“I love football and I love being in on the plays, that’s what has gotten me to where I am today." -- JUSTIN PELIC By KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com College football over the last few decades has been scattered with inspiring walk-on stories in nearly every program. Whether it be Rudy who had a dream of playing for Notre Dame or Baker Mayfield who went on to win the Heisman trophy and become the #1 overall draft pick in the NFL draft. One of the most prominent walk-ons in Florida history was Chris Doering, who spent his high school playing days in Gainesville at P.K. Yonge with dreams of putting on the orange and blue. “I had it in my head my entire childhood that I was going to get a scholarship, play football for the Gators, and go on to play in the NFL,” said Doering. Doering went on to have one of the most decorated careers as a Florida wideout and played over six years for four teams in the NFL. Doering’s story has inspired others, paving the way for walk-ons to find their places. Justin Pelic is looking for his place on the field. (UAA Photo) Among those players, is current Florida walk-on, Justin Pelic, a redshirt sophomore from Mount Pleasant, S.C. where he played linebacker at Wando High School. He could figure in the linebacker crew for 2022. “I love football and I love being in on the plays, that’s what has gotten me to where I am today,” said Pelic. Pelic has been working relentlessly with the rest of the Gators this offseason in hopes of being awarded playing time. He says Strength & Conditioning/Associate Head Coach/ Mark Hocke and the rest of the staff has been bringing relentless effort to practice in pursuit of getting everyone in game form. Pelic hopes to join the likes of other well-known names in college football with walk-on tags. Most recently was Stetson Bennett after bringing a championship to Athens, who has cemented himself in the history books. Louis Oliver is another massive name to come out of the Florida Gators football team as a walk-on. Oliver was a two-time first-team All-American during his time at Florida while also a second team All-Pro in the 1992 season of the NFL. During his NFL career as a defensive back, he accumulated 27 interceptions over 7 seasons with stints with both the Dolphins and the Bengals. Oliver was recently inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame. With those kind walk-ons paving the way in Florida history, Pelic hopes to follow in the footsteps.

“Put your right arm in, take your right arm out. Put your right arm in and you shake it all about. Do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about.” – Ray Anthony Life on the bubble in college basketball is like doing the Hokey Pokey. One day Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm have you in. The next day, you’re out. Then you’re in again but they’ve got you going to Dayton for a play-in game all because you had a close call with a Quad 2 team. It can be nerve-wracking, not only for coaches and players, but fans who study the brackets religiously. Mike White and the Florida Gators can relate. It is called living on the edge, which is where the Gators seem to have been parked ever since that 6-0 start got them ranked as high as 14 in the Associated Press poll, 12th in the Coaches top 25. Since that auspicious beginning, the Gators are 13-11 and have been engaged in a constant flirtation with the NCAA bubble. The inability of Florida to string 5-6 consecutive wins together combined with a 3-game losing streak to start SEC play and three 2-loss streaks has made it impossible for the Gators to lock down a ticket to the Big Dance. In some respects that the Gators are even in the NCAA Tournament conversation is remarkable when you consider the amount of adversity they’ve had to deal with. Here is Readers Digest Condensed version of the injuries and illness the Gators have had to deal with: Phlandrous Fleming Jr.: He had a bout with COVID that slowed him down after Christmas. The Gators had their first SEC game at Ole Miss postponed because of too many players testing positive. That game was made up later but it made UF play four games in eight days, going 2-2. Myreon Jones: Played at least 10 games with a broken finger that seriously affected his shot. Colin Castleton: Missed six games after injuring his shoulder. The shoulder remains injured. Castleton plays in the game but doesn’t practice. C.J. Felder: Had non-COVID illness that caused him to miss only one game, but it slowed him down and he’s just now starting to play at a high level again. Jason Jitoboh: Just as he was starting to play at a high level, he suffered an eye injury against Tennessee on January 26. He has missed 10 games since season-ending surgery. Without Jitoboh to back up Castleton, the Gators are seriously challenged vertically. Tyree Appleby: He has been playing through a deep thigh bruise suffered on February 15 against Texas A&M. Anthony Duruji: He’s a vital member of Florida’s front court and one of only four players 6-7 or better on the roster. He’s missed the last two games while dealing with a lower leg injury. Will injuries, COVID and sickness be taken into account when the Selection Committee announces the tournament field one week from Sunday? Or will they pay more attention to the slightly better than break-even record since getting off to a hot start? Fortunately, for the Gators, this isn’t like football where two losses knock you out of the College Football Playoff picture and four or five doom you to the Opt Out Bowl where your best players take agent money and buy a car rather than practice 15 times for a game that if you lose you might be required to stay an extra week. A lot of nice people live in Shreveport and Birmingham, but they aren’t exactly travel destinations on everyone’s bucket list, particularly college football players with their eyes on the NFL prize. College basketball is different because it has a reward system that doesn’t exist in football. For example, there are 14 teams in the Big Ten. There is a standing joke that when the NCAA announces its basketball tournament field, 19 of them will be among the field of 68. It does seem that any Big Ten team that finishes one game over .500 gets into the tournament. The ACC used to be that way, too, but it might be lucky to get four teams in this year. They call this a 64-team field, but there are those four play-in games in Dayton every year. So, technically speaking it’s a 68-team field but you don’t have to be a math major to figure out that four make the “official” 64 and four go home when they lose in Dayton. The play-in game isn’t a death sentence either. Just a year ago UCLA began its run to the Final Four by beating Michigan State in an 11th-seed play-in game. In 2011, VCU started its run to the Final Four in Dayton with a win over Southern Cal. You can be eliminated from College Football Playoff consideration before September has come and gone. Basketball is a bit more forgiving. In basketball, you can spend an entire season on the bubble just like the Gators and still make the NCAA Field because you scored some important wins late in the regular season or at the conference tournament. You can make it to the Final Four and even win the whole damn thing with 10 or more losses. Rollie Massimino and Villanova won the tournament in 1985 with a 10-loss team that upset Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the championship game. Danny and the Miracles won it for Kansas (Larry Brown coached, Bill Self and John Calipari assistants) in 1988 with a team that lost 11 games. Since 2011, five teams have made the Final Four with 10 or more losses – 2011 VCU (11), 2014 Kentucky (10), 2015 Michigan State (11), 2016 Syracuse (13) and 2017 South Carolina (10). There are also conference tournaments that can put teams on and knock them off the bubble as well as give a highly improbable team its chance to play Cinderella. It wasn’t all that long ago (2008) that Georgia came to the Southeastern Conference Tournament 13-16 and Dennis Felton’s coaching seat blowtorch hot. A funny thing happened on the way to Felton’s pink slip, however. Georgia beat Ole Miss in overtime in round one and then there was a tornado that damaged the Georgia Dome so badly the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship game were played at cozy Alexander Coliseum on the Georgia Tech campus. Before a crowd of maybe 200 family and media, Georgia had to play twice on the same day, beating Kentucky in the quarterfinals and Mississippi State in the semifinals on Saturday before beating Arkansas in the championship game on Sunday. Georgia made the NCAA Tournament with a 17-16 record, delaying by a full year the termination of Felton’s gainful employment in Athens. The Gators aren’t a bad basketball team like that 2008 team from Georgia, but they simply haven’t been able to string enough wins together to be convincing. They’re sitting 19-11 overall (9-8 in the SEC) with Kentucky coming to Gainesville Saturday for the regular season finale at the O-Dome. The joint will be rocking, maybe even more than it was a couple of weeks ago when the Gators scored the biggest upset in O-Dome history by knocking off then No. 2 Auburn. Should the Gators shock the 7th-ranked Wildcats, who Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm have sitting on two lines in their brackets, they can all but forget the bubble. With 20 regular season wins overall and 10 SEC wins that include wins over top ten teams that are quite capable of winning a national championship, the Gators will be mortal locks to get in, maybe even with a 7-10 seed. That is not a bad place to be since there really isn’t all that much difference between a seven and a ten. As the seeding numbers grow closer together, the more parity there is. There is a reason why only once in NCAA history has a No. 16 beaten a No. 1. Games between teams seeded 7-10 turn out to be rock fights with none of them having that great an advantage. Should the Gators lose to Kentucky, it’s back to the familiar bubble watch. That would mean at least one win and possibly two in Tampa at the SEC Tournament next week will be a requirement for Florida to get its dance card punched on Selection Sunday. Currently the Gators are in a three-way tie for fifth in the SEC with No. 25 Alabama and South Carolina. The Gators will play their first SEC Tournament game on Thursday. It would be desirable for the Gators to finish either fifth or sixth in the final standings because their first game would be against either Vanderbilt, Missouri, Ole Miss or Georgia. A combined 6-1 record against those four makes it favorable that UF could advance to the quarterfinals on Friday. There are no guarantees that just winning that first round game would be enough to get the Gators into the NCAA Tournament, but there are certain built-in advantages that favor the Gators. For one thing, the SEC is as strong a league as there is in the country. If you need evidence, then look to the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, won by the SEC. Among the SEC’s six wins were Kentucky blowing the doors off Kansas and Alabama bushwhacking Baylor. Lunardi has both Baylor and Kansas as No. 1 seeds. Jerry Palm has Auburn as a top seed with Kentucky a two and both Tennessee and Baylor as fours. History is also on the side of the Gators. Only six teams in the entire country have made the NCAA Tournament every year the tournament was played since 2017. Bluebloods like Kentucky, Duke and Michigan State haven’t done it, but Florida has and the one year the tournament wasn’t played –2020 – the Gators were 19-12 and a likely six or seven seed due to their 11-7 record in conference play. Teams with a history of making the tournament field do seem to get preferential treatment by the Selection Committee. As of Thursday afternoon, here is where three prominent bracketologists see the Gators: Joe Lunardi of ESPN has the Gators on his Next Four Out, which is to say they are one of eight teams he believes wouldn’t get in the tournament if the selections were made today. Jerry Palm of CBS has the Gators starting the tournament in Dayton in a 12-seed play-in game against VCU (21-7) with the winner playing 5th-seeded Texas (21-9) in the West Region first round. Michael Lazarus of Yahoo Sports also has the Gators in Dayton only in a Midwest Regional play-in game against Xavier (17-12) of the Big East. The winner would face Southern Cal (25-5). Sometimes the people who do the brackets are amazingly accurate, but this isn’t your typical year as we discovered last weekend when seven of the Associated Press top ten teams lost. Unlike so many years when so many dominant teams eliminated much of the guesswork, this year there is far more parity than ever before. The transfer portal has something to do with that. Many of the teams that have improved via the transfer portal have done it with kids who are transferring from teams from one-big conferences to teams in leagues that typically land multiple bids. The Southeastern Conference, for example, which figures to get as many as seven teams in the NCAA Tournament, has 56 kids who came in via the transfer portal this year, 23 from typical one-bid leagues. Where would Florida be without transfers? The four transfers who came in via the transfer portal this year are all major contributors. Phlandrous Fleming Jr. (from Charleston Southern of the Big South) and Brandon McKissic (from Kansas City of the Horizon League), were big stars in one-bid leagues. They came to Florida for the chance to live out the dream of playing in the NCAA Tournament. C.J. Felder was at Boston College, which fired its coach because the program was going nowhere. Ditto for Myreon Jones who came from Penn State. Both of them can do something they never would have done at their previous schools. Will their dreams come true? They can ensure that it will happen Saturday if they succeed in knocking off Kentucky at the O-Dome. If not, they’ll spend another few days on the NCAA bubble, knowing they either have to win one or two games at the SEC Tournament or its off the bubble and squarely into the NIT.