GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Postcard: Greetings from Alligator Alley or Swamp Central or Reptile Region or, after the fairly revolting developments of last week, Spin City.

Wish all of you (well, except for you, Kentucky Wildcats; the local gentry might need more time to deal with you again) were here.) Because the only thing more impressive than the way the home hoopsters played on Saturday was the way they spun the events that resulted in one of the more twisting turnabouts of this turbulent season.

	Brett Nelson and Florida was able to rebound Saturday from its loss to Kentucky. Antoine Pettway and Alabama haven't been able to do the same since falling from the top last month.

Those would include Florida being voted the No. 1 team in the land for the first time in school history one day and the Gators being drawn, quartered and absolutely embarrassed by Kentucky, 70-55, the next. ("My guys made all the headlines in the morning and then everybody was laughing at them that night," as Gators coach Billy Donovan so indelicately put it.) Those would also include, back in Gainesville, Donovan calling a 6 a.m. team tape-watching of the UK slaughter one day -- nobody's had to witness anything that ugly that early since Gene Shalit started braying on The Today Show -- and then closing practice tight, even to the unhappy CBS celebrity folks, the next. And finally those events would include the denouement (that's French for Get-Back or Butt-Kick or something) -- Florida's 75-56 execution Saturday of a visiting Alabama squad that continues to disappear faster than Dennis Franchione.

To hear Donovan and his fascinating mishmash of young and old Gators tell it, that Kentucky thing was just a bump in the road and not as horrific or humiliating -- although when was the last time a No. 1 stayed No. 1 for such a lickety-split short span, specifically the seconds it took the Kentucky band to strike up Our National Anthem? -- as it seemed.

"A wakeup call," Billy the Kid smiled, in typical coach-squawk. "We outscored them in the second half," Gators center David Lee pointed out. "They acted like the game was for the national championship. We would have handled it (winning) a lot differently," Gators freshman Anthony Roberson said.

Maybe so. But it's how the team would handle losing that most concerned the Florida faithful who realized (accurately) that awarding Kentucky the SEC, not to mention the national championship, off one dominating defensive half -- the way a certain one-eyed loud fellow and lots of other folks even outside Bluegrass Nation seemed to do -- was sheer folly.

"I've been in that building (Rupp Arena) when that's happened before," said Donovan, who was a Kentucky assistant coach under Rick Pitino, "... when the emotion and energy and crowd noise and momentum are just impossible for a visiting team to match. That was one of those nights.

"Look," he said, safely back home. "Kentucky played great. Take nothing away from them. But I thought we contributed a lot -- by not fighting back at times, feeling sorry for ourselves, hanging our heads, not competing. It was our worst offensive performance since I've been here. We made bad reads, had bad shot selection. The seniors got rattled.

"I told my guys we all have to take responsibility. It was my fault for not having them more prepared. After getting blown out, it felt like we had dropped five in a row. But it was only one game. We were still 7-1 in the conference. So we showed them the tape, got them back to class and moved on to Alabama."

Mowed down Alabama was more like it.

Not that the Tide hadn't experienced approximately what the Gators had been through. Wasn't it just last Christmas week that 'Bama was voted No. 1 itsownself? Well, yeah. But that was apparently as fraudulent as -- please skip over this next line when reading to your children -- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Now, the Crimson Tide are not only not very crimson -- former sparkplug Antoine Pettway doesn't even wear his shocking red neon Wicked Witch slippers anymore; something about all his mates dressing in the same colors "for team unity" -- they are in serious danger of achieving the virtually impossible, becoming the first No. 1 team to ... fail ... to ... make ... the ... NCAA ... Tournament.

"Almost a half joke," Tide coach Mark Gottfried called his team's early-season ranking on Saturday, after Bama lost its sixth straight road game (fifth in the Southeastern Conference where the team's record is now 3-6) primarily because it can't hit the broadside of Rudolph's barn. "I can't speak to that No. 1 ranking very (well)," laughed Gottfried. "I mean it was good for our program. But it's different when you're No. 1 and you're maybe legitimately the best team. But no way in the world could anybody who saw us regularly say we were No. 1. Now Florida's in a little different situation. They have the weapons and they're playing at that level."

Sure enough, while Alabama began the afternoon here missing 13 of its first 14 shots, Florida skipped to a 16-3 lead, effectively ending the suspense in the raucous O-Dome right away. While Alabama's slumping guard Mo Williams (4 of 12 shots, 0 assists) was being swallowed up by the defense of Justin Hamilton -- this is the Gator senior's habit; he's limited Kansas' Kirk Hinrich, Maryland's Steve Blake and Eastern Illinois' Henry Domercant to single figures -- Florida's Matt Bonner was frolicking inside and out for 21 points.

