Amanda Butler says she bleeds orange and blue, and it's hard not to believe her.
There's no place she'd rather be than UF.
If being a Gator means being the best, as the UF women's basketball coach believes it does, why would she want to go anywhere else?
For a coach who inherited a team on the brink of disaster, Butler has turned her dream job into an unforeseen reality.
She has made her mark on the women's basketball program inexplicably fast.
When Butler stepped to the podium after being named the Gators' new leader on April 13, 2007, the questions came.
How long? How long will it take to turn this team around?
Nearly two years later, the answer has arrived, as Butler has held true to the team's motto - "Bigger and Better" - and led the team to the NCAA Tournament.
"This is my expectation: I think this is the best university in the best conference in the country," Butler said. "To be able to call yourself a Gator, it means that you have championship expectations. That's how we're going to live. That's how we're going to work. That's how we're going to play.
"As far as we've come, I think we've seen that. But I also think we've just scratched the surface."
The rest of the teams in the Southeastern Conference will not like that idea.
In Butler's eyes, the well of potential at UF is endless.
Toughness
Butler played for UF from 1990-94 as the Gators' point guard, helping lead the team in her senior year to the best record in school history at the time while also compiling an undefeated record at home.
Anyone who saw her play knew she was tough as nails.
Legend has it that one time she popped her shoulder back into place by banging it up against a wall.
Talk about toughness.
It's the one thing seniors Sha Brooks and Marshae Dotson could think of when asked what quality their coach has instilled in them.
"Toughness," Brooks said. "She preaches about toughness all the time. She says you have to be tough. I believe that if you're tough, you can do anything."
"Just be tough," Dotson added. "Don't take no crap from anyone. That's just her mindset. She's very aggressive and very straightforward."
When Dotson broke her nose in the season opener against Xavier last year and chipped her tooth a couple weeks later - she needed a root canal and a crown - Dotson said Butler was on her case about missing time in practice.
Dotson not only played in each game after her injuries, but she led the team in scoring with 25 and 18 points in those two games.
Freshman center Azania Stewart, who was experiencing kidney pains in September, said Butler - uncertain of Stewart's illness - tried to console Stewart by telling her she'd be fine.
Stewart later had to have her kidney removed a month before the season began.
It's safe to say there are no excuses with Butler.
She never made excuses as a player, and she has carried that same attitude into coaching. It seems to have worked so far.
Gator First, Coach Second
Butler, Dotson and Brooks can all remember the first time Butler addressed the team after being introduced as the Gators' new head coach.
"One of the first things I told them was that I was not addressing them as their new head coach, that I was addressing them as a Gator," Butler said. "I was addressing them as someone who had worn the uniform, and them understanding the opportunity for me to be here is maybe even more personal than professional."
Butler had to sell herself to a room full of players she hadn't recruited, players who hadn't chosen her to be their coach.
"I wanted to know two things from them, and I wanted them to see two things from me and from my staff," Butler said.
"I wanted to know how hard they were going to work and that I could trust them, and I was going to do my darndest to show them how hard I would work and that they could trust me. And that if we could prove those two things to each other every day, then we had a chance to make something special happen."
It didn't take long for the players to buy in to her message.
"This lady is all about business," Dotson said of her first impression of Butler. "She's a very direct person, and you've just kind of got to respect that."
The Eyebrow
But even in Butler's most serious and intense moments, there's humor.
Picture this: A screaming coach calls a timeout because her team just made a terrible mistake in a game. Butler glares into the faces of players scared to look her way as they make their way to the bench, and then Fred comes out.
Yes, Fred - the name players gave Butler's hunched over, raised eyebrow that strikes fear in their hearts.
"Fred comes out sometimes," Dotson said. "(Butler) came to practice sometime last week with a hat on and we we're like, 'Yeah, we like that. We can't see Fred.'"
Brooks said her coach has a commanding presence when she enters a room.
"I tell her all the time she scares me because when you walk in the room, it's like the President has just walked in," Brooks said. "It's like you know you better step it up, or either you're going to be in the locker room crying or you're going to be on the bench."
Butler has a slightly different take on Fred.
"I don't know really the look," she said while laughing. "I don't even know how to do it. It's clearly an expression that just happens, probably in the more intense moments. But it has become a characteristic that gets their attention, and I think that's probably a good thing."
As high as Fred might be raised sometimes, that height doesn't come anywhere near the level of Butler's expectations for her team.
Butler said if anything about her has changed since she took the job, it's only that her expectations have risen.
Quick Turnaround
Assistant coach Susie Gardner has a theory on why Butler has been so successful at UF so quickly.
There were already some players in place, Gardner says, although she's quick to point out they were the same players who had won just nine games the year before Butler's arrival.
Combine the talent with change, a chance to spark a new fire and - most importantly - adding Butler to the equation.
"She made them from Day 1 believe that they were a special team, that they were special players," Gardner said. "We can talk about X's and O's, but the main part of coaching is to make your players believe, and she did that in a very positive manner."
Butler was hesitant to believe she could take this team to the NCAA Tournament early in her time at UF. She was more concerned with working hard every day and setting a high standard for her players.
"What we've seen, the progress we've seen and how quickly it's been made is a demonstration of the work ethic of the young ladies who've committed to an idea of trying to be the best," Butler said.
It's almost certain they have modeled their own work ethic after that of their head coach.
It's the mentality that enables Butler to fly in from a recruiting trip, head to a morning press conference and be in the practice gym in time to scout UF's next opponent on film while riding an exercise bike and answering reporters' questions - all at the same time.
The players see that effort from their coach and want to replicate it.
The result: a top-25 ranking this season and a ticket to the Big Dance.
"Has it happened quicker than I thought it would? I don't feel like we're where we want to go yet," Butler said. "Have we made tremendous strides? Absolutely. But we're not at the top of the mountain, and that will be probably the greatest measure of how quickly things happen."
For someone who wears her passion for this program on her sleeve - and under her skin - the question may now become how long it will take UF to win a national title.
"It has everything to do with a mindset," Butler said.
"It has everything to do with having championship expectations, because to me that's what being a Gator is about. You want to be the best. You don't want to finish in the top half of the conference. You're not trying to be a top-four seed. You want to be No. 1. Clearly we're not quite there yet, but hopefully taking steps in the right direction."
With Butler at the helm, UF might reach that pinnacle sooner than anyone could have imagined.
