I had thoughts, many of them about how this Florida basketball team would end up — it appears I thought wrong.
I’m on the record saying I think Florida’s reachable ceiling is an Elite Eight appearance if they can get the parts to mesh. That was preseason, and the gears aren’t meshing.
Instead they’re grinding and stopping and no amount of lube Billy Donovan can apply appears to be able to get Florida’s engine started correctly.
It’s an injury here and an injury there. It’s an abysmal three-point performance this night, and turnovers the next. It’s a 13-point lead early in the second half against UConn that ends up being squandered, leading to pressure free throws that are missed over and over again.
It’s Chris Walker’s immense raw talent that can’t be on the court for more than 15 minutes before he exhausts himself, and an Eli Carter that just can’t stay healthy.
Billy Donovan will tell you this team doesn’t know how to win, that it goes in the tank when things go wrong in a game. It’s why he called a timeout 30 seconds into the second half against Florida State — he saw the look on Michael Frazier’s face after giving up four easy points in short time. It’s why he’s worried about Alex Murphy’s resilience after missing free throws against the Huskies.
Frazier called this team the most talented one he’s ever been on before the season started, but when he or anyone on the team is asked repeatedly what’s wrong, why the team is 7-6 you get frustration — understandably — and confusion. You get "I don’t know"s and "It’s not just one thing"s.
There are "I think"s and "It’s not about last year"s. The problems are identifiable with this basketball team, as well as the solutions, but if the problems are on one side and the solutions are on the other, the practical steps of figuring out how the heck to bridge the gap seems to be eluding all parties involved.
They had the most non-conference losses since the 1974-1975 season, and the only non-conference test they didn’t fail was against Wake Forest.
If the season were to end today, Florida is not an NCAA tournament team, and that should worry you as conference play begins because this conference isn’t Florida, Kentucky and 12 also-rans like I and many of you thought it would be at the beginning of the year.
Arkansas, led by Bobby Portis, is good — remember it took Scottie Wilbekin’s heroics to beat that team last year. LSU has length at guard and size up front that could give UF fits. Alabama may not be the most consistent team, but most believe Anthony Grant has the best team of his tenure in Tuscaloosa right now.
I don’t write this to say the sky is falling around the Gators this season, I write this to say, after such a disappointing start to this year, maybe it’s already fallen.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Eli Carter walks off the court following Florida's 69-67 loss to Miami on Nov. 17 in the O'Connell Center.
