Florida was outmatched by the Kentucky Wildcats in Sunday afternoon’s battle of SEC heavyweights. Unfortunately, the Gators have lost 5 of 8 heading into the SEC tournament where they will be seeded 4th. On the bright side, Florida is the nation’s leading 3 point scoring team, averaging 10 3′s per game. UF has the second highest PPG (points per game) in the SEC, with an average of 77. Kentucky is #1 in the SEC.
Patric Young had an exciting game, showing great power & size in the middle.
The Florida Gators opened up the season on Friday, February 17 in a best of three series against No. 16 Cal State Fullerton Titans. In their first matchup, the Gators broke open a close game in the seventh inning by scoring four runs and breaking a 3-3 tie. Preston Tucker belted a home run to tie the game at 3-3 in the sixth inning. The seventh inning wasn’t very exciting even though we scored four. Freshman Josh Tobias got his first hit of his college career and both Nolan Fontana and Casey Turgeon were consecutively walked to put the Titans in a precarious position. The go ahead run was scored when Cal State Freshman pitcher Koby Gauna hit senior Daniel Pigott which let Tobias score from third. Next Preston Tucker hit a sacrifice fly into right field allowing Turegeon to score. This put the Gators up 5-3. Fontana was driven in by catcher Mike Zunio’s RBI single up the middle and Brian Johnson brought in Daniel Pigott on a base hit into right field to give the Gators a 7-3 lead. The Titans never covered.
The very next day, No.1 Florida Gators (1-0) took a two games to none series lead over the Cal State Fullerton Titans (2-0) with another four run inning, this time it just happened a little sooner. The Titans took a 2-0 lead in the second, however the Gators fired back with four runs in the fourth. Thats three innings earlier than the previous gas when they had another four run inning. This time they were led by a two run triple from FreshmanTaylor Gushue, a base hit from Zunio and a sacrifice fly from freshman Justin Shafer. All I can say is that freshman class is already starting to show why they were a top ten class.
The Gators will look to sweep the series tomorrow when they face the Titans at 1:00pm.
No 12 Florida (20-6, 8-3 SEC) and Alabama (16-9, 5-6 SEC) were both with out two players for this matchup. The Gators were playing without Will Yeguete (second concussion of the year) and Mike rosario (hip pointer). Alabama was without JaMychal Green and Tony Mitchell. They were both suspended indefinitely by head coach Anthony Grant. Due to the fact Mitchell and Green are Alabama’s top rebounder and scorer, one could only imagine how detrimental that would actually be to Alabama. Turns out, it was pretty daunting, as Patric Young dominated in the paint. He went 9-12, scoring a team high 19 points in only 22 minutes. Alabama couldn’t muster any offense. Only one of there players scored in double figures, and to make matters worse, it was only 11 points, not like twenty something. If you remove Young’s stats from the overall Field Goals Made, the rest of the Gators shot a combined 12 – 40 (30%) from the field. Thats just terrible shooting. The good news in all of that is that Bradley Beal scored 14 points and had 8 rebounds. Erik Murphy added another 14 points.
Next up for the Gators are the Arkansas Razorbacks (17-8, 5-5 SEC). They play on Saturday, February 18, at Arkansas.
Let me start off by saying that The Florida Gators have an all-time record of 2-7 against number one teams. All seven of their losses came against Kentucky. This game was going to be different. It was time for the Gators to show the world that even though they are small, hitting the three and playing great defense wins games as well. Or at least I thought it did.
The Gators started out the game exactly the way Billy D wanted them too. They played stingy defense, rebounded aggressively, and hit the three. The Kentucky Wildcats opened up the game going 0-7 from the field. The Gators were up by six and looking good. Then it happened. Kentucky began to play like Kentucky. Aggressive defense, shot blocking, driving layups and so on. After their poor start, they went 9-13 and were up by 6 with 6 minutes remaining in the first half. The Gators scored a season low in the first half with 26 points and made only two 3pt FG’s. This is pretty bad being that Florida leads the NCAA in 3 pt. FG’s made with a total of 241. We went into halftime deflated. It was clear we were overmatched. But just maybe, maybe Coach Donavan would be able to rally the troops and put on a clinic in the second half with a barrage of threes and so on. I was optimistic.
The second half started out exactly how the first half started out, well kind of. The Gators went on a monstrous run, 4-0, and Kentucky was scared. Not really. The onslaught began. Kentucky picked up right were they left off and never looked back. They basically dominated the game the entire night. And it didn’t help the Gators that they were atrocious from behind the arc. So chalk this game up as nothing more than a loss. We can’t focus to much on this… But if we want to for just a second, we could come to the realization that the Gators were playing basketball with 5 potential NBA caliber players. They were overmatched from the beginning and Kentucky is going to win it all this year. Fact is Fact. I hated to write that but no one can think anything different once they see this team play. There is just to much talent and everyone coming off the bench is like a starter for most other teams. Good for Cailipari (Kentucky coach). Any man who can avoid scandal in one program, bail out of it and start fresh from another program, while still recruiting the top talent in the nation has got to be doing something right.