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: UF MEN’S BASKETBALL: ROSTER MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS It will be Senior Day Saturday at the O-Dome when the Gators (19-11, 9-8 SEC) try to seal a bid to the NCAA Tournament by knocking off No. 7 Kentucky (24-6, 13-4 SEC). Because the NCAA doesn’t count the 2020-21 COVID season against anyone’s eligibility, Senior Day at UF will be a little tricky. The only two players guaranteed to be gone on the current roster are Brandon McKissic and Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who had both played four years prior to arriving at Florida as transfers. Minus McKissic and Fleming, Mike White has 11 scholarship players on his roster, but one of those is Keyontae Johnson, who still hasn’t been cleared to play and has a $5 million decision to make. Colin Castleton is almost certain to go to the NBA although he does have a year of eligibility if he were to decide to come back. Because Anthony Duruji and Tyree Appleby sat out a year after transferring and they played during the COVID year, they actually have a year of eligibility remaining. So, let’s do some math. McKissic, Fleming and Castleton leaving would give the Gators ten scholarships. I doubt Keyontae plays again and I would be surprised if Duruji comes back since he will have a master’s degree and is 23 years old. Subtract Keyontae and Duruji and that’s eight and could be seven if Appleby leaves. White has signed three high school kids, so if Appleby comes back and none of the other seven transfer out, the Gators could bring in two through the transfer portal. Goners (3) Brandon McKissic: He played four years at Kansas City so this counts as his fifth year due to the COVID season of 2020-21. He’s a lights out defender whose offense suffers if he’s not at the point. Phlandrous Fleming Jr.: The way he’s been playing lately, it would be great if there were a way for him to come back next season, but he played four years at Charleston Southern without a redshirt, so this is his fifth year. Colin Castleton: He is a warrior who will make All-SEC despite playing the last half of the season with a shoulder injury that doesn’t allow him to practice. He was a 2018-19 freshman at Michigan who transferred to UF in 2020-21. Since last year was his COVID year, technically speaking this is his third year so he’s got another year to play. However, his draft stock is rising and he’ll be on some NBA roster next year. Count on that. Probably gone (2) Keyontae Johnson: He would love to play again, but says he hasn’t had clearance from the doctors. He also has an insurance policy that will pay him $5 million if he doesn’t play again, which is a nice foundation for a start in life. He graduates in April. He told me recently that there is only one coach he would consider playing college basketball for if he chose to play again and that’s Mike White. If cleared, he would have at least one season of eligibility, perhaps two based on medical hardship rules. Figure he doesn’t play but all bets are off if he gets cleared medically. Anthony Duruji: He began his collegiate career at Louisiana Tech in 2017-18 and is now in grad school at UF. He took a transfer redshirt in 2019-20 at UF and 2020-21 was his COVID season. Since 2020-21 doesn’t count plus he has that redshirt, he fits under that five years to play four NCAA rule, so he can come back but he’s 23 years old and has a game made for overseas. Weighing his options (1) Tyree Appleby: His collegiate career began at Cleveland State in 2017-18 where he was an All-Horizon League performer. He sat out 2019-20 when he transferred, so 2020-21 is his COVID season. He can return and is weighing his options, but right now it looks like he will return next season. Back unless they elect to transfer (7) Myreon Jones: Jones went through a really tough stretch in which he couldn’t buy a basket, but in his last nine games he’s looking like the players the Gators thought they were getting when he transferred from Penn State. He’s hit 26 of his last 57 3-pointers (45.6 percent) while averaging 10.4 points with 11 assists and only four turnovers. He is also one of the Gators better on-ball defenders. He has one year of eligibility remaining. C.J. Felder: He has not been the same player since he got sick midyear but he’s a versatile defender, capable of defending four of the five positions. He’s a very good 3-point shooter (38.9 percent) and a very physical rebounder. He’ll play a lot next year. He has two more years of eligibility. Jason Jitoboh: He was just coming into his own when he suffered an eye injury against Tennessee. If he focuses on getting into top physical condition in the offseason, he could be a major surprise as a starter next season. He has two years of eligibility. Niels Lane: In the last 10 games, he has become Florida’s X-factor. Not much offense although he’s shown signs of coming around there, but a brilliant defender. If his offensive game comes around he could be a very good player in the future. He has three more years of eligibility. Kowacie Reeves: He’s a pure shooter who has to figure it out on the defensive end. When he does he will be a stud. Three years of eligibility remaining. Elijah Kennedy: Since the South Carolina game, he is 0-15 from the field and his playing time has diminished, but he has a lot of promise as an off guard. Three years eligibility remaining. Tuonthach Gatkek: He’s way too skinny, but he’s got promise as six points off the bench including two in crunch time against Vanderbilt proved. He’s all of 6-9 but only 172 pounds. He needs 18-20 pounds in the offseason. Signed (3) Malik Reneau: He is a 5-star power forward for national power Montverde Academy. He’s a legit 6-9 and 225 pounds with a frame to add muscle. Really good around the basket and a terrific defender. Jalen Reed: He’s a legit 6-10 and 225 who could easily carry 240-250 pounds. He can hit the three and he’s very active around the rim. His dad was an All-American at Ole Miss. Denzel Aberdeen: He’s 6-4 and a skinny 175 who is still developing as a point guard. He is a streaky shooter who can light it up when he gets hot. His Dr. Phillips team is going for a second straight Class 7A championship. SEC Basketball Wednesday’s scores: Texas A&M (19-11, 8-9 SEC) 87, No. 25 Alabama (19-11, 9-8 SEC) 71; No. 5 Auburn (26-4, 14-3 SEC) 81, Mississippi State (17-13, 8-9 SEC) 68, OT; Arkansas (24-6, 13-4 SEC) 77, LSU (20-9, 8-9 SEC) 76 Saturday’s games: No. 7 Kentucky (24-6, 13-4 SEC) at FLORIDA (19-11, 9-8 SEC); Georgia (6-24, 1-16 SEC) at Missouri (10-20, 4-13 SEC); Vanderbilt (14-15, 6-11 SEC) at Ole Miss (13-17, 4-13 SEC); No. 14 Arkansas (24-6, 13-4 SEC) at No. 13 Tennessee (22-7, 13-4 SEC); No. 25 Alabama (19-11, 9-8 SEC) at LSU (20-10, 8-9 SEC); South Carolina (18-11, 9-8 SEC) at No. 5 Auburn (26-4, 14-3 SEC) USA TODAY NAMES KELLY RAE SEC COACH OF THE YEAR Leave it to the USA Today Network to avenge a wrong. The newspaper collective named Florida’s Kelly Rae Finley SEC Coach of the Year Wednesday, a day after she was snubbed by the SEC coaches for an award she definitely deserved after taking the Gators from a predicted last place finish to a 20-9 record, 10-6 in the SEC while she was the interim head coach. The interim label was removed Monday by UF athletic director Scott Stricklin. Now, a week after a most unexpected loss to Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym, Finley returns to Nashville where she can avenge that loss by taking out the Commodores at Bridgestone Arena in the second round of the SEC Tournament (3:30 p.m., SEC Network). The Gators are projected to be a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They’ll be in the Big Dance win or lose in Nashville, but if they could pick up a couple of wins in the SEC Tournament, they could possibly move up to the No. 5 line. SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament Wednesday’s scores: Vanderbilt (14-17) 85, Texas A&M 69; Alabama (16-12) 75, Auburn 68 Thursday’s games: 1 p.m., Missouri (18-11) vs. Arkansas (17-12); 3:30 p.m. Vanderbilt (14-17) vs. N0. 23 FLORIDA (20-9); 7 p.m. Mississippi State (15-13) vs. Kentucky (15-11); 9:30 p.m. Alabama (16-12) VS. No. 24 Georgia (20-8) RED-HOT GATORS SLUG SIX HOMERS, POUND FAMU, 17-0 Jud Fabian hit two of Florida’s six home runs Wednesday night as the Gators won their seventh straight game, 17-0, over Florida A&M at the Florida Ballpark. The homers were the second and third of the season for Fabian, who moved into 10th place in his career with 34. Also hitting home runs were Colby Halter, Sterlin Thompson, Corey Robinson and BT Riopele. The Gators had 18 hits led by Jud Fabian, Thompson and Deric Fabian with three each. For the Gators it was the fourth straight game with more than 10 runs and 10 hits. Super Senior Garrett Milchin, who missed three straight years with injuries, went five innings, allowing just two hits and striking out two to get the win. Karl Hartman, Phil Abner and Anthony Ursetti combined to limit the Rattlers to three hits over the final four innings. The Gators travel south to face Miami in a three-game series over the weekend. UF SOFTBALL: 16-GAME WINNING STREAK COMES TO AN END It is those first two innings that usually give Lexie Delbrey problems and Wednesday night was no exception as the Gators saw their 16-0 start to the season come to an end, 5-4, at the hands of the Southern Miss Eagles. The first inning was the real killer for Delbrey (5-1). She walked a batter, hit another and then served up a 3-run homer. She gave up another home run in the second. Her stat line read six innings, five hits, four earned runs, four walks, two hit batters and nine strikeouts. The Gators had their chances to win the game at the plate, but after scoring three runs in the first two innings, they couldn’t come up with two-out hits when they needed them. In the seventh, after Southern Miss scored what proved to be the winning run on a throwing error, the Gators got leadoff hitter Skylar Wallace on base with a single, only to see the Eagles get a fly out and a game-ending double play to preserve the win. The Gators will play five games over the weekend in the Bubly Invitational at KSP – two against Georgia State, two against Coastal Carolina and one against Georgia State. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Answering a question from a reader in The Athletic, Stewart Mandel writes about the future of college football: “It’s going to be the Power 2 (Big Ten and SEC), the Less Powerful 3 (ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12) and the Powerless 5 (AAC, MWC, Sun Belt, MAC and whatever’s left of C-USA).” Mandel didn’t mention Notre Dame but don’t worry about the Irish. When their contract expires with NBC in 2025, the Irish won’t lack for suitors and the new deal will be hefty and not one that has to be shared with other leagues. Focus, if you will, on the Southeastern Conference and the Big Ten. From a financial standpoint, they will have it all over their less fortunate brethren during the next decade. The SEC will be distributing more than $75 million per school when the new ESPN contract goes into effect in 2024. When Texas and Oklahoma join the league, some economists are predicting a $90 million a year payout per school. Although the Big Ten may get a bigger deal in its new media rights contract, it will never eclipse the SEC in power and prestige until it starts winning national championships in football. Since 2000, the Big Ten has won two. The SEC has won 13. To paraphrase Ric Flair, “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.” The Man is the SEC. The Big Ten has a lot of money, but it’s just like its “Alliance” buddies, a wannabe. That won’t change anytime soon.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: YA GOTTA BELIEVE! GATORS STAGE IMPROBABLE RALLY TO BEAT VANDY Improbable might be the wrong word to use here. Impossible might be better, because Florida’s 82-78 come-from-behind win over Vanderbilt at Memorial Gym Tuesday night had that impossible feel to it and left you wondering how it happened. “You feel like you stole one,” Florida coach Mike White said after the Gators (19-11, 9-8 SEC) kept their NCAA Tournament hopes from slip-sliding away by outscoring the Commodores, 9-0, in the final 31 seconds. “You’re always talking about trying to steal one on the road. We really stole this one.” Scotty Pippen Jr. hit a pull-up jumper in the lane with 44.3 seconds remaining that gave the Commodores a 78-73 lead. The ball wasn’t the only thing that drained through the bottom of the net. So did the collective stomachs of the entire Gator Nation. Dead-in-the-water? That was the feeling, but if there is one thing that is becoming increasingly evident about this Florida team it is they don’t give up. They may lose games, but not because they gave up. Thirteen seconds after the Pippen dagger, Vandy made the mistake of fouling Colin Castleton. He was on radar lock, knocking down both ends of a 1-and-1 to make it 78-75 but on the inbounds pass, Vandy found Pippen sprinting behind the Florida defense past midcourt. Pippen, who had already worn the Gators out for 29 points, gathered in the pass and streaked to the basket for what looked to be a breakaway dunk. Here is where that never give up attitude showed up. Phlandrous Fleming Jr. trailed Pippen, caught up with him at the rim and got a hand on top of the ball for a clean block. Tyree Appleby retrieved the ball and started a fast break the other way that ended Fleming finding Tuongthach Gatkek for a layup to cut the Vanderbilt lead to 78-77 with 21 seconds remaining. “Everybody in the gym thought he [Pippen] had it,” Fleming said. “I thought he was going to try and dunk it. My teammates even told me that they if they would have seen the picture, they didn’t think I was going to go and get it.” Vandy called a 30-second time out with 19.9 seconds remaining to set up an inbounds play, knowing fully well the Gators were going to foul whoever caught the ball. With the 5-second count about to expire, Jordan Wright’s inbounds pass skipped out of bounds without touching anyone. Florida basketball. Still 19.9 on the clock. The Gators inbounded the ball to Appleby, who evaded defenders and then dumped the ball off to Castleton. Three Commodores converged around Castleton but before they could collapse on him he passed to the left corner to Fleming, who drilled a three with 6.3 seconds to go, giving the Gators an 80-78 lead. There was still enough time for Vandy to either tie or win the game. The Commodores put the ball in Pippen’s hands and he dribbled down the sideline only to be fouled by Brandon McKissic. Pippen at the line, 1-and-1, 2.3 seconds to go. At that point, everyone at Memorial Gym was thinking overtime but Pippen did the unthinkable, hit the back rim on the first shot. Castleton rebounded, was fouled with 0:00.5 left, and hit the two free throws that finalized a win nobody expected with a half minute to go in the game. This was a game that had a Florida loss written all over it in the second half when Vanderbilt drained seven 3-pointers and led by as many as nine (65-56) with 8:58 to go. It was eight (76-68) with 3:50 to go when Trey Thomas hit his fifth three of the game. The rest of the way, however, the Gators outscored Vanderbilt 14-2 and 9-0 in the final 31 seconds. For the second straight game, Fleming was a hero. He scored a season-high 27 back on Saturday to lead the Gators past Georgia, a game played before a huge contingent of family and friends in his home town of Athens. Fleming scored 16 against Vandy to go with four rebounds, six assists, two blocked shots and three steals. He loved making the game-winning shot, but admitted post-game that his highlight was the block. “I’m a defender first,” Fleming said. Thanks to this impossible win, the Gators are in far better shape when it comes to the NCAA Tournament. A loss would have seriously harmed UF’s chances but this win keeps the tournament very much in play. A win over Kentucky in the O-Dome Saturday could seal it. Beating Kentucky? Impossible? So was outscoring Vandy 9-0 in the last 31 seconds. Tuesday’s scores: FLORIDA (19-11, 9-8 SEC) 82, Vanderbilt (14-15, 6-11 SEC) 78; No. 13 Tennessee (22-7, 13-4 SEC) 75, Georgia (6-24, 1-16 SEC) 68; No. 7 Kentucky (24-6, 13-4 SEC) 83, Ole Miss (13-17, 4-13 SEC) 72; South Carolina (18-11, 9-8 SEC) 73, Missouri (10-20, 4-13 SEC) 69 Wednesday’s games: Texas A&M (18-11, 7-9 SEC) at No. 25 Alabama; No. 5 Auburn (25-4, 13-3 SEC) at Mississippi State (17-12, 8-8 SEC); LSU (20-9, 8-8 SEC) at No. 14 Arkansas (23-6, 12-4 SEC) GATORS WIN SIXTH STRAIGHT WITH 11-2 WIN OVER UNF Josh Rivera led a 13-hit Florida attack with a homer and five RBI Tuesday night as the 14th-ranked Gators hammered North Florida, 11-2, for their sixth straight win. Six Florida pitchers combined to limit the Ospreys to four hits as Brandon Neely got the win with five strikeouts and one hit allowed in two scoreless innings. This was the third straight game the Gators have scored at least 10 runs. Rivera had a 2-run single in the fourth, a bases-loaded walk in the fifth and 2-run homer in the ninth to pave the way. The homer was his second of the season. Also leaving the yard for the Gators were Sterlin Thompson (4th) with a solo homer in the seventh and freshman Deric Fabian, who had a two-run homer in the eighth. Fabian went 3-4 while brother Jud had two hits and an RBI single. Colby Halter, who had an 8-13 weekend, continued his hot hitting with a 2-3 night to raise his batting average to .447. The Gators have their final tuneup for their weekend series at Miami when they play host to Florida A&M tonight at the Florida Ballpark. UF SOFTBALL: GATORS HOST SOUTHERN MISS The 3rd-ranked Gators go for their 17th straight win this evening against Southern Miss (11-5) at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium (6 p.m.). With Elizabeth Hightower (4-0, 0.69 ERA) potentially sidelined for awhile with back issues, Tim Walton might be using this game to get some innings and experience for Rylee Trlicek (1-0, 3.09 ERA) and Marissa Mesiemore (1-0, 5.00 ERA). Lefty Haley Pittman hasn’t seen any action in the circle all season. Walton might need all three of these pitchers this weekend when the Gators play doubleheaders Friday, Saturday and Sunday as part of the Bubly Invitational. KIKI SMITH MAKES FIRST TEAM ALL-SEC, ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM Kiki Smith, who averaged 14.