UF announced the decision Monday on the heels of the Gators’ 82-64 loss to Oklahoma during the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.

Finley’s time at Florida appeared to be coming to an end, given her program’s struggles in the nation’s top conference in women’s basketball. The 40-year-old was in the fourth year of a five-year, $3.7 million deal she signed after the 2021-22 Gators were 21-11 (10-6 SEC) with Finley serving an interim coach after the school fired Cam Newbauer amid allegations he verbally abused players and staff members.

Finley, though, failed to build on her early success, ending her time at UF 93-75, including 30-50 in league play.

The school will begin a national search to find her replacement.

“The University of Florida is committed to building a women’s basketball program that consistently reaches the NCAA Tournament and competes among the top teams in the Southeastern Conference,” athletic director Scott Stricklin said in a statement. “This search is an important opportunity to identify a leader who will recruit and develop outstanding student-athletes, build strong connections within our community, and elevate the program to meet the expectations UF has for all 21 of our sports.”

The program remains the only one on campus without a conference crown and will miss the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in 10 years. The Gators haven’t advanced beyond the second round of the Big Dance since 1998 under Carol Ross.

Former AD Jeremy Foley hired national championship-winning coach Carolyn Peck in 2002 away from Purdue. After she failed, he hired former Gator Amanda Butler in 2007. Stricklin fired Butler in 2017 and hired Newbauer. Finley, one of his assistants, replaced him in 2021.

After fleeting success under Finley, the school will renew its quest to produce a winning women’s basketball program in a conference featuring national championship programs from LSU, South Carolina and Tennessee. Texas, which joined the league in 2024, won the 1986 title.

UF will owe Finley her base salary $450,000 for the final year of her contract

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com

Miami was No. 22 in last week’s AP poll, but after splitting a pair of games last week, UM fell out of the top 25. The Hurricanes were the top vote-getter that fell outside the top 25.

The Hurricanes clinched a double-bye in this week’s ACC tournament with a road win over SMU on Wednesday. But Miami concluded the regular season with a home loss to Louisville on Saturday. The Cardinals ended the season ranked 24th.

Miami, which is a likely NCAA Tournament team, will not play in the ACC tournament until the quarterfinals on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. in Charlotte, N.C. UM is the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. It will face the winner of the second-round matchup between Louisville and the winner of the SMU-Syracuse first-round game.

The Hurricanes ended the regular season at 24-7, which is their best mark since 2022-23 season. The program reached the Final Four that season.

Inside, coach Scott Frost can be found in his office talking with a variety of coaches and staff members.

Spring football camp is just around the corner and the Knights are finishing up their winter workouts.

It’s been 15 months since Frost returned to UCF and the vibe around the football program is a much different one than when he first arrived on Dec. 7, 2024. At the time, Frost was getting a crash course in the economics of modern college athletics.

It had been three years since he had last stepped on the sidelines as a head coach and even in that short period of time, so much had changed. Unlimited transfers, name, image and likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing were front and center.

From the moment he stepped on campus, Frost found himself trying to adjust on the fly.

Not only did he have to hire a new coaching staff, but he also had to rebuild a roster ravaged by the transfer portal. UCF would end up bringing in 71 newcomers, many of whom were forced to step into starting roles immediately.

“I didn’t know what to expect from the transfer portal,” Frost recently told the Orlando Sentinel. “The transfer portal was already open. I did my press conference to take the job and I had two players from the previous year’s team in my office asking me for money before I even knew who they were. We didn’t have a list of names. We hadn’t watched film yet. We were starting fresh.

“I was up in the office at 6 a.m. and falling asleep at 1 a.m. with my phone on my chest.”

There was also more than a fair share of challenges for Frost when he first arrived.

“There were a lot of habits around here that didn’t fit how we want to approach things,” Frost said. “Some of the guys, we were able to change and improve; others we weren’t. If they didn’t seem like somebody that was going to buy into what we wanted to do, then they’re probably not here anymore.”

UCF finished with a 5-7 record, missing out on bowl eligibility for the second consecutive season.

“We probably got what we deserved,” Frost said, looking back on last season. “We easily could have won another two or three games, but we easily could have lost a couple, too. Our team culture was very average and the standards just weren’t high enough for what we expect.

“That was just nobody’s fault. It’s just that when you have 71 new players, you’re taking over from somebody else and your kids are used to doing it a different way, it just takes a while. It was a good take-off point.”