While the visitors' offense consisted of Kennedy Winston firing from afar and Erwin Dudley desperately trying for put-backs -- 'Bama missed 16 of 18 trifectas -- Florida's slick, not to mention sick, Roberson was flinging in four of his own, though it seemed like 40. "Daggers in our heart," said Gottfried. "Coming off ball screens, three steps behind the 3-point line, on the go and drilling 'em on you. That's not a shot you see many people making."

Rookies Roberson and Matt Walsh had combined for 33 points in the Kentucky debacle, when their older teammates had mostly folded. And, said Gottfried, "(they're) the reason Florida's a lot better than the last few years. They don't have the power Udonis (Haslem) gave them. But the two freshmen are so skilled and do so many things. Then there's Lee in the middle, shaking and baking and then out-letting to all those 3-point shooters. I don't fault our effort today. We got beat by a very good team."

As well as a still-confident one. "We had a huge challenge in Lexington and we just didn't meet it," said the 6-9 sophomore St. Louisian, Lee, who's played out of position all season but virtually matched Alabama star Erwin Dudley's numbers (12 points and 8 boards to 15 and 9). "But that loss didn't affect our self-worth at all. We wanted to get off the plane and play the next night! We're going to be amped for every game from now on."

As for a manifesto from the whirling forward Walsh, whose offense wasn't needed against Alabama (two buckets in 33 minutes of his usual hustling, diving, who-cares-about-my-body play): "Not many teams get blown out on national TV and get to make amends a few days later on national TV," he said. "Kentucky played its best game and we played probably our worst. We want them back."

And about those exploding curly locks, which Walsh supposedly had vowed to cut when the (now 19-3, 8-1 in the SEC) Gators lost? "Actually I don't think I said that," he claimed. "My hair isn't responsible for our wins and losses. But I am known to do things on impulse. Maybe some midnight I'll just turn around and shave my head."

Maybe the way his precocious classmate, Roberson's, is already. Among the immensely talented Floridians' nine-man rotation are representatives of all classes, seven states and Scandinavia -- the previously injured and highly-touted Dane, Christian Drejer, played only six minutes on Saturday and may not be a major contributer before March. But Walsh seems already the Gators' heart and Roberson, whose forearms are tattooed with Sag and Nasty (trumpeting his hometown of "Saginasty" alias Saginaw, Mich., their soul.

At his birth, the hospital heatlamps shone in Roberson's face so that he squinted enough (uh, yeah) for his parents to nickname him "Peeper." Or, for short, "Peep." And when Kentucky visits Gainesville on March 8 for the regular-season rematch finale, Kentucky would do well to keep all its collective peepers wide open.

Would a betting man pick the already conquering, visiting Wildcats? Or the hungry, revenge-minded, so far unbeaten-at-home (16 straight) Gators?

Not that Roberson will be wagering. But ...

"(Alabama) was about showing the world our character," said Pepe, who had 16 points and five assists against the Tide. "(Kentucky) is about keeping our head up 'till we meet them again. I'm happy we got them twice. They've got to come to the O-Dome next time and it's gonna be a different outcome, I betcha."

Bounce Passes
Fallen Stars: Prior to last Saturday, the biggest story in East Texas was the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin -- on track to win the Southland Conference championship and earn their first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Then the Columbia shattered and the 10,600-student SFA campus in Nacogdoches became practically the epicenter of the debris fallen from the space shuttle. "Shuttle debris fell into our coliseum parking lot," said Lumberjacks coach Danny Kaspar. "From where the players enter, debris fell not 50 yards away."

When SFA departed for Northwestern State last week, the debris was visible on the airport tarmac, and it's hardly coincidence that the 'Jacks (14-5 overall, 10-2 SLC) struggled in their next two games, sluggishly getting past a bad Northwestern State team and losing to mediocre Texas Arlington. Then on Saturday they lost 89-80 at defending conference champion McNeese State.

Kaspar says he might have been remiss in not talking with the players about what happened. "I do think the Columbia disaster had something to do with our lack of focus," he said. "We have not played well since."

And The Aggies' Excuse? Not only are Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State struggling -- thank goodness for Wake Forest, which itself lost at Marquette 68-61 on Sunday -- but Tobacco Road is plagued with the refuse that is North Carolina A&T. After a 66-50 loss to Coppin State, the Aggies from Greensboro are 0-18, the only winless team of all 327 schools in Division I.

Where Is Howie Mandel When We Need Him? You can have Peja Stojakovic in 3-point shooting and Jason Richardson in dunks. I'll take 3-foot-5 Jonathan (Specs) Lipnicki in the celebrity game to block. Ah, the NBA All-Star weekend! As Bill Walton says: "the greatest 72 hours in sports."

Especially when Meat Loaf is in the house.

Curry Kirkpatrick is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at curry.kirkpatrick@espn3.com.