ATLANTA – When Scottie Wilbekin slumped down in his chair in the dimly lit press-conference room located in the bowels of the Jacksonville Memorial Arena on Nov. 25, he did not look like a winner.
The senior point guard had just made his 2013-2014 debut after serving a five-game suspension for violating team rules and now it was time to apologize to his friends, family and fans for his lack of responsibility.
So on Sunday, when Wilbekin — with a smile plastered on his face and confetti clinging to his championship T-shirt — stepped up to accept his Southeastern Conference Tournament MVP award after a 61-60 win over Kentucky, it was not just a testament of his team’s accomplishment, but also of his ability to mature in just 112 days.
When asked how the Gators survived the ups and downs of this season and come out with a perfect league record and No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Wilbekin’s answer could have almost applied to his own personal journey as well.
“It was a struggle at times,” Wilbekin said. “We came back from deficits, and that’s just what we do.
“We try to fight through any adversity that’s in front of us and just stick together as a team because that’s what we are. We’re a team.”
With a renewed Wilbekin at the helm of this Florida squad, the Gators earned their first tournament title since coach Billy Donovan won it three straight times from 2005 to 2007.
The nail-biting victory also made UF the first SEC school to win both the regular-season and tournament championship in the same year since that 2007 national-title squad.
And like Wilbekin, the Gators climbed their way to perfection by letting go of the past, which was marred by constant letdowns in their biggest opportunities for success.
In 2011 — this senior group’s inaugural season — Florida reached the SEC title game for the first time since 2007 but fell by 16 to Kentucky.
Two years later, Wilbekin and the Gators entered the league championship as the favorites but were shocked by Marshall Henderson’s Ole Miss Rebels.
It took until the seniors’ backs were against the wall for the last time in conference play when they finally stepped up and showed their resiliency.
“What I would say that our guys have learned is in the moment of something negative happening, being able to move past it and let it go and refocus to the next thing,” Donovan said. “That’s what they have learned to do. That’s where I think we have gotten better is we’re a better focused team moving past runs adversity, mistakes, challenges, things not going our way.”
Now, everything is going the Gators way. Even when they clank two free throws off the rim in a one-point game, they stuck the course and focused on stopping Kentucky on the other side of the court.
Wilbekin, who missed the first of Florida’s two missed shots from the charity stripe down the stretch, went into the huddle and talked about how the team could prevent the Wildcats from scoring. Not once did the squad mention the missed free throws.
And as a result, the Gainesville native and SEC Player of the Year made what Donovan called the most important move of the game. Wilbekin forced Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison to his right on the final possession rather than surrendering the center of the lane.
That defensive scheme led to Harrison dumping off the ball to teammate James Young, who slipped and fell to give the Gators the win.
“So we were just put in the right situations, and didn’t allow us not doing what we normally do in those situations to allow us to not do the next thing,” senior Patric Young said.
“So we put our past mistakes of not stopping their runs and fouling too much behind us and just moved on to the next thing, which is what helped us get it done tonight.”
Follow Jonathan Czupryn on Twitter @jczupryn
Scottie Wilbekin prepares to shoot during Florida’s 61-60 win against Kentucky on March 16 in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
