GAINESVILLE — Florida coach Billy Donovan watched his team beat then sixth-ranked Kansas State 57-44 with one of the Gators' best defensive efforts in school history before losing two days later to Jacksonville University 71-68 in overtime.
Which Gator team will show up at 7 p.m. today when Sun Belt Conference team Radford (2-8) visits the O'Connell Center? Even the coach doesn't seem sure what he's going to get on any given night.
"I think really what it comes down to going into the game, I've got to find, and I think this is the hard part for me with this team, is I don't know who's going to show up necessarily from game to game," Donovan said. "So you're trying to find combinations of pieces to throw out there. And that's what I was really trying to find (Monday). I was hoping to get more from our freshmen."
It's strange that a team returning all five starters from an NCAA Tournament team still might be searching for the right combinations in late December. But, that's where Florida appears to be.
"This has been a good group," insists Donovan. "They've handled adversity. They handled it after the UCF game, they handled it after the Ohio State game. They'll bounce back, that's what they do. They will do it.
"But if they really want to be a great team, they've got to handle prosperity. And right now, it's almost like they allow a lot of people to fill up their balloon with a lot of great stuff and they feel good. But in reality, it doesn't really mean a whole lot."
Dealing with success can be as hard as trying to battle back from failure. The Gators are getting a lot of experience at both.
"I'd be very disappointed if we didn't play really, really hard (tonight)," Donovan said. "But can we be a team that is almost playing like a faceless opponent and nameless opponent? We would have been better off (Monday) playing the Los Angeles Lakers. That would have been better for us because that would have forced them because they look at (who the opponent is). And that's not what it's about.
