NEW ORLEANS — Their supreme confidence suddenly wilting, the Florida Gators were so frustrated in the midst of the holidays, they called for a team meeting.
Sure, the Gators look strong now. They returned five starters from last year’s team, and everybody knows what happened the last time they were so seasoned.
All five starters are scoring threats. The so-called weakest link, forward Alex Tyus, had 19 points and 17 rebounds in a Sweet 16 victory Thursday against BYU.
Florida plays Butler today for the right to advance to the Final Four. A victory puts the Gators back into the Final Four for the first time since a second straight national title in 2007.
But a Final Four berth appeared far out of reach back in December when the Gators lost to in-state schools Central Florida and Jacksonville. Cause for euphoric celebration on the smaller college campuses in the state of Florida. Slump-shoulder embarrassment for the mighty Gators.
“It was really a humbling experience,” said senior forward Chandler Parsons.
“I felt like we really didn’t know who we were at the beginning of the season,” Tyus said.
“The starting five seniors and the freshmen, we talked,” said senior center Vernon Macklin. “We had to go hard in practice, and we wanted to fight to get what we wanted because we had a list of things we wanted to do before the season. We felt like we weren’t doing those things, weren’t playing defense as well as we should, weren’t sharing the ball as much as we should.”
Butler had an even more embarrassing stretch, at a frighteningly later point in the season. From Jan. 16 through Feb. 3, Butler lost to Wright State, Milwaukee, Valparaiso and Young town State.
“It’s important to have upperclassmen and to have experience,” said senior big man Matt Howard, Butler’s leading scorer and rebounder and a key figure on last year’s team that played in the NCAA title game.
The rough patch late in the season was uncharted territory, though, for most of the team. In his first three seasons at Butler, Howard and head coach Brad Stevens went 30-4, 26-6 and 33-5. Suddenly, they’re 1-4 against Wright, Milwaukee, Valpo and Youngstown?
“I think our defense is the biggest thing,” said Shelvin Mack, a junior swingman. “We played Valparaiso early in the year and we gave up 60 points in a half. That’s not us. We usually don’t give up 60 points in a game.”
It was actually 59 points in the second half and overtime against Valpo, but still, that was a sieve-like effort from a Butler defense that Thursday night held Wisconsin to zero points over a 9-minute, 7-second span in the Bulldogs’ Sweet 16 win.
“Since then, it’s been a lot of technical work, been a lot of practice, been a lot of talk, been a lot of focus, been a lot of attention to detail,” Stevens said. “We’ve said it all along: We were very versatile last year, and we’re not as versatile this year. And so, all of the work that you put into being technically sound, we have to be more technically sound this year than we were last year, and that’s just a fact of who we are.”
Florida coach Billy Donovan, with back-to-back national titles on his glossy resume, indicated his current team needed the ego suppressor that losses to Central Florida and Jacksonville provided.
“I told the guys after the Central Florida game that we have bigger problems than the fact that we didn’t win this game,” Donovan said. “It wasn’t selfishness, it was just more of a lack of awareness of how much they were not playing with each other, helping each other, and all they did during those times is they frustrated each other.
“They never, ever didn’t get along — unbelievable chemistry off the floor; they all like each other — but there was not good chemistry on the floor. And then, I think it took some humbling experiences to force them to look in the mirror to say, ‘You know what? This is going to have to change.’ “
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
