...What an idiot I am...came back to it just in time to see them blow it TWO different ways at the end, including a "travel" when they HAD a time-out...they seemed to just completely fall apart discipline-wise the last 10 minutes of the game...now it's a few seconds left, a 3 pointer the only way they tie--and they have scored ONE basket in the last more-than-8-minutes.
It's over--two wild 3-tries and they're now done.
Nice little run there, boys--but you pulled the same let-down as last year, and now it's time to step aside. We are a FOOTBALL SCHOOL--check back with us when you're ready to actually get serious about at least TRYING to be a credible B-ball program as well. Are you listening, Billy D.??? It was on you last year, and THIS one was on you AGAIN, make NO mistake! Once was "disappointing"; twice, against ANOTHER school we had more talent than and were out-playing with 10 minutes left, that goes beyond "disappointing" into pathetic and UNCONSCIONABLE. I don't want to hear any excuses, either. You had your team running a Chinese Fire Drill out there the last 1/4 of that game, and you didn't call ONE Time-Out to calm them down, even as that "comfortable lead" steadily slipped away. Hey--I've seen that "deer in the headlights look", that you wore on the sidelines throughout, BEFORE: on Urban Meyer most of his last season here. Feelin' OK there, Billy? No sudden concerns about your heart or anything, huh?
I'm sure the big roundball fans at UF are ready to eviscerate me by now, would FREAK at any suggestion that this guy will only win championships with a whole TEAM full of superstars who virtually coach themselves (are we really waiting around hoping that happens a SECOND time???), and will make and/or buy into any explanation/rationale that somehow lets the Coach off the hook and keeps him, and the same old "hope", alive another year (and yes, I KNOW we "lost Yeguette" and "things might have been different" but that ISN'T what happened here: the door was open and we WERE on a roll--and then once more we didn't finish, didn't play the last 10 minutes of The Big Game--Face it, AND its implications!), but the only "argument" that really holds any validity is one that in the end makes my original point here (yes, there WAS one):
Fact is, Mr. Donovon is probably just about the best, highest profile Coach we can get at UF--we won't GET that guy from the very top-tier, one of that handful that are known to get the very best, "plus that little extra", out of his players AND the TEAMS they put together, and make work out of those "raw materials". One of them probably beat us today--but that's a special case, his going to Louisville to compete cross-state with one of the guys from the very top of that "top tier"...
And why is that so? Why is "Billy" probably the best we can do, and maybe not even THAT well if we are seen to "treat him badly"? BECAUSE we are, far and away, a FOOTBALL SCHOOL. Does anyone doubt that this is so? These big-ego'd, wanna-be-called "The Dean of"-something, "I can go ANYWHERE"-guys aren't about to be eclipsed by, play second fiddle to, or otherwise have to take second billing to another sport OR the man who's coaching it.
So we're back to: Turn the page, Spring REAL-ball is underway, our team is coming along and IS getting better. It won't happen overnight, but this Coach and his staff is building not just a team, but a program--one that is intended to be strong, tough, dominating and CONSISTENTLY SO for years to come. I don't know about y'all, but though college football is my first love, WHATEVER the sport I want my team (OUR team, the Fightin' GATORS) to be one that scares people BECAUSE they are so consistently and reliably good, one that finds a way to keep "getting it done", year in, year out. Anything else just never feels real, seems flimsy and uncertain, as if it can and will be ripped away--because it CAN and WILL. What joy there is is just too fleeting; we can't enjoy it properly.
It's time for SUSTAINED power and greatness. This (football) program has done everything else, and we've experienced it all with them. It is time for the next step up: King of the Hill. Knock us off, if you can--and even when you do, we won't fall far, we'll be right back. That's what this current braintrust has in mind, that's what Foley was looking for, and is sure he has found (and I along with him) in Will Muschamp and, more and more, in the men he has surrounded himself with. This will be a good year, 2013 will be a GREAT year, and on it will go from there. We're a steady train up the mountain pass right now, we'll top the pass soon and begin to gather speed and, soon enough, be a barreling express in seasons to come, mark my words.
(Whew! I NEEDED a pep talk--tell me YOU didn't need one too! I meant every word--hope it helped SOMEONE besides me...)
