Tennessee basketball: Watch Florida’s angry meltdown as Vol fans do Gator Chomp in win

Beating the Florida Gators is always fun for Tennessee basketball. Triggering anybody associated with the program after beating them, though, is what makes it more fun. Florida has a culture of notorious sore losers, and it’s on display more than most.

It happened again Wednesday night. After Rick Barnes’ team came back from 12 points down in the first half and 10 points down in the second half to beat Florida 78-71 at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn., players got a bit chippy during the postgame handshake.

Senior guard Tyree Appleby, who had 16 points in the outing, eventually lost it and appeared to charge at the stands. Vol fans could then be seen doing the Gator Chomp from another angle as the Gators left the court, and Appleby appeared to be blatantly jawing with them. Check out the footage we have from it.

Again, we shouldn’t completely jump to assumptions here, but it’s clear that Appleby was angry about something, it’s clear that he was running towards the stands, and it’s clear that Vol fans were doing the Gator Chomp. What other conclusion could we draw?

This is nothing new for Florida. Opposing fans and teams, who hate the Gator Chomp, routinely do it to Florida after beating them. Heck, Grant Williams and Admiral Schofield notoriously did it to Mike White’s team after beating them in Gainesville, Fla. back in 2019.

That makes this outburst even weirder. To be fair to Florida, they were playing their third game in five days, and they probably suffered the worst non-foul call ever in this game. Josiah-Jordan James got away with a clear foul on a three-point attempt by UF, and that proved costly late.

However, that’s no reason for Appleby to do what he did. Tennessee basketball won, and maybe as a senior he shouldn’t have had five turnovers in the game. Rather than a lecture on morals, though, Vols fans will likely just rightly enjoy Florida melting down in anger.