Gator Nation in Frustration, Yet Again

The Florida Gators find themselves in the same situation as last year—no NCAA Tournament. Which means no Final Four and no NCAA Championship.

You might not remember this, but the Florida Gators won back-to-back national titles in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Now, they have started a new trend—not making the tournament back-to-back.

Maybe it's some kind of new trend they are going to start, and not a trend I want to be part of. But in all seriousness, what happened to this team? They were once on top, but have now made a habit of not showing up for the dance.

The year was 2005-06 and it was all Florida Gators. The Gators came out crushing anything that got in their way for the first three months. They were 17-0 going into the last week in January when they started to slide. However, the Gators regained their strength going into the SEC tournament, and their eyes were on the title.

2006-07 would be a similar year, but even better for the Gators. The season would only deal them five losses and a huge national title against then No. 1 Ohio State.

2007-2008 would be deadly for the Gators, as they did not make the NCAA Tournament and lost to UMASS in the N.I.T.

This year has been even worse. A well-stacked team with players like Nick Calathes (17.2 PPG) and Alex Tyus (12.4 PPG) proved that they could make the tournament, but bad losses proved otherwise.

The problem that hit the Gators hardest was the SEC. In the last two years, the SEC has become stronger, with teams that were at the bottom moving to the top.

When the Gators won their second championship in 2007, teams like LSU, South Carolina, and Auburn were at the bottom. Now things have changed—those same teams are atop the SEC and dominating. These teams may not be making the NCAA Tournament, but they are keeping the Gators out.

As the SEC gets stronger with teams like Vandy, LSU, Mississippi State, and Auburn, the Gators will continue to lose their touch and Florida's downward trend will only continue.