Florida’s Men’s basketball team lost Thursday night 80-69 to Alabama in the first round of the SEC tournament. The loss, coupled with an unimpressive showing in conference play, will all but certainly leave the Gators out of the NCAA tournament, ending a decade long string of NCAA tournament appearances, a string that started in the 1998-1999 season when the current Gators were still in elementary school.
Florida coach Billy Donovan was not interested in hiding his frustration with his young team after the loss. He questioned his player’s commitment to doing what it takes to win, including playing defense. “I’m not necessarily really that excited about these guys being sophomores, to be honest,” Donovan said of his freshmen. “I don’t think people change a whole lot, and I don’t think you’ve seen the basketball team change at all this year. So it’s hard for me to get overly thrilled or excited.” Donovan was also disappointed that freshman Chandler Parsons told reporters that Florida was not ready to play Thursday night. “I don’t know how you can’t just be excited,” Donovan said, referring to playing in the conference tournament.
This is where the “what ifs?” come in. A little less than a year ago, Billy Donovan was not the coach of the Florida Gators. A little less than a year ago, Billy Donovan was the head coach of the Orlando Magic. Florida’s athletic director, Jeremy Foley, was landing in Richmond, Virginia to offer Anthony Grant, the head basketball coach at Virginia Commonwealth University, the head coaching position at Florida. Then everything came to a screeching halt. Donovan had a change of heart and realized that his was in Gainesville. The Magic released him from his contract, Foley left Richmond without offering Grant the job and everything went back to the way it was a few days before.
So what if? What if Billy Donovan had stayed on as the coach of the Orlando Magic? What if Anthony Grant had inherited this group, possibly without some of the key freshmen, who might have decided to go elsewhere after learning of Donovan’s departure? One must assume if someone with the reputation and distinction of Donovan had trouble reaching these players that a first year coach like Grant would not have done any better. If the ten year long stretch of NCAA tournament bids had ended on Grant’s watch – in his first year as head coach – instead of on Donovan’s, how patient would the Gator Nation be? Billy Donovan has understandably earned a considerable level of faith from the Florida faithful, what with that whole “back to back national championships” thing. Grant would likely not have been given that same benefit of the doubt. How many boosters and sportswriters would be panicking right now? The consensus would likely have been that “if only Donovan had stayed” the Gators would have at least made the tournament.
That the cupboard was left bare after five players left for the NBA and one other graduated as the all time leader in three point shooting in the NCAA tournament would not have been enough of an excuse. Ask Ron Zook how understanding Florida fans are when a new head coach takes over a team with less talent than the several previous squads. Zook took over the University of Florida’s football team in 2002 after Steve Spurrier left the Gators for the NFL. Spurrier admitted that he left the school with a diminished pool of talent compared to the teams he coached during most of his tenure, when Florida compiled a record of 122-27-1 and won six SEC championships. That admission didn’t matter much to the fans of the Gators, some of whom constructed the website, www.fireronzook.com before Zook ever coached a single game. If now, under Anthony Grant, Florida had become the first team since Kansas in 1988 to miss the NCAA tournament only one year after winning it, would www.fireanthonygrant.com have been that far behind?
Florida is extremely young. The Gators have only one upperclassman that plays significant minutes, junior Walter Hodge. Compare that to the rotation they utilized last year when four juniors (Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green) and a senior (Lee Humphreys) started and their sixth man (Chris Richard) was a senior. But what if the Gators had been able to keep some of their talent in Gainesville? Never mind that Noah, Horford, Brewer, and Green could have come back for their senior year, we all knew that was not going to happen. Forget about them. What about David Huertas? What if David Huertas was playing for Florida?
Unless you either were following the Gators closely before the championship seasons or you are an Ole Miss fan, you probably do not know who David Huertas is. If you do happen to fall into one of those two categories you may remember that Huertas, a guard, played his freshman year at Florida but transferred to Ole Miss in search of more playing time and more shots. It’s hard to blame him. Had he returned as a sophomore, he would have been fourth on the Gator’s depth chart behind Humphreys, a senior, and Green, a junior, as well as fellow sophomore, Walter Hodge. Not knowing that Green would leave after his junior year, Huertas was facing a scenario where he probably wouldn’t get a chance to start until his senior year. Had Huertas stayed, however, he would likely have been Florida’s starting shooting guard this year which would have been his junior year. And Florida could have used him. The Gators could have used his 10.4 points per game, particularly his 19 points per game in the month of March, a month in which Florida has lost four games and won none. Florida, a team that started two freshmen guards, both of whom averaged more than thirty minutes per game, could have used the 25 minutes a game that Huertas gave the Rebels. Most importantly, however, Florida could have used another upperclassman in their locker room, as the Gators youth was continually exposed in the form of Florida’s lack of toughness, lack of concentration and poor defense.
Huertas is among a long list of early departures and no-shows at Florida under Billy Donovan, including Mike Miller, Kwame Brown, James White, Anthony Roberson, Matt Walsh, Ryan Applby and the four juniors from last year. That is a fact of life in college basketball. Had David Huertas stayed, would the Gators be championship contenders? Almost certainly not. Would they have been a better team? Almost certainly so. Most importantly, it might have pushed them over the hump and in to the NCAA tournament for the eleventh straight season.
“If” is both a powerful word and a completely benign one. It allows us to speculate, to wonder, to hypothesize, but it doesn’t change anything in reality or in the present. What is certain is that Anthony Grant is still at the Virginia Commonwealth University and David Huertas is playing for Ole Miss and not Florida.
That Anthony Grant did not come to Florida is probably best for all involved, at least in the present day. VCU is 24-7 and still has a shot at getting into the NCAA tournament, Florida, in all likelihood, does not. Grant will get another chance to coach an elite program; he is being mentioned in connections with the current openings at LSU and South Carolina. It certainly was not Florida or bust for him. If Anthony Grant chooses, VCU will not be the pinnacle of his coaching career.
In the case of Huertas, sure, Florida will probably not make the NCAA tournament this year without him, but Ole Miss will probably not make the NCAA tournament with him either. Huertas will have the next two seasons to prove if he is better off without the Gators. It seems evident that the Gators are not, at least currently, better off without him.