Donovan has no kind words for his Gators

ATLANTA | For the first time since 1989, the defending NCAA basketball champion won't be back in the NCAA Tournament to defend its title.

Florida coach Billy Donovan, though, didn't seem to mind that he wouldn't see this Gator team play again — even though the Gators may make the NIT field.

'It's hard for me to get excited about going forward because I don't see things getting fixed, you know?' Donovan said after Alabama's 80-69 win eliminated Florida — the three-time defending Southeastern Conference Tournament champion — in a first-round SEC game on Thursday night.

For one of the rare times this season, it was Tide coach Mark Gottfried's chance to look ahead. Alabama had not won back-to-back games since December but now has victories against Vanderbilt and Florida in its last two outings.

'We've had a lot of struggles,' Gottfried said. 'But one thing we've never down is fold the tent or pout or really get down. We've stayed positive with one another. We had two great days Monday and Tuesday before we came over here [to Atlanta]. I just thought from a team perspective, we had a great approach to this game.

'There wasn't any magic dust we put on [the players],' Gottfried added. 'If we had some, we would have used it a few times this year. But our guys just did a great job of focusing in practice on what Florida was going to do.'

The talk of the tournament media room, though, was Donovan's dismal assessment of his Florida team, which has lost eight of its last 11 games.

'We're 31 games into the season and I am not going to sit up here and talk about youthfulness or what we don't have or what we lost. What you want to see is a group of guys who really understand what it takes to win.

'It's in front of our guys — what it takes to win — and for whatever reason, I haven't brought it out in them. They're not committed to it.'

Florida uses four freshmen in key roles, but Donovan said that didn't necessarily mean a bright future.

'I'm not necessarily that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest,' Donovan said as Florida lost for the fourth straight game, its first four-game losing streak since 1998.

'I would say that this group, all of them, because they are a year older, that doesn't mean that they will be a year better. I've never been a big believer in that old adage that the best thing about freshmen is that they become sophomores. They're wiser, they're more experienced but there are still issues and unless they address those issues, it really doesn't matter how old they are.'

Alabama has more immediate concerns, facing Mississippi State in today's second round.

'They're really, really good,' Gottfried said. 'They've got a lot of ingredients. They've got a point guard [Jamont Gordon] that's stronger than any point guard in America. They've got great shooters in (Ben) Hansbrough and [Barry] Stewart. They've got a phenomenal post player in [Charles] Rhodes and the leading shot blocker in the nation [Jarvis Varnado]. They've got all the parts.

'We have played close with them but we haven't been able to beat them. We just hae to be ready to play again, like we were today.'

Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil.hurt@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0225.