The Knights also dealt with heartache after offensive line coach Shawn Clark passed away on Sept. 21, following a medical episode. Clark’s death shook the team, which had little time to mourn with a road contest against Kansas State on Sept. 27.

“That was a tough thing for us to deal with during the season,” Frost recalled. “More than anything, it just drained everybody’s energy. There was so much emotion that would wear you out that I just didn’t feel the same pep from everybody. The success of our football team pales in comparison and importance of his family and his life.

“I don’t think I really processed what happened until after the season was over, because you just don’t have time. We had to get back to work.”

Orlando Sentinel 150: How Orlando willed itself into sports’ big leagues

Following the conclusion of their season, UCF wasted no time in preparing for the 2025-26 season.

With the help of Trent Mossbrucker, the team’s general manager of player personnel, and the recruiting staff, the Knights jumped into action when the transfer portal window opened in December, signing starting quarterback Alonza Barrett III, who led James Madison to the College Football Playoff.

Eventually, the team would welcome 47 newcomers: 31 transfers and 16 high school recruits.

“We were way more prepared. Hopefully, that’s going to make us way more accurate in our evaluation of the players that we brought in,” said Frost.

“College football has changed so much and there’s a learning curve to it. It’s changing constantly. You’ve got to be smart and light on your feet in order to react to changes and figure out the strategy that’s most effective for us here. And I think a year of experience and seeing things and learning is going to help us a lot.”

Frost acknowledges he made it a point to sign more mature players with an emphasis on toughness.

“We made a conscious effort to get older and more experienced, and that helps us in a lot of areas,” he said.

UCF also added several new coaches to the staff, with AJ Blazak taking over as offensive line coach and Cooper Bassett assuming the tight ends coach role from offensive coordinator Steve Cooper. The Knights are still looking for a defensive backs coach after Will Johnson left to join the Minnesota Vikings’ coaching staff.

As UCF wraps up offseason conditioning, the team will get some time off before the start of spring camp. The players will have a week off for spring break (March 16-21), while the coaches are also looking for some R&R.

Frost plans to spend the time with his wife and kids.

“There’s probably only been a dozen days since I took the job and I haven’t been in the office, and it’s always good to recharge your batteries by doing something else,” he said.

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Thomas Haugh had 20 points and nine rebounds as No. 5 Florida beat Kentucky 84-77 on Saturday to end the regular season with an 11-game winning streak.

Boogie Fland added 16 points and six assists for the Gators (25-6, 16-2 Southeastern Conference), the No. 1 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament at Nashville, Tennessee. The defending national champions completed a regular-season sweep of the Wildcats (19-12, 10-8).

Alex Condon scored 14 points for Florida. Rueben Chinyelu had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Xaivian Lee finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Otega Oweh led Kentucky with 28 points, 17 in the first half. Oweh was honored before the game along with follow senior Denzel Aberdeen and walk-ons Zack Tow and Walker Horn.

Aberdeen scored 15 points, and Mouhamed Dioubate added 10 off the bench for Kentucky.

Florida scored the first 11 points and never trailed. Meanwhile, the Wildcats missed their first seven shots, including three from 3-point range.

Haugh scored 17 points and connected on three of the Gators’ six 3s in the first half.

Despite the sluggish start, Kentucky regrouped and pulled within one twice before Florida responded with 13 straight points. A 25-8 run gave the Gators a 45-27 advantage with 2:19 remaining in the first half, and Florida led 49-32 at the break.

Up next

Florida won the SEC regular-season title by three games over Arkansas and gets a double bye into the quarterfinals of the conference tournament Friday.

Kentucky was awaiting its first SEC Tournament opponent.

Huff made 4 of 14 from 3-point range and all 10 of his free throws for the Mountaineers (18-13, 9-9), who posted a 74-67 victory over UCF on Feb. 14. Brenen Lorient missed just one shot and scored 14. Reserve Chance Moore had 13 points and Jasper Floyd scored 10.

Themus Fulks and Riley Kugel both scored 16 for the Knights (20-10, 9-9), who have lost three in a row since beating then-No. 19 BYU 97-84 on Feb. 24. Jordan Burks totaled 14 points and nine rebounds.

Huff hit two of West Virginia’s four 3-pointers in the first eight minutes to help the Mountaineers take an 18-10 lead. Floyd and Harlan Obioha followed with layups to cap a 9-0 run for a 12 point advantage.

