Florida's lost a lot of games in this 2014-15 season. But it's been a while — almost two months! — since the Gators have actually been a losing team.
After their 63-62 loss to Texas A&M on Saturday night, though, that's exactly what Florida is.
All the hallmarks were there. The slow start was one in which Texas A&M streaked to a 9-2 lead. The fine performances wasted belonged to Eli Carter (22 points, his new high as a Gator), Chris Walker (11 points and four blocks off the bench), Dorian Finney-Smith (11 points and 10 rebounds), and, arguably, Kasey Hill (who compensated for no points with 10 assists and six rebounds). The shooting from distance was predictably abysmal, with Florida making six of 26 threes, and though Florida shot just seven free throws, it managed to miss three.
Oh, and the failure in the final seconds? This time, it was a defensive breakdown allowing a go-ahead bucket from A&M with under 10 seconds to go, and an offensive meltdown — after three timeouts — that resulted in Alex Murphy not quite getting off a three before the buzzer despite trailing by just one.
Florida's lost four straight games for the first time since 2007-08, and is, at 12-13, under .500 in February for the first time since 1996-97; the former group of Gators, though, at least made the NIT, while the latter missed postseason play for the only time in Billy Donovan's first 18 seasons in Gainesville.
This year, this team might well repeat that feat.