk, who spent the last 17 years as the Director of Football Administration and Director of Football Operations for the NFL Atlanta Falcons, will be in charge of revenue share and NIL allocation, student-athlete contract negotiations, football budgets, roster management and work with football personnel. Eisner served as Chief of Staff of The 33rd, a football analysis program. His job will be working with salary cap and contracts while also improving use of analytics and artificial intelligence.

UF SOFTBALL: GATORS NO. 1 IN SOFTBALL AMERICA POLL

The Gators remained No. 1 in the Softball America poll after outscoring all six of their opponents last week by a 53-8 margin. The Gators play Jacksonville at Katie Seashole Presley Stadium tonight (6 p.m., SEC Network+) and Stetson Wednesday (6 p.m., SEC Network+). The Gators will host Boston College, Providence, Binghamtom and 16th-ranked Duke this weekend at the Bubly Invitational at KSP starting Thursday.

Shumaker SEC Player of the Week: Freshman Taylor Shumaker, who hit five home runs in her first week as a collegian, was named SEC Player of the Week. Shumaker hit .500 with two doubles, five homers and 11 RBI while playing a flawless right field.

Softball America top 25: 1. FLORIDA 6-0; 2. Texas 6-0; 3. Oklahoma 6-0; 4. UCLA 5-0; 5. Texas A&M 6-0; 6. Tennessee 5-1; 7. Florida State 4-1; 8. Texas Tech 5-1; 9. Oklahoma State 2-2; 10. LSU 5-0; 11. Arizona 4-1; 12. Alabama 4-1; 13. Arkansas 5-0; 14. Georgia 5-0; 15. Missouri 4-1; 16. Duke 3-2; 17. Nebraska 3-2; 18. Virginia Tech 5-0; 19. Florida Atlantic 6-0; 20. Liberty 5-0; 21. Mississippi State 4-1; 22. Oregon 5-0; 23. Northwestern 3-2; 24. Baylor 3-2; 25. South Carolina 5-0

UF GYMNASTICS: GATORS DIP TO NO. 3

Florida’s meltdown on the balance beam at Arkansas last Friday night, cost the Gators one spot in the Road to Nationals ranking. The Gators dipped to third, trailing Oklahoma and LSU. All nine SEC schools are ranked in the top 15. The Gators return to action Friday night at the O-Dome against 12th-ranked Auburn (8:15 p.m., SEC Network) in the annual Link to Pink meet.

Top 25: 1. Oklahoma; 2. LSU; 3. FLORIDA; 4. Utah; 5. UCLA; 6. Michigan State; 7. California; 8. Kentucky; 9. Missouri; 10. Oregon State; 11. Georgia; 12. Auburn; 13. Stanford; 14. Alabama; 15. Arkansas; 16. (TIE) Michigan and Minnesota; 18. Arizona; 19. North Carolina State; 20. Ohio State; 21. Denver; 22. North Carolina; 23. Nebraska; 24. Arizona State; 25. Penn State

UF LACROSSE: GATORS REMAIN NO. 5

The Gators remained No. 5 nationally in the Inside Lacrosse top 25 after scoring wins over 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins and Kennesaw State to open the season. The Gators play host to 3rd-ranked North Carolina Saturday at Donald Dizney Stadium.

Inside Lacrosse top 25:  1. Boston College 2-0; 2. Northwestern 2-0; 3. North Carolina 2-0; 4. Michigan 1-0; 5. FLORIDA 2-0; 6. Syracuse 1-0; 7. Maryland 0-0; 8. Yale 0-0; 9. Virginia 1-0; 10. Johns Hopkins 0-1; 11. Notre Dame 1-1; 12. Penn 0-0; 13. Stony Brook 0-0; 14. Navy 1-0; 15. Stanford 1-0; 16. Loyola 0-1; 17. Princeton 0-0; 18. Clemson 1-0; 19. Duke 2-0; 20. (TIE) Richmond 1-0 and Colorado 0-0; 22. James Madison 0-1; 23. Army 1-0; 24. Ohio State 1-0; 24. UConn 1-0