Normally, a Florida-Florida State game in any sport is about rivalry, intensity, conflict, competition and doing whatever is necessary to embarrass your hated opponent.
But on this somber, surreal Saturday afternoon, even FSU’s basketball players hit their knees and started asking God to revive collapsed Gators star Keyontae Johnson.
“My players were crying,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton explained after his Seminoles beat the Gators 83-71 in a game that lost all of its magnitude and meaning in that one sad, scary second when Johnson inexplicably lost consciousness and fell to the floor. “I told our guys we needed to pray for him, and immediately several players got down on their knees in our huddle and start praying.