The Gators Men's Basketball team beat Aubun last night 78-69 in the first round of the SEC tournament. Some say this puts them in the dance; here is one Gatorsfirst author's take on the matter. Either way, last night was a great win for the gators with many players stepping up to the challenge. The Gators played like it was a &must win& game, which it was. The first &must win& game of the season, despite many saying the last five regular season games were &must win&.

The big story for Auburn was Tay Waller going 0-6 with 0 points and 4 fouls. Waller averaged over 20 points a game in the final games of the regular season for Auburn, but could not connect against the Gators.

As I started earlier this season, throughout the offseason I'm going to give a quick rundown of the week's storylines, in case your not as OCD about Gators as those that get their up-to-the-second Gators news here. But even if you do, I hope I'll entertain you somewhat, give you some different perspectives, and throw in some other odds and ends to keep you interested.

So the other day, I started thinking about what, exactly, could be the problem with our basketball team.

We lack depth.  I studied the early departures during Donovan's entire tenure at Florida last summer.

We lack certain skill sets.  Again, is Billy Donovan's recruiting to blame?  Is Dan Werner just a bum with no business being on anyone's team?

Then I really started thinking: which team would be better off in 2009-10, our present rotation (we run 8 deep) or a 9-man rotation consisting of guys that either left Florida early or aren't playing now for other reasons?

Oh, and I'll answer those other questions, too...