GAINESVILLE- The Florida Gator basketball team enters the NCAA championships with a host of impressive items on their resume: an SEC regular season championship, one of the top RPI rankings in the country, 26 wins and wins over ranked opponents Marquette and Wisconsin.

But the Gators will also go into the championships with the stigma of not being able to close out close games, including Sunday's SEC tournament final, a 66-63 loss to Ole Miss.

Billy Donovan defended his team's record in close games, saying they'd won some that don't count because the final score wasn't within 6 points, including both games against Alabama this year:

"Listen, the thing that has been great with these guys is they keep getting better and they work at it and they care," Donovan said.

"Just because the score doesn't say (Alabama) is close that was not a 10 point game; that was a close game. Alabama here at home was close. Sometimes people look at the score and say, 'okay, that was a close game, that was not.' Those games were close. I feel confident, but they are going to have to make the plays on the court they need to make."

The Gators start their NCAA tournament run Friday at 7:27 pm vs. Northwestern State (La.) on TruTV (Cox Cable 221).