PREVIEW: No.22 UF Women’s Basketball Looks To Rebound In Hosting Vanderbilt

This past Sunday, the Florida women’s basketball team had its worst statistical game of the season and Auburn took complete advantage of the situation. The Tigers defeated the Gators 80-58 in a fashion that left Auburn fans saying, see you later, alligators. 

Florida’s head coach, Amanda Butler says the Gators are looking at the positive side to the Auburn loss. 

Because of their back-to-back losses, the Gators rolled down to the 22nd spot in this week’s AP Poll rankings as the Gators get set to host Vanderbilt on Thursday.

“We are going to learn so much about ourselves and be thankful for what Auburn exposed in us and be better because of it.” -Amanda Butler

A lot is at stake for this Florida squad. Last week, Florida was ranked third in SEC standings. But now with a conference record of 7-5, the Gators are tied with Georgia in the fifth spot. The SEC Tournament is approaching and Florida’s aggressive and resilient play began to turn heads in the league. The Gators will need to bring back the aggressive chomp to go into the SEC Tournament with a high seed. This makes Vanderbilt a crucial opponent for Florida.

Vanderbilt, led by Melanie Balcomb, sports a 4-8 conference record and a 15-10 overall record. The Commodores are currently in the 11th spot in the SEC standings and are coming off of a loss to Kentucky, but are expected to march into Gainesville with something to prove.

Florida has lost five straight home games against Vanderbilt. The last home game victory over the Commodores dates back to January 22, 2006. Last season, these two met up twice and each team snagged a victory on the other’s home court. Amanda Butler stresses the importance of not underestimating Vanderbilt.

This is an important SEC match up and you can hear live coverage of the game starting at 6:45 p.m. right here on ESPN Gainesville 95.3FM.