Championship road for UF baseball and softball begins in Oklahoma

Gators are in an NCAA regional for the 16th straight year (UAA Photo)

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

It’s an Oklahoma type of week for the Florida Gators. Thursday night, the Florida softball team will face Oklahoma State in the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Friday afternoon, the Florida baseball team will be in Stillwater, Oklahoma for a first round NCAA regional game against Big Ten champion Nebraska.

That the softball team is in the WCWS is a bit of a surprise if you go by preseason when UF was picked to finish eighth in the SEC and by what happened on April 24, when the Gators melted down against Florida State, allowing a 12-run sixth inning that led to a run-rule loss at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Since then the Gators are 13-2, winners of the SEC Tournament and both the NCAA Gainesville regional and super regionals. The Gators are 51-13 with one of those losses to Oklahoma State back in February. This is a different Florida team than the one that lost to Okie State at KSP.

It's also a different Florida baseball team. Back in February, every single poll had the Gators ranked in the top four. It was supposed to be a return to Omaha for the College World Series, but a funny thing happened on the way to a great season. Florida’s pitching never materialized and instead of an easy go of it, the Gators had to beat Georgia two out of three on the final weekend of the regular season to convince the NCAA selection committee that they belonged.

A lot of people aren’t 100 percent sure the Gators (28-27) belong, but they did play the toughest schedule in the country and they own series wins over No. 3 seed Texas A&M, No. 7 seed Georgia and series wins over LSU and Mississippi State, which are both in the tournament. No. 1 Tennessee, No. 2 Kentucky nor No. 5 Arkansas were able to sweep the Gators on SEC weekends.

Florida softball’s season will end in Oklahoma. The WCWS is double elimination so the Gators will play at least two games in Okie City, more if they are able to win some games. The Gators are the No. 4 seed in the tournament, while Oklahoma State is No. 5.

For the Florida baseball team to avoid seeing its season come to an end in Oklahoma it will take a fast start in a double-elimination weekend. If the Gators are able to win their first two in Stillwater, someone will have to beat them twice. Odds are very favorable for teams that win their first two in regional matchups to advance to the super regional round.  

Gator notes: This is the 16th consecutive year the Gators have made an NCAA regional, second nationally only to Vanderbilt … For UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan, this makes 25 consecutive years in the postseason, nine at Clemson and 16 at UF.

Stillwater regional

Friday 3 p.m. FLORIDA (28-27) vs. Nebraska (39-20)

Friday 7 p.m. Oklahoma State (40-17) vs. Niagara (38-15)

Walter Clayton Jr. will return for his senior season at UF (Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears)

UF BASKETBALL: Clayton makes it official that he’s returning

As reported here last week, Walter Clayton Jr. will be back at UF for his senior year after going through the NBA Draft process. A couple of days ago, Will Richard also announced he would be back after testing the draft waters.

With Clayton (17.6 points per game) and Richard (11.4) returning and Alijah Martin (13.9) transferring in from Florida Atlantic where he was the leading scorer on the Owls’ 2023 Final Four team, Todd Golden will once again have one of the best perimeter units in the country. At the Ocala Tipoff Club gathering last week, Golden said he expects significant contributions from a much improved Denzel Aberdeen and freshman Isaiah Brown from Orlando Christian Prep.

Golden dipped into the transfer portal to bring in bigs Rueben Chinyelu from Washington State and Sam Alexis from Chattanooga. Chinyelu, a 7-footer with a 7-8 standing reach, was the top shot blocker in the Pac-12 as a true freshman last season while Alexis is a big time rebounder who averaged 10.9 points and 9.1 rebounds at Chattanooga last season. Golden is also bringing in 7-6 Olivier Rioux as a walk-on from IMG Academy. Because he wanted to reclassify so he could come to UF a year early, Golden offered him a spot as a walk-on. He needs work but you can’t teach tall.

With those guys joining rising sophomores Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh, Golden believes the Gators will be able to compensate for the losses of All-SEC Tyrese Samuel, who ran out of eligibility, and Micah Handlogten, who will take a medical redshirt.

“We should be improved defensively and we should be able to play big and fast,” Golden told the Ocala meeting.

The Gators are expected to be a top 25-ranked team in the fall. Currently, ESPN has Florida at No. 15 in its too early top 25 while CBS has UF at No. 21.

Big guys (6): * Micah Handlogten (7-1, 235, JR); Sam Alexis (6-9, 240, JR/TR); Alex Condon (6-11, 230, SO); Thomas Haugh (6-9, 215, SO); Rueben Chinyelu (7-0, 250, SO/TR); ** Olivier Rioux (7-6, 300, FR)

* Will redshirt 2024-25

** Preferred walk-on

Perimeter (6): Will Richard (6-4, 206, SR); Walter Clayton Jr. (6-2, 195, SR); Alijah Martin (6-2, 190, SR/TR); Denzel Aberdeen (6-5, 190, JR); Kaijus Kublickas (6-2, 175, SO); Isaiah Brown (6-5, 190, FR)

Jenny Rowland will have a stacked UF gymnastics roster for 2025 (Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears)

UF GYMNASTICS: Selena Harris transfers to UF

Jenny Rowland has knocked on the NCAA gymnastics championship door several times in recent years. In 2025 she may have a team that rather than knocking, kicks the door down.