….So what if he cooked the books so Derrick Rose’s SAT scores were good enough to play.
So I know that this post is a little late, being that National Signing day was on Wednesday, Feb. 1, and everybody and their mother tweeted, posted, live chatted, blogged, facebooked, and tumblr’d their way through the day while I just took a deep breath and waited for the smoke to clear. I do this every year and this year was no different. I want to truly look at our class, our roster, and analyze exactly what we have. Ok, that’s a blatant lie. Truth is that I didn’t have the time and this was the earliest I could get to it. With that being said, lets move forward (just like I tell my wife) and get to the 2012 Florida Gator Signing Class.
According to Rivals.com, Florida finished third in the overall class rankings, behind Texas and Alabama. ESPN had Florida sitting in the fourth spot. But to be honest, all of this ranking stuff means nothing unless you are the 2007 class of the Florida Gators who had Aaron Hernandez, Joe Haden, Major Wright, Both Pouncy boys and someone that goes by the name of Cameron Newton. That class was ridiculous and very few can compare. Nonetheless, let’s get serious for a second about these rankings. If you really do some research you would be shocked. Some of these recruits never pan out especially the five star ones. They have huge ego issues and have to enter a place where somebody else is in charge. These recruits go from being seniors and on top of their high school to the bottom rung of the ladder. They are freshmen all over again. They now have to compete with the best of the best, especially if it is one of these top programs (that is why they are going there right?). Some of them keep thinking they will get by on shear talent and don’t work hard at all. They usually transfer or go home after the first season. Some of them have actually already peaked in high school and don’t have much room to grow. And some of them just don’t ever do anything except suck the lifeblood out of the program and poison the locker room. They ride the bench all year long. You also can’t forget the ones that leave early, because they are just too good. I would rather have a four year starter that peaks as a senior than a freshman wonder kid that leaves after one year. So you really can’t put to much stock into these rankings.
On to our class. The Gators had a total of 17 signed letters of intent on Wednesday and had six early recruits who had already enrolled at Florida for spring Classes. That brings the total to 23. Not bad for Muschamp’s first real recruiting season. 12 out of the 23 are listed as either a Tight End, Offensive Tackle, Defensive End, or Defensive Tackle. I love to see a reload at the line of scrimmage. God knows we need it. The remaining 11 are made up of 4 Defensive Backs, 2 Wide Receivers, 2 Linebackers, 1 Quarterback (watch out Driskel and Brissett), 1 Kicker, and 1 Running Back.
Lets go right into the running back. His name is Matt Jones and his new nickname is “Beast”. He is 6-3, 210 pounds and runs a 4.7 in the 40 yard dash. He’s like a young Brandon Jacobs form the NY Giants. I can’t wait to see what he can do. Goodbye Scat-back. Hello Freight Train/Bullet Train. We have 2 monster tight ends in Kent Taylor (6-5, 225 lbs) and Colin Thompson (6-5, 255 lbs). We have a total of five defensive ends, which is headlined by Jonathan Bullard (6-4, 255 lbs) and Dante Fowler Jr. (6-3, 232 lbs). Fowler was a wonderful surprise. He committed to that Tallahassee School over a year ago. It is nice to see that some of these recruits do the right thing. Included in that group is Bryan Cox Jr. (6-3, 240 lbs), the son of Former Miami Dolphin, Bryan Cox. As for our offensive line, I personally don’t think we could have done any better. We landed 2 of the top 5 recruits in the nation. D.J. Humphries (6-5, 265 lbs) enrolled at Florida for Spring classes in order to get a step up for this upcoming season. Jessamen Dunker, aka “Goliath”, is 6-6 and weighs close to 320 lbs. He is a giant and is only going to get bigger and stronger. Out of the four defensive backs, Marcus Maye (6-1, 195 lbs) and Brian Poole (5-11, 187 lbs) will look to make an impact early. Both of these recruits were at the top of their class in the nation for their position. Our 2 linebackers are Antonio Morrison (6-3, 220 lbs) and Jeremi Powell (6-2, 200 lbs). They will probably need a year or two underneath their belts in order to get stronger and faster although Antonio seems a little farther ahead. Everything changes though once they step onto the practice field. We received a very nice surprise on signing day with the pickup of wide receiver, Raphael Andrades (6-0, 190 lbs, 4.5sec 40 yard dash). He was coached by former Gator Jacquez Green. The other wide receiver in the group is Latroy Pittman (6-1, 190 lbs). Our one kicker is Austin Harden (?-?, ??? lbs) and to be honest, they shouldn’t even list his height and weight. They should list the size of his leg, girth, and field goal statistics. Some of the smallest guys have been the best kickers. Just ask Jason Elam. Rounding out the group are three solid defensive tackles and a quarterback. The tackles are Damien Jacobs (6-4, 290 lbs), JaFar Mann (6-4, 275 lbs) and Dante Phillips (6-6, 268 lbs). Phillips was ranked as the number 9 defensive tackle in the nation. The quarterback is a late commitment, being that he had always planned on attending Penn State in the fall (we all know what happened there). Instead, he flipped his decision once the Gators hired offensive coordinator, Brent Pease. His name is Skyler Mornhinweg (6-3, 215 lbs). He isn’t terribly polished and needs some work, but has great size, is athletic and has a nice arm.
