Tuesday's Take: Florida Basketball Isn't Ranked, and They Don't Deserve To Be

Florida basketball has been as bad as possible through its opening four games. Let's dissect.

Editor’s note: “Tuesday’s Take” is Sports Illustrated - GatorMaven author Graham Marsh’s weekly column.

Seventy-four points. 

That's the highest point total Gator basketball has scored through its first four games. Let that sink in. Seventy-four. 

It has been rough, and that is no secret. Any player or coach on the team will tell you that. So, in the most recent AP Poll, Florida was left off the top-25 list, and rightfully so. 

This team has not proven in the slightest that it is one of the best 25 teams in college basketball. And yes, it is a long season and it is really early. Kentucky losing to Evansville has been the easy quote recently of those telling the fans up in arms to calm down. 

The problem though is that UF and UK are very different teams. Florida has a lot of newcomers yes, but it also returned three starters. And not to mention that a fourth starter is a graduate transfer in Kerry Blackshear Jr. that has played multiple years of college basketball. 

Some early season miscues are expected. The chemistry is a little off, things take time. But this team is showing problems that seem to be deeper than that. This team is not improving game to game and there seems to be a lack of motivation. Starting from head coach Mike White, down to every player, there seems to be no fire. 

Nobody ever gets pissed off. Nobody ever yells. Everyone just seems low key. 

To me, that's a fundamental flaw. It's bigger than growing pains. 

Now, this would be a terrible column if I didn't explain to you in more detail what is wrong, if I didn't show you specific examples, so let's roll: 

It's 62-59 in favor of UCONN. Five seconds to play. Keyontae Johnson has the ball behind the three-point line. Multiple feet off of him, it was obvious that the Huskies dared Johnson to shoot. 

And what did he do? Well, first, he hesitated. Mistake one. 

Second, he passed it off. Mistake two. 

Third, he didn't even pass to an open man, he turned it over. Mistake three. Ball game. 

I will not allow this to turn into a story that just rips Johnson for one bad possession. It is certainly not all on him, not even close. 

However, I use that as an example because it personifies this team right now. Nothing paints a more accurate description of Florida basketball right now than a second-year leader preventing UF from even getting a shot off in a one-possession nail-biter. 

You simply can't allow that to happen. Nobody can, but especially not a leader on the team, not a guy you lean on. 

So, what's next? Well, that depends. What kind of fan are you? 

Are you the fan that thinks this is mere growing pains and chemistry being off that will come in due time? Are you a fan that is just patiently waiting for more threes to fall? 

Or are you the pessimist? Are you the fan that thinks the sky is falling and they need to blow everything up right now? 

Well, truthfully, like anything in sports, I think reality is somewhere in the middle. 

Of course some of this is growing pains. Of course they won't look this bad in February. Of course there will be better days than 24.1 percent from three, the current season average. 

But I also think that it is naive to believe that that's all it is. The eye test tells you that this team leaves effort plays on the floor. This team doesn't have anyone at least right now that seems to be capable of getting their own shot. This team through four games doesn't show anybody getting better game after game. 

It is almost impossible to believe Florida will continue to play this bad. This team will improve. 

The question is, how much?