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.4 steals to lead Florida’s resurgent women’s basketball team to a 20-9 regular season finish, was selected first team All-SEC and to the All-Defensive Team Tuesday. Smith is the first Gator to make first team All-SEC since Ronni Williams did it in 2017. She is just the third Gator selected to the All-Defensive team. Named to the All-Freshman team was Alberte Rimdal, who averaged 5.3 points and 1.1 rebounds per game in SEC play. The Gators face the winner of the first round matchup between Texas A&M and Vanderbilt Thursday at 3 p.m. in the SEC Tournament in Nashville. TRINITY THOMAS SEC GYMNAST OF THE WEEK After a nation-leading 39.850 all-around and a perfect 10 on floor to help the 3rd-ranked Gators beat 2nd-ranked Oklahoma, who else but Trinity Thomas could have won SEC Gymnast of the Week? Thomas won or shared the title in all four events against Oklahoma with a 9.925 on vault, 9.950 on bars, 9.975 on beam and the final 10 that sealed Florida’s victory. The 10 was the fifth this season and the 13th of her career. It was the 16th time in her career that Thomas has won SEC Gymnast of the Week. The Gators travel to No. 6 Auburn Friday with a chance to clinch the outright SEC championship. The Gators (10-0) already own a share of the championship, the fourth straight year they’ve been SEC champs. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL NOTES Alabama: Former Auburn wide receivers coach Cornelius Williams is now an offensive analyst at Alabama. Auburn: Walker Kessler is a semifinalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. Kessler is averaging 4.7 blocked shots per game, which leads the nation. Georgia: Georgia has hired Stacey Searels from North Carolina to coach the offensive line. Searels was Georgia’s offensive line coach from 2007-10. Searels almost became Florida’s O-line coach in 2014 when Will Muschamp tried to hire him away from Texas. Kentucky: Scott Woodward, who was an analyst last season, is the new wide receivers coach, replacing Jovon Bouknight. Bouknight, who had some off the field issues, has taken an off-the-field role with the UK staff … Oscar Tshiebwe, who leads the SEC and nation in rebounding (15.3 per game), is a semifinalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. Tshiebwe had 18 points and two steals in Kentucky’s win over Ole Miss Tuesday night. LSU: Tari Eason is a semifinalist for Naismith Defensive Player of the Year. Eason is averaging 16.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.1 blocked shots per game. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Oh, the fun we’re about to have with college football’s version of No Child Left Behind. In other words, expansion, contraction and of course, court cases. We can’t have schools shuffling from one conference to another without some lawsuits, now can we? Comparatively speaking, Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 for the SEC is Romper Room. Eventually, they’ll pay a whopping exit fee that the Big 12 will, in turn, use to help offset the exit fees Houston, Cincinnati and UCF have to pay the American Athletic Conference. Meanwhile, the AAC has compensated for its loss ty raiding Conference USA for UAB, Rice, North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, Charlotte and Florida Atlantic. Conference USA probably could have handled losing those six schools but then Marshall, Southern Miss and Old Dominion bolted for the Sun Belt, which also added D1AA powerhouse James Madison. That left Conference USA with Florida International, Louisiana Tech and UTEP. Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee flirted with joining the MAC only to decide to remain in Conference USA, which also has added Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State from D1AA, and New Mexico State and Liberty. Those four join in 2023. This is when things get fun. The Sun Belt has released its schedule for 2022 with all four of the newbies playing eight league games. Marshall, ODU and James Madison are all in the Sun Belt East while Southern Miss will be in the Sun Belt West. There is only one teensy little problem. Conference USA has requested a court injunction to keep Marshall, ODU and Southern Miss in the league at least for 2022. There is no doubt these three will be leaving Conference USA, but the question is when? Conference USA by-laws require a 14-month notification when teams wish to bolt and clearly, that has been ignored. There has been no attempt at arbitration by Conference USA to force the three departing schools to pay an exit. So far, courts seem to be siding with Marshall, ODU and Southern Miss. The chaos that is ahead causes me to believe one of two things happening: (1) The Big Ten will raid the Big 12 for Kansas and Iowa State which will result in the Pac-12 cherry picking Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and Oklahoma State from the Pac-12; or (2) what we now know as Division I contracts from more than 130 schools to somewhere between 80 and 96 with rules limiting the new Division I to football schools to those with stadiums that seat more than 30,000 that average more than 20,000 in attendance.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: KELLY RAE FINLEY HAS THE INTERIM LABEL REMOVED! Kelly Rae Finley has shed the interim label. Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin made her the head coach of the Florida women’s basketball program moving forward Monday. The decision to remove the interim label was made weeks ago, but not announced until Monday. The timing couldn’t have come at a better time. Having lost the final three games of the regular season, the Gators needed an emotional lift and seeing Finley named as the permanent head coach might be just what they needed. They’ve been putting far more pressure on themselves lately than necessary. “I think we got here by being ourselves,” Kiki Smith said after the Gators lost to Missouri Sunday afternoon. “One thing we talk about a lot is when we have fun we play our best basketball and I do think because we are who we are, we forget about the fun side of it. Now, to us [lately] it’s business but I think once we get back to the fun part – and you know still keep in the back of our minds we’re trying to get somewhere – we’ll get back to playing the basketball that as a team we know we can play and that we’ve played before. So we’ve just got to bring that fun back that we were playing with before we were in this position. Once we get back to that, we’ll shock a lot of people once we get into the tournaments.” Making basketball fun is just one reason Finley earned the job. She took over a toxic situation when Cam Newbauer was fired and instantly began the process of winning this team over, one kid at a time. Finley believes it’s not a one-size-fits-all profession but it takes each individual giving up something to be a part of a team. So from a potential full scale mutiny, which was what was about to take place prior to Newbauer’s dismissal, Finley healed the team one player at a time and instilled a winning attitude. Remember, this is a program that suffered through five straight losing seasons and now the Gators head into the SEC Tournament ranked 23rd nationally and with a 20-9 record that includes wins over five ranked teams. “I want to say there’s some magical thing, but there is not,” Finley told me last week in an interview. “It’s a people-centered business. Sport is fun at its core and we try to keep it that way. It’s not always going to be like that. It’s hard. There are disappointments. There are expectations. There are games that you will lose that you didn’t want to lose but that’s part of it.” Now they have to regroup before Thursday when they face the winner of Vanderbilt-Texas A&M in the second round of the SEC Tournament. By removing the interim label on Monday when he made the announcement in the UF locker room, Stricklin probably took all the pressure off the Gators moving forward this year and after. Finley, after all, is considered a dynamic recruiter. “Kelly Rae is such a talented young coach, whose natural poise, intelligence and relational abilities have all been on display during this remarkable Gators’ women’s basketball season,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said a statement released to the media. “I’m excited that she’ll have the opportunity to build off this year’s success and that future Gators will be able to benefit from her leadership the way this team has.” Associated Press 25: 1. South Carolina 27-1; 2. Stanford 25-3; 3. North Carolina State 26-3; 4. Louisville 25-3; 5. Baylor 23-5; 6. LSU 25-4; 7. UConn 22-5; 8. Iowa State 24-4; 9. Texas 21-6; 10. Michigan 22-5; 11. Maryland 21-7; 12. Iowa 20-7; 13. Ohio State 22-5; 14. (Tie) Indiana 19-7 and Arizona 20-6; 16. North Carolina 23-5; 17. BYU 25-2; 18. Tennessee 22-7; 19. Oklahoma 22-6; 20. Notre Dame 21-7; 22. Florida Gulf Coast 26-2; 23. FLORIDA 20-9; 24. Georgia 20-8; 25. Georgia Tech 20-9 NET RANKINGS MAKE VANDY GAME EVEN MORE IMPORTANT FOR UF The latest NCAA Net Rankings moved Vanderbilt (14-14, 6-10 SEC) to No. 74, which increases the need for Florida (18-11, 8-8 SEC) to score a win tonight at Memorial Gym (8:30 p.m., SEC Network). Under the Net Rankings system a road win over a top 75 team counts as a Quad 1 win, something that has been in short supply for the Gators, 2-8 in Quad 1 with their only wins over No. 20 Ohio State and No. 11 Auburn. At No. 51 in the Net Rankings, the Gators are squarely on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. A win over Vandy might not be that impressive but a loss, would be devastating to Florida’s shaky tournament chances. When Florida beat Vanderbilt 61-42 in January, the Gators were without Colin Castleton but Jason Jitoboh filled in nicely with six points, 10 rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. Jitoboh is out for the season but Castleton is back, playing the best basketball of his career. Potentially out, however, is Anthony Duruji, who had eight points and seven rebounds in the first game while spearheading the best defensive effort of the season. Duruji has a lower leg injury that prevented him from playing in the Gators’ 84-72 win over Georgia. Tuesday’s games: FLORIDA (18-11, 8-8 SEC) at Vanderbilt (14-14, 6-10 SEC); No. 13 Tennessee (21-7, 12-4 SEC) at Georgia (6-23, 1-15 SEC); Ole Miss (13-16, 4-12 SEC) at No. 7 Kentucky (23-6, 12-4 SEC); Missouri (10-19, 4-12 SEC) at South Carolina (17-11, 8-8 SEC) Wednesday’s games: Texas A&M (18-11, 7-9 SEC) at No. 25 Alabama (19-10, 9-7 SEC); No. 5 Auburn (25-4, 13-3 SEC) at Mississippi State (17-12, 8-8 SEC); LSU (20-9, 8-8 SEC) at No. 14 Arkansas (23-6, 12-4 SEC) Associated Press Top 25: 1. Gonzaga 24-3; 2. Arizona 25-3; 3. Baylor 24-5; 4. Duke 25-4; 5. Auburn 25-4; 6. Kansas 23-5; 7. Kentucky 23-6; 8. Purdue 24-5; 9. Providence 24-3; 10. Wisconsin 23-5; 11. Villanova 21-7; 12. Texas Tech 22-7; 13. Tennessee 21-7; 14. (Tie) Houston 24-4 and Arkansas 23-6; 16. Southern Cal 25-4; 17. UCLA 21-6; 18. UConn 21-7; 19. Saint Mary’s 24-6; 20. Illinois 20-8; 21. Texas 21-8; 22. Murray State 28-2; 23. Ohio State 18-8; 24. Iowa 20-8; 25. Alabama 19-10 Coaches Top 25: 1. Gonzaga 24-3; 2. Duke 25-4; 3. Arizona 25-3; 4. Baylor 24-5; 5. Auburn 25-4; 6. Kentucky 23-6; 7. Kansas 23-5; 8. Providence 24-3; 9. Purdue 24-5; 10. Wisconsin 23-5; 11. Villanova 21-7; 12. Texas Tech 22-7; 13. Tennessee 21-7; 14. Houston 24-4; 15. Arkansas 23-6; 16. Southern Cal 25-4; 17. Illinois 20-7; 18. UCLA 21-6; 19. UConn 21-7; 20. Saint Mary’s 24-6; 21. Texas 21-8; 22. Murray State 28-2; 23. Ohio State 18-8; 24. Alabama 19-10; 25. (Tie) Iowa 20-8 and Michigan State 19-9 HALTER SEC CO-PLAYER OF THE WEEK All Colby Halter did last week was go 12-22 at the plate (.545) with two doubles, three home runs, six RBI and a stolen base as the 14th-ranked Gators won five straight games to improve to 6-2 on the season. Halter was also selected as one of the National Players of the Week by Collegiate Baseball. For the season, Halter is hitting .429 with three homers and seven RBI. The Gators travel to Jacksonville to face North Florida tonight. Last week, Brandon Sproat struck out eight in five innings as the Gators beat UNF 3-1 at the Florida Ballpark. D1Baseball Top 25: 1. Texas 8-0; 2. Ole Miss 6-0; 3. Arkansas 4-2; 4. Oklahoma State 4-2; 5. Vanderbilt 5-2; 6. Stanford 6-1; 7. LSU 7-1; 8. North Carolina State 8-0; 9. Mississippi State 4-3; 10. Florida State 5-2; 11. Arizona 7-1; 12. Notre Dame 5-1; 13. Oregon State 7-0; 14. FLORIDA 6-2; 15. Georgia 7-0; 16. TCU 6-1; 17. Tennessee 7-0; 18. Georgia Tech 7-1; 19. Texas Tech 5-2; 20. Liberty 6-1; 21. Maryland 7-0; 22. Miami 7-1; 23. Sacramento State 7-0; 24. North Carola 6-1; 25. Long Beach State 2-4 USA Today Top 25: 1. Texas 8-0; 2. Ole Miss 6-0; 3. Stanford 6-1; 4. North Carolina State 8-0; 5. Vanderbilt 5-2; 6. Arkansas 4-2; 7. LSU 7-1; 8. Oklahoma State 4-2; 9. Oregon State 7-0; 10. Arizona 7-1; 11. Tennessee 7-0; 12. Notre Dame 5-1; 13. Georgia 7-0; 14. TCU 6-1; 15. Mississippi State 4-3; 16. FLORIDA 6-2; 17. Florida State 5-2; 18. Texas Tech 5-2; 19. Liberty 6-1; 20. Georgia Tech 7-1; 21. Maryland 7-0; 22. Virginia 7-0; 23. Miami 7-1; 24. North Carolina 6-1; 25. Sacramento State 7-0 FALBY SEC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK For the second straight week, Kendra Falby was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week. Falby