And that does it. The class of 2012. Finally its over. Finally we can get back to real tangible business like…next years class. It never ends in college football. You finish with one recruiting class and you are already on to the next. Its the nature of the beast. Just look at the Gators who received two verbal commitments for the 2013 signing class on National Signing Day of the 2012 class. Recruiting is what gives a program a great start. However its the coaches and administration that really molds them into the players they will become. Good thing for us we have one of th emost talented young coaches in the nation in Will Muschamp. Looking forward to this upcoming season.
Bradley Beal led the No. 13 Florida Gators (17-4, 5-1 SEC) to a victory over No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs (17-5, 4-3 SEC) 69 -57 Saturday Night. Beal scored 19 points and finished 6 – 9 from the field going 3-4 from behind the arc. Erik Murphy added another 14 points and made 4 out of his seven three point attempts. Florida started out the game very slow and led the Bulldogs at half by only three points. It wasn’t until the second half when the Florida went on an 11-0 run that seemingly put the game out of sight. From there, the Bulldogs couldn’t recover. Florida went a combined 11-24 from behind the arc. After being asked what he thought about the Gators 3-point play, MSU coach, Rick Stansbury replied, “It seemed like 21, but it was only 11,” and “That’s why they lead the country in 3-point shooting,” , “There’s a reason why they have that stat.” Up next for the Gators is the South Carolina Gamecocks (9-11, 1-5 SEC), which they will be facing at home, on Thursday, February 2.
No. 14 Florida Gators (16-4, 4-1 SEC) started the second half 0-3 from the field and things just didn’t look good. They had already been out performed in the first half and were down by 10 points to an unranked Ole Miss Rebel (13-7, 3-3 SEC) that was just relentless from begin the arc in the first half going 6-6 from behind the arc. Then things started to turn around…slowly. Erik Murphy hits a shot, the Rebels miss some foul shots, Patric Young makes a couple of baskets and Mike Rosario hits a three. Things started to look better. Murphy hits a three, Young throws down a nice dunk and just like that, we are back in it. With 9:45 seconds left in the second half, Florida finally tied the score on a Scotty Wilbekin three. It was the first time the score was tied since tip-off. With 8 minutes to go, Florida took its first lead since it led 2-0 in the first half and never looked back. Only forward as Kenny Boynton, who leads the league with 66 three point FGM, connected on two three balls and Rosario chipped in another one. Florida leads the NCAA in threes made with 212. The Gators defense held the Rebels to 8 – 29 (27%) shooting in the second half. A drastic improvement from the first half were Ole Miss shot 60%. The Rebels did make it interesting right at the end, but the Gators held strong and came away with a nice conference and road win. Florida improves to 2-4 on the road. Erving Walker scored 10 points and had a career high in assists with 9. Patric Young led the gAtors in scoring with 15 points, shooting an efficient 70% from the field going 7-10. The Gators face No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs in Gainesville, on January 28 at 1:30pm.
Photo: Rogelio V. Solis / AP
The Florida Gators (15-4, 3-1 SEC) defeated the LSU Tigers (12-7, 2-3 SEC) 76 -64 on Saturday night in Gainesville to extend its home winning streak to 16. The Gators had five players in double figures in scoring. Eric Murphy led the Gators with 15 points, Erving Walker had 12 and Kenny Boynton, Bradley Beal and Mike Rosario each chipped in with 11 points. Throughout this entire season Florida has killed teams with the three ball. On nights where the Gators were dismantling teams with the three, which they lead the nation in makes per a game, they very rarely have to rely on a balanced offensive effort inside the arc. LAst night, this was not the case. The Gators shot only 7 – 21 from beyond the arc and still managed to put perform admirably. They dominated the field shotting 74% from inside the three line and cruised to a victory eventhough LSU pulled within 8 with 3 minutes remaining. Erving Walker hit a go ahead three after that which put the game on ice. The Gators next matchup will be against Ole Miss on January 26, at 7:00pm.
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