Blog # 18 with some Football

My Beloved 38 Bloggees (Welcome, John, Daniel, Dana, Carli, Rye, Kelly and our second Chip) :

 

 

I know I sent a blog yesterday, but I have too much good stuff to wait. Usually when I accumulate about 5 items, I send it. So here it is. 

 

 

 

As a basketball junkie, you will love this website http://www.usbasket.com/ncaa1/Ex-NCAA-D1-Basketball-Players.asp . By scrolling down and clicking on Florida or other school, you can see where recent players are continuing their basketball careers, including overseas. For example, you can discover that former Gator long-range shooter, Lee Humphrey, is playing in Germany this year. By clicking on his team's name, you can end up seeing that he is averaging 6.1 points per game, shooting 37.1 % from long distance. http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=Germany&Team=127&Page=3 

 

I know that some of you are also fans of UAB, Alabama, Samford, Missouri, Penn, Stetson, Texas, Brown, Cincinnati, Columbus State and Vanderbilt so you'll want to go to the website to check out the whereabouts of former basketball players from those universities.  I predict each bloggee will soon spend an average of 10 minutes at this website, especially if you follow multiple teams. It is addicting. Be sure to make it one of your Favorites so you can access it easily in the future. NEXT

 

 

 

You may have noticed that Jacksonville only beat Bethune-Cookman 67 - 60 on Thursday night http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201012300281 . Your reaction may be, "Florida got beat by that team which barely beat lowly Bethune-Cookman". However, note that Larry Little's alma mater (for you youngsters he was one of the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history as a Miami Dolphin...plus his brother David Little  was an amazing Gator and Steelers linebacker) was 22 out of 22 from the free throw line, while Jacksonville characteristically missed 10 free throws, thereby skewing the final score. NEXT

 

 

 

 

Moving away from the South a bit, the brother-in-law of the world's most powerful man, Craig Robinson, head coach of struggling Oregon State and Michelle Obama's brother, had a big Pac-10 conference opening win Thursday night, with a thrashing of a solid Arizona State team, 80 - 58  http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012300450 .  Remember that ASU nipped one of the strong surprises of this year, UAB, last month. NEXT

 

 

 

 

I am proud that one of our bloggees is a basketball coaching living legend from Stetson University where he coached the Hatters for 36 years....one of my idols when growing up in Orlando, Dr. Glenn Wilkes. http://www.basketballsbest.com/wilkes.htm . For years, I have been receiving his newsletter mainly emphasizing coaching techniques and wisdom. At my request, I received his AOK to include the following link http://www.basketballsbest.com/  if you also want to receive his free emails (after clicking on the link, slowly scroll down a bit until you see Subscribe to Basketballs Best FREE Coaching Newsletter in the middle). NEXT

 

 

 

 

Finally a switch to football. Sound FX is one of the best sports shows on TV. Within a couple of days of a week's NFL games, this NFL Network program shows highlights with key players miked. Well, this past week their timing was perfect as Tim Tebow was the focus of one of the segments in the Broncos comeback victory after being down by 17. Do you remember when Magic Johnson won his first NBA game and his genuine "collegiate" enthusiasm was so refreshing? Click on the following and you will feel the same way about Tebow, even though it was a meaningless NFL game. Get ready to be fired up!  This will be an NFL memorable video for years to come!  http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-films-sound-efx/09000d5d81d4ddd8/Sound-FX-Take-a-Te-bow

 

 

Beat Xavier (and beat Eastern Michigan for you Samford fans) and Happy New Year once again,

 

 

 

Barry

 

Blog # 17

My Beloved 31 Bloggees:

 

 

Last night was one step forward and five steps back for the SEC (I am ignoring Arkansas's 28-point victory over former Louisville great, Jerry Eaves' North Carolina A & T hoopsters  http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012290019 ):

 

Vandy defeated Marquette 77 - 76 in the last 4 seconds http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012290615 . Good resume-building home win for the 'Dores. However...

 

South Carolina only beat a bad 2 - 12 OVC team, Jacksonville State, 56 - 49. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012290525 . They are certain to be SEC East cellar-dwellers.

 

LSU lost to an average Rice team 74 - 68 which was not that close. I tuned in and the Owls had a double figure lead most of the second half. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012290486  Rice does have a guy I envy, guard Connor Frizzelle, who shoots free throws at a 92 % clip http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/rae/stats  It makes one miss Taurean Green who was money in the bank at the gift lane during crunch time of the Gator national championship teams.

