Donovan: Postseason 'not a rite of passage'
Monday, March 16, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
For the first time in 18 years, Billy Donovan and his basketball team will be on the sidelines when the NCAA and NIT tournaments start this week.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- How different was Selection Sunday for Billy Donovan?
The Florida coach went to church with his family, then took them out for sushi, and after that stopped to visit his parents. He did see a portion of the NIT selection show -- the one most Gators were interested in, for obvious reasons -- but it wasn't like he was glued to the set.
Donovan heard earlier in the day that UF was not getting in.
Whether his players engaged in the TV-watching ritual, Donovan assumed they did. And, frankly, he hopes the moment sunk in nice and deep.
“This is not a rite of passage. You build a resume and a history and you're rewarded by what you do,” Donovan said late Sunday night after official word came that UF -- with no NCAA or NIT tournament berth -- would be out of postseason play for the first time since 1996-97, the year 30-year-old "Billy the Kid" took over the Florida program. “Just because you're at Florida and the last four years have brought a high level of success in the [Southeastern Conference] and the NCAA Tournament, it doesn't mean that happens the next. They're no different than anyone else. ... The reality of it: We did not earn our way into any postseason play.”
Looking back, the Gators' doomed “March Madness” -- and 16-17 record -- may have been somewhat self-inflicted, the coach said. UF played the fourth-hardest schedule in the nation, according to the Ratings Percentage Index, with 23 games against teams that reached the NCAA or NIT fields. Florida went 3-11 against the NCAA teams and 5-4 against the NIT teams.
Worth noting: Against the SEC teams selected for the NIT -- Texas A&M, Alabama and Vanderbilt -- the Gators went 4-2. Each of those opponents, however, had winning records, whereas Florida, with a schedule that included three games against NCAA overall No. 1 seed Kentucky, plus non-league dates against No. 2 seed Kansas, No. 4 seeds North Carolina and Georgetown, plus reigning national champion Connecticut.
As for the NIT-bound SEC teams, A&M's schedule checked in at No. 96th, Alabama's 56th and Vandy's 115th.
In retrospect, this version of the Gators may have been comparable (maybe better) than the 2008 and '09 teams -- with Nick Calathes and Chandler Parsons in their freshman and sophomore seasons -- that ended up in the NIT two straight years, but was aided by notoriously easy non-conference slates.
“We'll have to look at scheduling to see what makes sense for us,” Donovan said.
The coach and his assistants, bank on it, will look at a lot of things about the the program in its current state and see what makes sense. Donovan is nothing if not heavy into evaluation. That includes self-evaluation.
His players, particularly the ones slated to return, will have a lot of time to do the same; to reflect back on what might have gone wrong and ponder what lies ahead.
“Going into the year, there was an unrealistic expectation that our guys had of how good they thought they were, and I don't think last year's season helped with that,” Donovan said of the 36-3 rampage that ended at the Final Four. “As much as I tried to get that through to them, I think it's an area where I fell short. I could never get them to deal with how far they had to go. In November and December, I'm sure they thought they were getting to the NCAA Tournament. Now, comes the time when you deal with truth and reality.
When it comes to college basketball, there's no more powerful truth and reality than watching March basketball -- all of it -- from the couch.
