The Gator basketball team, coming off a big week, plays host to the hated Bulldogs on Wednesday. Georgia is also coming in off a big win against Tennessee. The Gators beat Arkansas on the road on a nationally televised game on ESPN last Thursday. Erving Walker had a huge night in that one.

Then the Gators had to travel after that late game back to Gainesville and play South Carolina on Saturday. Not an easy task with SC bringing the SEC’s leading scorer in Devan Downey. Downey lit the Gators up for 36 points. His final two seemed to be the winners at under five seconds. But Chandler Parson’s buzzer beater lifted the Gators to a huge win.

The Gators now stand at 3-2 in SEC play and 14-5 overall. Following Georgia is a two game road trip to Tennessee and Alabama. So this game is critical. A win for the Gators means at worst a 4-4 mark coming off the road trip before hosting Mississippi State. Hopefully UF can get a win over UGA and a split on the road. That would give them a 5-3 mark at the halfway point in the SEC schedule.

That would mean if UF can go 4-4 down the stretch it would mean a 9-7 SEC mark. That should be enough to get the Gators into the NCAA Tournament. The second half of the SEC schedule starts out with MSU at home, and also includes home games with Auburn, Vandy, and UT. There is also a non conference home game with Xavier who is leading the A-10 Conference. Road games include South Carolina (and Downey again), Georgia, Ole Miss and Kentucky.

The Gators need to be at 5-3 with that remaining schedule. Going 4-4 will not be easy the last 8 games.

Mississippi State is the defending SEC Tournament Champs. Speaking of defending, they have Jarvis Varnardo who is getting very close to breaking the all time NCAA shot blocking record. He currently is #2. Then you have Vanderbilt and Tennessee coming in. So 2-2 at home will be a good mark. Then the road games with SC, Ole Miss and UGA will be very tough, and Kentucky is an automatic loss. 2-2 on the road will be very tough.

Needless to say, this is a must win for the Gators. The games against UGA and South Carolina will most likely determine the fate of the Gators. UF narrowly escaped the first test. They really need to step it up for the next three.

By: James Folsom

Parsons’ success continued versus the South Carolina Gamecocks as he shot his second buzzer beater in three weeks. Once the clock ticked down to one second, Parsons stepped to the 3-point line and knocked in the game-winning shot to defeat the Gamecocks 58-56.

With 5.1 seconds remaining on the clock and a Gator lead, Devan Downey of SC rolled his way out of a double team by the Gator defence to score his 36th point of the evening. This shot seamed to seal the deal for the Gamecocks, but the Gators had other things on their minds.

As Erving Walker dribbled down to the foul line, he glanced over to see Parsons open at the 3-point line. The ball left the hands of Parsons with accuracy into the basket to defeat the Gamecocks. The celebration was underway for Parsons and his teammates in the House of Horror in Gainesville.

As Parsons scored 10 points, 4 assist, and 10 rebounds, he was one out of four behind the arch versus South Carolina. Although, his last shot was what counted the most. This similar ending occurred on January 3rd as Parsons threw up a 75-foot shot to defeat North Carolina State 62-61. The Gators have a boost of hope as they move up in the SEC standings into fifth place in the east. A trip to the tourney is looking more and more optimistic as the season goes by.

A video may be seen below of the Chandler Parsons buzzer beater.

(Information collected by Gatorsports.com and ESPN.com)

By: Justin Rectenwald

The Sophomore Center, Kenny Kadji, will sit out the rest of the season with back injuries. The 6’10″ Kadji  hasn’t been much of a contributor in the season so far, only averaging one point a game in just about 5 minutes per game.

In 2008, Kadji showed a lot of promise. In his Freshman year, Kadji averaged five points per game, two rebounds per game, and played around twelve minutes a game.

GSN wishes Kadji a good, and healthy offseason in his attempt to recover and come back strong next year.

The Gators’ NCAA Tournament chances look a lot better this week, than a week ago. Wins over LSU and Arkansas have evened their SEC record at 2-2. The overall record is now 13-5. 5 losses might not make a lot of fans happy right now with 2 games left with Tennessee and 1 each with Kentucky, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State, but considering some of the injuries and illnesses, it could be a lot worse.

Another thing working in the Gators’ favor is that there are a lot of big name programs who would dearly love to only have 5 losses right now. North Carolina, UCLA, Arizona, Louisville, Marquette, Connecticut, Indiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, and LSU are all teams that you normally see in the Big Dance. All of them have more than 5 losses. UCLA has 10 already. North Carolina has 7 including 3 straight. UConn has also lost 3 in a row. It’s also a safe assumption that there are not many on that list who have a win against a Michigan State. Maybe not even a Florida State.