 

Tennessee struggled with a horrendous 4 - 10 Tennessee-Martin team 68 - 62. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/tae/schedule  Tuesday, on the Big Ten Network I saw Tennessee-Martin lose to Ohio State 100 - 40 and if I recall, they only had 29 points with a few minutes left before garbage time set in.

 

I was shocked to see Auburn win in overtime against Georgia Southern  88 - 84. http://auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/122910aaa.html  Why? The last score I had seen was in the first half something like Auburn winning 38 - 12. I thought to myself then that Frankie Sullivan returning to the team is finally making an impact (Florida fans know all about Sullivan from last year's SEC tourney when he scored 27 against us in a losing effort http://auburn.rivals.com/bboxscore.asp?game=46661 ) However, their second leading scorer left the team over the Christmas break, Andre Malone and Auburn resorted to playing like this year's 297th ranked (out of 345 Div I schools) Auburn. Ouch.

 

Finally a depleted, dissension-filled Mississippi State squad was soundly beaten by St. Mary's,  94 - 72  http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012290366  . The 11 - 2 Gaels are solid but SEC teams should not be losing by that margin to any unranked school.  NEXT

 

 

 

Do you ever watch a college hoops game on TV and you look on a team's bench and one of the assistants look familiar. That happened to me Monday night when the Big Ten Network camera spanned the Penn State bench. Then it hit me. Lewis Preston, the former Gator assistant who replaced Anthony Grant when he left for VCU, is a Nittany Lion assistant.  http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/preston_lewis00.html  My guess is that he was nudged out by Florida. Why else would you make such a lateral move especially when Billy's assistants were developing the reputation to be good hires for head coaching jobs (Pelphrey, Grant and Jones....sounds like an accounting firm or a 70's folk rock group). NEXT

 

 

 

Dear Billy Donovan.....please start recruiting this guy...... http://www.komonews.com/home/video/111892554.html  NEXT

 

 

 

Don't forget, Florida travels to Xavier and their 6th rated point guard in the country, Tu Holloway http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/viewcbse.asp , for a revenge game from last year, on Friday at 3:00 Central on ESPN 2. By the way, the following Gator game is Monday against Rhode Island who beat the mighty Big East's 10 - 3 Boston College Eagles last night 67 - 65. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012290485  Maybe it will snow in the Northeast and they won't be able to get to Gainesville, a la Fairfield last Tuesday. THAT'S IT

 

 

Enjoy and Happy New Year....I will be celebrating tomorrow afternoon at the big Samford - Eastern Michigan game in a Southern Conference - MAC clash,

 

 

Barry

 

 

P.S. If you have had enough of these Blogs, feel free to reply with "you wore me out" and I will not be insulted at all. I will certainly take you off the list. Otherwise consider spreading the word. The more, the merrier.

 

 

 

 

Blog # 16 with some Football

My Beloved 31 GHB Bloggees:

 

 

How would you like to be up by 19 with 13 minutes left or up by 12 with 5 minutes left and lose the game by 3. That happened Tuesday night to former UF assistant Shaka (Khan) Smart and his VCU Rams in a 68-65 loss in Birmingham to the UAB Blazers. http://uabsports.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/122110aaa.html.

 

UAB's Mike Davis, a Bama alum, somehow manages to rebuild a competitive team each year and his 2010-2011 version may be his best. He is starting to build some depth to reduce the minutes of his fine starters, especially top-notch 5 ' 8 point guard, Aaron Johnson, sharpshooting 6' 5 guard, Jamarr Sanders and budding superstar, 6' 10 forward Cameron Moore. Speaking of Cameron, the Blazers travel to Durham to play Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium on January 5th. The physically talented Blazers could sneak away with an upset W.  Shhhhh....our secret. NEXT

 

 

 

Where are they now? Craig Brown whose long-range threes made us giddy in the Gators' first Final Four run in 1994 was an assistant coach with UCF for the past 10 years. With the coaching change there, he now provides color commentary as a part of the Gator Basketball Network http://www.gatornetwork.com/sports/basketball-m . Oh how I wish he had some eligibilty left. NEXT

 

 

 

Mississippi State basketball is becoming a mess. Did you see the fight between two of their players, Renardo Sidney and Elgin Bailey, while they were watching a game in the stands? http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/2010/12/24/2010-12-24_mississippi_state_basketball_star_renardo_sidney_caught_on_camera_exchanging_blo.html  (scroll down for the you tube video) .  

