It was an awkward scene as a smattering of UF students charged the court to celebrate an upset win over Auburn.
It was the highest-ranked win in Florida history, and certainly an achievement to celebrate.
However, it was the way it looked that struck some most. Fans rushed the court and seemed to have no idea what they were doing. A majority of the crowd stood there looking around as if they were seeking instructions on what to do next.
If somebody had seen it without any context, they would have thought these kids had never done something like this before and had no idea what to do.
They would be exactly right.
The reason so many Gator fans who made the decision to storm the floor looked so lost is because they literally didn’t know what to do!
The last time Gator fans stormed the court in the O’Dome was 1986, following a win that sent UF to the NIT Final. The last time Gator fans stormed the field at The Swamp…well that has never happened.
It’s just not an act of celebration Florida fans engage in.
Some may ask why that is the case, and it is a fair question. It seems like a fun way to celebrate a big upset win and celebrate with members of the team they support, right?
That is absolutely correct, but the keyword here is “upset.” Upset victories are not something UF fans are accustomed to. There are not many upset wins at the University of Florida, there are only upset losses.
That is because the standard for UF’s athletics teams is set so high that winning is the expectation. When the Gators win, fans act like they have been there before…because they have!
It was just last decade that Florida went to three Elite Eights and a Final Four in a four-year span. UF still remains the last team to repeat as national champions in College Basketball.
Storming the court/field is usually reserved for the biggest of upsets. In certain situations — such as when Michigan beat Ohio State for the first time in many years this past season — it celebrates a triumph worthy of such celebration.
This was not one of those cases.
Sure, the Gators beat the No. 2 ranked team in the country, but it was not long ago that they were ranked among those teams.
It was not long ago that Florida was the standard of college basketball. Storming the court shows how far the program has fallen.
A big win has become a big surprise. Beating the No. 2 team in the country is no longer business as usual, it is something completely out of the ordinary.
Mediocrity has been accepted, 20 wins has been accepted and losing in the second round of the tournament every year has been accepted.
It used to be that teams stormed the court when they beat Florida. All it took was seven years of mediocrity for the Gators to become one of those teams.
How many national championship-winning programs would have stormed the court in that situation? Kentucky definitely would not, no matter how far the team had fallen that year from its normal standard.
The Wildcats used to be a measuring stick for Florida. The matchups used to be the biggest games on the SEC calendar every year.
Now, what is it? An easy couple of wins for Kentucky to keep momentum rolling?
All of a sudden beating Auburn is seen as a massive achievement for Florida, a team they beat 11 times in a row from 2010-18.
This past weekend, Tennessee knocked off Auburn on its home floor. Nobody on Rocky Top stormed the court, and the Volunteers have never even made a Final Four! Now that is a program that expects to win, even if they have not done it as much as the Gators have in their history.
It was almost poetic that Florida’s court storming went horribly wrong. It was pretty representative of what the athletic department stands for that students were immediately told to leave the floor.
Nobody knew what to do. Fans looked like they were not really sure whether they were supposed to storm the court or not. Nobody knew how to do it. Nobody knew what to do when they got there. They looked lost.
That is because Florida fans do not know how to storm the court. It is not something they do, it is not something they have ever done and it is not something they should be doing.
Florida has been there, done that. In my eyes, fans lose court storming privileges the minute their team wins a national championship.
Then again, this team has not been there, done that. That is because the program has fallen so far they have had nothing real to celebrate in years.
Florida has not gone past the Sweet 16 since Chris Chiozza’s magical shot over Wisconsin. Must I remind you that Florida was up 10 with 4.5 minutes left in regulation, and blew it enough to end up on the brink of defeat in overtime?
The Gators have not won the SEC regular season or conference titles since Billy Donovan’s last season in Gainesville. They have not finished ranked in the AP Poll since 2017-18.
This is what Florida basketball has become. It has become the program that storms the court, when it was once the program teams stormed the court against.
It is a sign that things have changed in Gainesville, and it has become accepted as reality.
Florida basketball is a mediocre program. A lot of people seem to be okay with that, at least the ones that were out on the floor last Saturday.
You know what happened in Florida’s next game following the win over Auburn? They got beat on the same court that was stormed three days earlier by a team that had not won on that court since 1995. A team Donovan never lost to.
Now fans are storming the court that graces his name. Another thing that never happened in Donovan’s legendary run at Florida.
You have to wonder what the current Chicago Bulls head coach’s thoughts were when he saw how far the program he made a powerhouse had fallen.
Contact Ethan Budowsky at ebudowsky@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @ethanbudowsky.
