In the grand scheme, it wouldn’t have been the world’s worst loss. The Florida Gators, who hadn’t lost since Dec. 2, might have rolled over against Tennessee, an opponent just as gifted and armed with more reason to win, and allowed a 10-point deficit to become 15 and a 24-game winning streak to go pfffft. It wouldn’t have hurt Florida’s NCAA standing — the Gators still would be a No. 1 seed — and it would have yielded a restful Sunday back in Gainesville.
But the Gators wouldn’t have those 24 games if they were given to backing down, and No. 25 stands as a shining example of that spine. Tennessee needed the game more and had it going its way. Then Florida snatched it back with such disdain that you wondered if the Volunteers ever really stood a chance.
Over the final 12 minutes, Florida held Tennessee to one basket against five turnovers. Leading 43-38, the Vols scored six more points. Their offense, such as it was, became one hopeless possession after another. “You could feel it,” said Patric Young, the Gators’ center. “You got an inner sense. You knew they were kind of going to have a difficult time scoring.”
Said Cuonzo Martin, Tennessee’s coach: “In my opinion, they’re the best defensive team in the country.”
The Gators are the nation’s best team, but this isn’t a skilled offensive assemblage. Florida managed only 56 points and 21 baskets Saturday, and a game tied at 45 turned on a strange four-point possession with 4:39 left. Referee Pat Adams, who had a hand in the wild Georgia-Ole Miss foul-fest Friday night, called Tennessee’s Jeronne Maymon for an off-the-ball foul. (Maymon had been bumping with Young.) This prompted Maymon to register his dissent, which prompted Adams to slap a technical on him. Florida made all four free throws, and now the Vols were four points down without Maymon, who was disqualified because the T counted as his fifth personal.
Florida won 56-49 not because it did anything pretty, but because — borrowing the phrase John Calipari copyrighted in his UMass days — it refused to lose. It did this on a day when losing would have done the Gators no harm and possibly some good. It must be noted that two of the better teams ever to come through the SEC — Kentucky in 1996 and again in 2012 — lost in the league tournament but turned around and took NCAA titles. Sometimes a top-ranked team benefits from a late loss. As any coach will attest, losing focuses the mind in a manner that winning never does.
Let the record reflect, however, that accepting a loss, even a beneficial one, was not part of Billy Donovan’s plan when his team was 10 points in arrears. “I never thought, ‘I hope we lose and go home,’” he said, laughing at the suggestion. Then this: “We’re trying to win a championship. There’ll be something we gain from tomorrow’s experience (in the title game), the same as today.”
Surely that’s true. Surely what the Gators gained over these past 25 games is the belief in their capacity to solve problems on the fly. With Maymon, Jarnell Stokes and Jordan McRae, Tennessee has a threesome to match any in the conference, and the Vols entered the SEC tournament playing as well as any team in the league. Perhaps, it was suggested, even better than Florida. Then the Gators did as these Gators do: They reminded us who’s boss.
Said Scottie Wilbekin, the catalytic point guard whose trey at the buzzer sent Florida into the half only seven points down: “We didn’t do anything different (on defense the second half). We just tried to go into an extra gear.”
If you’re looking for reasons the Gators will play for the SEC championship having gone 20-0 against SEC opposition, start there. Kentucky and Tennessee have as much talent and Georgia as much grit, but no team in this league and maybe in any league has fused the two so expertly. And it doesn’t hurt that Florida starts four seniors, something even Donovan’s back-to-back NCAA titlists of 2006 and 2007 didn’t.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Young said, and it shows. Three seasons running, the Gators have been undone in the Elite Eight, the first two times after blowing leads. They’re down to one last chance. If they are to lose, it won’t be because they got outfought.
Said Donovan: “When we walk off the floor after a game, I never feel like we didn’t get after it.”
They’ll get after it again Sunday. They could have had a day off before the Big Dance started, but the Florida Gators decided they’d rather keep playing. They like playing.
