travisduncan
Gator Fan
By Travis Duncan
Despite a 71-64 loss to Mississippi State last Saturday, Gator fans should still be cautiously optimistic about a very talented 16-5 team.
The meat of the season is here, and this week should say a lot about this group's ability to rise to the occasion when it matters most. The three seniors on the roster won't get another chance.
No. 23/24 Vanderbilt comes to the O'Connell Center tonight and No. 10/11 Kentucky will visit on Saturday.
Both games are late tip-offs, 9 p.m. ET, and will be televised on ESPN. College GameDay will originate from Gainesville for Saturday's game.
Of course it really is not must-win territory with seven games remaining after this week before the SEC tournament.
But it will say a lot. A split is a minimum expectation.
Vanderbilt boasts a 3-3 league record, and is coming off a 89-78 loss to Arkansas on Saturday.
They have one of the best offenses in the nation. The Commodores are averaging 78.8 points per contest, which is 21st in the nation and the best in the SEC.
The offense goes through John Jenkins (19.1 ppg) who has averaged 21.8 ppg in league play this year, the best in the SEC.
Florida should see plenty of offensive opportunities, the Commodores have struggled defensively allowing 67.3 ppg (151st in D-1).
Florida has won 11 of its last 14 games ( losses to Jacksonville, South Carolina and Mississippi State) with eight of those victories coming over teams in the RPI top 100. But it only gets harder from here.
"There's no question, the teams that we're playing going forward, I think everybody would say, are better than the teams we've played up to this point in time," Billy Donovan said Monday.
In the latest RPI rankings, the Gators are ranked 19th in the country.
Among AP voters, Florida dropped from the Top 25, but stayed at No. 23 in the Coaches' Poll
Seeding:
It is too early for anything concrete concerning the NCAA tournament, but right now, according to most sources the Gators are 3-5 seed.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has them as the 4th seed in the East, playing in Tampa.
Macklin's Free-Throw Shooting:
Center Vernon Macklin is shooting 40-percent from the free-throw line this season. His struggles invite teams to put him on the charity stripe rather than play defense.
Here is what he said this week about his stroke:
"I think I got caught up in trying to change my shot too much and getting caught in between trying to keep the ball low or bring it high and it's kind of getting in my head right now. I'm thinking about it too much and I'm missing a lot of free throws. I'm just going to go back to relaxing and trying to shoot without thinking about it.''
Urban Meyer to ESPN
The network announced Monday that Urban Meyer has officially joined to work as a college football analyst. He will make his second debut (he worked the BCS National Title game for ESPN) on Wednesday during ESPNU and ESPN's coverage of National Signing day.
In a conference call with media, Meyer said that the job will only take him away from family on weekends during four months of the year.
Meyer will be all over the place for ESPN. Besides working games each week, he'll appear on College Football Live and on ESPN's GameDay. He'll also be on ESPN Radio.
Meyer hardly needs to become an objective journalist to make ESPN happy. Urban Meyer the football coach is what they want and what audiences want.
As it stands right now Meyer, won't be restricted from doing color commentary for Florida or SEC games.
Meyer said he is still a big fan of Florida and that will continue.
From here it will be interesting to see just how cozy Meyer gets with his new gig. His success and enjoyment at ESPN could determine if he returns to coaching.
Other former coaches, notably Jon Gruden, have made the “just to stay in the game” gig a permanent one.
National Signing Day
Will Muschamp will has a total of 17 commitments heading into Wednesday's National Signing Day for the 2011 class. Coconut Creek North Broward defensive end Tevin Westbrook visited campus last weekend and on Tuesday became the latest Florida commitment.
On Thursday I'll have a full recap of National Signing Day for Florida.
Despite a 71-64 loss to Mississippi State last Saturday, Gator fans should still be cautiously optimistic about a very talented 16-5 team.
The meat of the season is here, and this week should say a lot about this group's ability to rise to the occasion when it matters most. The three seniors on the roster won't get another chance.
No. 23/24 Vanderbilt comes to the O'Connell Center tonight and No. 10/11 Kentucky will visit on Saturday.
Both games are late tip-offs, 9 p.m. ET, and will be televised on ESPN. College GameDay will originate from Gainesville for Saturday's game.
Of course it really is not must-win territory with seven games remaining after this week before the SEC tournament.
But it will say a lot. A split is a minimum expectation.
Vanderbilt boasts a 3-3 league record, and is coming off a 89-78 loss to Arkansas on Saturday.
They have one of the best offenses in the nation. The Commodores are averaging 78.8 points per contest, which is 21st in the nation and the best in the SEC.
The offense goes through John Jenkins (19.1 ppg) who has averaged 21.8 ppg in league play this year, the best in the SEC.
Florida should see plenty of offensive opportunities, the Commodores have struggled defensively allowing 67.3 ppg (151st in D-1).
Florida has won 11 of its last 14 games ( losses to Jacksonville, South Carolina and Mississippi State) with eight of those victories coming over teams in the RPI top 100. But it only gets harder from here.
"There's no question, the teams that we're playing going forward, I think everybody would say, are better than the teams we've played up to this point in time," Billy Donovan said Monday.
In the latest RPI rankings, the Gators are ranked 19th in the country.
Among AP voters, Florida dropped from the Top 25, but stayed at No. 23 in the Coaches' Poll
Seeding:
It is too early for anything concrete concerning the NCAA tournament, but right now, according to most sources the Gators are 3-5 seed.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi has them as the 4th seed in the East, playing in Tampa.
Macklin's Free-Throw Shooting:
Center Vernon Macklin is shooting 40-percent from the free-throw line this season. His struggles invite teams to put him on the charity stripe rather than play defense.
Here is what he said this week about his stroke:
"I think I got caught up in trying to change my shot too much and getting caught in between trying to keep the ball low or bring it high and it's kind of getting in my head right now. I'm thinking about it too much and I'm missing a lot of free throws. I'm just going to go back to relaxing and trying to shoot without thinking about it.''
Urban Meyer to ESPN
The network announced Monday that Urban Meyer has officially joined to work as a college football analyst. He will make his second debut (he worked the BCS National Title game for ESPN) on Wednesday during ESPNU and ESPN's coverage of National Signing day.
In a conference call with media, Meyer said that the job will only take him away from family on weekends during four months of the year.
Meyer will be all over the place for ESPN. Besides working games each week, he'll appear on College Football Live and on ESPN's GameDay. He'll also be on ESPN Radio.
Meyer hardly needs to become an objective journalist to make ESPN happy. Urban Meyer the football coach is what they want and what audiences want.
As it stands right now Meyer, won't be restricted from doing color commentary for Florida or SEC games.
Meyer said he is still a big fan of Florida and that will continue.
From here it will be interesting to see just how cozy Meyer gets with his new gig. His success and enjoyment at ESPN could determine if he returns to coaching.
Other former coaches, notably Jon Gruden, have made the “just to stay in the game” gig a permanent one.
National Signing Day
Will Muschamp will has a total of 17 commitments heading into Wednesday's National Signing Day for the 2011 class. Coconut Creek North Broward defensive end Tevin Westbrook visited campus last weekend and on Tuesday became the latest Florida commitment.
On Thursday I'll have a full recap of National Signing Day for Florida.
