Florida wasted zero time following its dominating 75-49 over No. 6 Tennessee on Tuesday night in Gainesville to troll the Volunteers.
Earlier in the day, NBC’s Dan Patrick commented on his show in the wake of Jeremy Pruitt being fired that he had heard from a source that Tennessee’s football program had been giving money in McDonald’s bags to recruits while they were on campus. Pruitt and nine staff members within the football program were fired on Monday following an investigation that turned up serious NCAA violations.
Source: Tennessee #Vols got sloppy with recruiting. They were handing recruits cash in McDonald’s bags when they visited campus.
Also a name to look out for to fill the Head Coaching vacancy: Jason Witten pic.twitter.com/HKDd02rldz
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) January 19, 2021
Patrick’s comments sparked quite the reaction on social media throughout the day. Florida’s men’s basketball Twitter account jumped in on the fun following its win over the Vols by tweeting “We’re lovin’ it” along with a smirk emoji on the final score graphic it shared.
We’re lovin’ it ?#GatorsHoop pic.twitter.com/4Ljt99E4SA
— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) January 20, 2021
Tennessee’s basketball team deserved the jab even if they weren’t the reason for all of the dysfunction going on with the football program. Despite Florida being without its three best players in Keyontae Johnson, Colin Castleton and Scottie Lewis, the Vols managed to lose by nearly 30 points, turning in their worst performance of the season and one of the worst outings we’ve seen durning the Rick Barnes era.
The Vols shot just 29% from the field, were out-rebounded 44-36, were out-scored in the paint 42-22, allowed 14 offensive rebounds and turned it over 18 times. Defensively, it allowed Florida to shoot 49% from the field.
John Fulkerson was the only Vol to reach double-figures. Fulkerson scored a team-high 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting but only grabbed four rebounds. True freshman guard Jaden Springer didn’t play due to a lingering ankle injury he re-injured in the last game out against Vanderbilt on Saturday.
Tennessee will be back in action on Saturday night in Knoxville when it welcomes No. 18 Missouri to Thompson-Boling Arena. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network. The Vols beat the Tigers by 20-points in their conference-opener early this season.
