by David Cassilo / @dcassilo
If Florida can be described as anything since it’s back-to-back titles it would be one word: erratic. With every big win for the Gators, there has been a head-scratching loss soon after. Monday was no different.
Just two days after beating then-No. 6 Kansas State, Billy Donovan’s team fell to Jacksonville — at home. The Dolphins, who were coming off back-to-back losses to Winthrop and Saint Louis, won their first game over Florida since 1994 with Monday’s 71-68 upset in overtime.
The Gators blew a seven-point lead with just under seven minutes to play, and behind a team-high 18 points from freshman Keith McDougald, Jacksonville was able to pull off the upset.
A highly-annoyed Donovan was left searching for answers after the game.
From TampaBay.com:
“We find a lot of ways to sabotage ourselves,” Donovan said. “They were more of a team (Monday) than we were. Clearly, for the people that watched us play against Kansas State, (it was) two totally different teams. … We were totally ripe to be beat. I’m not sure we could have beat anybody (Monday). And that’s not taking anything away from Jacksonville, because their kids did a great job.”
It’s hard for anyone to have a good idea of how good Florida is after this loss. The Gators not only just beat Kansas State, they held them to 44 points. But with SEC play on the horizon, this Florida team that was supposed to be possibly Donovan’s best since his last title, is instead shaping up to be another disappointment.
