If you were there, listening to John Calipari speak, if you heard the pure annoyance, the dulled frustration in his voice, you would have realized it.
“Maybe,” Calipari, coach of then-No. 8 Kentucky, said, sulking in his chair after his team lost by 22 points to Florida, “we’ve hit bottom.”
Never before has the depth of one man’s despair been the cause for so many others’ elation. But if you’re a Florida Gators fan, that’s how Saturday felt.
Sweet. Vengeful.
Sweet, sweet vengeance.
Finally.
At first, you felt a glimmer of hope as Florida took the first lead of the game. You felt satisfaction as Kentucky guard and future NBA lottery pick Malik Monk went scoreless in the first half. The excitement built at halftime. The Gators were leading by eight points … then seven … no, 11 … no, wait, 17 … what? 22? Against Kentucky?
Finally.
The Gators are back.
Finally.
UF last won national titles in 2006 and 2007, when former coach Billy Donovan called Gainesville home and the Gators’ roster was brimming with future NBA players. UF last made the NCAA Tournament in 2014, when Donovan led a not-as-talented but veteran-laden team to the Final Four. Florida basketball fans last felt hope nearly two years after that, when Florida beat then-No. 9 West Virginia at home in Mike White’s first season as coach.
But Saturday night was something different. Saturday night was Kentucky, in all its crowd-drawing prowess, the college basketball powerhouse that gets all the five-star recruits. Year after year, they never have to rebuild. They only reload. They only have to bring in a new set of the nation’s top high school players as the door shuts behind the last set, off to make millions in the NBA.
And Florida beat them. No, wait. Embarrassed them.
And so it was, the first Saturday of February in the year 2017, that the Florida Gators basketball program returned from the dead. Saturday’s victory was not just monumental because it added another tally to UF’s win column in the thick of SEC competition, but because of what it meant for potential recruits. Because of what it meant for the trust in White’s plan. For legitimacy to be placed back in a program that five-star recruits were once forced to consider, if for no other reason than because Florida consistently won. Because they played the best teams and they won.
But, careful. This is not a proclamation that Florida has solved all of its issues, that the work is done, that it will win the national title this year and the next and become the next collegiate dynasty. Of course not.
This is merely a start. The very beginning. After two years of failing to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, this is the Gators staring up from the base of Everest, ready for a climb back to the top. But at least now they have a rope and a pick and a backpack full of confidence.
This proved that White is building something at UF, and that, yes, he will be the coach to get the Gators there. Four-straight wins by at least 20 points against Power Five conference schools will do that to you. A 22-point win over Kentucky, which the Gators hadn’t beaten in its last five matchups, will do that to you.
Calipari’s despair will do that to you.
The Gators are back, Florida fans.
Finally.
Ian Cohen is a sports writer. His column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at icohen@alligator.org, and follow him on Twitter @icohenb.
UF head coach Mike White looks on in Florida's 80-76 win against Georgia on Jan. 14, 2017, at the O'Connell Center.