If the Gators can stay hot for the next week, they have two winnable games. South Carolina comes to the O’Dome on Saturday. They have 7 losses themselves. If they leave with 8 they have to be on life support also. Then on Wednesday, Georgia comes to Gainesville. If UF has only 5 losses still this time next week, some of the above list will lose again. The NCAA chances will look pretty good for Billy’s Boys.

But it’s not all good news. Starting with a road game at Tennessee, the schedule down the stretch is tough. Following UT, the Gators host Mississippi State, Xavier, Auburn, Tennessee and Vanderbilt. They also have road games vs. Alabama, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Georgia and Kentucky. Of those 6 road game, the Gators would be doing well to go 3-3. That would be 8 losses if they can win all of the remaining home games. With that list of teams coming in, 2 losses would be a great effort. That makes 10 losses for the regular season.

10 losses should be a good enough mark to get the Gators in. Especially with wins over Michigan State, Florida State, NC State (who just beat Duke), and some of the teams UF will have to beat to remain at 10 losses (they would have to go 2-2 vs XU, MSU, UT and VU which means two more quality wins). Considering some of the teams above are already pushing 10 losses, that would make UF a lock.

By: James Folsom

Florida Gator sophomore guard Erving Walker had a career high of 27 points that led the Gators (13-5, 2-2) past the Arkansas Razorbacks (8-10, 1-2) 71-66 on the road in Fayetteville, AR.

Erving Walker had an incredible night from the floor. The first half he started out five-for-five, four of them form beyond the arc, and ended up finishing 7-of-12, 5-of-6 from the three.

Junior forward Alex Tyus started out struggling from the floor but finished the game strong with a double-double. Tyus scored 11 points and grabbed 12 boards. Chandler Parsons had a big game on the boards, but didn’t have such a good night shooting. Parsons finished with 6 points and 11 rebounds.

Rotnei Clarke scored 17 points for the Razorbacks and sunk three 3-pointers during the second half. The last one put the Razorbacks up by 56-55, but the Gators made a nice run that Arkansas couldn’t catch back up to.

Florida only shot 36 percent but really killed Arkansas with rebounding. The Gators had 12 second-chance points which were all made in the second half of the game. It was just another cold shooting night for the Gators. Freshman G Kenny Boynton did score 13 points but was 1-of-7 from three, Senior forward Dan Werner and freshman forward Erik Murphy were 0-of-7 combined on the night. But for rebounding, Florida led Arkansas on the boards 41-29.

With this win, the Gators now improve to 2-2 in SEC play.

Florida will return to Gainesville as they host the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday, tip-off at 6pm. The game will be shown live on ESPN.

(Info gathered by Adam Silverstein/OGGOA)

For the second straight game, Junior Forward Chandler Parsons will be getting the start. He is starting over the lone Senior on the team, Dan Werner. The Gators will be taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks tonight in a SEC contest.

As we all remember, Parsons was the man who drained the game-winning shot over NC State. On the season, Parsons is averaging 11 points per game and 6.2 rebounds per game.

If Florida is to break its streak of NIT appearances this year, they better get on a roll. And do it Now. The Gators are now 0-2 in SEC play. To have a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament, they would need to go 9-7 I believe. There is also that Xavier game Staring them in the face that could be the swing game. Beat Xavier, 9-7 should do it. Lose and it may take a 10-6 effort.

Looking at the way the schedule ends, the last five games look pretty tough. At Ole Miss, Tennessee, At Georgia, Vanderbilt, and at Kentucky is the way the regular season closes out. That’s brutal. Georgia and Vandy look to be the most winnable of those games. Maybe UT if they don’t let the three outlaws back in. They could be worn down by then.

UF’s best be though is to get on a roll the next ten games and not have to worry about those final five. It starts Saturday at home against LSU. The Tigers are awful. They are also 0-2 in league play, losing at home to Alabama and also at South Carolina. The Gators need that one. A loss would be catastrophic.

Looking at the rest of the league play up until those last five, Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn also look beatable. The tough ones the will be Arkansas on the road and Auburn on the road. But those teams are not that good this year. They need those three. Then in the East, they would need to get to 5-5. Since they are already 0-2 and still have a game at Kentucky, that means the Gators need 5 out of the remaining 7 SEC East games. That means a Sweep against Georgia and South Carolina and a win over Vandy at home, or a split against South Carolina and Tennessee with a win over Vandy. It looks as if the games that cost the Gators last year, losing on the road at South Carolina and Georgia, will be the crucial games again this year. They will have to win those two unless they can finally get a win against Tennessee. They also need that Xavier game.