UCF trailed by as many as 13, but Burks’ layup with one second left made it 32-23 at halftime. UCF shot 35.5% overall, missed 5 of 6 from 3-point range and did not attempt a free throw in the first 20 minutes.

Fulks had a layup to get UCF within 44-40 with 12 minutes left, but the Knights would get no closer.

Huff was fouled beyond the arc, made all three three throws, then hit a 3-pointer before a three-point play by Moore capped a 9-1 spurt and West Virginia wasn’t threatened over the final 10:22.

The rest of the Big 12 concludes play Saturday.

Up next

The conference tournament begins Tuesday at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Miami Carol City five-star wide receiver Nicholas Lennear committed to UM while attending the team’s recruiting event, giving a big boost to the Hurricanes’ class. He chose Miami over offers from FSU, Georgia and Indiana, among others.

Lennear got on the microphone at the event and announced his commitment while Miami coach Mario Cristobal looked on, according to a video Lennear shared on Instagram.

Lennear is one of the top players in the nation in the 2027 recruiting class. The five-star prospect is listed as the No. 3 wide receiver and No. 12 player in the class in 247Sports’ composite rankings.

The rising senior previously played at Miami Northwestern, where he won a state title as a freshman. Lennear has played both wide receiver and cornerback. This offseason, he transferred to Miami Carol City.

Earlier this year, he participated in the Navy All-American Bowl and had six catches for 48 yards and a touchdown.

Lennear is the fifth member of the Hurricanes’ 2027 class, which is currently ranked 13th in the 247Sports composite rankings. Lennear is the second wide receiver in the class, joining Chaminade-Madonna four-star receiver Ah’Mari Stevens.

Lennear’s composite grade of .9924 — which is subject to change — would make him the second-highest-rated wide receiver to sign with UM since 247Sports started grading players more than 20 years ago. The only wide receiver with a higher grade was Ryan Moore, a Class of 2002 wide receiver who was the No. 1 receiver in the class.

If Lennear keeps his five-star ranking and the standout sticks with his pledge, he would be the first five-star player Cristobal has signed at Miami who did not play offensive or defensive line.

However, the Knights are definitely not making it easy for themselves as they aim to conclude their regular season with a challenging game at West Virginia this Friday.

After a three-game stretch that saw UCF (20-9, 9-8 Big 12) take down TCU, Utah and No. 19 BYU in a seven-day period, the Knights seemed a virtual lock to make their first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2018-19 season.

The team was projected to be seeded between 7th and 9th.

But an 87-86 loss to Baylor in the final seconds, coupled with an 111-104 overtime loss to Oklahoma State Tuesday night, has put UCF in the uncomfortable position of needing to beat the Mountaineers or win at least one game in next week’s Big 12 Tournament to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

“We have to understand the importance of regrouping and responding,” said UCF coach Johnny Dawkins. “We’ve done that all throughout the season. We have to do it again.”

The Knights found themselves trailing in the second half to both Baylor and Oklahoma State and in both games, they rallied to tie the game in the final seconds of regulation.

“In both games, our guys gave great effort,” Dawkins said. “It’s just that we came up a little short. They made one or two more plays than we did. [In both losses] there are lessons for our team to learn and we have to learn them quickly.”

“We’re moving on to the next game, but it was two tough losses,” added senior guard Riley Kugel.

The Knights have been outscored 101-82 in the first half of their losses to Baylor and Oklahoma State, but outscored both teams 98-80 in the second half.

UCF, meanwhile, enters Friday’s contest ranked 48th in the latest NCAA NET rankings, which are one of the criteria used by the committee to determine tournament-eligible teams. The Knights already have five Quad 1 wins on their resume and a win over West Virginia would be their sixth.

The Big Ten and SEC are projected to send 10 teams apiece for the NCAA Tournament, with the ACC and Big 12 expected to send eight apiece. Still, with teams such as Auburn, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati and West Virginia making late pushes, nothing is a certainty.

“We’ve lost now back-to-back games, so we want to get back on the right track,” said Dawkins. “I just want to win the game in front of me.”

The Knights were once again shorthanded after backup center Jeremy Foumena (6-foot-11) was ruled out of the game against the Cowboys. The redshirt junior, who has been averaging 3.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 10 minutes this season, went down with an apparent lower leg injury in the team’s loss to Baylor on Feb. 28.

