Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Loss At Vanderbilt May Have Silver Lining

The Back Nine comes at you after another weekend filled with the good, the bad and the awful.

 10. The Gator men’s basketball loss Saturday might be the best thing that could have happened to Florida. This team got better as the season went along and there was a lot of hype out there. Maybe they needed to be reminded how you got to Point B from Point A. Instead, they slipped back to Point F, where turnovers and apathy live. Yes, that Vandy flop was a brutally missed call. But you – I’ll say this again – have to play around the refs’ mistakes. Todd Golden was right when he said his team would have won by double digits if it had just done the things it has been doing for the last six weeks.

11. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but Florida had better be careful this week. Because if the Gators go-oh-for-Nashville, the team with no bad losses will have two. I’m not saying that a team projected to be a No. 6 seed on Saturday morning will suddenly be left out of the NCAA Tournament, but playing with a purpose would be nice. Florida dropped seven spots in the NET Rankings after losing to Vanderbilt. Imagine the angst if it lost to Mike White’s Georgia team (No. 101 in the NET) or a Missouri team that has yet to win an SEC game.

12. OK, it has been a while since The Picks have made an appearance, so I will give you my best bet for the SEC Tournament. I know Tennessee fans will tell you the Kentucky loss was a fluke, but I think the Vols have become too reliant on Dalton Knecht. You know, the guy who scored 40 Saturday. I have Kentucky beating Auburn in the final. Take that to the bank, ask for a free pen and leave.

13. Knecht’s 40 weren’t as impressive as Jalen Blackmon’s 43 on Sunday. Because the lightning-quick guard was so effective, Stetson is playing in its first NCAA Tournament. Donnie Jones, the former Florida assistant, has done an incredible job with that program and I could not be happier for him. Now watch the committee try to figure out how to get Stetson and Florida in the same part of the bracket, then claim it was just coincidence.

14. Oh, wait. Did I get all the way to this part of the column without mentioning spring football practice has started at Florida? I thought Billy Napier said during his first news conference of the spring all of the things that I have been thinking during the offseason. This is Florida’s best roster in a long time. The team is hungry. The bottom line is this is finally HIS team and everybody is curious what the results will be. Everything sounds great from camp so far, but we have to see the product on the field before we can truly know what 2024 holds for this program.

15. You know, when Kevin O’Sullivan made the decision to start Jac Caglianone at the end of the weekend rotation, it made a lot of people wonder why not the beginning? But you are seeing his logic. Cags threw a no-no for 6-plus innings Sunday to lead Florida to another series win. And don’t forget Saint Mary’s lit up Florida pitching in the first two games. Now it gets really serious with unbeaten Florida State on Tuesday night and undefeated Texas A&M to start SEC play Friday. The good news is they are all at home.

16. Yeah, so it was a run-rule Sunday for the bat and ball sports. Softball did it as well on the road at Alabama. Those freshman pitchers are looking impressive. One more game tonight against the Tide at 7 on the SEC Network. Alabama made six errors on Sunday and I enjoyed every one.

17. If you want to play in the 29^th Bob Dooley Invitational, we can put you on the waitlist with the hope we can find some more carts. Olympian Grant Holloway filled it up with a team and a donation. He is the GOAT and not just because he can run and jump, although he is pretty good at both of those things as well. Two months away and we’re full. And to think I almost didn’t have this one.

18. On Saturday, the edge of that front dumped a hard 10 minutes of rain on our house at one point and created a river in the street gutter. The river was bright yellow. That’s how much pollen is in the air. Did we even have a winter? Here’s your playlist and hand me some Kleenex:

• “Hot & Heavy” by Lucy Dacus.
• “And It’s Still Alright” by Nathaniel Rateliff.
• And for an old one, because I watched “Bohemian Rhapsody” for, like, the 300^th time this weekend, “Keep Yourself Alive” by Queen.

WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.