The Florida Gators are just over an hour from tip against a familiar foe in the Auburn Tigers, whom the Gators have already beaten this season: 90-81 in a regular season battle.
Ahead of the rematch, head coach Todd Golden knows his team can find success against the Tigers in the Final Four and punch their ticket to the national title game.
“I think the same reason why I’ve had success all year is why we’ll be okay. Being here, this being the first time — we have a very mature group. Very unselfish group. Guys that are very driven,” Golden said when asked why he believes his team can win the rematch.
“You look at the way we played all year, we’ve been a very consistent team. We’ve always been able to bounce back from losses the right way, make sure we get back to who we are and playing well. I think we’ve won 10 in a row coming into this event.
“Our guys are not going to be satisfied going home Saturday night. I think going in, the mentality is that — obviously it will be a great season regardless, but if we lose on Saturday, we’ll have a bad taste in our mouths.”
Ahead of the game all of the attention was on 7-foot-9 big man Olivier Rioux who towered over reporter John Fanta in a new video.
The comments section was flooded with reactions of fans in disbelief at his size.
“10/10 opening pan from the camera operator,” one person said with a laughing emoji.
“Jon, it was disrespectful of you to sit in a chair while he had to stand,” joked another.
“Can’t fool me that’s AI using Andre the Giants voice,” added another.
Auburn and Florida tip off at 6:09 p.m. ET on CBS.