Passionless Gators limp into NIT

Florida's basketball team probably didn't take a bus back to its hotel after a first-round loss in the SEC Tournament.

It's difficult to ride the bus when you've been thrown under it.

Because on a night when the Gators saw so many streaks end, Billy Donovan's frustration spilled into the post-game press conference.

“I'm not that excited about these guys being sophomores,” he said. “It's hard to be excited going forward because I don't see things getting fixed.”

Instead he witnessed more of the same in a numbing loss to Alabama. No defense. Lazy passes. No emotion until they were down 28. Did I mention no defense? Again?

And no NCAA Tournament.

So exasperated was Donovan with Florida's start to the game that he called time-out 65 seconds into the first half. And it only got worse.

It was downright embarrassing.

Here they were with their postseason aspirations on the line and they laid an egg. An ugly, smelly one.

And then Chandler Parsons, who actually played decently, said at the podium that the Gators weren't ready to play.

This really set Donovan off.

“It's the first SEC Tournament of your life and you're not ready to play?” Donovan said. “I don't understand that. I can't relate to that.

“We have a commitment issue and that bothers me as a coach. I don't think you've seen this team change all year.”

Nope and that is why Florida has finished its season with a thud and an NIT berth is awaiting the Gators. I asked Donovan Wednesday if he was concerned about his young team coming into a different arena and a different setting. He said he wasn't. He wasn't because this team “hasn't been fazed by anything all season.”

But, he added, that's part of the problem. Nothing really affects them, including coaching.

“I'm the one responsible. I take the blame,” Donovan said. “I've not been able to get through to these guys.”

Nothing has worked. He was so incensed with Marreese Speights' defense in the first half he sat his starting center for all but eight minutes. But it wasn't just Speights. Florida's starters didn't score until there was 8:10 remaining in the first half.

How do you come into this atmosphere and not be excited? How do you go start the game with two turnovers, an air ball and two shots that were blocked? How do you let an underachieving Alabama team get up 42-14?

“With everything we're playing for to allow ourselves to get that far behind was hard to believe,” Parsons said.

The hand-scrawled name card in front of Alex Tyus told the story of what happened Thursday night. Nobody expected the freshman backup to be one of the players chosen to represent UF after its first-round game.

But none of the “name” players did anything worthy of attention.

Florida did cut the gigantic deficit to six, then went back into an offensive funk. Alabama showed why it had lost 15 games coming in, missing free throws and having terrible possessions. But if it takes being down by so much to make you play hard, you have a problem.

Everyone who looks at this team is mystified how a coach who won two national titles can't seem to get enough out of this team.

“I'm not mad at them,” Donovan said. “I'm not disappointed in them. But after coaching that team the last two years, they loved the dirty work. They loved what it took to be a great team. This team has not come to love those things. They've come to avoid those things.”

Maybe an influx of new players next year will get things going in the right direction. But only if the new players bring some heart and passion with them.

“There is a disposition in this team that has to change,” Donovan said. “We're in a rebuilding process. It's going to be a different path than one might think.”

Right through the NIT.