Why Florida basketball is the biggest disappointment of the year

Florida basketball is one of the biggest disappointments of the year but Kerry Blackshear still has time to get the Gators back on track.

It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.

Florida basketball is playing the role of spoiler when they were supposed to be a legitimate contender this season. The addition of grad transfer Kerry Blackshear Jr. from Virginia Tech was supposed to be the catalyst to cutting down the nets. Instead, nothing has gone according to that script as the Gators have been the biggest letdown of the season.

The preseason No. 6 Gators are 13-8 and 5-3 in the SEC entering Wednesday’s game vs. rival Georgia, who has also been a bust this year.

But Florida has been the bigger letdown in a year where nothing seems to be going right.

The Gators had Noah Locke, Andrew Nembhard, and Keyontae Johnson returning to complement Blackshear. The hype was there for Florida basketball to make their way through a tough SEC and make a run at the Final Four.

The hype faded after a 12-point loss to Florida State in the second game of the year and a three-point loss at UConn two games later. The hype train was veering off the rails with losses to Utah State and Butler before conference play even started.

Once they got to SEC play, Florida basketball fans hoped the Gators would be able to right the ship. They still had a talented team so the hope was there for a run against some of the inferior teams to get their confidence back and stack some wins.

Well, it started with a dogfight when they needed two overtimes to beat Alabama who is probably destined for the NIT.

The most recent stretch is where Florida is seeing the season slip away from them. They almost let Vanderbilt come back to beat them before surviving to snap a three-game losing streak. The biggest reason behind Florida’s struggles this year is a total lack of defense.

Florida gave up more than 70 in losses to Baylor, Mississippi State and LSU. They went into last week with the chance to get momentum in their favor with an upset bid against the No. 1 team in the country and a pair of division foes.

Instead, they went in the opposite direction.

The No. 108 defense in the country that allows 66.6 points per game isn’t making enough hustle plays on defense to create turnovers and easy offensive opportunities. They rank No. 194 in the country in turnovers forced on an average of 13 turnovers per game. That puts the Gators in similar territory as Oral Roberts, Albany and Colorado State. That’s not good company for Florida who was supposed to be one of the best teams in the country.

In a season that has seen plenty of upsets and a seemingly rotating in a new No. 1 in the AP Poll each week, there are plenty of disappointing teams in the team picture with Florida.

Michigan State was the preseason No. 1 team and already has six losses, Kentucky doesn’t look like Kentucky, Virginia and Texas Tech may miss the NCAA Tournament, but no one has disappointed as much as Florida.

The Gators are at a crux in their make-or-break season.

Andy Katz still predicts they’ll make the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed. They would be the kind of team No.1 seeds hate to play in a Round of 32 game considering the talent on Florida that hasn’t lived up to it yet.

They’re also a possibility for that 11 seed that has to fight its way into the tournament in the “first round”. If the Gators can’t get this group of talent to play like they are as good as they should be, they will be playing in the NIT.

A lot of this comes down to head coach Mike White. He’s not getting the most out of his players, the team has long scoring droughts and his team can’t force turnovers.

They have four players scoring more than 10 points per game led by Blackshear’s 14, but he needs to take his game to another level and get closer to 20 for Florida to get right.

He is capable of elevating his play and the play of his teammates but if they can’t fix their defense, they’ll go down as the biggest disappointment of the year.

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