hit .476 for the week with 10 hits including a home run, six stolen bases and five RBI. For the season, Falby leads the 3rd-ranked Gators (16-0) with a .519 batting average, 27 hits, 22 runs scored and 17 stolen bases in 18 attempts. Next up for the Gators is a Wednesday encounter with Southern Miss (11-5) at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. D1Softball Top 25: 1. Oklahoma 15-0; 2. Alabama 15-0; 3. FLORIDA 16-0; 4. UCLA 12-3; 6. Virginia Tech 11-2; 7. Duke 13-3; 8. Arkansas 8-3; 9. Oklahoma State 10-4; 10. Washington 11-4; 11. Northwestern 10-4; 12. Missouri 12-4; 13. Clemson 10-3; 14. Kentucky 13-1; 15. Oregon 11-3; 16. Michigan 8-5; 17. Tennessee 9-6; 18. Arizona 10-4; 19. Georgia 14-2; 20. Auburn 15-1; 21. Louisiana 10-2; 22. LSU 12-5; 23. South Florida 10-3; 24. Arizona State 9-4; 25. Oregon State 12-3 ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Writing at Saturday Down South, Matt Hayes quoted an NFL scout who had the following to say about former Gator running back Dameon Pierce: “Here’s the thing with Pierce – he showed out so well at the Senior Bowl, he eliminated all hesitation about his part-time role [at Florida]. He’s not the fastest guy, but he’s solid, strong, a big back with twitch. He doesn’t have the tape that Najee Harris had from his college career, and he’s not at that 1st-round level, but I can’t stop thinking of Harris when I was [Pierce] play. He has those Harris jump cuts, and the strength to shed tackles. He’s dangerous in the pass game, too. He’s going to be a player in this league.” In four years at Florida, we saw Dameon Pierce do things like break a 75-yard run against South Carolina, run over tacklers, pick up blitzing linebackers and put them on their backs, catch passes and score lots of touchdowns. What we didn’t see was Pierce getting a chance to be the featured back. Ever. Why was that? It is understandable that he was the third back as a freshman in 2018 when the Gators had Jordan Scarlett and Lamical Perine who combined for 1,602 yards and 12 touchdowns. Pierce averaged 5.65 yards per carry in 2019 but he only carried the ball 54 times. In 2020, he carried 106 times for 503 yards. The Gators had an elite passing game but the way the Gators were able to fling it all over the field, Pierce should have gotten more carries against defenses that were dropping seven and eight to protect against the pass. He got 100 carries in 2021 but it wasn’t until the final two games that he got more than 10 in a game. Pierce finished his UF career with 329 carries for 1,806 yards and 23 rushing touchdowns. He caught 45 passes for 422 yards and five TDs. In 2020 when Alabama won the national championship, Harris had 251 carries for 1,466 yards and 26 touchdowns while catching 43 passes for 425 yards and four more TDs. What comparing the numbers tells us is that Dameon Pierce was severely under-used during his Florida career. The good news? He will have fresh legs and a healthy body as he begins his NFL career. Good for him, but it still doesn’t explain how Dan Mullen and running backs coach Greg Knox couldn’t figure out they had a tremendous running back who should have had the ball in his hands far more often.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: REPORTS: RUSS CALLAWAY TO JOIN NAPIER’S STAFF Matt Zenitz, who is one of the most reliable reporters out there, says Billy Napier is about to add Russ Callaway in an off-the-field capacity. Callaway, who spent six years at Samford, the final four as the offensive coordinator, was an offensive analyst at LSU in 2020 and last year worked for the New York Giants. The connection with Napier dates back to Alabama where Callaway was a defensive analyst on the Crimson Tide’s 2011-12 national championship teams. After Alabama, Callaway spent two seasons working as the wide receivers coach at Murray State. Callaway played collegiately at Valdosta State, where he was a quarterback and two-time team captain. CAN THE GATORS MAKE IT TWO MUST WINS IN A ROW? With Georgia out of the way thanks to what Mike White called Florida’s best offensive game of the years, the Gators (18-11, 8-8 SEC) turn their attention to a Vanderbilt team that they’ve already beaten once. That was back in January when UF destroyed the Commodores, 61-42, in perhaps their best defensive effort of the season. A win Tuesday night (8:30 p.m., SEC Network) won’t get the Gators into the NCAA Tournament, but a loss would make getting into the Big Dance enormously difficult. Currently, UF has an NCAA Net Ranking of 51, which puts the Gators squarely on the bubble. CBS bracketologist Jerry Palm has the Gators in with a 12 seed. In whacking Georgia, 84-72, the Gators shot 51.7 percent from the field and hit 14-31 from the 3-point line. What was impressive was 20 assists on 31 made baskets. Yes, it was Georgia, but assists on 64.5 percent of your made baskets is impressive. With Anthony Duruji questionable, the Gators will need another impressive outing from Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who played a lot of power forward against Georgia, responding with 27 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal. SEC Basketball Tuesday’s games: FLORIDA (18-11, 8-8 SEC) at Vanderbilt (14-14, 6-10 SEC); No. 17 Tennessee (21-7, 12-4 SEC) at Georgia (6-23, 1-15); Ole Miss (13-16, 4-12 SEC) at No. 6 Kentucky (23-6, 12-4 SEC); Missouri (10-19, 4-12 SEC) at South Carolina (17-11, 8-8 SEC) Wednesday’s games: Texas A&M (18-11, 7-9 SEC) at No. 24 Alabama (19-10, 9-7 SEC); No. 3 Auburn (25-4, 13-3 SEC) at Mississippi State (17-12, 8-8 SEC); LSU (20-9, 8-8 SEC) at No. 18 Arkansas (23-6, 12-4 SEC) Alabama: The Crimson Tide continues to hold down the No. 22 NCAA Net Ranking. Arkansas: The Hogs are tied with Kentucky and Tennessee, one game behind first place Auburn in the SEC standings … Counting his first two seasons at JU, J.D. Notae has scored 1,873 points in his collegiate career. He’s the second leading scorer in the SEC at 19.07 per game. Auburn: Auburn can clinch the SEC regular season championship with wins at Mississippi State and home against South Carolina. Georgia: The rumblings are increasing in Athens. With their loss to Florida, the Bulldogs have set a school record for losses in a season. Tom Crean is now 47-72 in four years on the job with a 10th place SEC finish, two 13th place finishes and this year’s dead last. Kentucky: Despite the loss to Arkansas Saturday, Kentucky holds down the No. 4 NCAA Net Ranking. LSU: Normally a team with an 8-8 record in conference play wouldn’t merit a No. 16 NCAA Net Ranking. LSU’s high ranking means the Tigers are a mortal lock for the NCAA Tournament and likely to get a seed somewhere between 5-7. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs are No. 52 in the NCAA Net Rankings, which puts them squarely on the tournament bubble. If they could upset Arkansas in Starkville Wednesday, they could play themselves in even before the SEC Tournament. Missouri: There are some rumblings out there that Cuonzo Martin has been pink-slipped. He’s 10-19 this year, 76-75 for his five years at Mizzou with three losing seasons. Ole Miss: Despite a losing record, head coach Kermit Davis Jr. is not in any trouble. Injuries and illness have plagued his team this year and the Ole Miss admin thinks that is a forgivable offense. South Carolina: The Gamecocks have a No. 91 NCAA Net Ranking which means they’ll have to do some serious damage in the SEC Tournament to have a chance at the Big Dance. Tennessee: The Vols find themselves in a three-way tie for second in the SEC, just one game behind Auburn. The Vols have won seven out of their last eight, their only loss on the road at Arkansas. Texas A&M: The Aggies are No. 66 in the NCAA Net Rankings. They probably need three wins to make the NIT. Vanderbilt: The Commodores have lost their last two games by a combined seven points. Vandy is without question the most improved team in the SEC. BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE ON SENIOR DAY FOR UF WOMEN With 4:43 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Florida women found themselves trailing Missouri by 13 points. What happened in the final 4:43 almost salvaged a game in which UF blew too many layups and bunnies at the rim and in the first half gave the visiting Tigers too many straight line drives to the rim. The Gators’ (20-9, 10-6 SEC) 77-73 loss to Missouri (18-11, 7-9 SEC) was the third in a row and costly as UF dropped down to fourth in the final SEC regular season standings and out of a double-bye for the SEC Tournament. Florida finishes fifth in the regular season, still a remarkable turnaround after five straight losing seasons and the dismissal of head coach Cameron Newbauer for running a toxic program back in the summer. What the Gators have done under the direction of interim head coach Kelly Rae Finley is a testament to Finley’s upbeat personality and her demand for honest, accountability and responsibility. This is a program that is in good shape for the future when athletic director Scott Stricklin yanks the interim tag off Finley. Sunday, however, wasn’t Florida’s day. Through the first three quarters, leading scorer Kiki Smith was 0-9 from the field with only two free throws to show for her day. She scored 13 in the fourth quarter, 11 in the final 1:59. Second leading scorer Zippy Broughton managed only seven points and Nina Rickards had three. It was Jordyn Merritt who caught fire in the third quarter and kept the Gators within striking distance. Merritt, who was scoreless at the half, scored eight in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth. The Gators will open play in the SEC Tournament Thursday at 3:30 p.m. against the winner of Wednesday’s Vanderbilt-Texas A&M game. Sunday’s games: Missouri (18-11, 7-9 SEC) 78, NO. 15 FLORIDA (20-9, 10-6 SEC) 73; No. 8 LSU (25-4, 13-3 SEC) 57, No. 16 Tennessee (22-7, 11-5 SEC) 54; No. 1 South Carolina (27-1, 15-1 SEC) 71, Ole Miss (22-7, 10-6 SEC) 57; No. 25 Georgia (20-8, 9-7 SEC) 67, Texas A&M (14-14, 4-12 SEC) 58; Alabama (15-12, 6-10 SEC) 77, Vanderbilt (13-17, 4-12 SEC) 71; Kentucky (15-11, 8-8 SEC) 90, Auburn (10-17, 2-14 SEC) 62 GATORS SWEEP GEORGIA STATE The Gators (6-2) got another superb start from Hunter Barco and nine homers as they swept Georgia State, outscoring the Panthers, 29-6. Barco gave up three hits and struck out 12 Friday night with Nick Ficarrotta pitching the last three, striking out six without giving up a hit. Leadoff man Colby Halter was 8-13 for the weekend, hitting two home runs, one on Saturday when the Gators pounded Georgia State 13-4, and another Sunday when UF clobbered GSU, 12-4. Also going yard during the three games were Wyatt Langford (twice), Jud Fabian, Josh Rivera, Kris Armstrong and freshmen Rene Lastres and Ty Evans. The Gators travel to North Florida Tuesday, play FAMU at home Wednesday and go to Miami for three next weekend. UF SOFTBALL: HOW LONG WILL HIGHTOWER BE OUT? The good news is the 3rd-ranked Gators (16-0) remained unbeaten by going 4-0 at the UCF Knights Classic in Orlando. The bad news is ace Elizabeth Hightower has some back issues that could keep her out awhile. Without Hightower, the Gators relied heavily on Natalie Lugo, who won her Saturday start against Oakland, her Sunday start against James Madison, and who pitched the final two innings for save as the Gators beat UCF 12-11 Sunday evening. Lexie Delbrey was effective in relief Friday night and again Saturday, but Sunday was troublesome as she had all sorts of problems finding the plate. When she is throwing strikes she can dominate, but when she can’t locate, she’s very beatable. Marrisa Mesiemore and Rylee Trlicek aren’t long term answers although they can give an inning here or there. The Gators got two home runs from Hannah Adams Sunday as she raised her batting average to .462. Charla Echols had two homers Sunday and seven RBI, raising her season total to a team-leading 22. Kendra Falby hit a homer and had four stolen bases over the weekend. She now leads the team with 17. The Gators have stolen 45 bases in 49 attempts. They were 56-59 for all of 2021. UF faces Southern Miss Wednesday and will play doubleheaders Friday, Saturday and Sunday as they host the Bubly Invitational. UF MEN/WOMEN FINISH SECOND IN SEC INDOOR TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS The Gators finished second to Arkansas in both the men’s and women’s competition at the SEC Track and Field Championships in College Station. It was the second straight second place finish for the Florida women who have won three SEC titles and finished in the top three two other times since Mike Holloway became head coach. As for the UF men who have five SEC indoor titles under Holloway, it was the 15th time they have finished in the top three during his tenure. The weekend star for the Gators was Jasmine Moore, who won her third straight SEC indoor triple jump championship and combined that with a title in the long jump. With 20 points, she shared the Commissioner’s Trophy for most points by an individual. A PERFECT 13 The 3rd-ranked Gators (10-0) beat No. 2 Oklahoma 198.100-197.750 Friday night before a record crowd of 9,685 at the O-Dome as Trinity Thomas scored the 13th perfect 10 of her storied collegiate career. Thomas hit her 10 on floor, the fifth time this season she’s had a perfect score, to seal the deal against the Sooners. Thomas won the all-around title by winning or share all four events – 9.925 on vault, 9.950 on bars, 9.975 on beam and her 10 on floor. The Gators already have a piece of the regular season SEC title but they can win it outright Friday night at Auburn. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When it comes to college sports, Greg Sankey is the smartest guy in the room. Always, but that doesn’t mean he can’t make a mistake. Over the weekend he admitted he wasn’t transparent enough when he went about announcing that Texas and Oklahoma were bolting the Big 12 to join the SEC. That move will take place, but probably not before the 2025 season, Sankey told the Houston Chronicle during a visit to Texas A&M for the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships. Sankey said that the focus is on 2025 but he is adaptable. Translation: If he, with some help from Notre Dame, can help the Big 12 land a decent television contract and, with some help from ESPN, pitch in some of the buyout money (somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million) for Texas and Oklahoma to leave the Big 12, then it could happen sooner. It would make sense for Sankey, Notre Dame and ESPN to work together for this since (a) the ESPN contract with the SEC kicks in following the 2023 football season so having Texas and Oklahoma on board for 2024 instead of the 2026 season would be huge; (b) UCF, Houston and Cincinnati leave the American Athletic Conference to join the Big 12 (BYU will join next year since it is an independent) so having the cash to help with their collective $51 million exit fees from the AAC would be a big help; and (3) it would position the SEC and Notre Dame to ensure that the Big 12 will remain a Power 5 Conference. Sankey is patient and if it makes the most sense for Texas and Oklahoma to join following their 2025 exit from the Big 12, he’ll accept that, but he didn’t get to be the most powerful man in college sports by being patient.

