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NEW ORLEANS — Earlier this season at media day, Chandler Parsons
said he believed the Gators were ready to win a national title.
Reporters around him glanced away to hide their smirks.
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“You guys looked at me like I was crazy when I said we were going
to win a national championship in the beginning of the year,”
Parsons said Friday.
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Nobody took that statement seriously. And to be fair, why would
they?
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This was a team handed high preseason expectations that couldn’t
handle success and had yet to find its identity. Florida was still
struggling to get on track 11 games into the season with an
embarrassing loss to Jacksonville.
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But on Saturday, that Gators team that nobody thought had a chance
at making a run for a national title found themselves just one shot
away from the Final Four.
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you know what that means?
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means UF is good enough to be in this season’s Final Four. When a
team loses in overtime by such a narrow margin, it isn’t because
one team is better than the other. It’s based on Butler guard
Shelvin Mack banging in a three off the backboard to start the
game, or a layup by Erving Walker rimming in-and-out.
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other words, a little bit of luck decides these types of games.
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The mistake that everybody made leading up to Saturday’s game was
believing Florida had gained an ability to win close games. That
simply doesn’t exist.
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However, the ability UF does possess now is an unbelievable amount
of balance. That’s what got the Gators this far.
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Billy Donovan sacrificed the last three years for this one, and it
paid off. He spent those seasons building this team into the one
that was on the floor Saturday.
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There is no individual star and that’s exactly how Donovan likes
it. Any player in Florida’s starting five can score or can make a
play. That’s the danger the Gators posed to teams this season.
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Even with three future first-round picks in his lineup in 2007,
Donovan preached an offense that got everybody involved and always
kept the ball moving.
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Donovan’s coaching style translated into a team that was versatile
and could attack from many different angles.
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put all of this into perspective, Parsons, who won SEC Player of
the Year this season, is fourth on the team in scoring with 11.3
points per game.
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That is what made the Gators special.
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However, Saturday’s loss to Butler overshadowed all of that— at
least for that day.
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“In time I’ll look back on it” Parsons said after the season-ending
loss. “We did some special things this year, we had some great
moments, and it’s just hard to think about that right now with the
feeling that we have.”
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One day, Parsons will reflect back and remember the confused faces
his preseason prediction caused and realize that this season is
nothing to sulk over.
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The Gators came a lot closer to fulfilling his promise than many
expected, and that is something this team should be proud of.