Foumena’s absence forced Dawkins to rely on 7-foot reserve Elijah Hulsewe (Hul-SUHway) to give the team some valuable minutes. Hulsewe responded with a season-high in points (9), rebounds (4) and minutes (9).

UCF will need all hands on deck against West Virginia.

The Mountaineers (17-13, 8-9 Big 12) have lost four of their last five games, including a disappointing 65-63 loss at Kansas State on Tuesday night.

In their last meeting, UCF built a 14-point lead midway through the second half before WVU rallied to stun the Knights, 74-67, on Feb. 14. It was the third consecutive loss to the Mountaineers in the series.

West Virginia is 14-3 at Hope Coliseum this season, with the losses to Baylor, Texas Tech and Utah.

UCF currently sits in seventh place in the Big 12 standings, which would earn it a first-round bye in the Big 12 Tournament, which tips off on Tuesday, March 10, at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. With the bye already locked in, the Knights can only improve their seeding with a win on Friday night.

Please find me on X, Bluesky or Instagram @osmattmurschel. Email: mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com. Sign up for the Sentinel’s Knights Weekly newsletter for a roundup of all our UCF coverage.

Lou Holtz never met an opponent that couldn’t beat him. Somehow, he squeaked out nearly 250 wins and a national title while cementing himself both as one of the most lovable and unlikable characters in college football — a one-of-a-kind iconoclast in a profession brimming with originals.

The pint-sized motivator who restored greatness at Notre Dame and demanded it everywhere else he went died in Orlando, Notre Dame announced Wednesday. He was 89.

Spokeswoman Katy Lonergan said the family did not provide a cause of death.

“Notre Dame mourns the loss of Lou Holtz, a legendary football coach, a beloved member of the Notre Dame family and devoted husband, father and grandfather,” Notre Dame president the Rev. Robert A. Dowd said in a statement.

His son, Skip, who followed Holtz into coaching, said in a post on X that his father had passed away and was “resting peacefully at home.”

“He was successful, but more important he was Significant,” Skip Holtz wrote.

Holtz went 249-132-7 over a career that spanned 33 seasons and included stops at Minnesota, Arkansas, South Carolina and, most notably, Notre Dame.

It was there that he won his lone national championship, in 1988, capped with a win over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl but highlighted by a 31-30 victory earlier in the season over Miami — one of the notable meetings in the so-called “Catholics vs. Convicts” rivalry of the ’80s.

For all the big personalities coarsing through college football during the day, none stood bigger than Holtz. He was only 5-foot-10, but commanded the sideline like someone much bigger. The lead-up to the big games were sometimes his best theatre.

Armed with a homespun brand of folksiness that could trickle into corny but always contained a kernel of truth, Holtz lit up bulletin boards and motivational posters with dozens of memorable quotes and pithy observations, virtually all of them constructed to inspire:

—“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”

—”When all is said and done, more is said than done.”

—“You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose.”

He could make any team — from Akron to Army to Alabama — sound like a world beater on any given week. More often than not, his Fighting Irish figured out a way to scratch out the wins.

Restoring Notre Dame to greatness

Before Holtz arrived in South Bend, Notre Dame was wallowing in mediocrity — a mere shell of the program built on a foundation of Knute Rockne, Ara Parseghian, the Golden Dome and Touchdown Jesus. Holtz turned things around quickly and had the Irish in the Cotton Bowl in Year 2 and winning the national title the season after that.

His 1988 and 1989 teams won a school-record 23 consecutive games and he beat three teams ranked No. 1 — Miami in 1988, Colorado in 1989 and Florida State in 1993.

The Irish finished No. 2 in the AP poll in 1993. Holtz left South Bend after the 1996 season with a record of 100-30-2.

“Lou and I shared a very special relationship,” said current Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman, who led the Irish back to the national title game in 2025 — a contest Holtz attended and spiced up with some trolling of the Ohio State program that beat the Irish that day. “Our relationship meant a lot to me as I admired the values he used to build the foundation of his coaching career: love, trust and commitment.”

A fast start, then a detour to the NFL

Notre Dame was the highlight of a head-coaching career that began at William & Mary and North Carolina State and also included a one-year stop in the NFL.

Like so many who mastered the college game in his profession, he failed up there, resigning with one game left in a 3-10 campaign with the New York Jets in 1976 and proclaiming “God did not put Lou Holtz on this earth to coach in the pros.”

