My Beloved 62 Bloggees (Welcome Joe, Doug and Phil):
The Gators opened up their SEC schedule with a victorius battle against scrappy Ole Miss 77 - 71 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101080210 . When Kenny Boynton and Chandler Parsons can contribute offensively, we are tough to beat...especially with our new bruising front line. Plus imagine when we get the already new and improved 6 ' 10 Erik Murphy back in the lineup from his foot injury.
What do Kenny Boynton and Jamal Crawford of the Atlanta Hawks have in common...they are the king of the 4-point play. Kenny has four this year (according to Bill Koss during his color commentating of the Ole Miss game) and Jamal, who has played more than twice as many games (32 versus 15), has five http://www.nba.com/hawks/news/crawford_4point_record.html .
Sometimes after a win, you can't get enough, so you want to hear from the coach. Go to http://www.gatorvision.com/ , scroll down until you get to Gatorvision Videos, and for free you can frequently see a replay of Billy Donovan's uninterrupted post-game press conference. Occasionally you can also watch post-game interviews with players. NEXT
A few SEC thoughts:
Let me ask for a raise of hands....how many of you are ecstatic that Kentucky lost to Georgia 77 - 70? http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101080230 Having lived in Atlanta, deep in enemy territory for 17 years, one develops an anti-Georgia feeling.....however, Go "friggin" Dogs!
Anthony Grant is a winner. I know some Gator fans who would rather have him at the helm in Gainesville instead of Billy (I might be included). Remember it was less than 4 years ago when Grant and his VCU team beat Duke and Coack K in the first round of the NCAA tourney. At times, inherited players cause him to be a tough "parent" but it pays dividends. JaMychal Green has been on fire since he came off his Grant-mandated three-game suspension. Saturday, Green and his double-double led the Tide to a 75 - 57 road victory over Mississippi State http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101080366 . Impatient Alabama fans should be flogged if they complain about Grant who should be at the Capstone for a long time.
Vandy, Vandy, Vandy. When are you going to learn how to play on the road? Squandering an 11-point lead in the last 8 minutes to an inexperienced team like South Carolina, is inexcusable http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101080525 . Your only road win was in Murfreesboro (I have learned that natives of that town, say its name in one syllable....try it) against Middle Tennessee State and it is only 45 minutes from Nashville http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/teams/vac/schedule . It might be time to build a new arena so that you can learn to play where coaches are on the sidelines instead of the baselines.
I remember during the days of the old Southwest Conference in the late 70's, reporters would complain bitterly for having to cover the first day of the conference tourney that had yawners such as Rice - Baylor, TCU - SMU and Texas Tech - Houston. That had to be the case on Saturday in Auburn when the LSU Tigers defeated the War Eagles 62 - 55 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101080028 . After one half, LSU was ahead 32 - 6. The Birmingham News made a good decision by not assigning anyone to cover that game (fortunately their Auburn beat writers are all in Glendale for another event). NEXT
Gator transfer notes:
Rutgers' Jonathan Mitchell had a double-double leading Rutgers to 85 - 72 win over Providence. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101080492 He had 21 points on 7 for 17 shooting and captured 10 rebounds. Don't forget the Gators have Rutgers transfer dynamic point guard Mike Rosario who is sitting out this year but participating in practice helping the Orange and Blue prepare for each opponent. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=41876
Texas' Jai Lucas played just 2 minutes in an overtime loss against Connecticut and only dented the scorebook by missing his single shot attempt. I thought after scoring 13 points in their last game's romp over Arkansas, that he would get more PT. I guess not. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101080585
Kentucky's Eloy Vargas played just 4 minutes and had a blocked shot.....however he did pick up 2 fouls in that time. http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201101080230
Virginia Tech's Allan Cheney is out for the season with a viral inflammation of the heart. http://www.hokiesports.com/mbasketball/recaps/20101223aac.html NEXT
In Birmingham they are still talking about Saturday's triple-overtime thrilling 100 - 97 victory by UAB over Coach Tim Floyd's UTEP Miners http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201101080034 . It was a battle between stars, Cameron Moore of UAB with 29 points and the game-winning three and Randy Culpepper of UTEP who scored 34. One of our bloggees offered me a prime ticket but I received his message after the game started. Darn. NEXT
To football, give yourself 90 seconds and watch the pre-game speech by Miami of Ohio interim coach Lance Guidry before Thursday night's GoDaddy.com Bowl. You will want to put on a helmet and hit the field. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l1HG3KrNBk THAT'S IT
Enjoy, especially you Birmingham bloggees who are stuck at home because of the snow and ice....remember that the Gators travel to Knoxville on Tuesday night for an 8:00 CST ESPN tilt against the Pearl-less Volunteers...let's see if that road momentum from their last successful trip to Xavier carries over.
Barry
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