Growth of Senior Class Defined Gators' Run to Elite Eight
Monday, March 28, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The pain remains too raw right now for proper perspective.
They were so close to that magical moment they envisioned, climbing a ladder on Saturday night at New Orleans Arena and snipping a piece of net. That's what Florida seniors Chandler Parsons, Alex Tyus and Vernon Macklin wanted most in their final season.
They dreamed of a trip to the Final Four and a chance to play for a national title, and with around nine minutes left in Saturday's 74-71 overtime loss to Butler, it appeared the Gators' starting frontcourt would get their wish.
“We lost a game I thought we should have won,'' freshman guard Scottie Wilbekin said. “I'm definitely going to miss these three guys. I definitely wanted to get to the Final Four, not so much for myself, but for them.”
Of course, if Parsons, Tyus and Macklin have learned nothing else during their careers at Florida, it's that nothing comes easy. Certainly not against an experienced Butler team that played for a national title last season. The Bulldogs came back, and when Florida guard Erving Walker's shot at the end of regulation bounced off the rim, the game went into overtime.
In the end, Butler came up with more loose balls and hit more shots, finding a way to win a nip-and-tuck game. That's something the Gators did so often in similar situations all season, including a Sweet 16 overtime win against BYU and scoring sensation Jimmer Fredette two days earlier.
But in an instant on Saturday, one of the best seasons in Florida men's basketball history was over. Dreams were derailed. A trip to Houston denied.
Afterward, Parsons talked about feeling sick at his stomach, Macklin spoke of his sadness that the Gators' run was over, and Tyus was barely able to speak at all, saying it was time to “just move on.''
Losses like these linger, said Gators coach Billy Donovan. But on Sunday a few hours after the Gators landed safely back in Gainesville, the sun still rose. Donovan assured the three seniors so critical to Florida's unexpected run to the Elite Eight that in time they will look back and remember the journey for more than the final game.
“They'll all get over it,'' Donovan said. “It will take some time. There will be a time when they'll look back on where they were after the Jacksonville game or after the Central Florida game in December, and then they'll see a better picture of how far they came.
“For those three guys, it probably hurts more than any loss they've had because it's the last loss of their career. Now the [next] phase of their life starts.''
Saturday's game was the 142nd of their career for Parsons and Tyus, moving into second place on the school's all-time list behind only former guard Walter Hodge (151). Parsons became the first Florida player to win SEC Player of the Year, and Tyus played some of his finest basketball at the end, following up a 19-point, 17-rebound effort against BYU with 14 points and 10 rebounds against Butler.
Meanwhile, a two-year starter after transferring from Georgetown, Macklin scored a career-high 25 points in Saturday's loss, slowed down only by foul trouble that limited him to 24 minutes. Despite Macklin's absence for much of the second half and Walker's missed three-pointer at the end of regulation, the Gators started overtime believing a trip to Houston was still in their future.
“We were a confident group going into overtime,'' Walker said. “We just lost. I would say we had a great season. We accomplished a lot of things. The ultimate go is a national championship and Final Four, and we came up short, but overall we had a great season.''
The Gators, after losing early season games to UCF and Jacksonville, rebounded strong once the SEC regular season starting. Florida won 13 of 16 SEC games, claiming just the third outright conference title in school history. The Gators made to the SEC Tournament championship game before losing to Kentucky, and then bounced back with NCAA Tournament wins against UC-Santa Barbara, UCLA and BYU prior to facing Butler.
Florida's season ended with a 29-8 record, the 29 wins tied with the 1994 and 2000 Final Four teams for third-most wins in school history behind the national title teams of 2006 (33 wins) and 2007 (35 wins).
While Florida's season ended a game short of a Final Four matchup on Saturday against VCU and former Donovan assistant Shaka Smart, the future remains bright with Walker and sophomore guard Kenny Boynton returning next season along with a core of true freshmen that contributed this season: Patric Young, Scottie Wilbekin, Casey Prather and Will Yeguete. Sophomore forward Erik Murphy also made strong contributions at different points.
Donovan is excited about the future after the Gators won their first March Madness game in four years.
“Hopefully our guys that are returning will have a chance to learn from this experience, and hopefully these guys as they move forward will understand what it is to be part of a team because for me as a coach they became a team,'' Donovan said. “And that's really what you want -- can your team really come together? I think that they did that and they gave themselves an opportunity to go to the Final Four, and they fell short of that, but they did everything in our power physically, mentally and emotionally to try to win.''
More than anything else, that will be the defining trademark of the 2010-11 Gators. They had their low points, and the journey wasn't always a smooth one, but they eventually became a team and showed what they could accomplish together rather than as individuals.
“We did some special things,'' Parsons said. “We had some great moments. It's just hard to think about that right now with the feeling we have.''
Donovan understands. He once made it to a Final Four as a player and lost. He also knows what it feels like to lose a national-title game, losing to Michigan State in 2000. But unlike his senior trio, Donovan has experienced the highest of highs as a coach, climbing that ladder to cut down the nets.
He had hoped they would experience the same. That didn't happen, but this team – and especially this senior class – is not one Donovan will soon forget.
“It'll probably take me some time to put the season in perspective,'' Donovan said. “I'm kind of a guy about the here and now, and right now it's tough to end a season like that, especially for me, with Chandler and Alex and Vernon, who I think have provided so much for our program.
“When you have that kind of investment in each other, losing at this time becomes much more difficult. I never felt like losing was a big deal for a lot of guys when they don't come together as a team. These guys came together as a team, and the losing part hurts.
“I'm proud of them.''
