travisduncan
Gator Fan
The Gators can clinch the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament with a win tonight at Vanderbilt.
Of course it's not a given that the Gators would lose on Sunday in the season finale versus Kentucky at home but it's hard to hold out hope that the Wildcats can be upset.
Should the Gators lose to Vandy though, they can still clinch the SEC tournament's No. 2 seed and a first-round bye with a win Sunday against Kentucky.
The Gators would then play a week from Friday night, March 9, in New Orleans at 7:30 p.m. Against the winner of the No. 7 vs No. 10 seed.
Going 2-0 and getting to the Championship round of the SEC Tournament would be nice but in reality all coach Billy Donovan and the Gators need and want is some consistency in effort.
After winning seven straight games in the SEC in a stretch from Jan 10. to Feb. 4, the Gators dropped two straight to Kentucky and Tennessee before going on a three game winning streak only to lose to a Georgia team they should have beat last Saturday at Georgia by 10 points. When the Gators have lost, as they did against Georgia, it's as though they simply never showed up to play to begin with.
Vanderbilt won't be easy. The Commodores are 20-game winners themselves, at 20-9. The Gators beat Vandy on Feb. 4 73-65. But things are a bit different now. There are serious questions about the Gators maturity and to to simply play hard when it matters. And head coach Billy Donovan hasn't been shy about that in the media.
Of course Donovan is the master of getting his teams mentally ready for the games the count, the NCAA Tournament. And Donovan much rather embarrass or send a message now than after a loss in the NCAA Tournament when there isn't another game until November.
Even if some of the concerns are artificially inflated, this group, as talented as they are, seems different and the sense of solidarity of other teams isn't there.
At halftime of the Auburn win last Tuesday night Donovan told his players "If Mike Miller and Udonis Haslem and Matt Bonner and Kenyan Weeks and Brett Nelson and Joakim Noah and Al Horford are watching right now, (what are they) feeling like? Those guys gave their heart and soul to this program - and that's the way you're representing our program right now with your effort?"
"Sometimes to coach with these guys, I feel like I'm grabbing these guys by the back of their shirts and I'm pulling them up a hill all the time," Donovan said recently.
Donovan is also calling for more leadership.
"Personality-wise, Erving and Kenny are pretty quiet,” Donovan said via the Florida Times Union.
"I’m not going to try to change them. I think Brad can do a little bit more of that [lead]. I think I need to empower him to do a little bit more of that."
ESPN's current bracketology has the 22-7 Gators slotted for a No. 4 seed in the West, along with other heavyweights Michigan State, Missouri, Notre Dame and Georgetown.
Tonight's game tips at 9 p.m. ET from Vanderbilt on ESPN.
