Florida’s first half in the Donald L. Tucker Center — home to so many bad memories for the Gators men in recent years — was the stuff of nightmares.
If you sleepwalk in nightmares, anyway.
The Gators shot poorly, defended worse, got called for two technical fouls, and generally looked outclassed and outfought by a short-handed and winless Florida State team in those first 20 minutes, going into the locker room down 43-26.
But in the first five minutes of the second half, the Gators were wide awake — and good enough to leave anyone watching wide-eyed.