By: Mark Stainton

The Florida Gator basketball team won back-to-back National Championships during the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 basketball seasons. These are not your championship Gators. Gone are Joakim, Taurean, Big Al, and Lee Hump. Gone are Brewer and Richard. The top 6 players on that team left and the Gators were left with an N.I.T. berth in the 2007-2008 basketball season. The 2008-2009 team should have been improved. They returned everyone (except transfer Jai Lucas) and they had all-world guard Nick Calathes. It seems this year’s team has followed the same pattern as last year’s team. Start strong and finish weakly with a lot of losses towards the end of the year.

The Gators have one chance now. They have the SEC tournament. They need at least two wins to solidify a spot in the NCAA tournament. First up is Arkansas, which should be a win, but nothing is guaranteed lately. The Gators lost a heart-breaker to Georgia in mid-February when Terrance Woodbury went off for 32 points against UF. It was Georgia’s first SEC win of the season. Walter Hodge does
not deserve back-to-back N.I.T. bids after winning back-to-back National Championships in his first two seasons. After Florida beats Arkansas, they basically have a one game tournament against Auburn. If UF wins, they should be dancing. If they lose, then it is back to the N.I.T.

Calathes is the leader of this team. He leads the SEC in assists and is
sixth in scoring as well. He has been a great player for UF all year, but his Achilles heel seems to be finishing games. He hasn’t played out of this world during crunch time. If he can step it up some when it matters most, then not only could UF make it to the NCAA tournament, but they could win a few games.

The Gators need to prove they are not the same team as last year. They need to prove that they are an NCAA caliber team. It is unacceptable to miss the NCAA tournament in back-to-back years after winning back-to-back National Championships. It is unacceptable to not make the NCAA tournament when you play at
the University of Florida. The Gators need to win two games. Calathes and Hodge need to lead them to the tourney. Anything less is unacceptable for the University of Florida basketball team. Go Gators.