Florida delivered the knockout punch against Tennessee essentially at the opening tip of last season’s meeting in Gainesville.
The Gators were kind enough Saturday to wait until just before halftime.
Boogie Fland scored 10 of his season-high 23 points during Florida’s 15-2 run to close the half, which turned a 26-26 deadlock into a 41-28 lead for the Gators on their way to a 91-67 demolishing of the No. 21 Volunteers in the O’Connell Center. Florida’s 73-43 crushing of Tennessee last January was the worst defeat of the Rick Barnes era, which dates to the 2015-16 season, and this one was only marginally better for the Vols.
“It was a close game and the kind of game you expect until the last four minutes of the half, and then it was just some really poor basketball,” Barnes said afterward in a news conference. “I’ll take the blame for it, because I don’t know if I’ve had a team play that bad and make some of the decisions they made. It was really poor basketball, and that’s on me.”
Reigning national champion Florida improved to 11-5 overall and to 2-1 in Southeastern Conference play, while the Vols dropped to 11-5 and 1-2. Tennessee avenged last season’s debacle with a 66-44 February defeat of the Gators in Knoxville, but Saturday was the only scheduled meeting between the two this season.