My Beloved 92 Bloggees (Welcome Randy):
Florida played Wednesday night like a first place SEC team with a revenge 79 - 60 "never in doubt" road victory against South Carolina http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102090525 . Chandler Parsons was brilliant with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. Erving Walker was outstanding with 25 points on 7 of 9 shooting, 4 of 5 from the arc. Walker spent a lot of time covering Gamecocks rookie sensation, Bruce Ellington (in the previous blog I mistakingly referred to him as Elkington), limiting him to 6 of 19 and just 2 of 10 from way downtown for 14 points, much better than giving up the 23 he scored in Gainesville. Vernon Macklin put the Gators on his back in the first half scoring 14 points on 6 for 6 shooting and finished with 16. Solid conference road win.
I probably saw Dominique Wilkins, the Human Highlight Film, play nearly 1000 games in the NBA and college. I cannot remember the Hall of Famer scoring one time using his left hand. That is why it so impressive to see on Wednesday night the Gators big men like freshman Patric Young and his move to the basket finishing with the left hand. Vernon Macklin, Erik Murphy, and Alex Tyus have also shown adeptness from the port side http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_is_a_boats_left_side_called_port_side .
Former Alabama coack, Mark Gottfried, is starting to capture my fancy as a broadcaster. Wednesday night he pointed out the Gators were taking advantage of the open baseline when the Gamecock center came out to guard the ball. He constructively criticized a nonaggressive drive by Kenny Boynton that came up empty and an ill-advised shot near the end of the half by Scottie Wilbekin that was attempted too early. Also, he explained why a referee made a correct backcourt call. Viewers learn from Gottfried and are entertained. When he told his sidekick Dave Neal that he recruited Chandler Parsons and that if he would have gotten him, "I probably wouldn't be sitting here next to you". Mark, keep up the good work. NEXT
A BB (Barry's Blog) mid-major darling, Old Dominion, continued its winning ways last night overpowering Bill and Mary 69 - 53 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102090658 . Once again ODU outrebounded it opponent as it has done every game but one, against physical Drexel. BB All-star Frank Hassell, the 6' 8 245 lb 5th-year senior, had another double-double, his 6th in his last 9 games, with 21 points on 9 for 11 shooting along with 11 rebounds.
The game had an unusual statistic. William and Mary was 17 for 44 from the field and 7 from 13 at the free throw line. Out of all those misses on the offensive end, they only had 1 offensive rebound. It just confirms the ODU Monarchs take pride in their rebounding, especially on their defensive boards. I love that passion during March Madness, which is why I am picking them as a Cinderella going to the Sweet Sixteen. I can see bloggee Charlie nodding his head in Norfolk. NEXT
Are you kidding me? Gator killer UCF lost again and it was at home? What a heartbreaker on Wednesday night! UCF was up by 2 with 2.6 seconds, when Memphis's guard, Antonio Barton, launched a three-point shot...just like Kentucky's Brandon Knight did against Florida on Saturday and North Florida's Brad Haugabrook against Jacksonville on Tuesday night...all three in nearly the exact situation.
UCF was not as fortunate as UF and JU. Barton was the only of the three to nail the game-winning three-pointer sending former Gator assistant Donnie Jones and the UCF Knights to their eighth straight defeat, after starting 14 -0 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201102090103 .
I can't help but think of Jack Llewellyn, the noted sports psychologist who John Smoltz, seeked in 1991 after the former Atlanta Braves pitcher, started the season 2 - 12. Smoltz ended up 14 - 13 and pitched 7 1/3 innings in the classic 1 - 0 loss in game seven of the 1991 World Series (the Lonnie Smith "deked" game http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0910/mlb.postseason.bloopers/content.4.html ) . Do you think UCF Athletic Director, former Gator footballer, Keith Tribble should hire Llewellyn to make a long house call with the UCF coaches and players? NEXT
Jay Wright and his Villanova team might also need a visit from Dr. Llewellyn. On Wednesday night, Villanova was up by 5 with 8 seconds left...... also up by 3 with 1 second left and still lost in regulation! What! You can click on the following link to see the highlights as Gator transfer Jonathan Mitchell nailed a 3-pointer with less than a second left and was fouled! He made the free throw and Villanova immediately had that "I lost my wallet" feeling http://espn.go.com/video/clip?categoryId=2459792&id=6107022
Mitchell has been on fire lately. In his last 7 games he is averaging 21 points on 50 % shooting pushing his season average to 14.5 while shooting over 46 %, including 41 % from three. Along with his 6 rebounds per game and 76 % free throw shooting, the Orange and Blue could use him now http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=31833 . If only it were baseball and we could trade for him down the stretch. NEXT
Another all-BB player, College of Charleston's Andrew Goudelock, had one of his "unconcious" evenings much to the glee of his legendary coach, Bobby Cremins. In Wednesday's 85 - 67 road win at Elon, Goudelock was not bashful with his 21 field goal attempts, sinking 13 of them. Better than that, he had 12 shots from the perimeter and made 8 of them during his 34 point performance http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102090195 . He may not have the supporting cast to make the NCAA tournament in the one-bid Southern Conference which would be a shame. America would love Goudelock. NEXT
In the previous blog, I omitted Justin Hamilton from the list of lock-down defenders in recent Gator hoops history http://www.gatorzone.com/basketball/men/bios.php?year=2003&bio=hamilton.html. In his 2002-2003 senior year, he shut down current Washington Wizard, Kansas's Kirk Heinrich, limiting him to 5 points on 2 of 8 shooting while scoring 14 points himself. http://statsheet.com/mcb/games/2002/11/29/florida-83-kansas-73.
Later that year, Baltimore bloggee John got us great seats for defending national champion Maryland's first game in their new building against Florida. Hamilton limited current Los Angeles Laker, Steve Blake, to 5 points only connecting on 2 of 7 field goal attempts and I remember he had a tough time getting off just those few shots http://statsheet.com/mcb/games/2002/12/14/florida-69-maryland-64 . It still amazes me that Blake has had such a long career in the NBA (8 years) after witnessing him getting Hamiltonized http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/profile?playerId=1994 . Justin only played in the NBDL. THAT'S IT
Enjoy.......big game on ESPN at 8:00 Central between Alabama and Vanderbilt.....Roll Tide and Anthony Grant......sorry bloggee Vanderbilt Henry......Samford, how about an upset tonight at Appalachian State and their scary point guard Donald Sims,
Barry
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