A Billy Donovan Update

Back in June, I wrote on University of Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan's flip-flop on coaching the Orlando Magic professional team (for the series of entries, go here, here, and here) and the Florida Gators were expected to have a down season this year because of said flip-flop and the loss of three starters on the roster. But a look at the Southeastern Conference (SEC) standings shows Florida virtually tied with Tennessee atop the SEC East standings (Tennessee has a 3-1 conference record and is 16-2 overall; Florida has the same conference record and is 16-3 overall). All this despite a lot of new faces on the roster and being unranked in the national polls, while rivals like Tennessee are ranked as high as No. 3 in the polls.

So why no love from the pollsters? It's because Florida has beaten teams it should beat and the hardest part of its schedule is yet to come. Because of this, they're listed as a "bubble" team for March Madness. Florida still has to play Tennessee twice, Vanderbilt twice, Georgia twice, and Mississippi State. There's a lot of season left to make a move into the polls before March Madness and it will be interesting to see if the Gators can make it to the "dance".