Once upon a time, the Florida Gators owned Ben Howland.
His UCLA teams? 0-fer against Florida in meetings spanning multiple Final Fours and another NCAA Tournament. His early years at Mississippi State featured defeats at the hands — I mean, I guess they’re hands? — of the Gators, too, with his first three teams dropping all of their meetings with Mike White-coached outfits from 2016 to 2018.
Since 2019, the script has flipped. A late comeback — and the Bulldogs making as many threes as Florida did despite taking 14 fewer triples — secured a 71-68 win in Starkville in 2019, a stellar second half swung a 78-71 win in Gainesville in 2020, and a 12-0 run that bridged halftime was key to a 72-69 win in Starkville a year ago, with Tolu Smith’s 27 points and Abdul Ado’s rim protection certainly helping.