Alligator Awards: Best Team of 2015-16
Staff Report
In the final edition of the Alligator Awards, we debate which UF team was the best of the 2015-16 season. Sports writers Ray Boone, Matt Brannon and Alejandro López join alligatorSports Editors Ian Cohen and Ethan Bauer in a roundtable discussion to debate the five nominees. Debates will go in alphabetical order by the writer’s last name.
Bauer: Butler, women’s basketball team bounced back
After watching her team get decimated by Auburn in its first game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in 2015, UF women’s basketball coach Amanda Butler didn’t mince words.
“I thought we had the right mindset,” she said of her team late in the season. “But clearly I was wrong. I was wrong. Sometimes coaches are wrong.”
Early in 2016, it looked like Butler might be wrong again. She had promised a turnaround led by a group of talented veterans, a capable freshman and two new assistant coaches. She had promised a winning team.
Instead, the Gators lost to unranked Temple in their first game of the year.
“In this non-conference (schedule) you want to challenge yourself and find out who is equipped to handle what moments and who needs to grow in what moments,” Butler said after the loss. “We learned a lot of those things tonight.”
At the time, that sounded like typical coach speak. But in UF’s next game, it appeared that the Gators did, in fact, learn from the loss.
It was against No. 6 FSU, and the Gators were able to pull off the upset. From there, Florida reeled off 11 straight wins before falling in its conference opener against No. 8 Mississippi State.
Even with a loss, the Gators went 10-6 in the SEC and 22-9 overall.
That was good enough for a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament and a spot in the NCAA Tournament. That’s a significant improvement for a team that went 13-17 just one season ago.
And even though UF lost its first SEC and NCAA Tournament games, the staggering improvement makes it UF’s best team of 2016.
Boone: Women’s golf had unparalleled success in regular season
Put simply, the Florida women's golf team had an amazing year.
The season started slowly for the Gators, who finished outside the top three in their first three events, but by October, things were heating up.
Florida captured its first victory of the year on Oct. 27 at the Alamo Invitational in San Antonio, Texas.
And from there, a fire was ignited.
The Gators went on to win five more times in the season, including four-straight victories to cap the regular season.
It was the team’s most wins in one season since 1986.
Florida also finished in second place at the SEC Championship — its best finish since 2008.
In addition, it was a banner year for UF golfer Maria Torres.
The junior, who led the team in scoring average at 72.03, had 10 top-25 finishes on the year. Her biggest highlight, however, came at the SEC Championship where she fired a personal best 9-under, 207 to capture the individual title. In that victory, Torres became only the seventh Gator to claim the SEC individual title.
The Florida women’s golf team had unparalleled success.
And yes, it’s quite common that the success of a team is measured by one thing: national titles.
And yes, with a 17th-place finish at the NCAA Championship, the women’s golf team fell way short of that goal this season.
But the program’s historic regular season has to count for something.
Brannon: Despite failed three-peat, softball trampled regular-season opponents
For much of the season, Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium was a place for low-tiered programs to parade in its players before being bussed back to Nowhere, USA, after an eight, 10 or 12-run defeat.
Florida’s most impressive team this year was the one experts picked to win a third-straight national championship: the softball team.
Florida (56-7) fell short of its high expectations when they were upset by Georgia on a pinch-hit walkoff home run in the NCAA Super Regional. But despite the team’s postseason problems, UF rolled through the regular season on a road of accolades.
Heading into postseason play, the Gators were ranked No. 1 and all three pitchers each boasted a nationwide top-10 ERA. It was the first team in 2016 to have all of its pitchers throw 100 strikeouts.
On the offensive side of the diamond, Florida finished the regular season with its highest on-base percentage in program history. Of three nominees for NFCA Freshman of the Year, two were Gators, and outfielder Amanda Lorenz won. Lorenz also came just four points shy of earning the best batting average in school history.
The team finished with a .889 winning percentage. But it’s not just that they won — it’s that they won by so much. UF outscored opponents 62-1 in its first seven games. Of Florida’s 56 wins, 31 were shutouts.
Cohen: Football team re-energized fan base
When examining the best-team nominees, there is one choice that stands out from the rest — the football team.
And its nomination has much less to do with how last season ended and more to do with the four seasons before it.
Everyone remembers the Will Muschamp era, and if you don’t, congratulations, you’ve succeeded in suppressing some miserable memories.
But when Jim McElwain was hired in 2015, everything changed. After a forgettable four seasons under Muschamp — including a 4-8 season in 2013, UF’s first losing record since 1979 — the Gators went 10-4, won the SEC East and breathed life into a program that desperately needed it.
There were highlight plays, including Antonio Callaway’s 63-yard touchdown catch and run to complete UF’s comeback against Tennessee in September.
There were memorable moments, like when Florida unseated two-time defending SEC East Champions Missouri on the road in October.
And there was drama, heightened by quarterback Will Grier tearing up at the lectern in October after admitting to taking performance-enhancing drugs.
All of that combined to make the UF football team the most interesting, thrilling, unpredictable team of the last season.
In other words, the best team of 2015-16.
López: Gymnastics turned in an impressive year
What judges the quality of a team?
Is it based on the talent of its athletes and the skill of its coaches? Or, perhaps, its overall record and the number of singular moments it produced?
For each team’s success, though, only one group at Florida checked off each of those four standards — the gymnastics team.
The skill populating its roster was undeniable. From international medalist Bridget Sloan and collegiate stars Alex McMurtry and Kennedy Baker, to freshman sensation Alicia Boren and depth contributor Grace McLaughlin, this squad housed a talent pool that was the envy of the NCAA.
That excellence extended to the coaching staff. With over three decades of collegiate coaching experience shared between Jenny Rowland, Adrian Burde, Owen Field and Jeremy Miranda, the program is in good hands for years to come.
The team finished the year with an 11-3 record — the program’s best since 2014 — a Southeastern Conference title, a Regional title and a fourth-place finish at the NCAA championships. Additionally, at least one Gator gymnast placed top-seven nationally in each of the five events available for competition.
The team also managed to generate its fair share of memorable moments — between Bridget Sloan’s final home routine and a program-high three perfect 10s in a meet against Alabama, the gymnasts conjured up some magic of their own.
They may not have brought home a title, but that sure sounds like the best team on campus to me.
Who do you think was the best team of 2015-16? Vote in our poll.
Ronni Williams jumps during the tipoff of Florida's 85-79 win over Kentucky on Jan. 31, 2016, in the O'Connell Center.
UF's Antonio Callaway (81) returns a punt 85 yards for a touchdown during Florida's 29-15 loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game on Dec. 5, 2015, in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Alicia Boren performs her floor exercise routine during the NCAA Gymnastics Super Six on April 16, 2016, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Karolina Vlckova (right) celebrates with coach Emily Glaser during the 2015 SunTrust Gator Invitational at UF's Mark Bostick Golf Course.
