University of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan is done smoldering about his team’s collapse against Arizona and is ready to let it go.
Florida fumbled away a 65-64 loss to the Wildcats on Saturday in a battle of top-10 teams as Arizona outscored the Gators 7-0 in the final 56 seconds. Florida fell from fifth to eighth in the Associated Press poll on Monday and can begin climbing back toward the top with tonight’s home game against Southeastern Louisiana (Sun Sports, 7 p.m.).
“You’ve got to move on,” Donovan said. “So I told our guys if we really, really learn from this, it’ll be very, very beneficial going forward.”
Florida was up by 11 points late in the second half and players believed they should have emerged undefeated. Three of the Gators’ 14 turnovers came during the last 1:01 of the game.
Florida was still up by six with under a minute to go but lost on Arizona guard Mark Lyons’ contested layup with 7 seconds left as he drove against 6-foot-9 center Patric Young.
Florida bungled its final possession, fumbling the ball around before getting off a desperate 3-point attempt that never seriously threatened the rim.
And in a flash, a shot at a signature road victory was lost.
“It was pretty frustrating,” forward Will Yeguete said. “We had them the whole game.”
Florida (7-1) should not have much trouble starting a new winning streak against the Lions, a team from the Southland Conference that is 1-7. The Gators still have three other non-conference games left, including a meeting with Kansas State, before opening the SEC schedule at home against Georgia on Jan. 9.
Despite being one of the best teams in the country so far, Florida has several concerns to address. Guard Scottie Wilbekin is playing with a broken finger, and guard Michael Frazier II is coming off an illness that limited him last week. Both players are key reserves, and Wilbekin might eventually be the starting point guard.
Kenny Boynton, the leading scorer last season, has 25 points over his past three games and is 8-of-33 from the field during that span. He shot 44 percent last year, but he currently is hitting 38 percent of his shots.
Prior to losing at then-No. 8 Arizona, the Gators had won every game by at least 13 points, including blowouts of Wisconsin, Marquette and Florida State.
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