Florida basketball suffered a brutal 29-point loss to West Virginia on Sunday night to finish sixth in the Phil Knight Legacy Tournament.
[autotag]Will Richard[/autotag] scored a quick five points to get Florida out to a hot start, but it was all downhill from there. [autotag]Colin Castleton[/autotag] ran into foul trouble. So did his backup. Suddenly, Florida was down double digits and scrambling to keep the game close at the half. A nine-point deficit at the break seemed merciful at the time, but West Virginia went for the early dagger in the second half.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a 20-point lead with nearly 16 minutes left to play and never looked back. Florida heaved up contested layups in hopes of scoring. Many were batted away. The bigs were too scared to fight for a rebound after a first half filled with whistles, and WVU ran away with things to a near 30-point win and a 2-1 finish at the tournament.
For Florida, the honeymoon of the Golden era is over. There are serious problems with this team, and the coaching moves haven’t brought any noticeable change aside from personnel. If there’s one thing Gator Nation cares about, it’s winning, and the Gators don’t look like a winning club right now.
Here are five thoughts following an embarrassing loss to close the holiday weekend.