GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida's 10-game winning streak is starting to get some attention.
The Gators were ranked No. 24 in the latest Associated Press college basketball poll Monday, moving back into the rankings for the first time since losing to Florida State in early December. The Gators are the only SEC team in the Top 25.
Florida was in a similar position last January. Coach Billy Donovan's team started last season 18-3, 5-1 in league play, and jumped back in the poll after upsetting No. 14 Vanderbilt 86-64. But the Gators foundered the rest of the way, losing eight of their final 11 games and missing the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade.
They hope to avoid a repeat performance.
"It's kind of scary," forward Dan Werner said. "It kind of seems like we're in the same situation as we were last year after beating Vanderbilt. On one hand, I'm kind of excited. On the other hand, I'm kind of nervous. Hopefully, we don't follow the same path as we did last year."
The Gators (16-2, 3-0 SEC) play their next two games on the road: against South Carolina on Wednesday and against Vanderbilt on Sunday. Donovan and his players believe they're better prepared to handle success this time around.
"After that Vanderbilt win, I think we got kind of bigheaded," guard Nick Calathes said. "I think we let a couple games slip away and we weren't focused and we thought we were going to make the NCAA tournament because we were ranked. ... We've been through it. We have a lot more older guys on the team and I think that we'll definitely be more focused."
Not only did the Gators miss the tournament, but Donovan kicked them out of their state-of-the-art practice facility following a loss to Alabama in the first round of the SEC tournament.
They practiced in the antiquated Florida Gym, had to do their own laundry and couldn't wear any Florida attire — all because Donovan want to humble them for having a sense of entitlement.
It worked. The Gators advanced to the NIT semifinals and vowed to never take anything for granted again.
"Hopefully we have a better understanding a little more that the ranking doesn't mean much," Werner said. "That's just people's opinion. We had some early success (last year) and everyone kind of thought we had it figured out and stuff. Obviously, we didn't. That's what it came down to."
Although Donovan believes his team has plenty of room for improvement — Florida has struggled rebounding and playing half-court defense — he feels the ranking could be a good thing.
"I'm happy. It's pretty terrific," Donovan said. "I would hope that our guys, after seeing some of these guys go through being ranked, I would hope that would be the expectation, to be ranked.
"I think when you start talking about Duke and North Carolina and UCLA and programs like that, I don't think that they're really talking about those programs being ranked. It almost becomes that's what's supposed to happen. For our team right now, what kind of impact or affect it will have on them, I would say that they should expect that. It should have no bearing on how we perform, prepare, practice, and what we do."
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Comments » 14
pvvol writes:
1
glemmons writes:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Red_October writes:
Interlopers in 3.....2.....1.....
KENVOL writes:
I think the Gators and the Cats are the best of the SEC right now. I hope we will be there at the end though.
WeLoveTennesseeVols writes:
Where are the Kentucky Wildcats at? Is the rest of the country after us? Is this political?
VolJunkie writes:
We are not impressed ...
Strength of schedule:
UT 10
FL 86
KY 121
Go Vols!
Down_The_Field writes:
Thanks for publishing the info, Junk.
Got to hand it to Grease Head, he's coaching his A game now and he's got the "Greek Tycoon" playing like a maniac.
Guys, with a strength of schedule of 10, maybe we're better than we give ourselves credit for.
EngineerVol writes:
Was our loss at home to UK impressive?
VolJunkie writes:
Gator,
Don't confuse SOS with RPI, they are two different things (SOS figures into the RPI). Florida's RPI is slightly higher than UT's but the SOS is what it is, I stand by my numbers.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebaske...
VolJunkie writes:
And I would expect no less ... but the SOS numbers ARE correct.
DekanGator writes:
UTfan I do agree with you.
Florida is not strong inside, they will have a big man, Vernon Macklin (Georgetown transfer) here next Year along with Kenny Boyton.
They are a year away, Next year they will be Big Strong, and deep.
But I do think, they will make then NCAA's this year.
VolJunkie writes:
My old stats professor would be proud ... "how to lie with statistics!" ;)
It appears these sites are updated at different intervals, the rankings are dynamic and change with the results of each game, looks like the Rivals site is current compared to the CBS site.
VolJunkie writes:
Agreed, but 99 is usually pretty sharp, I'm surprised he did not admit to the difference (or perhaps saw it and just did not care).
VolJunkie writes:
Sorry ZZ, I referred to you as "99" (no Get Smart references please) in my previous post ... I guess all FL fans look alike! ;)
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