No Respect for SEC Hoops as Gators Hide
GoneGator 
I’m not sure what to make of the fact that as conference play began in earnest this week, the SEC was getting absolutely no respect (at least on the men’s side).
This week’s AP poll featured only one SEC team: Tennessee, hanging on at No. 24 (and certainly out of next week’s poll after its blowout loss to Kentucky at home last night). The coaches’ poll was completely void of SEC schools. And it’s hard for anyone down South to complain.
Oh, where have you gone, Florida Gators?
Remember them, the back-to-back NCAA champions in 2006 and ’07? As of this writing, Florida may have the league’s best overall record at 14-2, but it doesn’t have a signature victory (unless you want to count a road win at UWashington back in November). The Gators lost their highest profile games — to Syracuse (89-83) and Florida State (57-55).
Florida is a long way from getting any sort of Top 25 consideration.
And for that, I blame Billy Donovan and Florida A.D. Jeremy Foley. God love ‘em, but they did the program no favors this season by lining up a pathetically weak pre-conference schedule for the second year in a row.
A pattycake slate made sense last season, after losing all five starters from its national-title teams. But this year? With so many players returning from a team that made it to the 2008 NIT Final Four, there was little reason for the Gators to crawl into the season like a bunch of newbies. Donovan should have set them up with plenty of challenges to toughen them for an NCAA run in 2009.
I mean, really … Southern Utah? Florida Gulf Coast? Stetson? Longwood? Couldn’t the Gators have replaced a couple of those games with major-conference matchups on national TV?
The only way Nick Calathes and Co. are going to learn what it takes to win championships is to compete against championship-caliber teams. They did little of that leading up to this SEC season. As things stand, I believe the Gators need to win 11 or 12 regular-season conference games to earn NCAA Tournament at-large consideration. In a down year for the SEC, that certainly is achievable.
And if Florida doesn’t make the Big Dance this year?
Fans mights start wishing Donovan had not left the Orlando Magic at the altar.
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Man, Billy looks frighteningly like Nixon in that photo.
The Gators are going to suck as long as they can’t rebound. Losing Speights got rid of our only legit big man (and, as a side note, what’s up with that cat playing so well for the Sixers? Why didn’t he put out effort like that for us? Well, I mean besides his multi-million dollar contract). So now we’ve got Alex Tyus and Kenny Kadji, the former of whom can at least score a little, but neither of whom seems to know to box out.
I have a feeling we’ll squeak into the tourney, if only because at least 3-4 teams from all the big conferences will have to be invited. But next year (as long as Calathes doesn’t go pro, which I think he won’t) we should be able to make some noise there.
That photo of Billy is from the news conference where he announced he was coming back to Florida after flirting with the Magic. Shouldn’t he have looked more excited than that?
I agree that the Gators aren’t executing the fundamentals. They got away with that pre-conference when their talent just overwhelmed teams, but they won’t anymore.
I had to miss last night’s Auburn game live, but I recorded it and plan to watch it tonight. I hope I see something better.
Actually, the No. 1 thing this team needs is a leader. The title teams had two or three, which makes a big difference. I don’t see anyone on this team with the desire to step into that role, but I keep hoping maybe Werner or Hodge will become that guy. Erving Walker could grow into that, but not this season. And I don’t think it’s in Calathes.
Wouldn’t you know that less than a week after I wrote this post, the Gators have entered the AP poll at No. 24. But with a strength of schedule that ranks 87th, and no other SEC teams ranked, the Gators still have a lot of work to do to reach the NCAA tourney.
[...] now, I’m watching them get their asses beat in Gainesville by the hated Tennessee Volunteers. Just as I feared, the Gators’ weak early-season slate (their strength of schedule ranks 101st in Division I) [...]