NEW YORK — In the past 35 years, only two reigning national champions started a season losing four of their first nine games.

This year's Florida Gators are one of the two.

The other was 2014-15 UConn , which finished 20-15 and missed the NCAA Tournament under then-coach Kevin Ollie.

That won't be the fate for No. 18 Florida, though. A team that began the season ranked No. 3, including eight first-place ballots from AP voters, is disappointing in record but still promising in predictive metrics. At this point, the Gators are still searching for themselves and hunting for answers, knowing good results are well within reach. For a spurt on Tuesday night, it looked like Todd Golden's team might have finally earned some clarity, only to see its latest high-profile game close in thrillin

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