THIS TEAM IS CLUTCH! If this gymnastics season has taught us one thing about the Gators, it is never count them out because head coach Jenny Rowland’s seniors are battle tested and almost oblivious to pressure. “We talk a lot about how pressure is a privilege,” Megan Skaggs said Friday night after the 3rd-ranked Gators stuck it to 2nd-ranked Oklahoma 198.150-197.775. This is how Skaggs handled the pressure. The Gators were on the balance beam and not enjoying one of their better nights. At the time, this was a white knuckles competition. Early in her routine, Skaggs had a slight bobble, but she adjusted on the fly, adding an aerial that was worth an extra .10 to compensate. She finished with a 9.875 score, far from her best, but it saved a 9.80 or thereabouts score that could have been costly. Earlier in the meet, Skaggs had an outstanding 9.950 on the uneven bars. She had a 9.90 on floor after her saving alteration on the beam. Then there was Trinity Thomas, another of the seniors. Her way of handling the pressure was a 9.925 on the vault, a 9.950 on bars, a 9.975 on the beam and a perfect 10 on floor. It was the 10 that sealed the win over Oklahoma. This is the third time this season Thomas has scored a 10 to keep the Gators unbeaten. It must be mentioned also that fellow senior Nya Reed did a 10 followed by a 9.975 to lift the Gators to a come-from-behind win over LSU. It was the 13th time she’s had a perfect score in her collegiate career, the fifth time this season. Thomas is one of a handful of gymnasts who have the Collegiate Gym Slam – a perfect 10 on vault, bars, beam and floor. She could get an in-season Gym Slam if she can get a 10 on bars in the meets ahead. Florida has already clinched at least a share of the SEC title. The Gators can win it outright at Auburn this weekend. FORGET WHO IT WAS: 20 ASSISTS IN 31 MADE BASKETS IS IMPRESSIVE Yes it was the Georgia Bulldogs, and yes, they stink. It will take a miracle of Jonah and the whale proportions for Tom Crean to be coaching Georgia next year after setting a Georgia school record for losses (23) in a season. Forget all that. What Florida (18-11, 8-8 SEC) did Saturday in Athens was seriously impressive. Twenty assists on 31 made baskets is really impressive no matter who the opponent is. “It’s as well as we’ve played offensively all year,” White said after the Gators took an 84-72 win over the Bulldogs at Stegman Coliseum to even their SEC record at 8-8 and keep alive their hopes of making the NCAA Tournament. “The shooting percentages (31-60, 51.7 overall; 14-31, 45.2 3-pointers). “The shooting percentages speak for themselves. We were 14-31 … when you complement that with 20 [assists] and six [turnovers], you’ve got a chance to beat an SEC opponent.” From a passing standpoint, the tone of the game was set early on by Colin Castleton. Georgia made it its life mission to keep Castleton from going off the way he did against Arkansas (29 points), so every time the ball came into the post, they surrounded him with two or three defenders. That left open shooters and Castleton found them. Four of his five assists were in the early going of the first half. Castleton finished the game with 10 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots to go with those five assists. He may not rebound with the same ferocity as Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and he may not be as prolific a shot blocker as Auburn’s Walker Kessler, but since he came back from the shoulder injury each game is a confirmation that Colin Castleton is the best all-around big man in the Southeastern Conference. Saturday’s game was also a chance for Phlandrous Fleming Jr. to show off in his home town and before 50 (or more) family and close friends. Fleming was on a mission from the get-go, but especially in the second half when he scored 16 of his game-high 27 points. Fleming was responsible for seven straight points when the Gators shot out of the second half gate on a 10-0 run. He started out with a steal and a pass to Tyree Appleby for a three. After a steal by Myreon Jones, he had a thunderous dunk on the fast break. He grabbed an offensive rebound and passed to Castleton for an easy layup. Fleming hit 11-18 shots overall, 4-9 from the 3-point line. He also had five rebounds, four assists and a steal. With Anthony Duruji out against Georgia and his status moving forward because of a lower leg issue, Fleming is going to play a lot of power forward and it’s going to be imperative that he put up similar numbers moving forward. Appleby hit 5-9 on his 3-pointers as he finished the game with 21 points, seven assists and a steal. He is another one who has to be consistent for the Gators to make it to the NCAA Tournament. He only had two turnovers with the seven assists. When he protects the ball, he sets the tone and the Gators have low turnover games. Sunday, Jerry Palm of CBS had the Gators back in his tournament brackets. If they beat Vanderbilt Tuesday night, it will solidify UF as one of those last teams in. A win over Kentucky next Saturday would certainly get the Gators off the bubble. Otherwise, here’s what it will take: a win over Vandy and maybe two wins at the SEC to get in that 7-10 area of the bracketing. It really doesn’t matter if you are a seven or a 10 because in the NCAA Tournament opening round, seven plays 10 and eight plays nine. Typically, these are the most evenly matched teams in the tournament. If you’re a 12-seed or higher, you’re going to start out the tournament playing a very high seeded team and that is to be avoided if at all possible. Of course, if the Gators lose to Vanderbilt, they’ll almost have to beat Kentucky or at least get to the SEC Tournament semifinals just to avoid the Nobody’s Interested Tournament. WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: MAYBE THE PRESSURE IS OFF NOW Florida’s loss to Missouri (77-73) Sunday afternoon at the O-Dome was the third in a row for the Gators. It knocked UF (20-9, 10-6 SEC) out of the coveted double-bye at the SEC Tournament that begins in Nashville on Wednesday but that might not be a bad thing. It’s obvious that in the last three games, the Gators have been putting the pressure on themselves by trying to set records in this season that began with the SEC coaches picked UF to finish dead last. The last two games have been completely uncharacteristic of this team. At Vanderbilt, the Gators committed 28 turnovers yet they almost pulled out a win in the final minute of the game. UF was down by 13 with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter to Missouri when they mounted a furious comeback led by Jordyn Merritt, who scored 15 of her 23 points and Kiki Smith, who scored all but two of her 15. Asked after the game if perhaps the Gators were pressing a bit too much, interim head coach Kelly Rae Finley nodded her head in agreement. Smith, who had one of the worst games of her career going until the final four minutes, said the last week or so has been too much like a business and that the Gators have to get back to having fun again. There is no doubt the Gators were out of sorts the last couple of games. Perhaps it’s because they were trying to ensure that Finley will have the interim tag removed, or simply because after all they have endured leading up to this season, they wanted to finish by setting a school record for SEC wins in a season. The record won’t be set, but this is still a team that will make the NCAA Tournament and is a serious threat to go a long way at the SEC Tournament. Now that the regular season is over, they know they’ll be in the Big Dance. Maybe they can get back to having fun again. UF INDOOR TRACK: FLORIDA MEN/WOMEN FINISH SECOND AT SEC INDOORS By now we should expect the Gators to finish strong at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Meet. At Texas A&M, Florida’s women and men both finished second to Arkansas. The UF women finished second in last year’s indoor championships while it was the highest finish for the men since they won the event in 2019. UF coach Mike Holloway has won five SEC men’s indoor titles and three women’s titles. Since Holloway became the UF head coach, the men have finished top three in the SEC indoors 15 times while the women have finished top three five times. The Gators claimed four individual champions with Jasmine Moore scoring 20 points with her clean sweep of the long jump and triple jump. It was the third straight SEC Indoor triple jump championship for Moore, who shared the Commissioner’s Trophy with Lauren Gregory of Arkansas for scoring the most individual points in the meet. Also winning championships were Dedrick Vanover (60 meters men, tie), Champion Allison (400 meters women), Grace Start (60 meters hurdles women) and Moore. SOFTBALL: GATORS 4-0 AT UCF CLASSIC WITHOUT HIGHTOWER With All-American Elizabeth Hightower sidelined with a back issue, Natalie Lugo earned her scholarship over the weekend to keep the Gators unbeaten (16-0). In winning four games at the UCF Knights Classic, Lugo pitched five strong innings to get the win against Oakland (6-1) on Saturday, then went five innings to get the win against James Madison Sunday. When the Gators were in trouble against UCF Sunday evening, Lugo came on to pitch the final two innings to pick up the save. Lugo (5-0) was the workhorse for the weekend, going 13 innings while giving up eight hits, three earned runs and striking out 19 while walking five. Lexie Delbrey, who got the win with 2-2/3 innings of relief Friday night against DePaul (11-3 Florida win) and pitched a scoreless inning of relief against Oakland, struggled on Sunday. She walked three batters in relief of Lugo without recording an out in the seventh inning of Florida’s 6-4 win over James Madison and then gave up four hits, four runs and walked three in her start against UCF (12-11 UF win). Marrisa Mesiemore had a tough start Friday night and couldn’t find the strike zone against JMU on Sunday. She did give the Gators 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief against UCF Sunday. Rylee Trlicek pitched a scoreless inning against Oakland got the save in the win over JMU when she got the final two outs. Against UCF, she gave up eight hits, six runs and walked three in 2-2/3 innings. Since there is no telling at this point how long Hightower is going to be out, the Gators have to find some pitching in the week ahead. They face Southern Miss Wednesday and then play doubleheaders Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Bubly Invitational at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. It’s almost a given that Tim Walton will rest Hightower all next week with the SEC portion of the schedule cranking up on March 12 when Mississippi State comes to town. The Gators did score 35 runs in their four games at the UCF tournament and their dormant power erupted with five home runs in the final two games. Hannah Adams raised her batting average to .462 with a 5-8 Sunday that included two homers and three RBI. Charla Echols hit home runs in both Sunday games and drove in seven runs. Freshman Kendra Falby kept her batting average above .500 (.519). She hit her second homer of the season against UCF and drove in four runs. She also stole 3-4 bases and is 16-17 on the season. As a team, the Gators have stolen 45 bases in 49 attempts. The team was 56-59 in 56 games last season. BASEBALL: GATORS ARE 6-2 AFTER SWEEP OF GEORGIA STATE Was it just bad pitching on the part of Georgia State or have Florida’s bats truly awakened? It’s probably a combination of the two but Florida’s hitters were impressive as the Gators outscored the visiting Panthers, 29-6, to cap off a 5-0 week. The Gators had 42 hits including nine home runs over the three games. The star of the weekend at the plate was leadoff hitter Colby Halter, who went 8-13 with three homers and seven RBI as he raised his batting average to .429. Wyatt Langford hit home runs on Friday and Saturday. Jud Fabian, Kris Armstrong and Josh Rivera hit their first home runs of the season and freshmen Rene Lastres and Ty Evans hit the first home runs of their UF careers. Hunter Barco picked up where he left off last weekend when he got the Friday night start. He allowed three hits and struck out 12 as the Gators took a 4-1 win. Barco (2-0) has 23 strikeouts in 12 innings so far. Nick Ficarrotta picked up his second save, pitching three hitless innings while striking out six. Freshman Phil Abner struggled for two innings Saturday when he gave up three hits, three runs and walked two, but four relievers limited the Panthers to six hits and one run the rest of the way. Blake Purnell pitched three scoreless innings of relief to get his first UF win. Sunday, Timmy Manning gave up six hits but only one run in four innings. Ficarrotta pitched one scoreless inning of relief to pick up his second win. Three other relievers allowed no runs and four hits in four innings. The Gators still strike out too much (20 times in three games), but there is power and Kevin O’Sullivan has players on his bench who are quite capable as well. Coastal Carolina transfer BT Riopelle (.438) continues to be a surprise and Sterlin Thompson (.419) has two doubles, three homers and a team-leading 11 RBI. As a team the Gators are now hitting .292. Barco is the obvious ace of the pitching staff and Ficarrotta is the closer but who are the other two weekend starters? Brandon Sproat, who pitched five innings last week against North Florida, could be one of them. Timmy Manning has started three games. He’s got good movement on the ball and he’s a lefty. Since that rather tough start against Liberty in which he gave up five hits and four runs in three innings, he’s looked much better. Ryan Slater, Blake Purnell and Brandon Neely seem destined for long relief. Abner, Pierce Coppola and Karl Hartman might get most of their work midweek. The Gators will travel to North Florida Tuesday night, return home to face FAMU on Wednesday and travel to Miami for three games next weekend. UF MEN’S GOLF: GATORS IN THIRD AT SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS With Fred Biondi shooting a 66 and Ricky Castillo a 67, the Gators shot a team 275, which is 13-under par and good for third place after one day of the Southern Highlands Collegiate Tournament, which features nine of the nation’s top 35 teams. The Gators are seven shots off the pace set by Oklahoma and two behind second place Pepperdine. UF LACROSSE: GATORS FALL TO NO. 5 MARYLAND, 18-8 The 7th-ranked Gators (1-2) fell behind 7-1 in the first quarter and could never make up the difference as they dropped an 18-8 decision to 5th-ranked Maryland (3-0) in College Park Saturday. Next up for the Gators is 4th-ranked Stony Brook next Saturday at Donald Dizney Stadium.

