Gators embarrassing exit at SEC

Florida Times-Union sports columnist Gene Frenette offers weekly observations on a variety of sports topics for jacksonville.com This is his updated entry from the SEC basketball tournament for Thursday March 13.


With bubble teams falling out of NCAA tournament consideration all over the country, the Florida Gators wasted a terrific opportunity to extend their nine-year streak of Big Dance appearances with a pathetic display of basketball Thursday night at the Georgia Dome.

Instead of using the Southeastern Conference tournament to gain entry to the NCAAs, the Gators embarrassed themselves with a lackluster effort in an 80-69 loss to Alabama that wasn't anywhere as close as the score indicated.

Florida put itself in holes of 14-0, 26-5 and 42-14 in the first half because it couldn't hit any outside shots or stop Alabama senior guard Mykal Riley (26 points) from draining three-pointers from every conceivable spot on the floor. The outing so annoyed UF coach Billy Donovan that he minced no words afterwards over his team's woeful performance.

Donovan questioned his team's passion, its commitment to playing defense and whether his young squad of nine scholarship players (five freshmen, three sophomores and one junior)would develop into the kind of team that can ever contend for any kind of a championship.

"You know, it's hard for me to be excited going forward because I don't see things getting fixed," said Donovan. "Again, we're 31 games into the season, and I'm not going to sit up here and talk about youthfulness or what we don't have or what we lost or those type of things.

"What you want to see is you want to see a group of guys really understand what it takes to win. And sometimes you've got to go through some things to understand what it takes to win. It's in front of our guys, what it takes to win, and for whatever reason, I haven't brought it out in them. They're not committed to it. I'm not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest."

Donovan's scathing criticism came on the heels of freshman Chandler Parsons telling the media assembled for the post-game news conference that the team "didn't come ready to play."

It's pretty hard to argue the point when you consider that Florida was outrebounded 26-12 in the first half, got no points from its starters in the first 11 minutes, and had 6-foot-10 sophomore center Marreese Speights not attempt a shot in the game's first 28 minutes.

Though Florida did whittle a 46-23 halftime deficit down to six points at 57-51, aided partly by some suspect Alabama free throw shooting, it couldn't mask the disappointment of a horrific start in a game with monumental stakes.

The feeling was UF needed to win two or three games in the SEC tournament to assure itself of an NCAA bid. The Gators received a huge lift when bubble teams like Dayton, Arizona State, Baylor, Villanova and UAB all lost earlier in the day, opening the door for Donovan's team if it could beat Alabama and follow up with a win over Mississippi State.

But everything flamed out with a pedestrian first-half effort that left everyone from Donovan to the players shaking their head afterwards, wondering if things will get any better next season.

First, there's the matter of closing out this season in the National Invitation Tournament, which will announce its pairings late Sunday night, long after the NCAA Selection show.

Until then, Donovan didn't sound terribly optimistic that his Gators will be dramtically better in 2008-09 simply because he returns his entire team.

"I would say that just because this group, all of them, are a year older doesn't mean they become a year better," said Donovan. "I've never been a big believer of that old adage, the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores. I've never bought into that motto.
"They're wiser, they're more experienced, but the same issues are still in front of them, and until they address those issues, it doesn't really make a difference how old they are."

After winning back-to-back NCAA championships, including the last one at the Georgia Dome, the Gators exited that same venue Thursday night feeling entirely different about themselves.

Their confidence was not only shaken, but Donovan didn't have any problem calling them out for an embarrassing performance in a big-game situation. In more ways than one, UF's bubble had burst.