The Gators were already going to be one of the favorites to win their first NCAA championships since the threepeat year of 2015 but Monday brought the news that Pac-12 Gymnast of the Year Selena Harris is transferring to Florida with two years of eligibility remaining. A 12-time All-American, Harris was ranked No. 1 on the vault last year when she scored four perfect 10s.

Harris will be joining a Florida lineup that includes Leanne Wong, twice a member of gold medal US national teams, 2023 world all-around silver medalist and 2024 NCAA uneven bars champ; 2024 freshman All-American Anya Pilgrim; 2023 All-American Sloane Blakely and outstanding freshmen Danie Feris, Skylar Draser and Gabby Disidore. The Florida lineup will be buoyed by the return of 2023 All-American Kayla DiCielo, who took the year off to prep for the Olympics, and former national team member Riley McCusker, who took a medical redshirt. Skye Blakely and Shilese Jones will also be joining the program immediately after competing for the US national team at the Olympics. Oft-injured former world all-around champion Morgan Hurd could also be back.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I have never been much into playing the what if game, but I have always wondered what if when it comes to the basketball careers of Pete Maravich, who passed away in 1988, and Bill Walton, who died Monday after a protracted battle with cancer.

Three things always stood out with Pete. First, he only got to play three years of college basketball because freshmen were ineligible in those days but he still scored 3,667 points while averaging 44.2 per game in only 83 collegiate games. Second, there was no 3-point shot in those days. LSU coach Dale Brown used computer enhancement of the film of every college game Pete played, concluding he would have averaged more than 55 a game had there been a 3-point shot. Third, only half of Pete’s heart worked. Instead of four functioning valves he only had two. How much stronger and quicker would he have been? How much more stamina?

With Bill Walton, what if there had been in his day the shoe technology and the surgical advances that we have today. Walton was 7-1, not the 6-11 he was listed. He insisted on being listed 6-11 because he thought people think of 7-footers as freaks. He weighed 250 pounds and had very narrow feet for a man his size. His feet and ankles were not at all conducive to the kind of pounding they took on a basketball floor, but the shoes weren’t nearly as supportive or cushiony then and the surgical techniques not nearly as advanced. I wonder what kind of career Bill Walton could have had.

I got to know Pete when I was with the Savannah News-Press and he was with the Atlanta Hawks, whose training camp was in Savannah in those days. When Julius Erving tried to bolt the ABA in the summer of 1974, he signed a contract with the Hawks. Fast breaks with Dr. J on one side of Pete and Lou Hudson on the other were a thing of beauty. Watching those three in action made me appreciate just how unselfish and how incredible Pete was with the ball in his hands.

Bill Walton came along after Pete left LSU for the NBA. He led UCLA to the 1971 and 1972 NCAA titles. I was at the 1973 national championship game when Walton scored 44 points, hitting 21 of his 22 shots. Greg Lee would just flip the ball up to the rim and Bill would go get it. There were no dunks allowed then but the alley-oop minus the dunk was a thing of beauty.

I got to meet Bill in person in St. Louis in December of 1973 when UCLA and North Carolina State had a highly-publicized showdown game. I was with the Rocky Mount (NC) Telegram at the time. UCLA was working on an 88-game winning streak and NC State was unbeaten in 1973 but unable to participate in the NCAA Tournament due to probation. It was touted as Bill Walton vs. David Thompson. UCLA and Bill Walton won the game, in part because David Thompson didn’t shoot well and Walton dominated Tommy Burleson. The real star of that game was David Meyers. In the locker room post game, Bill was shy except when it came to talking about his teammates. That was the first understanding I really had of Bill Walton’s unselfishness. He really was all about the team.

We met again in the UCLA locker room on the Friday before the 1974 NCAA Tournament semifinal with North Carolina State in Greensboro. Bill recognized me and smiled, said a few words about basketball but was more interested in talking about his favorite band, the Grateful Dead. I had a roommate who had the entire Dead record collection so I knew a lot of the songs. When Bill discovered I knew the song “Uncle John’s Band” and the Dead’s version of the Merle Haggard classic “Mama Tried,” he lit up. The next day in double overtime, North Carolina State ended UCLA’s 7-year run of national championships. Bill had 29 points and 18 rebounds, but North Carolina State got 28 from Thompson, 20 points and 14 rebounds from Burleson, and 12 points including four clutch free throws from 5-6 Monte Towe, an All-American and one-day University of Florida assistant coach under Norm Sloan.

After the loss to North Carolina State I didn’t go into the UCLA locker room, but a friend who did told me that Walton was just devastated and seemed to put the entire blame of losing on his own shoulders.

Walton had a brilliant 1977 when he led the Portland Trailblazers to the NBA title. Bill was at the 2006 NCAA Final Four when UCLA was beaten by Florida in the championship game. I was able to listen in when he was asked some questions before the game when he arrived with a contingent of former UCLA greats. Someone mentioned that Walton’s teammate with the Boston Celtics, Larry Bird, might be coming to the championship game at which time, Bill talked about how fun it was to play with the Celtics, who were the embodiment of unselfish play.

Unselfish. That’s how I remember Pete Maravich. That is also how I will remember Bill Walton. Both of them were among the greatest players of all time, but they were both unselfish and loved being on a team where they could blend their talents in with teammates.