 

This may be Coach Rick Stansbury's downfall.  One bloggee reported to me that before this fight, supposedly, Sidney was suspended for 5 games after an incident in practice, the day before the tourney in Hawaii began.  BUT his suspension was somehow changed to only 1 game after a call from Sidney's mother to Stansbury......funny how those calls change things!  Who knows, she may have threatened to start "singing" if he sent her son home from Hawaii. NEXT

.

 

Only one more week of the NFL regular season remains which sadly means only one more week of the best way to watch the NFL....the Red Zone. What a great channel DISH Network and others offer!  (Click on the following link to see how you can get it in your area).  http://redzonetv.nfl.com/   Automatically switching games, especially when a team is in the red zone, is a guy's dream....without having to use the remote. Plus, there are no commercials. My wife has never been much of a football fan, but she loves Tim Tebow and loves the Red Zone.  So when Tim led the Broncos to that exciting comeback win on Sunday, she got to see it and went nuts! Oh yeah, me too. THAT'S IT

 

 

Finally a note....if you don't see a link within a paragraph, you can assume the subject being discussed is either just my opinion or info from decent unnamed sources that has not been substantiated but worth discussing.

 

 

Enjoy,

 

 

 

Barry

Blog # 15

My Beloved 31 GHB Bloggees:

 

 

After re-reading my last blog, I saw that I indicated that Jacksonville University would give the Gators fits and they did with an overtime upset last Monday. I only saw the last 7 minutes of the game on the Sun Sports replay this morning and the Dolphins played just like  they did when I saw them play Samford here in Birmingham.....pesky, disruptive and full of heart.

 

Look for Jacksonville along with their other Atlantic Sun Conference members, Belmont (who should have beaten Tennessee on Thursday), Campbell and East Tennesse State to make some noise during the college basketball season. The A-Sun might get more than one bid to the Dance this year. NEXT

 

 

The Furman Paladins scored an impressive victory for the Southern Conference defeating in-state foe South Carolina by 16 on Wednesday night http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012220220 . The Gamecock fans are getting used to success with their athletic programs after the baseball World Series win and the football SEC East title, but it looks like Darrin Horn's hoops crew has a long way to go before matching those lofty championship levels. Gator fans (and SEC fans) are loving not having to face Devan Downey this year. That guy wouldn't miss during crunch time. NEXT

 

 

On New Year's Eve Day the Gators will play at Xavier. Look out for 6 foot guard Tu Holloway. In Xavier's 10-point loss at Gonzaga on Wednesday night, he scored nearly half of the Musketeers' 54 points with his 26-point effort along with 5 steals. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201012220233 He did have 7 turnovers, however. For the year he averages 21.8 points playing 39.7 minutes. Oh how I wish the Gators had a shutdown defender...Corey Brewer do you have any younger brothers?  NEXT

 

 

Do you think Trent Johnson regrets leaving Stanford? His LSU team lost at home by 20 to the Mean Green of North Texas State on Wednesday night. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012220319  I hope he doesn't have a 30-year mortgage on his home because those notoriously impatient Cajuns won't put up with much "meaux" of those embarrassing defeats. Don't forget his Tigers also lost to Nichols State in Novermber by 9. NEXT

 

 

Washington State is having a great year (10 - 2) so far even though they lost to Butler by 16 on Christmas night in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201012250632 .  In that game, 6 ' 6 guard Klay Thompson led Washington State with 31 points. For the year he averages 22.8 points. Why do I bring him up? He is the son of Miami, Florida high school legend, Mychal Thompson, who went on to the University of Minnesota and then was the overall first pick of the 1978 NBA draft by the Portland Trailblazers, finishing up with the Los Angeles Lakers 12 years later.  THAT'S IT

 

 

After their lethargic win over Radford on Wednesday, the Gators play on Tuesday at 6:00 pm Central Time against the Fairfield Stags on ESPNU. They should have no problem with Fairfield who only starts one player over 6 ' 5 (Ryan Olander, 6 ' 11).

 

 

Enjoy,

 

 

 

Barry