GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Outside the locker room after Saturday night's 68-61 slugfest loss to top-ranked Kentucky, a trio of Florida players did their media duties moments after being taken to task by a head coach who, for the life of him, wasn't able to wrap his arms around his team's unwillingness to bring emotion and passion to every game.
“If we can stay consistent and play with the energy we played tonight, we can be a lot better,” said junior guard Eli Carter (right). “We haven't had it for the whole year. When we see it, it's kind of shocking, honestly, how good we can do when we play unselfish and with a lot of energy and fighting for each other.”
That quote was put to Coach Billy Donovan a few minutes later.
He shook his head.
“That's the disappointing part,” Donovan said, repeating a statement from earlier that it was the first time in UF's 23 games this season he felt the team played to win the game.
Then came this zinger.
“The game tonight, in my opinion, was lost in October.”
By that, Donovan meant the self-absorbed approach players brought into their preseason practices, carried with them into the regular season and wallowed in during the tough times (especially between the lines) as the losses mounted.
Then ESPN College GameDay and Big Blue Nation came to town. Suddenly, a bunch of really big guys with those powerful letters -- “K-E-N-T-U-C-K-Y” -- emblazoned across the chest, were in front of them. Suddenly, the Gators found reason to get excited.
So it took two-thirds of the season to get to this place; to find out how good this team could be, even after losing the services of leading scorer Michael Frazier to sprained ankle.
The Gators came into the season ranked No. 7. They were never that good; not even close.
But they also shouldn't be 11 wins bad in the second week of February, either.
That, for Donovan, is the disappointing part.
“We're here for a reason,” sophomore point guard Kasey Hill said. “It's the University of Florida and [energy and passion] is what's expected. That's what the coaches expect. We just have to do it consistently.”
FRAZIER'S STATUS DAY TO DAY
The Gators (12-11, 5-5), with no game until Thursday's night home date against Ole Miss (16-7, 7-3), had Sunday off, so the status of Frazier (left) for the rest of the week was unclear heading into the week, with Donovan schedule to meet with the media Monday morning.
After starting the game red-hot with 10 first-half points on 3-for-4 shooting, Frazier rolled an ankle late in the first half. When he tried to go in the second half, he was limping and hobbling too much on defense, so Donovan shut him down for the night.
UF's leading scorer at 13.4 points per game, Frazier went into the weekend ranked third in Southeastern Conference play in 3-point shooting percentage and with his pair of makes took that figure up to .449. As far as Frazier is concerned, the best thing for the Gators is being on their first Thursday-Saturday quick turnaround in four weeks -- meaning no Tuesday night game for the first time since the second week of the league season -- so we'll see how he responds with some extra treatment courtesy of trainer David "Duke" Werner and his staff.
TRIVIA QUESTION
In Donovan's previous 20 seasons as a head coach (two at Marshall, 18 at UF), eight of his teams lost as many as the 11 games his the current team has. Which of those teams hit that 11th loss the earliest in the season? Answer below in "Free Throws" section.
CHARTING THE GATORS
With Saturday's defeat, Florida fell to 2-11 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams, with all 11 of those defeats coming at the hands of Kentucky. Below is a list of those 11 losses and what happened to those Kentucky teams the rest of the year. [Note: Both wins versus No. 1s came in the NCAA Tournament, when the Gators defeated Duke in the 2000 Sweet 16 round and Ohio State in the 2007 national championship game]
Date Where Result UK Fallout
Dec. 14, 1950 Lexington L 85-37 Wildcats not invited to NCAA Tourney
Feb. 8, 1954 Gainesville L 97-55 25-0, but no NCAAs in year after infamous point-shaving scandal.
Jan. 31, 1959 Lexington L 94-51 Lost to Louisville in NCAAs
Feb. 7, 1966 Lexington L 85-75 Shocked by Texas Western in NCAA final
Jan. 7, 1978 Gainesville L 86-67 Alligator Alley site of 1st of '78 sweep en route to NCAA title.
Feb. 4, 1978 Lexington L 88-61 Looked a lot like first game.
March 8, 1996 *New Orleans L 100-76 Rick Pitino didn't win SEC Tourney, but did win NCAA crown.
Feb. 7, 2012 Lexington L 78-58 Eventual Elite 8 team routed from the outset.
March 4, 2012 Gainesville L 74-59 Gators led in second half, but then Anthony Davis happened.
March 10, 2012 *Nashville L 74-71 Thrilling semifinal game that went down to final minute
Feb. 7, 2014 Gainesville L 68-61 What if Frazier had not been hurt?
* SEC Tournament
FORMER GATOR UPDATE LOOKBACK
If the above chart got you down, this will perk you up.
In light of yet another loss to No. 1 Kentucky, allow me to give you the next-closest thing to the Gators beating a top-ranked Wldcats squad. How 'bout when the 1997-98 team went to Lexington 17 years ago and shocked the fourth-ranked Wildcats 86-78.
That UK went on to beat Utah in the NCAA title game.
What point guard Jason Williams (left) did to the Cats that day was positively numbing. He finished with 24 points, going 4-for-5 from 3-point range, to go with six rebounds, four assists and four steals, completely dominating the pace of the game. Guard Kenyan Weaks also had 24 points. Forward Brent Wright had 12 points and seven rebounds.
The below video is the YouTube version of the entire game (1 hour, 41 minutes, 25 seconds), called by Brent Musberger and Dick Vitale for ABC. You probably won't watch the whole thing, but do yourself a favor and take in the first couple minutes -- or just go to the 5:45 mark or so and watch what Williams does early in the game and listen to how the broadcasting team "oohs" and "ahhs."
[Spoiler alert: Dickie V invokes a "Pistol Pete" reference]
Oh, and check out the young head coach on the sidelines. Billy D was just 32 at the time.
That '98 Florida team was 12-7 when Williams was dismissed for violation of team rules, two games after this one From there, the Gators went 2-8 down the stretch, including a buzzer-beating home loss to Georgetown in the first round of the NIT.
TWITTER PATTER
FREE THROWS
How cool was the glow-stick intro (below) before Saturday's game? Need to do that again. ... Really like the poise and production Chris Chiozza showed against the Wildcats. He went 3-for-5 from the floor, with his lone misses from 3-point range. He had four rebounds, three steals and held his own against the far more heralded freshman Tyler Ulis (who did not score, but did have five assists). If Chiozza can develop a 3-point shot this offseason, he's going to be a really, really good player. ... The Gators outscored Kentucky (with its four guys 6-11 or taller) 32-22 in the paint. What? UF, though, did get roughed up 33-20 on the boards. ... That dreadful 15-0 start at Vanderbilt Tuesday was thoroughly frustrating. But remember (it's not like UF's coaches can forget), the Gators fell behind 12-0 out of the gate to both North Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis and again in a loss at Georgia. ... Trivia answer: Donovan's first team at UF, the '96-97 crew that went 13-17, lost No. 11 on Feb. 1. As for the rest: the '95-96 Marshall team that went 17-11 lost its 11th in the Southern Conference Tournament on March 2; the '97-98 team that went 14-15 lost No. 11 on Feb. 21; the '03-04 team that went 20-11 lost its 11th in the first round of NCAA play; the '07-08 team that went 24-12 lost No. 11 on March 13 1 in the SEC Tournament; the '08-09 team that went 25-11 lost its 11th on on March 24 in the NIT; the '09-10 team that went 21-13 lost No. 12 on March 12 in the SEC Tournament.
