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It's Now Or Never For Gators

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By MICK ELLIOTT | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 3, 2009

GAINESVILLE - With two games remaining in regular-season play, the Florida Gators basketball team is 21-8.

That's pretty good.

Thirteen of the Gators' wins have come against teams ranked outside the RPI's top 100.

That's really bad.

The RPI is how college basketball gauges strength of schedule. So you must conclude this about Florida's season: Not even Charles Barkley has enjoyed more cupcakes.

Only one of the Gators' victories came against what is considered a "quality opponent," an 86-84 decision over Washington in late November. Otherwise, the best Florida can offer is a win at home over Eastern Division rival South Carolina - which isn't even ranked among the top 25.

Now, after Sunday's home loss to Tennessee, the Gators take their 8-6 Southeastern Conference record on the road Wednesday night to Mississippi State before returning to the O'Connell Center on Saturday to finish against Kentucky.

Two seasons after winning back-to-back NCAA championships, the Gators are positioned to miss the tournament for a second consecutive year and return to the never-popular NIT.

"We understand what's at stake here," sophomore forward Chandler Parsons said. "It's our season. The margin of error is getting really small now. We understand we control our destiny so we've got to take one game at a time."

Actually, the Gators may already have given up control. Almost certainly, a loss in either of the two remaining games and the only thing that could save them would be winning the SEC Tournament in Tampa.

Even finishing with a pair of wins, at least one, maybe two more victories probably will be needed in the SEC Tournament to get UF into the NCAA field.

"I've always believed in life, in order to do something special there has to be a special opportunity that presents itself," Coach Billy Donovan said. "A lot of times as a team what you hope for is being in this situation. Whether it was a month ago, two months ago, back in the summer, you say, 'OK, you are coming down to the last week of the season and you know what, you have got to play for the East.'

"There are certain teams this time of year that are not playing for anything. They are playing for the season to end."

And some aren't quite sure.

MORE ATHLETES

After witnessing matchup problems against a more-athletic Tennessee during Sunday's loss, Donovan concedes his program needs more muscle and speed.

"You have to have a balance and I think that some of our deficiencies are probably due to a lack of recruitment on my part," he said. "There is no question that through recruiting maybe some of the areas that we are lacking is on athleticism.

"I also think that you can go to an extreme and have really quick, athletic guys, but then you don't have shooting and you don't have passing. So I always think there is a balance in trying to piece those things together, where you can have good shooting, you can have athletic recruits, and you can have post presence."

WOMEN'S SEC

After finishing its regular reason 23-6 overall and 9-5 in the SEC, Florida's women's basketball team will go into this week's SEC Tournament in Little Rock, Ark., as the fourth seed.

With a first-round bye, the Lady Gators will play their first game on Friday, meeting the winner of Thursday's game between Tennessee and Alabama.

Florida rose to No. 9 in the nation this season after a win over perennial power Tennessee, but has lost four of five games since, including a loss Sunday at Georgia.

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