That opened the door at Arkansas, which was one of the four schools he led into the AP Top 25. His teams made 18 appearances there; eight of those were in the top 10.

After Notre Dame, Holtz transitioned into the TV booth with CBS, promising he would never coach again.

“I said, ‘You could put it in granite.’ I’ve got the granite stone,” Holtz said. “It wasn’t very good granite.”

He took an open job at South Carolina, where he had once served as an assistant coach. Despite posting a career-worst 0-11 mark in his first season with the Gamecocks, Holtz went 17-7 over the next two seasons, beat then No. 9 Georgia in the second game of 2000 and also beat Ohio State twice in the Outback Bowl.

He left the sideline for good following the 2004 season and returned to the airwaves, working 11 more seasons with ESPN.

Core values of trust and getting the best out of players

On the field, each program he led reached new heights in part because he never wavered from his core values of trust, a commitment to excellence and caring for others.

“I think you have to go in there with a vision of where you want to go and a plan of how you’re going to get there,” Holtz once said. “You have to hold people accountable, and you have to believe it can be done.”

The results were impressive, even if he sometimes used unconventional methods.

He once tackled quarterback Tony Rice following a failed play in practice and was widely critiqued in 1991 when he grabbed a player by the facemask, pulling him to the sideline and yelling at him the entire way after the player committed a personal foul. Holtz later apologized.

Holtz suspended his leading rusher, Tony Brooks, and leading receiver, Ricky Watters, in 1988 because they were 40 minutes late to a team meal the night before Notre Dame faced then No. 2 Southern California. The Irish still won 27-10.

At Arkansas, he once suspended three starting offensive players for disciplinary reasons before facing then No. 2 Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. Arkansas, an 18-point underdog, still won 31-6.

As demanding as Holtz could be, though, he used his charm and eye for good players to recruit top talent. Notre Dame’s 1990 recruiting class included five future first-round NFL draft picks, and he found unique ways to motivate his team.

“The first thing I said at every practice was, ‘Boy, what a great day to work,’” Holtz recounted. “It could be raining. It could be whatever. I’d be, ‘Boy, am I glad to be here. No place I’d rather be than here.’ I used to say to them, ‘I travel all over the world speaking to every major corporation and they’d pay me money. I speak to you for free and you don’t have to take notes.’”

Born in West Virginia, dreamed of coaching high school

Louis Leo Holtz was born Jan. 6, 1937, in Follansbee, West Virginia, and aspired to be a high school football coach. His future wife broke off their engagement in 1960. That’s when Holtz, once a 150-pound linebacker at Kent State, took a graduate-assistant job at Iowa. A year later, he married Beth Barcus, and they were together more than 50 years.

She inspired him again in 1966 when, eight months pregnant with their third child, Holtz was jobless. Beth bought him a book about setting goals, and Holtz created a wish list of what he wanted to do: attend a White House dinner, appear on “The Tonight Show” and see the Pope.

Holtz said there were 107 entries on the list: “She said, ‘Gee, that’s nice. Why don’t you add ‘get a job.’ So we made it 108,” he said.

In 2008, Holtz was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and Notre Dame placed a statue of him outside its home stadium.

He said numerous times that his plan was to be buried on that campus, as well. He figured it was only fitting because, as he said in 2015: “The alumni buried me here every Saturday,.”

AP Sports Writer Michael Marot in Indianapolis contributed to this report. Tom Coyne is a former AP sports writer.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s Todd Golden was an afterthought in coach of the year conversations a month ago.

Now, maybe he should be considered a frontrunner.

Golden became the fastest coach in program history to reach 100 wins, accomplishing the feat in 139 games and smashing the previous record (154) set by Billy Donovan in 2001. Golden joined John Calipari and Tubby Smith as the only Southeastern Conference coaches to do it in four seasons.

Golden hit the century mark with a 108-74 romp over Mississippi State on Tuesday night, giving the fifth-ranked Gators back-to-back 34-point victories after they thumped then-No. 20 Arkansas and Calipari 111-77 three days earlier.

Both lopsided wins came with home-court celebrations. Florida handed out hats and T-shirts and cut down the nets after securing at least a share of the SEC title against the Razorbacks. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey presented the team the trophy before facing the Bulldogs. The two hours that followed essentially served as a victory parade and ended with players lifting Golden into the air after win No. 100.