A 9.95 would have done the trick for the 3rd-ranked Florida Gators Friday night at the O-Dome, but the record crowd wanted much, much more and who better to give them what they wanted than Trinity Thomas? Thomas is no stranger to coming through at crunch time for the Gators. Twice already this season she has come through with a 10 on floor when the Gators needed it the most. Alabama and Kentucky had the Gators right where they wanted them only to have Trinity shoot down their hopes of an upset by going perfect. It wouldn’t have been an upset if 2nd-ranked Oklahoma had somehow pulled out a win. Like the Gators, the Sooners have won three of the last nine NCAA championships. They know how to come up with big scores when a meet is on the line against a highly ranked opponent and they were money on the balance beam. Four straight Sooners scored 9.90 or better to narrow the gap so this was a meet the Gators still couldn’t chalk up in the victory column. Except for one thing. Nobody in the country is better on floor when the Gators need a big score than Trinity Thomas. The O-Dome crowd knew it, which is why they emitted a deafening roar when her name was announced. By the time she parachuted down from a stratospheric explosion off the floor on a double layout to end her first tumbling run, everyone in the building knew they were watching something very special. It seemed that almost before her feet hit the floor as she landed her double pike on the last tumbling run the crowd was on its feet shouting “Ten! Ten! Ten!” and lifting the O-Dome roof off its hinges. Gator Bait photo by Chris Spears It was a 10, the 13th of her collegiate career and her fifth this season that nailed down Florida’s 198.100-197.775 win over the Sooners and it couldn’t have happened on a better night than this one. It was Senior Night, time to say farewell to 9,685 of her closest friends shoehorned into the building. They came to see a win and they got one but it was made all that much better because of Thomas. What all those friends in the stands didn’t know was that it was a last minute change in the lineup for Thomas to be on floor. Florida’s coaches were trying to rest her but the meet was close after the Gators had what for them is a sub-par beam performance of just 49.450. So after the Gators moved from beam for the final floor event, Florida assistant coach Adrian Burde asked Thomas if she needed to rest or could go. “I was just kind of hmm, ‘do I need to rest today or can I do it’ and so I was warming up and Adrian was like ‘what do you know?’ and I was like okay, I’m good,” Thomas said. Thomas was better than good but that’s not unusual. She has made a habit of turning in big scores and it doesn’t matter the event. Thomas is one of only a handful of gymnasts in collegiate history to complete the Gym Slam – a perfect 10 on all four events. If she can score a 10 on the bars this year, she can complete an in-season Gym Slam since she already has three on floor, one on vault and one on the balance beam. In her collegiate career Thomas now has hit for a 10 six times on floor, three each on beam and bars and one on vault. With that kind of record, there is little question why the crowd moves to the edge of its seat whenever they see Thomas ready to compete. No matter the event, the O-Dome crowd expects a 10, to the point that they don’t know whether to celebrate a high score or boo the judge whenever the score isn’t perfect. Thomas won or shared the title in all four events Friday night to win the all-around with a 39.850, the highest score in the nation so far. The way she scored it was almost like each event was building up to the 10 on floor. She started out with a 9.925 on vault, then scored 9.950 on bars, 9.975 on beam before her climactic finish. One judge gave her a 9.90 and the other gave her 9.95 on vault. On bars, both judges gave her a 9.95. On the balance beam one judge gave her a 10, but the other didn’t see it that way, scored it a 9.95 and that only irritated the crowd. Their mood changed quickly when Thomas signaled to the judges she was ready on floor. The routine was so crisp, so clean and so explosive that neither of the two judges dared find a flaw. Thomas got her 10, the crowd was satisfied and the Gators got their win. “It definitely felt special especially on Senior Night,” Thomas said. “Every floor routine I get so excited for. That’s my favorite event to compete, so when I finished I was like, ‘Oh yes!’” Thanks to Thomas, Florida was assured of victory, but when freshman Sloane Blakely finished off the night with a 9.90 on floor it almost seemed like the Gators were rubbing it in on Oklahoma. Blakely’s 9.90 was Florida’s fifth consecutive 9.90 or better score. Megan Skaggs and Alyssa Baumann turned in 9.90s and Nya Reed followed with a 9.95 that the crowd felt should have been a perfect 10. That more than offset what Oklahoma did on the balance beam where they outscored the Gators 49.550-49.450, the lone event the Sooners won all night. During Florida’s beam rotation, Skaggs made a mid-routine adjustment that was lost on everyone except maybe the Florida staff, gymnasts and judges. To compensate for a slight bobble at the beginning of her routine, Skaggs added a .10-value front aerial that raised her score. The bobble might have lowered her score to something around a 9.80, which could have been costly in a meet that was so competitive, so she made the decision the fly to adjust. “That was a veteran move,” Florida coach Jenny Rowland said. Skaggs said making that kind of adjustment is something she had never had to do in the past but in a split second she went through the Rolodex of moves she keeps in her head and came up with the front aerial. The added degree of difficulty was noted by one judge who gave her a 9.90. The other judge saw it differently, scoring it a 9.85, but the average of 9.875 was a real boost. “I didn’t expect to almost slip on the beam but it happens and you have to keep going and get yourself back on track, continue to believe on yourself and finish strong,” Skaggs said. “… I had to decide so when I didn’t connect my first leaps, like the splits, I had to add an additional – is it a 10th? – so out of my aerials I had to add an additional leap which I haven’t done in like three years probably, which I hope never happens again.” The 10 by Thomas and the adjustment on the fly by Skaggs are the kind of pressure responses that have turned this Florida team special. The Gators have already clinched a share of the Southeastern Conference championship, their fourth straight. With a win next week at Auburn, the Gators can claim the outright SEC title. No doubt beating that exceptionally good Auburn team on the road next week will require another clutch performance by the Gators, but that’s something they expect of themselves. “We talk a lot about how pressure is a privilege,” Skaggs said. “Although it would be fun to dominate a whole meet, that’s not how we get better. Even if the meet is very far and there is a huge gap in the score, we want to put up our best routines and do what we’ve been training. It’s exciting to have a close meet on the last event and know that you need to show up because that makes us better when we’re putting all our training on the competition floor.” When you get a perfect 13 and your super senior (5th year, came back because NCAA counted 2020 as a COVID year and gave everyone an extra year of eligibility) can make the kind of instant decisions that can make a huge difference in winning or losing the biggest meet in the country, you have a team that is capable of winning the national championship. The Gators have two more meets before they have to adjust their mindset to the rigors of SEC, regional and NCAA championship meets, but already they are toughening themselves for the pressure ahead by coming through with clutch performances when meets are on the line. This season, the Gators have won the Alabama meet by .075 when Thomas and Nya Reed went back-to-back with 10s. Against LSU, Reed hit a 10 and Thomas and Leah Wong scored 9.975s as the Gators scored 49.800 on floor, the highest score in the nation so far this year, to turn a white knuckles meet into a relatively comfortable 198.150-197.825 win. Thomas salvaged what had been a poor floor showing a week ago at Kentucky for a perfect 10 then followed that up with a 9.975 on beam with Skaggs hitting 9.950 as the Gators won that one, 197.575-197.350. When a meet is on the line, this team knows how to finish and win. There aren’t a lot of teams in the country with that capability. “This team is clutch and I think they’ve shown it throughout this entire season," Roland said. "Just the consistency, the confidence and using each week as an opportunity … an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to get better. I know from this meet they’re criticizing a lot of things but a lot of them have so much to be proud of and it’s just something that they’re really good at doing – trying to be perfect but at the same time being normal. They’ll be ready to get back in the gym next week, keep grinding and trying to get better. That’s all I can ask of this team.”

“It was a completely sacrilegious thought, going anywhere but Florida,” he said. “My father and I were at a Florida-Florida State baseball game my senior year. I saw the Florida State people doing the obnoxious Tomahawk Chop. And I turned to my dad and said, ‘I can’t be a part of this.’”—Chris Doering When I was a boy, they referred to it as “The Old College Try” – sis, boom bah! It was the purest form of amateurism, a euphemism for hustle and extra effort by the amateurs who played for the love of the game, their school, their fellow students and maybe a chance to get noticed by the cool chicks. Today, “The Old College Try” has transitioned into a capitalistic frenzy, “going for the gold” -- and not the Olympic kind. There is form of pay for play. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. But where is amateurism anymore? Look no further than the non-scholarship walk-ons. Well, what’s left of them. The entire embodiment of the college football spirit once resided in no purer form than among young men and women who played the game for nothing but the love of it. Without being paid one red cent. For the walk-ons, it was about the joy of competition, the test of wills, the hope one day of becoming a scholarship athlete. Sometimes that would take years. Sometimes it never happened. I know, because I was one. I had dreams of one day playing quarterback for the Florida Gators, but I never could screw up the courage – or the talent -- to try out. So I walked on as a baseball pitcher back when they had freshman teams and lasted long enough to earn a freshman numeral, or letter. The following year on the varsity, I sat the bench for six games until I counted myself as 15th best pitcher on a staff of 15. I decided my time would be better spent in class where I was about to flunk physical sciences. The life of a walk-on was difficult. That’s why I have such high regard for those volunteer football players sometimes used as cannon fodder just to keep their dream alive. I don’t have the numbers, but my guess is the failure rate for walks-ons, if they are the uninvited ones, would be more than 50 percent. The non-scholarship players were once the forgotten commodity of college football, but the Name-Image-Likeness cash flow has altered the landscape. Effectively the whole grant-in-aid model has been transformed as some athletes now get paid by outside streams of income. At BYU, the entire walk-on program for football has reportedly been privately financed, said by Forbes magazine to be a potential $4M liability. I say bravo for the Cougar program – NIL money well spent. In this world of obsession over 4- and 5-stars, it’s delightful to see the overlooked, underdog players making difference on occasion. Spurrier, Tennessee's Josh Heupel, Doering at the special night. (Loren Meadows photo) Perhaps Florida’s most successful walk-on was Doering, who would be quick to remind you of guys named Kerwin Bell and Louis Oliver as well. Nobody’s dream was bigger than Doering’s, however. “I grew up here in Gainesville, the son of two Florida grads, my father having taught in the College of Pharmacy throughout my childhood,” Doering recalled. “We went to every Gator sporting event there was – not just football, but basketball, baseball, gymnastics… It meant a lot to me. I had it in my head my entire childhood that I was going to get a scholarship, play football for the Gators and go on to play in the NFL.” Doering’s dreams of being a heroic football player on a championship Gator team would hold fast, but even though he was an elite, all-state athlete at Gainesville’s P.K. Yonge with excellent academics, he began to be greatly discouraged by the lack of interest from Florida. So discouraged that he began considering a preferred walk-on offer from a hated UF rival. But he just couldn’t stomach the idea. “It was a completely sacrilegious thought, going anywhere but Florida,” he said. “My father and I were at a Florida-Florida State baseball game my senior year. I saw the Florida State people doing the obnoxious Tomahawk Chop. And I turned to my dad and said, ‘I can’t be a part of this.’” Keep in mind that he hadn’t yet received any offers. Later he discovered the reason there was no invite from Florida was that his video had been nixed by some low-level grad assistant before Spurrier ever saw it. As the HBC recalled, “the grad assistant sort of looked at it a little bit and said, ‘this guy needs to go play someplace else.’ I found out about it and said, ‘of course you can walk on here. C’mon on!" Spurrier, SC's Sean Beamer and Doering at Spurrier's Gridiron Grille (Loren Meadows photo) Doering will never forget the day he picked up the newspaper to read the roster and, upon scanning over the player thumbnails, finally found a small blurb about himself at the bottom that read: “Lanky walk-on.” He would never forget that moniker. Ahead were some tough days for the 6-4, 175-pound wide receiver, an easy target for some of the hard-hitting members of the stout 1991 Gator defense. But that deep burning desire to play for his favorite team kept his drive alive. After a redshirt season, when he had played very little, Chris emerged as a favorite target of Danny Wuerffel. Along came the 1993 game at Kentucky in what would be one of the Gators’ most iconic victories and the famous call of Mick Hubert: “Doering got a touchdown! Doering got a touchdown.” With three seconds left, Wuerffel hit him on a 28-yard scoring strike for a 24-20 win. Florida won another SEC title that year, the first of a four-year streak. It almost never happened. Oddly, Chris never had any doubt it would, right down the dream of winning a championship. And he went on to play for eight NFL teams because he couldn’t find the word “quit” in his vocabulary, until he did – but still regrets not accepting an invite from the Texans to try for another year. Instead, he went back to Gainesville, founded Chris Doering Mortgage, then got hired by the SEC Network to work with Dori Nowkhah and Gene Chizik. And he can’t talk about any of his success without kudos for his old coach. He credits just about all of his success on and off the field to Spurrier. Doering sees it as a blessing that he almost missed the walk-on chance and nobody else offered him, “otherwise I might have taken it and missed out on being a Gator.” It turned out that the timing was just right, with Spurrier unleashing his string of SEC championships and future Heisman Winner Danny Wuerffel finding his stroke as he began a remarkable four-year stretch from 1993-1996. “And all he did was catch more touchdown passes than anybody in the SEC,” Spurrier chuckled, “a record that stood for 25 years until the guy from Alabama, DeVonta Smith, broke it two years ago.” With 17 more scoring catches his senior year, Doering racked up an SEC record 31 career TDs on completions thrown mostly by Wuerffel. Doering laughed as he remembered Spurrier being asked if he was surprised by all of his touchdown receptions. “And coach Spurrier said, ‘Of course not! I was the one calling those plays!’” Chris Doering, AKA "Lanky Walk-On" During the evening at Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille where Chris Doering Mortgage proudly sponsored the presentation of the Football Writers of America Steve Spurrier First-Year Award, Doering was able to show a little gratitude for his coach and his school. “Not many coaches would give a walk-on a chance over a guy you signed,” Doering said. “It makes you look stupid. But Coach didn’t care. He always said he wanted a guy to play the way he was coached. And I think I did that.” As it turned out, the Lanky Walk-On didn’t have to wait all that long to earn his scholarship. Today, the real walk-on is on the endangered species list. We’ll probably never see another Chris Doering.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: GATORS HOST OKLAHOMA IN WEEKEND’S BIGGEST GYMNASTICS MEET It will be senior night at the O-Dome tonight as the 3rd-ranked Gators host 2nd-ranked Oklahoma in what could be a prelude of the final night of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships. The Gators and Sooners have won six of the last nine NCAA championships including a shared 2014 title and they care currently separated by .010 in the average scores that determine the rankings (Oklahoma 197.640, UF 197.630). The Gators have the second highest score this season (198.250) while Oklahoma has the third highest (197.200). Eight Florida seniors will be honored – super seniors Alyssa Baumann and Megan Skaggs and fourth-year seniors Trinity Thomas, Nya Reed, Leah Clapper, Savannah Schoenherr, Halley Taylor and Sydney Johnson-Scharpf. It could be a very high scoring night for Thomas, who has posted four perfect 10s this year and has 12 in her career. Thomas has the nation’s top all-around score of 39.900. As a team, the Gators rank 2nd nationally on vault, tied for 4th on uneven bars, 1st on the balance beam and 5th on floor. It’s the biggest meet in the country, yet it’s only going to be on SEC Network+. Go figure on that one. UF WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: 28 TURNOVERS DOOM GATORS AGAINST VANDERBILT The turnovers were Florida’s undoing in Nashville Thursday night. The 15th-ranked Gators (20-8, 10-5 SEC) turned the ball over 28 times which Vanderbilt (13-16, 4-11 SEC) converted into 28 points, leading to a stunning 63-59 upset at Memorial Gym. The Gators had more turnovers (10) than points (9) in the first quarter when they fell behind by eight. They trailed by as many as 10 in the second quarter before closing to a 31-27 deficit at the intermission. The Gators grabbed the lead in the third quarter but couldn’t sustain it and trailed 48-46 heading into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Gators just couldn’t knock down shots against the Vandy zone, making just 5-21 overall and 3-10 from the 3-point line. The Gators missed five consecutive shots when they had a chance to cut into Vandy’s lead in the final minute of the game. Kiki Smith led the Gators with 18 points while Zippy Broughton had 14 and Nina Rickards 12. SEC Women’s basketball Thursday’s games: Vanderbilt (13-16, 4-11 SEC) 63, NO. 15 FLORIDA (20-8, 10-5 SEC) 59; Ole Miss (22-6, 10-5 SEC) 72, Auburn (10-16, 2-13 SEC) 52; Kentucky (14-11, 7-8 SEC) 78, Missouri (17-11, 6-9 SEC) 63; No. 25 Georgia (19-8, 8-7 SEC) 63, Arkansas (16-12, 6-9 SEC) 62; No. 8 LSU (24-4, 12-3 SEC) 58, Alabama (14-12, 5-10 SEC) 50; No. 1 South Carolina (26-1, 14-1 SEC) 89, Texas A&M (14-13, 4-11 SEC) 48 Sunday’s games: Missouri (17-11, 6-9 SEC) at NO. 15 FLORIDA (20-8, 10-5 SEC); No. 1 South Carolina (26-1, 14-1 SEC) at Ole Miss (22-6, 10-5 SEC); No. 8 LSU (23-4, 11-3 SEC) at No. 16 Tennessee (22-6, 11-4 SEC); Texas A&M (14-13, 4-11 SEC) at No. 25 SEC (19-8, 8-7 SEC); Vanderbilt (13-16, 4-11 SEC) at Alabama (14-12, 5-10 SEC); Auburn (10-16, 2-13 SEC) at Kentucky (14-11, 7-8 SEC); Arkansas (16-12, 6-9 SEC) at Mississippi State (15-12, 6-9 SEC) UF MEN’S BASKETBALL: GEORGIA IS A MUST WIN GAME Any hope the Gators (17-11, 7-8 SEC) have to get in the NCAA Tournament could hinge on what happens in Athens Saturday (12 noon, ESPN2) against Georgia (6-22, 1-14 SEC). The Gators already own a 72-63 win over the Bulldogs in Gainesville, but Georgia has a win over No. 24 Alabama and a near win over then No. 1 Auburn in Athens. Florida’s NCAA Net Rankings have dropped to No. 56 and beating Georgia will hardly move that needle, but a loss to the No. 211 Bulldogs would do irreparable damage. With wins over Georgia and Vanderbilt next week, the Gators would have 19 wins and would be assured of at least a break-even season in SEC play. If the Gators could get to 19 wins and then somehow ambush Kentucky in the final regular season game, they might have a shot at getting in the good graces of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. UF basketball notes: In his six games since returning from the shoulder injury, Colin Castleton is averaging 18.5 points and 8.6 rebounds … Tyree Appleby his has 51 of his last 57 free throws … As a team the Gators are hitting just 30.5 percent of their 3-pointers and they’re shooting only 42.2 percent from the field overall. SEC men’s basketball Saturday’s games: FLORIDA (17-11, 7-8 SEC) at Georgia (6-22, 6-9 SEC); Vanderbilt (14-13, 6-9 SEC) at Mississippi State (16-12, 7-8 SEC); No. 6 Kentucky (23-5, 12-3 SEC) at No. 18 Arkansas (22-6, 11-4 SEC); Texas A&M (17-11, 6-9 SEC) at Ole Miss (13-15, 4-11 SEC); No. 3 Auburn (25-3, 13-2 SEC) at No. 17 Tennessee (20-7, 11-4 SEC); South Carolina (17-10, 8-7 SEC) at No. 24 Alabama (18-10, 8-7 SEC); Missouri (10-18, 4-11 SEC) at LSU (19-9, 7-8 SEC) UF BASEBALL: NO. 15 GATORS HOST GEORGIA STATE Lefty Hunter Barco (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will get the ball tonight (6:30 p.m., SEC Network+) when the 15th-ranked Gators (3-2) host Georgia State (4-1) for a 3-game weekend series. Barco was the Southeastern Conference pitcher of the week and the Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week after his opening game performance when he went five perfect innings before settling for a 1-hit, 11-strikeout performance against Liberty. After throttling Liberty in the first game last weekend, the Gators lost twice, but they rebounded with midweek wins over Stetson and North Florida. Right fielder Sterlin Thompson is off to a hot start for the Gators with three homers and eight RBI while hitting .400. As a team, however, the Gators are hitting just .232 and they’ve struck out 41 times in 164 at bats, 25 percent of the time. The Florida pitching staff has a 3.00 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 45 innings. UF SOFTBALL: NO. 3 GATORS AT UCF KNIGHTS CLASSIC The 3rd-ranked Gators (12-0) will be in Orlando this weekend for four games in the UCF Knights Classic. The Gators open the tournament tonight (8:30 p.m.) against DePaul (5-3) of the Big East Conference. Saturday (6:30 p.m.), the Gators will face Oakland (0-0) of the Horizon League. They close out the tournament with two games on Sunday, a 1 p.m. game with 22nd-ranked James Madison (3-1) and 4 p.m. against host UCF (7-5). The Gators, who swept midweek games against North Florida, are hitting .358 as a team, led by freshman Kendra Falby (.513) who leads the team in stolen bases (12-12). Freshman Reagan Walsh (.333) leads the team with 14 RBI, while Skylar Wallace (.353) and Charla Echols (.316) have driven in 12 each. Florida has a team ERA of 0.55, which ranks fourth nationally. Lexie Delbrey (1.06) and Elizabeth Hightower (0.69) lead the Gators with 4-0 records while Natalie Lugo (0.00), fresh off a no-hitter against North Florida is 3-0. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Former Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham is expected to join the Alabama staff in a to be determined role. Arkansas: The Hogs (22-6, 11-4 SEC) have already knocked off then No. 1 Auburn and then No. 16 Tennessee at home. Saturday, they play No. 6 Kentucky (23-5, 12-3 SEC) in Fayette Nam. Auburn: With eight blocked shots Wednesday night against Ole Miss, 7-1 Walker Kessler has broken the all-time single season record at Auburn. With 131 blocks, Kessler is also the leading shot blocker in the country ... Auburn (25-3, 13-2 SEC) is on upset alert Saturday when the Tigers visit No. 17 Tennessee Saturday. Georgia: The candidates to replace Matt Luke as the O-line coach are said to be Auburn’s Will Friend, Baylor’s Eric Mateos and former Ohio State and LSU O-line coach Greg Studrawa … Georgia (6-22, 1-14 SEC) reportedly is firing assistant basketball coach Wade Mason. Head coach Tom Crean can’t be far behind. Kentucky: Former UK center Drake Jackson, who wasn’t drafted by the NFL in 2020, is being hired as an assistant O-line coach. LSU: Last year’s defensive coordinator Daronte Jones will coach defensive backs for the Minnesota Vikings, while former offensive coordinator Jake Peetz will be joining the offensive staff of the Los Angeles Rams. Missouri: Former Arizona State quarterback Jayden Daniels reportedly is expected to sign with Mizzou … Hoops coach Cuonzo Martin is firmly on the hot seat. The Tigers are 10-18, 4-11 in the SEC. Ole Miss: Purdue special teams coordinator/outside linebacker coach Marty Biagi is leaving to coach special teams at Ole Miss. Tennessee: The No. 17 Vols (20-7, 11-4 SEC) already have home court wins over then No. 6 Arizona and then No. 4 Kentucky in Knoxville. Saturday the Vols play host to No. 3 Auburn (25-3, 13-2 SEC) Vanderbilt: Former Vandy running back Zac Stacy, already facing two felony domestic violence charges, has four more misdemeanor charges from the same attack added to his court docket. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: In a couple of weeks Florida will begin spring football practice. From what I’ve heard about the “identity program,” by the time the Gators hit the field, Napier will probably have a pretty good idea who’s going to be a contributor and who might finish the spring seeking a fresh start on his football career. The more I’ve delved into what the “identity program” is all about, the more positive feedback I’ve gotten. The offseason programs that I’ve been accustomed to writing about all these years have everything to do with pushing players to their limits and finding out who the best competitors are. The stories about trash cans filled to the brim with puke are legendary. So are the stories about ultra-competitive types like Tim Tebow, who would dive head first across the finish line to win a race or a competition during mat drills when Mickey Marotti was in charge of the offseason program. I’m sure they’ve had their share of playing puking out their guts in Napier’s “identity program.” Strength and conditioning coordinator Matt Hocke impresses me as one who is determined to elevate the entire team’s toughness quotient well beyond where it has been in the past 10 years, but the more I’ve been hearing, Napier and all his assistant coaches have taken time to know each player on the roster. There is no sense that the coaches are unapproachable or aloof, which is a different approach from what we’ve heard about the past few years. “Likeable but definitely not someone you want to BS,” I was told by a player I ran into a couple of days ago. “He’ll [Napier] see right through the BS. You better be honest with him and give him straight answers.” Between the offseason workouts and spring football, we can always count on a certain amount of attrition. With the transfer portal and NCAA rules making it so easy to seek greener pastures, I’m of the opinion that UF will lose anywhere from eight to 15 players who will either hit the transfer portal or retire from college football. I feel certain Napier is not going to make a habit of going the Mel Tucker route of wholesale plunging into the transfer portal on a regular basis. He knows the foundation of the program is going to be recruiting highly ranked high school kids, but he’s seen how quickly old buddy Tucker transformed Michigan State by bringing in experienced plug-and-play types. I could see Napier adding 10 more transfers if attrition allows the scholarship numbers to work out.

