Todd Golden and Florida are clicking this season, adding another win over Mike White and Georgia Thursday evening.

In the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament, Golden’s Gators took down Georgia 85-80 behind 22 points from Walter Clayton Jr. Tyrese Samuel and Will Richard also produced 17 points, including a 15-rebound double-double from Samuel to get into Friday’s quarterfinals.

It’s a story the two teams have grown accustomed to since Georgia reached into Gainesville to hire White away and Florida pivoted to hiring Golden.

The Gators are 5-0 against White since he took the UGA job in 2022 and are projected as a 7-seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology for ESPN. Meanwhile, Georgia is 33-32 overall under White.

As for the reasons in the win, Golden specifically pointed to Florida’s ability to rebound the ball in the second half. After losing the rebound battle by 3 in the first half, the Gators dominated the glass and won in spite of a 23-for-41 performance from the free-throw line.

Samuel particularly struggled while shooting just 9-for-23 from the free-throw line, but the Gators were able to hang on in spite of those struggles.

Bigger goals await Friday night

While continuing to haunt Georgia is fun, Florida has bigger goals in the SEC Tournament. After all, the Gators have not cut down the nets in the SEC since 2014 when Florida swept the outright SEC and SEC Tournament titles.

At this point in the tournament, the Gators still present a lot of value for fans looking to get in on the action. ESPN Bet gives Florida +1400 odds to win the tournament, just the 5th-best odds from the 8 remaining teams in Nashville. Fans can track all the latest odds and trends with SDS’s best sports betting apps.

The next step is not an easy one as Florida prepares to face 3-seed Alabama Friday night. The Crimson Tide have the No. 3 offense in the country per KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, and the matchup is expected to be another high-scoring affair.

When the two sides faced off in Tuscaloosa, Alabama rallied for a 98-93 win over Florida. In the Gainesville matchup, the Gators went off in a 105-87 win to set up a tie-breaking matchup for the season series in Nashville.

Those regular season games give Golden and his squad plenty of insight into how attack Nate Oats and Alabama:

“I feel like we have a good understanding of what makes them tick and why they’re so effective,” said Golden after Thursday’s game. “We just gotta impose our will on them a little bit… These guys have to dominate inside as well. We gotta do a great job on the glass and really own that paint area which is what we did at home.”

Golden also admitted he’s glad Florida has one game under its belt while Alabama has been idle until Friday. Now, the tow sides will face a quick turnaround as the final game of Friday’s action.

“Now, we’re the team that has that advantage. Alabama’s not going to have a lot of time to prep, only a short warmup tomorrow night, so I’m hoping we’ll be a little more settled,” Golden said.

Overall, Florida is safely into the NCAA Tournament no matter how things play out this weekend, but it would be nice to get some momentum for a program that has struggled recently in March.

The Gators have not won the national championship since back-to-back titles in 2006-07, and they have not advanced out of the first round of the Big Dance since 2017 when they lost in the Elite 8. Hopefully, Florida will take this year’s SEC Tournament as a springboard into bigger and better things in the NCAA Tournament.