Enjoy this, Gators fans.
It’s not often a team comes around that is as good as this Florida team.
At most, you’ve got six games left to enjoy this group before a major chunk of them departs for the NBA, the D-League or some other professional league — this team doesn’t have a Corey Brewer, Al Horford or Joakim Noah who is going to be selected early in the draft lottery.
After that, this group of seniors — the “Oh-10s,” if you will — leaves and will and fade into relative obscurity.
I say relative because they’re not going to be forgotten. No one is going to be asking, “Who is that Patric Young guy?” on the UF campus next January. But their legacy isn’t coming as individuals, barring any unforeseen NCAA Tournament domination or NBA superstardom.
The 2013-14 squad isn’t Patric Young and Company, or the Scottie Wilbekin Project or the Casey Prather Show.
In a way, they remind me of the New York Yankees of the late 1990s.
That team had stars, but there was so much talent around the big names.
Yes, Derek Jeter was the darling of New York, but while Jeter was great, there were a dozen other players playing great who didn’t get the same attention — guys like Bernie Williams, Paul O’Neill and Tino Martinez.
There was a quote about the record-setting 1998 Yankees — I don’t remember who said it, and a Google search failed me — which said there was a new star every night. The Gators are the same way.
In any one game, Young may dominate, Michael Frazier II may go off from three or Wilbekin might shut down an offense.
Cherish that because a team with that ability doesn’t come around a lot.
Florida has a stellar base to move forward with after these seniors leave — Frazier and Dorian Finney-Smith will be back, and freshmen Kasey Hill and Chris Walker are supremely talented and should return — but that doesn’t guarantee anything.
This could be as good as it gets. Make sure you soak it all in because it doesn’t happen every day.
Follow Adam Lichtenstein on Twitter @alichtenstein24
Gators basketball seniors Scottie Wilbekin, Will Yeguete, Casey Prather and Patric Young embrace after leaving the floor of the Stephen C. O’Connell Center for the last time during Florida’s 84-65 win against Kentucky on March 8.
