by Paul Jordan
You knew that Billy Donovan and the Florida Gators had to think that this party was going to last forever. Billy Donovan had built a solid program at Florida ever since his arrival and had his Gators making advances at an elite team as he guided them to a NCAA Finals loss against Michigan State. But that was nothing compared to the run the Gators had as they won back to back national titles in 2006 and 2007. Things were good in Gainesville as Billy Donovan was king of the SEC and had been the one team to threaten Kentucky’s stranglehold as king of the conference. The future looked bright as UF seemed to reload for the 2008 campaign and Billy Donovan seemed to say that the Florida job was better than the Kentucky job as he turned down the Wildcat’s advances. Donovan even turned his back on the contract he signed with the Orlando Magic to return to Gainesville and visions of a true basketball dynasty danced in the Gator’s heads.
And for a while, that vision seemed to be a reality. Billy’s young Gators had just dusted off the Kentucky Wildcats for the seventh straight time and had upset the #13 Vanderbilt Commodores to improve to 18-3 on the season and re-entered the polls at #19 in the country. But even then, Donovan felt a sense of foreboding about his young team as he made the following comment, referring to his teams success as a type of poison:
“It’s like poison. If they want to drink the poison and take it in, they’ll start to feel good about themselves, think they’re a lot better than they really are, they’ll stop working and they’ll get complacent, and you know what? They’ll get humbled.”
Truer words had never been spoken as the Gators promptly went into a tailspin and lost six of their next nine games and limped into Rupp Arena in what amounted to a NCAA play-in game for the two teams. Kentucky trumped the Gators for the first time in eight games and sent UF into the NIT tournament.
Tis just a one year setback, the Gator fans told themselves. And the next season, Florida started out with another gaudy 18-3 record and it looked as if Donovan had righted the ship. Then the deja vu started for Donovan. The Gators again lost six of nine games (including a loss to UK at Rupp) and this time, the Wildcats limped into Gainesville for what was considered to be another play-in game for the NCAA Tourney. The Gators won this round but found their name left out of the NCAA dance for the second straight season.
Not much was expected this season as Nick Calathes decided he would rather go play ball overseas in Greece (where he is averaging 3.3 points and 1.7 assists a game) rather than stick around for a three-peat NIT appearance. The Gators decided that their soft schedule was what was keeping them out of the tournament so they beefed up their schedule with Michigan State and Syracuse. And for a while, it seemed to work. The Gators upset the #2 Spartans and got off to an 8-0 start. The NIT whispers grew louder when the Gators then lost their next three games. But UF rebounded nicely and seemed in pretty good shape for a NCAA bid when they beat Mississippi State to improve to 17-6 on the season.
But the late season demons came back and haunted the Gators some. UF seemed to fight back however and seemed to have a Tournament bid locked up when they knocked off the Tennessee Volunteers. But them came a head scratching loss to the Bulldogs of Georgia and a heartbreaking loss to Vandy and the Gators are once again knock, knock, knocking on the NIT’s door as they make their way to Rupp Arena for the equivalent of a play-in game to the NCAA for them.
Deja vu much?
If the Gators fall to the Wildcats, they will conclude their regular season on a three game skid and will have gone 3-5 over their last 8 games. And would present another long week of on the bubble angst for Donovan and company as they prepare for the SEC Tournament. A win for the Wildcats would also restore the balance of power to UK as they would win their 44th SEC title and first in five seasons. And more important, give UK a 4-1 record over the Gators since going 0-7.
Here’s hoping the Cats keep giving Billy Donovan that late season sense of deja vu.
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