Dear Florida basketball players,

Congratulations.

You’ve stayed resilient and pulled out wins in four of your first five SEC games. You’ve improved to 17-3 - without five NBA rookies and a pro on a Greek team. People were not expecting you to make the strides in growth that you did.

But now, a whole new challenge awaits you. It’s called February.

Your scheduling gets a whole lot tougher, starting now with Vanderbilt. You’ll get tired as games drag on and on, with no rest seemingly in sight. The long hours spent traveling around the Southeast will take their toll. In short, basketball starts becoming boring.

As a young team with little experience, you are especially vulnerable to the traps of the second month of 2008. If you suddenly start dropping winnable or tough games, fans may question your heart. It will take every one of Coach Donovan’s motivational ploys to pull you through what you are about to experience.

Think this is something reserved for young teams like yourself? Think again.

The ’04s went through the slump in both, yes, both, of their national championship seasons. They lost three or four games in February that they might have won handily earlier in the season. They went through these same highs and lows twice in a row, even though they knew better. People started to doubt if they could get their act together.

But if they went through such a slump, why did they still win back-to-back championships?

In short: They played their best basketball in the postseason. In particular, they rebounded (no pun intended) in the SEC tournament. You know, as well as anybody, how dominant they were in March. In the end, they got twin crystal basketballs because they used their experience from February as a vehicle for growth on and off the court.

You have been warned. But now you know what to expect when the time comes.

Hang in there, fellas. You’re doing a fantastic job as representatives of UF.

Sincerely,
Vincent Gagliano