Florida won the offseason.
Coming off a .500 effort in the SEC and a second-round exit in March, the Gators are now billed as a top-10 team that should harbor Final Four aspirations. And for the first time since Billy Donovan left for the NBA, the Gators are now back in the discussion as a member of the sport’s upper crust. Over Mike White’s four seasons in Gainesville, Florida’s never backslid into mediocrity, settling somewhere between average and good. Now, in a matter of months, their credentials have been upgraded.
Last season, there were ample and fair reasons to critique the roster— it was a veteran team whose defining character trait might have been offensive inconsistency.