My Beloved 82 Bloggees (Welcome Jared):
If someone asked me why Florida lost at Mississippi State 71 - 64 on Saturday http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290366, I would give them two answers: free throw shooting and Kenny Boynton's subpar performance. Mississippi State should be commended for knocking down 19 of 23 free throws while Florida only converted 9 of 19. Boynton never had a free throw attempt after going 12 for 12 against Georgia last Tuesday. Plus his 2 for 11 shooting including 0 for 4 from beyond the arc helped doom the Gators. Boynton, a McDonalds High School All-American has shown flashes of brilliance in his two years at Gainesville, but his lack of consistency hurts Florida on his off days like this one. How frustrating it must be for Billy D (and me). NEXT
There is a bunch of excitement about college basketball this past weekend in the Birmingham, Alabama area after Saturday's results:
1. Alabama smeared (remember that playground term) LSU 70 - 47 in sold-out Coleman Coliseum http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101290006 . Looking ahead at its final 10 games http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/aaf/schedule, road tilts against TN (next Saturday), Vandy (Feb 10th) and Florida (March 1st) and the home finale against Georgia (March 5th) look to be the most difficult (not coincidentally, all against the SEC East). The other six games should go into the victory column.
However, you never know after seeing the shocking Arkansas 89 - 78 upset at Vandy http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290615 , when Rotnei Clarke exploded with 36 points on 75 % accuracy both within and outside the arc. I watched portions of that game and noticed the defender assigned to Rotnei would sometimes help double-team the ball leaving Clarke wide open. Last Saturday, it looked like the Gators shadowed him with a defender wherever he went no matter where the ball was and they limited him to 0 for 3 shooting. Vandy Coach Kevin Stallings, "you have some 'splaining to do. "
2. Auburn "shocked the world" with its 79 - 64 road victory against South Carolina http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290525 . It was a "blue collar" victory for Tony Barbee and his War Eagles, making only 1 three-pointer and outrebounding the Gamecocks 45 - 32. Like their football counterparts, Auburn appears to be "all in" http://auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/012211aab.html with respect to Barbee's tough-minded philosophy. This first SEC win for Coach Barbee might cause him to skip from Auburn to Birmingham on Monday to speak to the Birmingham Tipoff Club at noon http://www.birminghamtipoffclub.com/ .
3. UAB took the nonstop Southwest Airlines flight to Orlando which I have probably done 100 times. The Blazers ended up loving the flight, especially the one back home celebrating its 74 - 69 win over another of this season's "Gator Killers", UCF and Marcus "son of you-know-who" Jordan http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290103 . UAB is tied for first in Conference USA and as long as sophomore Dexter Fields (from Orlando), shoots threes like he did in this personal homecoming going 5 for 7, look out! NEXT
When glancing at a box score, it looks odd to see a team not have anyone in double figures. That is what happened to the Duke-conquering Florida State Seminoles in its 62 - 44 road loss at Clemson http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290120 . Part of the problem is stud 6' 9 junior forward, Chris Singleton, is in a funk, averaging less than 8 points over his last 4 games http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/81076 . Other than a win at the U in Coral Gables, the Seminoles have come away empty on the road in January, including the ugly loss at Auburn http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/fan/schedule . NEXT
One of my March Madness sleepers, Old Dominion, had an interesting 80 - 57 home victory Saturday over Towson and former FSU coach Pat Kennedy http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290447 . Once again the Monarchs of ODU outrebounded their opponent, but this time is was by a 32 - 10 margin. Ten rebounds? Pat, you have got to do something about your Charmin Tigers. NEXT
Xavier remains undefeated in the Atlantic 10 with its 85 - 62 road victory against the Richmond Spiders http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290487 . BB (Barry's Blog) all-star Tru Holloway went 17 - 17 shooting free throws to contribute to the Muskateers' 29 - 30 team stat. Who is their free throw shooting coach and is there a way I can sneak him down to Gainesville to give a few lessons? Xavier's continued success is making the Gators win in Cincinnati look better and better. NEXT
I have another gig for the Xavier free throw shooting coach. The Texas Longhorns continued their winning ways on Saturday night defeating Mike Anderson's 11th ranked Missouri Tigers 71 - 58 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290585 . The deficit would have been more if the Longhorns had not missed 18 of its 34 free throws. Hello, Mr. Xavier.
Rick Barnes might finally pull a Mack Brown and win a national championship in Austin. His "Vince Young" could be 6 ' 7 Jordan Hamilton http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101290585 who on Saturday night had a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. In case you were wondering, Gator transfer Jai Lucas played two minutes for UT and only had a personal foul to show for it. THAT'S IT
Enjoy......Florida hosts Vandy and BB all-star John Jenkins Tuesday at 8:00 CST on ESPN....Anthony Grant's Crimson Tide are at home against Mississippi State on Birmingham Channel 21 and http://www.espn3.com/ for those outside of this great city,
Barry
Skype name - barrygatorstocksbham....feel free to Skype anytime....it only rings in my basement office
P. S. Correction.....in the last blog I wrote Kevin Scarbinsky, the Gator basketball grad and sports columnist for the Birmingham News, it should have read Kevin Scarbinsky, the UF graduate school grad and sports columnist for the Birmingham News. Poor proofing on my part...I knew Kevin never laced up the sneakers for the Orange and Blue.
No comments:
Post a Comment