Florida coach Billy DonovanScore one for experience
The Florida Gators, who returned all five starters from last season’s NCAA tournament basketball team, lead the Southeastern Conference’s East Division because of their late-game productivity. Florida outlasted Kentucky, 70-68, in Gainesville on Saturday night to improve to 7-2 in league play, and the Gators have overtime wins over Tennessee and Vanderbilt and a double-overtime triumph at Georgia.
“We could have very easily lost all those games, and our record would look very different right now if we had dropped those,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said Monday. “Being around the game in this league for as long as I have, you realize how fragile it all is — the line between winning and losing and coming close. You try to remind your players that just because we’ve won some close ones doesn’t mean that is going to be the trend the rest of the year.
“I think it takes a level of humility from your guys to understand there are times you can get better from those situations, and every coach would tell you he loves to teach those lessons through winning those kinds of games. We’ve obviously got an older group of guys, and that helps.”
Florida held somewhat comfortable leads late in regulation against Tennessee and Georgia, whereas its overtime win over Vandy followed a back-and-forth 40 minutes.