If you want to look for evidence Florida basketball is headed nowhere in particular, it isn’t terribly hard to find.
The Gators have lost only five times in 21 games, and teams with far better reputations are in the same neighborhood, but how does one explain the defeat to Jacksonville, the one at home to South Carolina? Is that what we expect from a significant college team?
No, but would we expect any team in the game, save perhaps the very best, to stack up road wins at Georgia, Tennessee, Florida State, Xavier?
Oh, these Gators are a tough bunch to figure.
“I think we have a chance to be great,” said forward Chandler Parsons. And that chance is at hand.
This week the Gators play twice at home, at the arena they call the O-Dome, and their visitors rank among the few leading lights in the Southeastern Conference. It’s Vanderbilt (15-5, 3-3) on Tuesday, in a 9 p.m. game to be televised by ESPN.
Then Saturday the four-letter network brings its whole Gameday extravaganza to town to properly hyperbolize the showdown between the Gators (16-5, 5-2) and Kentucky (16-4, 4-2) that will air at 9 p.m.
