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College basketball

Message to UF: Get over it

Coach says team has to put Kentucky rout in rearview and start fresh against Alabama.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 8, 2003

GAINESVILLE -- After Florida's 70-55 loss at Kentucky on Tuesday night, coach Billy Donovan wanted his players to put the game behind them as soon as possible.

Six o'clock Thursday morning was about the best he could do.

Because the Gators didn't practice Wednesday, Donovan had them come in at 6 a.m. to watch film, talk about the game and take the most important step they can at this point.

Forward.

"I wanted to get that behind us and go right toward Alabama," Donovan said, "so all of our focus when they came in (Thursday's practice) was not Kentucky, but Alabama. A lot of times when you have a day off and you come back, generally the first thing you do is discuss the previous game. ... I thought it was important to get that behind us, but at the same time guys need to be realistic and honest with themselves and our coaching staff needs to be honest with themselves to take responsibility for what happened.

"Now, what are we going to do about that?"

That's the question facing the Gators. Monday, they were handed the role of No. 1 basketball team in the nation in both polls. Donovan said then that if the Gators didn't play well at Kentucky, "it will be the shortest No. 1 in the history of college basketball."

Florida didn't play well; it lost 24 hours after the first No. 1 ranking in school history. Problem is, the Gators didn't just lose, they were crushed. They shot 6-for-30 in the first half and trailed 45-22 at halftime after a 15-0 Kentucky run. The Gators went 17-for-50 in the game, and their frontcourt was nearly nonexistent.

"I thought that was by far the poorest offensive performance we've had this year, maybe since I've been here," Donovan said. "I would like to have seen a little bit more fight out of our guys when Kentucky got on a little bit of a roll."

The last thing Donovan wants is for the loss to haunt Florida as it heads into today's home game against No. 22 Alabama.

The Gators (18-3, 7-1) are still in the hunt for an SEC title, although Kentucky's win puts it in the driver's seat. Florida's No. 1 ranking will be gone next week, but it's not as if the loss ended its season.

"We're still right in the hunt of things," senior guard Brett Nelson said. "Kentucky has to go to Ole Miss, which is never easy to play, and we still have seven or eight SEC games left. So there's still a lot of the SEC season left and I don't think one game or one loss is going to make or break your SEC run."

Alabama knows what Florida is going through. In December, the Tide held the No. 1 ranking. Since then, Alabama (13-6, 3-5) has struggled and is coming off a tough loss to unranked Arkansas.

"It'll be a great challenge for us," Alabama coach Mark Gottfried said. "Obviously they are ranked No. 1 in the country and it's their first home game being ranked (first), and we expect them to be at the top of their game. We've got a great opportunity in front of us and we're going to go down there and be excited about playing."

Although it boasts the reigning SEC player of the year in Erwin Dudley, the Tide has lost five straight road games dating to Dec. 30. Sophomore Maurice Williams leads the team with 15.2 points per game, but Alabama's perimeter game has been weak.

"I don't think we want to become a team that never shoots a perimeter jump shot, but if you want to be a good team at some point your players have to step up and play better and that's the reality of where we are," Gottfried said.

The reality of where Florida is remains to be seen. Donovan said because the Gators have been level-headed through wins and losses this season, he doesn't expect any lingering effects from the Kentucky loss. But you never know.

"The biggest thing now is it's like Coach said, it's not how you respond to the game, it's how you respond after this loss," freshman guard Anthony Roberson said. "Everybody is looking to see how we respond to this loss. We will get together and try to get that same focus like it was before. We're going to take it one game at a time. We've got a lot more games ahead of us; we're only halfway through the SEC. All our dreams -- SEC championship and national championship -- are still ahead of us."

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