Florida coach Billy Donovan yells during his team's win at Alabama on Thursday. / AP
GAINESVILLE — Each year, it seems, weather or another travel issue has a way of getting in sixth-ranked Florida’s way on the path to a good season. It happened again on Thursday night after a 68-62 win at Alabama.
Mechanical problems with the plane led the Gators — after their 10th straight win — back to the team hotel for the night rather than home to prepare for today’s home date with Tennessee.
Gators coach Billy Donovan said the team got back around noon Friday and shook it off as any kind of problem. But it was a sleepy, road-weary team that prepared for the game. Florida (16-2 overall, 5-0 in the SEC) has struggled with the Volunteers (12-6, 3-2) over the years. Donovan is just 16-18 in the series.
The team had to wait in the lobby for a while since their hotel rooms had been given away Thursday night. Donovan said he just “set up shop” in his room and started studying tape after everyone got in a room by about 11 p.m.
“In this league, when you playing Thursday-Saturday, you are dealing with some of that,” said Donovan, of a situation almost like the NCAA Tournament with only a day to prepare. “So instead of watching tape on the flight home and coming in here this morning, it was a little bit different. We were able to stay there, get some work done last night and get some work done on the flight coming in.”
With just one day between games, Donovan said there wasn’t much physically the team could do to prepare for Tennessee anyway.
“I don’t think it’s really that big of a deal or an issue or a problem for us,” Donovan said. “By the time we would have gotten back here with class and everything else they would have been up early anyway.”
An unranked Tennessee team, which meets the Gators at 4 p.m., has knocked off a ranked Florida club 11 times over the years. Eight different times, UT has beaten UF when the Gators were ranked in the top 10. The last time the Vols faced Florida in Gainesville on Jan. 11, 2012, Tennessee upset the No. 8 Gators to end a 19-game home winning streak.
Florida has won 25 straight home games going into the UT matchup.
Last year was the first time since 1962-63 that the Volunteers did not visit Gainesville because of conference expansion and scheduling revision. UT owns three straight wins against the Gators. The 2006 and 2007 national championship teams both lost to Tennessee.
This Volunteers lack depth, which could impact the game. But Tennessee’s Jarnell Stokes (13.4 points, 9.7 rebounds) ranks among the league’s best big men. Guard Jordan McRae (19.2 points) is second on the SEC’s active career scoring list with 1,175 points.
“McRae is really as good a scorer as I think there is in this league,” Donovan said. “He really, I thought last year as a junior, kind of came into his own. ... He’s a very efficient scorer. He’s terrific in transition, he shoots threes, he can make mid-range jump shots. There’s really not an area where, when he has the ball, he’s not a threat to score.”
Tennessee played Wednesday, so it has had three days to get ready for the Gators this time.
“I think the biggest thing you've got to do, you've really got to get into the meat and potatoes of what needs to be done, talk about concepts, talk about how you are going to defend things, things you want to do offensively,” said Donovan of having little time to prepare for the Vols. “And get them focused on the things they need to do to be productive in the game. We really can’t do much physically, it's a hard day like that. It’s much, much more of a mental day.”
Gators senior Casey Prather said the short turnaround means you have to be “mentally ready” for the next game.
“It’s a quick turnaround, so we have to take advantage of scouting and get ready for the game,” he said.