Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: It Now Gets Serious For Florida Men’s Basketball

The Back Nine comes at you after watching two blowouts Saturday in the O-Dome — Florida over Georgia and the baby race at halftime.

10. Yeah, the one youngster was the only one who left the starting line. The rest just looked up at all the people cheering. Anyway, Mike White could probably have used that one baby, because he would have scored as many points as Georgia star Asa Newell did in the first half. Zero. Point. Zero. Florida’s defense was suffocating and for the second game in a row forced so many turnovers they were the difference. Florida scored 29 points off turnovers and won by 30. “We had 20 deflections in the first half,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “We haven’t come close to that number this season.”

11. One thing you have to like about this team is that when it plays like it did Saturday or like it did against Tennessee, it DOES look like a Final Four team. And Gator fans should love the mentality that Golden has about big leads. “Our halftime talk was, ‘Let’s win by 40,’ ” he said. Well, they won by 30 against a pretty good team that is struggling. Which is much better than watching the clock with a big lead and playing tentatively. We’ve seen that before. We’ve also seen the Gators get off to slow starts before. “We have a tendency to come out slow,” guard Alijah Martin said. “We weren’t going to do that tonight. I wanted to dominate and have fun.”

12. In what has been a weird season with all of the other stuff going on (no sense commenting because I really don’t know diddly poo), the deal with Micah Handlogten was another chapter. He was cleared to play, wanted to play and Florida let all the beat reporters know they could drop the news at 8 p.m. Friday. Then, minutes before the news was supposed to drop, the big guy changed his mind. “Once he was going to play, it became real,” Golden said. Handlogten decided not to play and whether he does return at some point is still up in the air. “It’s his decision,” Golden said. “We are certainly not pressing him.” Neither should anybody else.

13. Now it gets serious for the Gators, who are fifth in the latest NET Rankings. They don’t have to play a midweek game and then play three of the next four against ranked teams on the road – No. 4 (in the NET) Tennessee Saturday, No. 1 Auburn a week later and No. 20 Miss. State after that. This league is a beast. They have a home game against Vandy sandwiched in there and Vandy just beat Kentucky.

14. I have been accused of being a frontrunner because I root for the Chiefs (or Chefs if you prefer). No, I have been rooting for them since Playoff Pat arrived. And I like Andy Reid.  I will say I won’t do that inane chop even for the Braves. And I know a lot of you have KC Fatigue. Sorry. I know you’re probably making noise about the fourth-down spot. Deal with it. The Chiefs are going for a three-peat because they are really good.

15. I was rooting for Dan Quinn’s Commanders, but his defense was embarrassed by Philly (in part because of so many short fields). Kansas City is favored by 1.5 to win the Super Bowl, but after another break-even weekend put Dr. Football even for the NFL, I will wait to make my Super Bowl winning pick next week and will include some prop bets. It’s sad that next Sunday will be the last football game of the year, but I believe we have been entertained.

16. Florida gymnastics put on quite a show Friday night spanking Georgia (yeah, it was a good weekend) with an incredible beam performance as the catalyst. Unfortunately, they hit the road as well and won’t have a home meet until Valentine’s Day. That’s also the night of the opener for baseball. My wonderful wife has already suggested going to one of those events to celebrate our love. Wow, that sounded a little sappy Dr. Football.

17. And speaking of college football (who was speaking of college football), Florida hired a new co-defensive coordinator in Vinny Sunseri. His dad coached the defensive line here in 2018. The Gators were this close to bringing Will Muschamp back here, but he changed his mind at the last minute. Until I talk to my old pal I won’t be able to tell you why for sure, but I have a lot of theories why he would back out.

18. Hopefully our three-day winter is over and we can all start playing golf again. This playlist would be a good one (for me anyway):

• “Supersad” by Suki Waterhouse (stop making fun of me, this is a great song).
• “Oysters in my Pocket” by Royel Otis.
• And for an old one, “Sad Lisa” by the great Cat Stevens.

WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.