Billy Donovan hasn’t had a losing season since 1998, but that’s likely to change by Saturday.
The Gators, sitting a game below .500 at 15-16, have to beat Alabama on Thursday in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament to meet the mark.
If they win, the Gators then have to turn around 24 hours later to face an undefeated Kentucky for the second time in less than a week in order to give Florida a chance to push its winning record streak to 17 seasons.
Yet Donovan is adamant that a losing season does not equal a lost season.
The players still felt the pain of each loss and the growth that comes with it.
"Everything that has happened this year for these guys is an incredible foundation for learning," Donovan said. "I would tell you, going into this year, their expectation level of how good they thought they were individually, how good they thought they were as a team, was so far from reality."
This isn’t the first time a Donovan-led Florida squad has choked on the fumes of entitlement that seem to hinder the team incumbent following a NCAA Final Four finish.
Following the second-straight NCAA Championship that Florida clinched in the 2006-07 season, the Gators, led by duo Chandler Parsons and Nick Calathes, figured that the newest class could replicate the spectacle coined "The ‘04s" – the Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Al Horford-led team that is regarded as the best Florida basketball team in school history.
But just like this year’s team, that team struggled mightily en route to an above-average yet unimpressive 24-12 finish and a ousting in the National Invitation Tournament semifinal.
Donovan must see the similarities between the two teams, differences in record aside.
However, the 2007-08 Gators had something on their side that this year’s team doesn’t: an easier schedule.
According to advanced statistician Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, that team played the 117th hardest schedule in the country, something that helped the team secure that NIT invite — something the current Gators are unlikely to receive.
Early season battles with Kansas and North Carolina proved to be too much this season for Donovan’s Gators, and Florida finished eighth in the SEC a year removed from running through the conference undefeated in the regular season.
Florida has the seventh-hardest schedule in the country this season heading into the SEC tournament, according to Kenpom.com, and a top-10 finish in that category seems all but guaranteed.
But don’t expect Donovan to ease up the schedule in the future.
He hopes that the Gators have learned enough from the losing to make one final run at a NCAA Tournament berth.
"I think the one thing, and I’m not saying this as an excuse at all to our team, it’s just reality: this team probably, in my opinion, this year was way over scheduled in terms of where we’re at and where these guys are at," Donovan said.
"Now, with that being said, it’s also the best thing that possibly happened because it gives us the best opportunity to get in the NCAA Tournament and it gives the best opportunity to find out who we really are as a team."
Follow Graham Hall on Twitter @Graham311
Billy Donovan calls out a play during Florida's 66-62 win against Texas A&M on March 3 in the O'Connell Center.
