Gators All But Wrap Up Number One Seed

The Florida Gators had many doubters a week ago. They had won 15 straight games, but in the weak SEC not a lot of folks were impressed. They were 10-0 in the conference but six of those were home games and none were against the Kentucky Wildcats. Florida was facing a stretch of four road games in their nest five starting with two venues they have never had much success in, Thompson Bolling Arena, the home of the Tennessee Volunteers and Rupp Arena, the home of the Wildcats.

Florida had won only twice in their last 11 tries at Tennessee. They started the game with a tough first half shooting while the Vols shot over 60% from the floor. Yet they went into halftime trailing by only one point 34-33. Coach Billy Donovan said during his halftime interview he felt good about where his team was considering the difference in field goal percentage. He said that normally that would mean a team would be down 12-15 points with those numbers. In the second half his team started to hit some outside shots and left TBA with a 67-58 win.

So on Saturday, with College Game Day in Lexington getting the already basketball-crazed Kentucky fans into a fever pitch, it would have been very easy for the Gators to play like they were already satisfied with gaining a split in those two road games and go back home for a Wednesday game against the Auburn Tigers with their lead in the SEC still intact. There were opportunities for the Gators to say “here we go again” as the Cats got out to seven point lead. The crowd of 23,000 was raucous and the young Cats were looking good. After watching games slip away at Rupp before no one would have blamed the Gators for just trying to keep it close and live to fight another day.

But this Florida team never quit fighting back. And when John Calipari was hit with a technical foul with about 10:00 left, the Gators Scottie Wilbekin calmly stepped up to the free throw line by himself and buried two in row to tie the game. That was a sign of things to come as the normally bad shooting Gators were sizzling from the foul line the rest of the way. Wilbekin buried 11 in a row on the night and by the time he finally missed one the outcome was no longer in doubt. Meanwhile, the young Cats who were thought to be the greatest recruiting class ever last summer, wilted under the pressure. Andrew Harrison, one of the much ballyhooed twin back court tandem with brother Andrew, finished the game with three points.

Now, the Gators have six regular season games to play, and with the toughest two off the schedule, it looks like they will finish with 23 straight wins going into the SEC Tournament. Even if they are upset in one of those games, that would still leave them 28-3 and 17-1 going into the SEC Tournament with wins over Kentucky (at least one), the Kansas Jayhawks, Memphis Tigers, FSU Seminoles, two over Tennessee, and a road win at the Arkansas Razorbacks. That looks like the resume of a number one seed.

If the Gators can run the table and win the SEC Tournament and the Syracuse Orange loses a game or two along the way, they could very well wind up as the overall number one seed. The last team Billy Donovan took to the overall number one was in 2007. That team won it all. And oh by the way, that was also the last team to win at Rupp.