GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- After putting together a three-game winning streak and a demolition of a talented Butler team, many Florida fans thought maybe, just maybe, the Gators were starting to turn the corner.

Coach Mike White probably had no such illusions. In fact, the kind of collapse he witnessed down the stretch on Saturday against South Carolina -- Florida went the final 7:17 in the game without making a field goal, managing to blow a double-digit lead against one of the SEC's worst teams on paper -- is something he's been battling against all season long.

Personality.

Simply put, White has an amalgam of seriously odd personalities on his team. And for whatever reason, nothing he has done to try to get through to some of the key players has worked.

Take senior guard KeVaughn Allen, for example. After scoring 10 first-half points against South Carolina on Saturday on 4-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-2 from 3-point range, Allen went completely invisible in the second half.

He missed his first shot just eight seconds into the second half and then this was his line in the play-by-play in the second half:

18:31 REBOUND DEF by ALLEN,KEVAUGHN

15:35 SUB OUT by ALLEN,KEVAUGHN

11:33 SUB IN by ALLEN,KEVAUGHN

9:33 SUB OUT by ALLEN,KEVAUGHN

6:13 SUB IN by ALLEN,KEVAUGHN

That's it. No, literally that's it. Allen had absolutely zero impact on the game in the second half. Not because he wasn't given the minutes, because he simply disappeared. White shakes his head when asked about it, with the team crying for any semblance of offense.

"I can't explain it," White said. "We all see it. You see it, I see it, his teammates see it. When he's playing aggressive and confident, he's really good and we're much better for it. I don't know how to channel it; I don't."

It's not just an Allen problem, though. Florida doesn't yet have a team that has found the kind of chemistry to overcome those inexplicable stretches of incompetent offense.

It's as if the entire team enters a zombie-like trance at the same time.

"We got so tentative against their zone press, playing east and west, throwing it back and forth with one defender in the backcourt," White said. "Just looked so timid. And that spreads. When the guy with the ball looks timid, looks unsure of himself, his teammates see the ball (not moving), that stuff can spread."

To say Florida lacks consistency under White would be a gross understatement. But you're only as good as your players. And if some of your best ones are inconsistent and disappear, well, that makes it tough.

How about senior Jalen Hudson? He was the team's leading scorer a year ago, averaging 15.5 points per game. This year he's been a total headcase, seventh on the team in scoring at just 6.7 points per game.

Worse, Hudson tends to let his poor offense affect his defensive play. White has tried benching him to at least get stronger effort on the defensive end out of him. That didn't really work, only seeming to exacerbate the offensive slump. So then White started giving him a little longer leash, letting him work through a defensive mistake or two. That hasn't changed much either.

White's got three consistent players right now, he said. Allen and Hudson aren't among them.

"There’s a couple others that are really competitive and if they make a shot, now all of a sudden they might start playing with some confidence and they might guard at a high level, if they make a shot," White said. "Then there’s a couple others if the winds blowing the right way, the air conditioning’s blowing the right way, they might play with their juices flowing.

"You just, you just don’t know. And there’s a couple that they might get off to a good start and then if I yank 'em for making a mistake, or so and so doesn’t pass them the ball, their intensity level’s going (to drop off). And that’s why we are who we are."

Ideally, Florida could build off the three guys who show up and bring it every single day. Ideally.

"We know what we’re getting from Kevarrius (Hayes), Andrew Nembhard and Noah Locke every day," White said. "Beyond that, it’s a crapshoot. I tell our guys that every day. You just don’t know what you’re going to get. That’s the challenge to the rest of the guys in the locker room."

That's essentially why Florida can look like a world-beater and, as White says, a Top 10 team against the likes of Butler a week and a half ago, only to show up and lose to a lowly South Carolina team a week later.

If certain guys disappear, that's it.

Florida has other role players who play consistently -- White mentioned walk-on Mak Krause and forward Isaiah Stokes as examples -- but aren't capable of playing extended minutes and really raising the team's level of play overall to a championship level.

Allen, Hudson, Keith Stone... those guys can do it. They just have to show up. Good luck finding a way to ensure that on a night-in, night-out basis.

"When you've got seven or eight or nine of those (consistent) guys, you’ve got a pretty good team," White said. "We’ve got upperclassmen that aren’t in that category and they’re told every day.

"You know what? Yesterday? Everyone on that court (at practice) was really good. It’s easy to be good after you get beat at home. It’s easy when you have an hour film session and coach is hollering at you and no one feels good about themselves, it’s easy to go out there and compete at a higher level. We weren’t at that level after the way we played against Butler. It’s an inconsistency with this team. It’s a begging of a certain level of competitiveness and intensity. If you have to beg for it then you’re not going to get it consistently. It has to come from within."

So far, nobody has dug down deep and found that extra bit of intensity, that extra bit of effort. If they just so happen to wake up on the right side of the bed, great.

If not? Well, hello NIT. Maybe at best.

No softening of blows here. Florida has plenty of time to change that narrative, but make no mistake, that's where things are headed if the veterans don't get it together soon.

"I think we have a few guys with very good sense of urgency," White said. "We don’t have enough of them, though.

"You feel like you’re dragging these guys a little bit," White said. "That’s not a sign of a great team, when you’ve got to coach effort in practice. I’ve said it all year. When you’ve got freshmen leading, not a sign of a great team. That’s where we’re at."