“That was incredible. They were messing with my hair a little too much,” the 40-year-old Golden said. “It means a lot to me that they were so excited for that milestone, but it’s really more of a program milestone than anything else. We haven’t finished our fourth year. We’re at 100 wins. We’re on the right track.”

The defending national champions have won 10 in a row — by an average margin of 23 points — and cemented themselves as repeat contenders. Home or away, inside or out, Golden’s guys have pretty much pummeled everyone since a home loss to Auburn in late January.

It’s a testament to how much growth the Gators (24-6, 15-2) have experienced since starting the season 5-4 and dropping out of the AP Top 25.

Already trying to replace arguably the best backcourt in school history (Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard) and two of his top assistants, Golden felt compelled to revamp the team’s approach. No more finesse plays. No more firing from 3-point range.

Golden implored his guys to embrace “ugly basketball.” Be physical. Dominate the paint. Drive, dish, dunk. Take the fight to opponents on both ends of the floor. It’s become the team’s calling card — and yielded impressive results.

“We changed our identity to be very defensive, get stops on defense and get out running,” center Micah Handlogten said. “We figured we could wear teams down through doing that, and I think we just found our identity and are starting to play really well together.”

Point guard Xaivian Lee is a force with the ball, ducking under post screens to consistently get to the rim. Alex Condon is one of the country’s best big men, a point forward equally capable of beating teams in the paint or with a pass. Rueben Chinyelu is a handful down low, notching his 18th double-double against the Bulldogs and tying the school record set by Bob Smyth in 1976. Chinyelu has 10 games with 16 or more boards.

Florida’s post presence and ability to move the ball and stretch defenses have allowed leading scorer Thomas Haugh to thrive as a slasher and sixth man Urban Klavzar to repeatedly get open looks from behind the arc.

“It probably took me a little longer than expected to kind of figure out what the best way for us to play was,” Golden said. “We have a lot of talented guys that are trying to figure each other out, (guys) that have kind of been alphas at other places and trying to find the shot diet: who should be finishing possessions and what guys should be shooting 3s, what guys shouldn’t be shooting 3s.

“It just takes awhile, especially when you have some new pieces and returners playing new roles.”

Throw in playing every game with the constant target of being national champs and getting everyone’s best shot, and Golden probably deserves consideration for conference and national honors.

“His coaching agility, the job he’s done with this team, is absolutely incredible,” ESPN analyst and former coach Seth Greenberg said. “You go from three perimeter players that are in the NBA to three frontcourt players that could be in the NBA, you got to have coaching agility.

“The essence of coaching is putting your players in position to play to their strengths. He’s been brilliant. And his swag, it permeates through his team. He empowers them and gives them confidence and belief. A big part of coaching is eliminating self-doubt and defining who you are and how you win. That’s exactly what he’s been able to do.”

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey presented the Gators with the regular-season trophy before their home finale, and Florida formally secured the outright championship when Georgia closed out No. 16 Alabama earlier in the night.

Nonetheless, coach Todd Golden’s team wanted to finish the season “the right way” — with a 10th consecutive win.

This one looked a little shaky early but ended like the others — with the Gators pulling away in the second half. It felt over when senior Micah Handlogten scooped a ball heading out of bounds to Urban Klavzar for a corner 3-pointer that put Florida up 19 with a little more than 11 minutes remaining.

Golden won his 100th game at Florida (24-6, 15-2), becoming the fastest to reach the milestone in school history and breaking the previous mark set by Billy Donovan.

Rueben Chinyelu finished with 11 points and 16 rebounds for his 18th double-double of the season, breaking the school record set by Bob Smyth in 1976.

Josh Hubbard led the Bulldogs (13-17, 5-12) with 21 points.

Playing without leading scorer Thomas Haugh (precaution), Florida fell behind by 10 points in the early going. Mississippi State made seven consecutive shots while building a 24-14 lead.

The Gators responded in a big way, though. They used an 18-0 run spanning six minutes — their longest in SEC play this season — to flip the scoreboard and start looking like the team that had won nine in a row by an average margin of 22 points.

Seven Florida players scored during the spurt. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, missed 11 consecutive shots.

The rest of the night was essentially another party in the O’Connell Center. Florida, which handed out T-shirts and cut down the nets following a 34-point drubbing of Arkansas, put on another scoring display against Mississippi State.

Up next

Florida: At Kentucky on Saturday.