For Young Gators, It Was Experience They Won’t Forget

The call came from President Clinton, and Billy Donovan took the phone in the Florida locker room.

What’s this? Crossed wires?

It was a rare call to the losing locker room--something Clinton didn’t do last year when Duke lost to Connecticut.

“Talking to the President, huh?” forward Mike Miller said, slouched in his chair nearby as the coach thanked Clinton for calling. “We should have met him.”

Clinton won’t be around next year, but if young Florida standouts such as Miller actually stick around, they’ll have a reasonable shot at visiting his replacement in the White House.

Miller didn’t particularly sound sold, acknowledging Florida’s 89-76 loss to Michigan State might have been his only chance to win a national championship.

“You know, it could be. It might not be,” said Miller, a sophomore who led the Gators in scoring but was held to 10 points and three rebounds in the NCAA title game, making two of five shots, one of two from three-point range.

“I’ve got to talk to coach about it,” Miller said when asked about the NBA. “I’ve got an opportunity a lot of players don’t ever get.

“Our team could be special. We lose Kenyan Weaks but we have recruits coming in. But like I said all along, you never know. There are no guarantees. You can have a great team, but no luck when you get to the tournament. You never know.”

Donovan wrapped up his call with Clinton, who didn’t take long to get around to his real basketball interest: Arkansas.

“Well, I’ve got a lot of respect for Nolan,” Donovan said when Clinton turned the conversation to Nolan Richardson at the end.

The championship game wasn’t much of a showing for Florida, which looked like the young team it is much of the game. Ten of Florida’s 13 players are freshmen or sophomores.

Teddy Dupay, who will be remembered for getting tangled up with Mateen Cleaves as the Spartan point guard tried to score after a play was already whistled dead, wasn’t buying the youth and inexperience theory.

“I don’t think so,” Dupay said. “If that had something to do with it, we would have lost to North Carolina. They had guys who had been here before.

“Michigan State just played well, and we played poorly.

“We hit twos. They hit threes. You do the math.”

Michigan State made 11 of 22 three-point shots. Florida, known for its three-point shooting, made only six of 18.

The Gators were unable to score much of anywhere except inside, where Udonis Haslem picked up 27 points.

The Gators also are known for their press, but Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo and the Spartans solved it, often going over the top to break it but using the ballhandling of Cleaves, Morris Peterson and Charlie Bell as well.

“We watched a lot of tape, and I did not see one team press them all year long--probably obviously for a good reason teams didn’t press them,” Donovan said.

“Once we figured out what they were doing, we just had a very difficult time taking those things away. I think that’s a tribute to Charlie Bell, Cleaves and Morris Peterson. They did a good job.”

That’s a couple of seniors and one junior, Bell.

Florida had one senior on the team.

As Dupay said, you do the math.