Florida came in as a topsy-turvy team. Then the Gators upended one of the nation's best squads.
Florida and West Virginia scuffled prior to their Big 12-SEC Challenge opener on Saturday, with the Mountaineers' pregame huddle near the midcourt Gator Head causing one of them to bump into Dorian Finney-Smith and touch off a shoving match.
From then on, despite the refs' best efforts to stop the fight, the Gators floored the Mountaineers.
Florida hit a sizzling 12 of 20 threes, forced 19 West Virginia turnovers, and led by double digts for the entire second half, cruising to an 88-71 win that might not have been as close as that score indicates.