9-7 with wins out of conference against Michigan State, Florida State, North Carolina State, and Xavier should get Florida in. Anything less is going to require a deep SEC Tournament run. With Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Tennessee there, that appears unlikely. The Gator Boys need to get hot, and do it quickly.

It’s time! Florida takes on the #2 Kentucky Wildcats in a SEC showdown. Can Florida pull another upset over a #2 team again? Or will John Wall break out against Florida? Follow the action live here, and leave your comments and thoughts below in the game thread!

The game has started off all Florida! Gators start off with a 7-2 run! The crowd is into it, and Kentucky is not looking like they can handle the noise. Another turnover for the Wildcats, Gator ball! Here’s a stat for ya’, Alex Tyus has hit his first three of the season, it’s that kind of night! John Wall makes a quick layup, and scores his first points. The Gators have missed two straight threes. Make that three straights three pointers. The Gators have won 49 games in the last two seasons, but haven’t been to the big dance in the last two years. Gators are up 9-4 with 12:30 left. Look at that! Urban Meyer is in the building! The Gators are 0 for 5 in shooting since their hot start. Stay tuned for this one, Dicky V to compare John Wall to Memphis’ former Freshman phenom, Derrick Rose. Patrick Patterson gets a huge slam following a terrific pass from John Wall, 9-6 UF. Parsons just topped Wall’s great pass, Macklin gets a nasty dunk down. Tyus draws the foul following a Bledsoe 3 ball, UF holds a 11-9 lead. Tyus drains the first foul shot, as well as the second. Forget Wall, Kentucky has some good deep ball shooters. Kentucky has taken the lead from Florida. Kentucky on a 9-2 run. Erving Walker his a jumper, ties up the game at 15. Erik Murphey jams it down! Tyus with the block! Shipman with the fastbreak layup! Florida up 19-15. The crowd is rocking! LETS GO GATORS! The Gators are 7-1 at home this season, trying to improve that record. Wall hits a pull up jumper, ties the game up. Wall crosses over Werner, hits a jumper. Bledsoe is a stud…hits another layup, Kentucky up 23-19, they have scored eight straight. Florida cannot find good looks, miss another shot. Walker pulls an up and under, Gators trail 23-21. Tyus splits the free throws, 25-22 UK. Wall is too good for a Freshman, future NBA star. Parsons draws a foul on Cousins. Parsons hits one foul shot, 27-23 UK. Great play by Werner who takes a charge on Wall, let’s hope this a momentum changer with 3:41 left on the clock. Wall is on the bench! Oh wait, Kentucky still has Patterson, who slams it. WOW, two straight blocks for UK, who are the biggest team in college basketball. Okay, Orton has 3 blocks on one posssession! TYUS HITS ANOTHER THREE! Florida is taking poor shots right now. 31-26 UK with 1:57 left. Patterson hits another slam dunk. Another miss leads to a fastbreak, and who’s that…Robert Kraft (Patriots owner). Gators down by ten. Boynton hits a huge three. Werner draws a foul with 1.8 left on the clock. Not a good finish to the half after 7 point lead. Werner hits his first foul shot, and second. 38-31 UK at HALFTIME.

Second Half:
The Gators got the ball to start the second half and cut the lead down to 5 after a Alex Tyus turn around jump shot but Kentucky answered back with a slam to turn the score back up to 7. The Gators gave up three opportunities after a missed Kentucky free throw which led into an easy layup. Florida needs to get some momentum going in order to get this nine point lead down. After a miss layup from Wall, Boynton knocks down a three but once again Kentucky comes down with an answer. Kenny Boynton misses a pull up jumper but rebounds his own shot but fails to put it back up, Kentucky brings the ball down for an alley hoop to Patterson. Florida is playing horrible defense. If they want to stop being ran over, they need to start getting back and running the floor. After a pair of free throws by Erik Murphy, Bledsoe knocks down a three to put the Wildcats up by 12. After another UK run and Florida trailing as much as 12, Erving Walker puts up a pair of free throws and the lead came down to nine but the Wildcats answered back with another layup. It looked like Florida found some momentum after a block by Alex Tyus that led into a fast break layup by Kenny Boynton, the Gators trail by seven.

Well… for who ever thought Kentucky was going to pull away with the win, think twice. Erving Walker answered with back to back three pointers that took the lead down by two points, but Wall goes up high to give UK a six point lead. FLORIDA TIES THE GAME! 72-72, Florida cannot regain possession. Wow, 5 point possession,77-72 UK. Parsons hits first free throw, and misses second. 77-73 UK.

Final- Kentucky 89, Florida 77.