Important Four-Game Stretch Coming for Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The No. 3 Florida Gators just walked out of what could be considered its hardest stretch of the season nearly unscathed.

It started with a loss to then-No. 8 Tennessee on Feb. 1, but the Gators made up for it by winning their next three games.

Florida began with a win over Vanderbilt at home on Feb. 4 before traveling to No. 1 Auburn on Feb. 8 and handing them their first league loss of the season, which also gave the Gators its second win over an AP No. 1 team this season. Florida then followed it up with an impressive road win over No. 22 Mississippi State on Tuesday.

Not to mention, the Gators accomplished all three wins without a fully healthy team with Walter Clayton Jr. (ankle) missing the win over the Commodores, Alijah Martin (hip) missing the wins over the Tigers and Bulldogs and Alex Condon (ankle) only playing for 30 seconds in the win over Mississippi State.

Despite the strong performances against ranked opponents, the Gators next four contests could be the most important on the schedule given the new expectations placed upon them. Florida has quickly turned into a contender for a SEC championship and a contender for a national title.

“We talked about it after we beat Auburn, you can't relax, you know, we are competing to win the league,” Golden said after the win on Tuesday.

Over the next four games, the Gators will face South Carolina, Oklahoma, LSU and Georgia. And, while on the surface these look like easy games with all four near the bottom the league standings and holding a combined conference record of 8-34, Florida cannot afford to get complacent this late into the season.

Coming off wins over then-No. 1 Tennessee at home and Arkansas on the road, many thought Florida would walk past unranked Missouri at home. Instead, the Gators walked off as one-point losers to the Tigers.

The biggest thing for the Gators will be complacency. They can’t find themselves looking too far in advance on their schedule to the next “blockbuster” game. Continuing to take it game-by-game will be crucial. Golden and the Gators have been good at this since the loss to the Tigers.

This season has seen Florida turn from the team targeting those ahead of them to becoming the targets themselves. The Gators have been the victims of slow starts against lesser programs before picking up the pace later in those contests.

Not to mention, it's still unclear when exactly Florida will be back to full capacity.

Martin is still recovering after missing the last two games because of a hip injury. Meanwhile, Condon avoided a long-term departure from injury after his X-rays came back negative, and he was diagnosed with a low ankle sprain, but it's still unclear if he'll miss any time.

However, the Gators have shown they’re more than capable of solving this problem with who they’ve plugged and played in the absence of these two starters. Denzel Aberdeen and Urban Klavzar have emerged as tremendous plug-and-play options for Florida at guard, while Thomas Haugh has quickly put the SEC on notice as one of the best sixth men in the country.

The rest of the schedule is certainly in the Gators' favor, but it can't afford any hiccups as it chases its first SEC title in over 10 years.

Florida's next game on the schedule is on Saturday against South Carolina at 8:30 p.m., a rematch from when the Gators came out with a nail-biting victory thanks to Will Richard’s game-winning layup. This game will be televised on SEC Network.