Pat Dooley’s High Five: Greatest Senior Day At Florida Men’s Basketball

The Back Nine comes at you after a rainy weekend that was pretty special for a lot of people. Actually, it was really special.

10. If you are like me – and I feel bad for you if you are – you were nervous about Saturday’s basketball game against Ole Miss. I guess the reason I was nervous was that I kept thinking about Billy Donovan almost being physically ill worrying about Udonis Haslem’s Senior Day against a woeful Tennessee team. Billy always felt like Haslem should go down in history as one of the greatest Gators (we used to have Haslem vs. Neal Walk arguments all the time) and desperately wanted him to leave the court with a win. UD closed the game with a breakaway two-handed slam that finished off a tight game. I thought that was the greatest Senior Day until Saturday.

11. Because when Todd Golden was telling the stories about the three senior guards and how he was able to get them, it was heartwarming for Gator fans everywhere. These guys just finished off what was one of the best regular seasons in Florida history. And they did it without egos. Florida’s blowout win against Ole Miss was just one more good example of unselfishness and grit. It was also an illustration of what a great job Golden did of – as Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said after the game – building a roster. No matter what happens from here on out, take the next few days to bask in the glow of a 27-4 season with two wins against No. 1 teams and the second-best record in what has arguably been the best conference in the history of basketball.

12. But, of course, we are also looking ahead to the SEC Tournament and then the Big Dance. Florida should be a No. 1 even if it loses Friday night in Nashville. The only way I could see the Gators being a No. 2 (as Austin Powers said, “Who does No. 2 work for?”) is if they went one-and-done and Alabama or Tennessee won the whole thing. There has been a lot of talk about how some teams might WANT to get eliminated early to avoid injuries and stay fresh. But these elite coaches – while they know everything will be judged by the NCAA Tournament – are still going to try to win every moment of every game.

13. Here in the Dooley Dome, I went Veg City this weekend. Just sat in my recliner and watched basketball for 10 hours. Hey, it was raining and my foot is in a boot. It was a great day of basketball and now it looks like 13 teams will make it from the SEC into the tournament, breaking the all-time record by two. I do tend to bristle when announcers talk about Florida not challenging itself in the non-conference part of the season. It’s not Florida’s fault the ACC is so bad (Florida played four games against the league). Other than the three teams that will make the tournament (Duke, Clemson, Louisville), the rest of the league went 14-112 in Quad 1 games. That’s not good.

14. Which means that Auburn has two more Quad 1 wins than the 15 teams that likely won’t make the tournament from the ACC. Some didn’t even make the ACC Tournament, which is why N.C. State decided to fire Kevin Keatts one year after he went to the Final Four. His run last year made me think about the Tornado Tournament in Atlanta when Georgia won the SEC to save Dennis Felton’s job, then fired him a year later. The name we are hearing for that job in Raleigh is SEC villain Will Wade. Yuk.

15. Certainly, we expected Harvard to be swept by the Florida baseball team. The Crimson’s ERA went up more than 14 when the Gators put a 22-burger on them in the second game of the doubleheader. But now, it gets real, as the Gators play two of the three unbeaten teams in college baseball on the road. FSU is Tuesday and Tennessee, the defending national champs, is the weekend series. Florida has only traveled for three games this year and both environments will be off the chain. It will be interesting.

16. A big shout out to the gymnastics team for finishing off the triple Lindy (that’s what I’m calling it) by beating Alabama on Friday night. That meant Florida beat the Tide three times in three days in three different sports (two of them in Tuscaloosa). The ladies finish off the regular season Friday night against Kentucky in the O-Dome. It should be packed for another Senior Night.

17. Man, I watched a lot of softball this weekend, too, with my three TV set-up and when Florida lost the Friday night game on an error, it was brutal. All the Gators did was come back and run-rule Texas A&M on Saturday and beat the Aggies again Sunday. Big week with UCF, which is coming off a big series win at No. 4 Arizona, coming to town followed by 24-1 Texas in one of those Saturday-Sunday-Monday series. It never gets dull around here, does it?

18. This is one of my favorite weeks in sports with the big conference tournaments and daytime games on TV during the week, plus Scottie Scheffler going for a three-peat at The Players. Also, I hope to play golf again one day soon. I have this playlist ready:

• “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go To The Party” by Courtney Barnett. A real rocker.
• “Heavy” by Birdtalker.
• And for a really old one, the song that got these two guys their record deal, “The Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. Maybe the best lyrics ever.

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.