RALEIGH, N.C. — Florida coach Todd Golden said his team embraced an underdog mentality while navigating its way through the power-laden Southeastern Conference.The Gators (30-4) won’t have that angle to use in their NCAA Tournament opener against Norfolk State (24-10) on Friday night.Florida, the top seed in the West Region, has won six games in a row after capturing the SEC tournament title. It’s the third time the Gators have been dubbed a No. 1 regional seed, reaching the Final Four the first two times.”We got to keep going,” Golden said. “We have to have the mental toughness to keep pushing through and not be content, not be satisfied with what we’ve done to this point.”No. 16 seed Norfolk State has won four games in a row and 12 of its past 14, capturing the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament for the fourth time.The Spartans don’t intend to be overwhelmed, even as huge underdogs.”This is the time of the year, I told the guys, it’s survive and advance,” Norfolk State coach Robert Jones said.For the Gators, they hope they’ve just been warming up the past few months. Five of their last six games came against nationally ranked foes.”We still know we’ve got a lot more ball to play,” Florida senior Will Richard said. “We’re a hungry group. We know the main goal.”Walter Clayton Jr. leads Florida in scoring with an average of 17.5 points per game and has a team-high 143 assists. Alex Condon is the team’s top rebounder with an average of 7.9 per game and shot blocker with 44.Clayton is coming off a Most Valuable Player performance in the SEC tournament, where he averaged 20.7 points for three games.Florida thrived during the SEC tournament in Nashville, where opponents had overwhelming crowd support. That included beating Tennessee 86-77 in the title game on Sunday.”It definitely does a good job of getting us prepared for that tournament setting,” Richard said.
