Shelton's Vision Coming into Focus

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In describing the evolution of the Florida men's tennis team under his watch, Bryan Shelton used the example of trying to technically alter the way a player executes his backhand. It takes time, Shelton explained. It takes grinding. It takes patience. It takes conviction.

It also takes — and this is important — a willingness to take a step backward.

"It's going to be uncomfortable initially and you have to live with that," Shelton said Tuesday. "But as long as there is understanding of the goal, as long as there is buy-in, then we can all be visionaries who see the future. That's when you're on solid ground."

The Gators, all of them, momentarily left solid ground Sunday. That's because they were launching themselves toward the South Carolina sky after upsetting No. 6 Georgia to capture the Southeastern Conference Tournament title at Columbia. UF, which finished second in the league's regular-season standings, won its first tourney crown since 2011 and just the fifth in program history. To do so, they had to oust Texas A&M in the semifinals and the mighty Bulldogs in the title round, the only two league opponents to defeat the Gators during the regular season.

"We went there thinking we were the best team in the SEC," junior Elliott Orkin said.

Guess that would make them visionaries.

Indeed, the current state of the Florida program is exactly what Shelton foresaw when he came to UF in 2012 following a sterling run as women's coach at Georgia Tech, where in 13 years he won four Atlantic Coast Conference titles, plus the school's only NCAA championship in any sport ever. It took time (plus grinding, patience, conviction, etc.) to get there.

With change comes … well … change. When Shelton took over the Gators he instituted a culture based on work ethic and accountability the likes of which didn't necessarily suit some of the players he inherited. Some stuck it out, some didn't, some weren't given a choice. With those decisions (by whomever) came consequences.

They weren't always good.

Take the 2013 NCAA Tournament, for example. The Gators, as a top 16 seed, were given a host site and promptly lost to Denver in the first round, the program's first opening-round exit since 2001. At home, no less.

As if that one was hard to stomach for the first-year UF coach, then came last season's first-round elimination at the hands of Pepperdine.

"To be honest, there have been times when I've lost patience, thinking, 'My goodness,' and looking at myself in the mirror," Shelton said. "Those were the times I've looked left or right around this place and seen the women's [tennis] program killing it and seen all the other championship teams on this campus killing while we're pulling up the rear. That's not something I was used to."

But Shelton remained steadfast in his vision and credits his two assistants, former UF All-American Mark Merklein and volunteer Scott Perelman, for reminding him about that bigger picture.

And he credits his players, also.

Junior Elliott Orkin was one of Bryan Shelton's first recruits.

The growth he's seen in his team in just the last few weeks has been astounding. On March 6, the Gators had a 3-1 lead on the road at Texas A&M only to collapse en masse in what eventually was a 4-3 defeat. That match, Shelton said, was hauntingly similar to earlier 4-3 road losses at No. 8 Southern Cal and No. 6 Ohio State when he could see his players "scoreboard watching," and basically looking to other courts as trying to will their teammates to win their matches and thus take some pressure off.

The Gators had some long, deep conversations about taking ownership. About locking in.

"About just competing," Shelton said.

Florida won its final three regular-season matches, easily defeating South Carolina, No. 20 Kentucky and Tennessee by a combined count of 19-2. The Gators opened the SEC Tournament with a 4-0 dismissing of 34th-ranked Vanderbilt, then competed their backsides off in a rematch with A&M, beating the No. 13 Aggies 4-0 and setting up a rematch against the regular-season champion Bulldogs.

Senior Gordon Watson closed the match by storming from behind for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Nick Wood at No. 5 singles.

He not only competed, he excelled under pressure.

They all did.

"When it got to that point at the end of the match, you kind of wonder how your guys are going to respond emotionally. Are they going to keep their nerves in check and breathe and respond the right way? Or will the score become too big for them?" Shelton said. "It never got too big. Their confidence grew as the match got further along. They wanted the ball. It's a great feeling to look out there, see their eyes and know they're not just enjoying it, they're loving it."

Almost as good as that feeling of raising a trophy.

"Bryan Shelton has gone about building this program methodically and meticulously, totally staying the course — and that's not always easy," said UF executive associate athletic director Mike Hill, the senior administrator who oversees men's tennis. "He told me back in the fall how much he loved the makeup of this group. That he loved the lack of drama."

Now Shelton loves the results.

His way. No shortcuts.

The NCAA bracket will be announced Tuesday.

"We're moving in the right direction," Shelton said. "I think we'll be a team a lot of teams would rather not see in their bracket."

Enter thoughts of Pepperdine? Or Denver?

"We're not going to let that happen again," said Orkin, who came to Florida as part of Shelton's first recruiting class. "Winning the SEC [Tournament] was really good, but we feel we can do a lot more."

Another vision, perhaps.

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