On his way for a bigger, better year? Justin Shorter Staying Longer (UAA Photo) “I close my eyes and I was holding up the national championship trophy, honestly. I envision the plane ride back and my coaches and teammates dancing and going crazy.”--Justin Shorter A go-route down the right side of the field in the final minutes of the Gasparilla Bowl is the final thing Justin Shorter remembers from the 2021 football season. Shorter laid out for a big-time catch but was interrupted by a scary collision that left him nearly unconscious and motionless and the stadium in shock. He was transported to the local hospital and then released the following morning. “I felt like we needed to get something going, and then it just went black from there,” said Shorter. The former five-star, 6-5, 220-pounder was the top wide receiver in his class and spent his first two years at Penn State before transferring to Florida under the Dan Mullen. Shorter is an athletic freak with only 5 percent body fat, who poised for a breakout season last year. With the offense struggling, he was not able to put up the kind of numbers projected but under Napier’s new system he feels confident things will be different. “It was a bittersweet taste in my mouth from the previous season … I wanted to come back because I felt like I have more to give to Florida,” he said. Shorter announced his decision to return to UF after speculation he may enter the draft. He will be one of the main leaders for Billy Napier’s wide receiver room with potential to be one of the more lethal downfield threats in the nation. Already he has goals to improve. Shorter said he had been working on a lot of 50/50 balls this offseason but is now referring to them as “90/10” balls. “I love the ‘go’ ball. I love it deep, throw it high, 50/50 just give me a chance to jump and get it,” said Shorter. “That is the main thing I have been working on.” With Shorter’s length, it would be hard not to give him the edge vs. most SEC cornerbacks. Shorter has been working toward these goals since a young age. From eighth grade, all the way until his senior year, Shorter’s routine would consist of waking up at 4:45 a.m. with his father and catching 250 balls, running two miles and finishing it off by doing speed drills. He did this every day until he graduated high school enroute to being the highest recruited wide receiver in the nation for his class. Even after Shorter’s scary injury, he is chomping at the bit to wear the orange and blue again on Saturdays. “The next day (after his scary collision) the next season started, and I just decided to get back to work,” said Shorter. “Especially after the season we had last year, I just come in with the mindset to get better every day.” Shorter hopes for a breakout campaign in his comeback for himself, but he has even bigger goals for the Gators. “I close my eyes and I was holding up the national championship trophy, honestly. I envision the plane ride back and my coaches and teammates dancing and going crazy.” Whatever it takes to catch and score is what Shorter has in mind. (UAA Photo) Question: What happened the night of the bowl game and your injury, how are you doing now? Answer: “I was running a go route and saw Emory throw it and I was like I got to go up and make a crazy catch. I feel like we needed to get something going. Then it just went black from there, and I open my eyes and I just remember looking up at our trainer, Paul, and he was over the top of me, and I couldn’t move my legs. I was asking him where I was, I was just so confused. I just thank God for helping me heal and I just want to thank everyone who prayed because it helped me heal. The next day the next season started, and I just decided to get back to work. Especially after the season, we had last year. I came in with the mindset to get better every day, I love football and school so right now that’s my focus.” Question: When did you make up your mind you wanted to stay at Florida another season? Answer: “I feel like it was a bittersweet taste in my mouth from the previous season, especially with the season we had before that with Pitts, KT (Kadarius Toney), Grimes and Trask. I hate losing, I’m a competitor by nature. I just hate losing and I did not want to end my season like that. In my head, I felt like I wanted to come back because I felt like I have more to give to Florida. I feel like I could be more, start leading more, so we can go out there and start winning games and create a better team. My goal is to win a national championship. If you work hard enough then you can accomplish anything. It is a whole different team; focus-wise, mental-wise and coaching-wise. It was a family choice to come back. I can’t wait for this year to give it my everything.” Question: How has being in a room with NFL caliber wide receivers all around you? Answer: “Just splitting time with grimes and playing with Pitts and KT (Kadarius Toney) you really realize how much work and time you have to put in to become one of the best. Especially Pitts, every day he was going 100 percent, there was never an off switch. I really look to him and was like that’s what it takes. But I would say joint suffering is what brings us closer, I want to see everyone succeed we have all gotten so close. That’s brotherhood and when you have teams like that, that’s what produces national championships.” Question: What is the mood and culture of the direction the program is going? Answer: “Before we even met the coaches it was kind of a dead period where we didn’t know who our coach was going to be, and people were iffy about next year. But once coach Napier came in and the million other coaches, he hired to help us to get better the culture changed within a few days of him being there. The players by themselves are putting in work, which is rare to see. I see it and I just think ‘yep we’re going to be good’. We are coaching everyone to be together as one and we are all becoming closer together. Workouts have been hard… I almost passed out. All work is good work though. We’re on the right track to being a very good team.” Question: What is it like having Keary Colbert as your wide receiver coach and what is your guy’s relationship like? Answer: “My first day ever meeting him I went up to his office and told him ‘Hey I’m just going to be a sponge’ and pass every bit of information to me. He is very serious about details; he makes it easy for us as players. He puts in the extra effort to make sure we get it right. Having that kind of experience is exciting for me because he has been in my position before. Me and him have gotten a lot closer, I try and hang out with him as much as I can. If anyone can get me to that next level, I think it could be him, so I am very thankful that coach Napier made that choice for me. One thing I loved is that he had coached big wide receivers before … I feel like having a coach with that kind of experience can really help me this year. It’s just God putting great pieces into my life.” Question: New Jersey or Gainesville what was the hardest transition? Answer: “Those first few workouts when I got here was really a shock to me. Coach (Nick) Savage was here when I got here, and everything was just so intense and hard. Even like a campus run just because it was so hot and humid, and I wasn’t used to that. I like it here way more because I can go outside whenever I want and put in work. But I would definitely say that heat was a huge change for me.” Question: Can you talk a little about Anthony Richardson and what exactly you want to see in the scheme for you this upcoming season? Answer: “I just want do anything that will help us win. Each game plan is different, the game plan for the previous week could be different than the current week based on the team’s players and defense. Me personally, I have been working on 50/50 balls since the season ended… I’ve been getting better at it. I call them 90/10 balls now. Anthony Richardson, freak. Great arm, fast, there’s nothing else you want in a quarterback. I can’t wait for Spring ball and put pads on and be able to play.” Question: When you’re envisioning what you want to happen next season what do you see? Answer: “I close my eyes and I was holding up the national championship trophy, honestly. I envision the plane ride back and my coaches and teammates dancing and going crazy. That is a dream of mine.” When you're 6-5, you make a great target in the end zone. (UAA Photo) Question: At what point did you know that you’re ready? Answer: “I would say I have been like that throughout my whole life whether it was school, football or even baseball. I give 100 percent to everything I do always, I just don’t feel like I could give anything less. I remember my dad literally eighth grade all the way up until my senior year I would wake up at 4:45 in the morning and catch 250 balls and run two miles and then speed drills then school, every single day. Growing up my visual was never stop working until you get where you want to be. This year though I am a lot more focused mentally and me being older also helps me out. I feel like now I see the game in a different way, and everything is just slowing down for me.” Question: What is your favorite route? Answer: “I love the ‘go’ ball. I love it deep, throw it high, 50/50 give me a chance to jump up and get it. In my career I haven’t had a lot of my opportunities, but I pray to God this year I get the chance to get some chances. I have been working on technique and depth and getting all my steps down. The main thing I have been working on is 50/50 balls, 90/10 balls I apologize.” Question: Have you talked to Kyle Trask since he left? Answer: “He’s been doing good. He was telling me about the NFL and how everyone is just so focused on detail. He was saying if you don’t know your stuff then you will be gone in a heartbeat. Especially seeing him under Tom Brady, I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do next year.” Question: What makes you such a good leader? Answer: “One of my main goals is to wear that gold jacket by the time I’m done with my career. Last year I didn’t really say much, and I had to earn my place, so I just worked, and everyone saw that. Every single day I’m in there doing something, it’s awesome seeing people starting to gravitate towards me, not even just wide receivers. Most of the time I don’t even have to say anything because they are already putting in work. The culture is really changing, and I can’t wait for that first game so we can prove everyone wrong.” Question: What was going through your mind while making your decision to transfer from Penn State and how did you end up at Florida? Answer: “It was a family choice. I loved Penn State and the coaching staff too. I wanted to be in an offense where the ball was being spread out more and I wanted it to be stable. I had like three different wide receiver coaches when I was at Penn State in two years. Coming to Florida knowing that coach Mullen and coach (Billy) Gonzales had coached a lot of good wide receivers before that. I’m thankful they were able to bring me here because now I feel like we are able to do something special.” Question: What is it about the coaching staff that is different? Answer: “The effort they are putting into us is insane. Off the field and on the field the support is incredible. They put things on our plate to become better men and not just football players. They want to know me personally as well; every coach has come up to me and had at least a 10-minute conversation with me. They are just putting in so much effort to us. Every single coach is at workouts giving us everything they have. Effort is a huge change. Question: What makes you believe that Florida could be the last team standing? Answer: “How everyone is working and already it feels like family. The players and coaches are working hand in hand. Everyone is trying to learn from each other. It’s just the grind, the coaches, the players, the trainers. Everyone wants to make a change… The culture is really changing, and everyone is putting in work, I think we’re going to be a whole different team this year.” Question: What should people know about Justin Shorter as the person? Answer: “I’m goofy. I am goofy with the people that are directly in my life circle. Not everyone knows my true personality, but I am goofy and crazy with my roommates.”

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart; down in my heart to stay” – George William Campbell from the gospel song “Joy in My Heart” Joy, which is defined in Theopedia as “a state of mind and an orientation of the heart,” follows Kelly Rae Finley wherever she goes. It is ingrained in her DNA and it is infectious and contagious. If you are seeking answers to how Kelly Rae Finley has played the part of miracle worker with the Florida women’s basketball team, then that is the place you start because when athletic director Scott Stricklin named her the interim head coach, this was a team so fractured that an outright mutiny seemed imminent. When Stricklin fired Cam Newbauer last summer for running an abusive, toxic program, he turned to Kelly Rae Finley, not knowing the self-described “girl from Minnesota” was part faith healer, part psychologist and part good friend to a group of young women who were ready to transfer out. When she was hired it was to hold the fort and keep a bad situation from turning worse while Stricklin went searching for a permanent replacement. Needless to say, he’s gotten far more than he bargained for. Picked to finish dead last in the Southeastern Conference by the league’s coaches in the preseason, the Gators have far exceeded the wildest of expectations. They’ve come from nowheresville to a nationally ranked (15th) somebody that will go down as one of the best teams in school history. The metamorphosis began almost from the day Kelly Rae was named interim head coach. Players were ready to leave en masse but her calming presence convinced every single one of them that it was worth staying. They were hurting. She understood and that was a good place to begin anew. What convinced them that they needed to stay were three words – we are enough – and the joy they saw that overflowed. “When you see doubt, when you see a lack of belief, when you see just those things that just dawned on me – whatever the end result is we are enough,” Finley said. “We can enjoy each other. We can be there for each other. We can challenge each other. We can be honest with each other. We can be hard on each other. We can say hard things. I think that’s something not enough people focus on enough. You can do hard things but you can also say hard things and say it with love and receive it in a good mind. There is a tone and a timing that comes with that. We’re not perfect. We’re far from perfect.” Nobody expected perfect, but nobody expected this much improvement either, especially from a team that posted five consecutive losing seasons and lost leading scorer Lavender Briggs with a fractured shin 14 games into the season. Then Briggs elected to transfer out and the Gators lost their first two SEC games. Perhaps that’s when “we are enough” really began to resonate with this team. “We are really good at facing adversity and overcoming it together,” sophomore forward Jordyn Merritt said. “At the end of the day we know we have each other and we know we can rely on each other to uphold the commitment and just be dedicated and buy into the program. I just think that is what has brought us this far for sure.” What does “we are enough” mean to senior Kiki Smith, who has assumed the role of team leader and leading scorer? “To me it just means we can stand with anybody,” Smith said. “Just because of the past that the University of Florida has, that has nothing to do with who we are now. It just says to me, so what, we are enough.” The Gators have become an extension of the coach. She demands honesty, trust, accountability and ownership. “You have to connect the dots with them,” Finley said. “How are you individually improving so that makes our team better? There has to be an individual approach to everything which is an accountability, an ownership and a responsibility to your performance, to how you act, how you talk, how you treat others and what you do. We’re not perfect. None of us are, but we have to seek to understand each other.” That means do your best in everything you do, whether it’s basketball or off the court, and when you’re on the court, be the best possible teammate you can be. This notion of being the best possible teammate can be traced to the way she was taught the game by her father long before he was her high school coach. There was Kelly Rae and her five best friends. They played other sports, but basketball was their game and what motivated them. From the time they were 10 years old, they were inseparable. The game and her friends were the joy of her life, joy that has never departed. The six of them were motivated by the game, being teammates and most of all, by their friendship. “We had a different approach from a very young age,” Finley said. “It was always about executing, doing our best, attention to detail. My dad taught us that from a really young age. We always had a high level of accountability. We started playing together when we were ten. We played year-round together. It was amazing. We went to high school together.” At The Breck School in Edina, Minnesota, the six of them played together. Finley played on the varsity as a seventh grader and went on to earn five letters. Along the way she made All-State three times while helping her school to third place and runner-up finishes in the state tournament before they broke through with a state championship her senior year. A year later as a freshman at Northwestern, she started eight of 13 games before suffering a leg injury. She was never the same player but that didn’t take away either her joy or approach to the game. It wasn’t about being a star. It was about being the best possible teammate she could be. When she transferred to Colorado State, she was relegated to a backup role but she never complained. If anything, the love and appreciation for all the things that made basketball special increased. “I grew up loving being a part of the team,” she said. “I grew up doing my part to make us successful whether it was play or not play. My very best friend in the world was the same person who played my same position at Colorado State. She played all the minutes and I didn’t, but I knew I had an assignment to help make her better, to help make our team better and to lead in that way. I feel like that was what I was able to do but that was how I grew up.” That is what she has imparted on this Florida team. It isn’t about who plays the most minutes or who scores the most points. It is all about the team and the joy of playing together. She also reminds the Gators that they should never forget that it is a game and it is supposed to be fun. Smith says, “Kelly always says to us we gotta have fun on the court. We want to win, but we want to have fun.” The game is fun. The Gators are a fun team to watch. Are they the most talented or physical team in the SEC? Hardly. Are they the most fun team in the SEC to watch? Probably, because for all their many flaws they never give up and they do indeed play for each other. By learning to play so well together, Finley has entered the conversation for postseason coaching awards. She is a semifinalist for the Naismith National Coach of the Year. If you ask LSU’s Kim Mulkey or South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, there is no question that Kelly Rae Finley should be the Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year. Kelly Rae just shrugs off the individual attention. “It’s not about me, never has been and never will be,” she said. “They play the game. Players make plays. Our job is to put them in the best position to be successful and my hope is that that’s how we feel, that we’re able to do that as a staff.” She’s right. Players play. Coaches coach. Some coaches do it better than others and it is usually because they understand that a one-size fits all approach rarely works. Successful coaches know how to treat each player individually within the framework of a team. It has become increasingly obvious as this season has worn on that Kelly Rae Finley has figured out what makes every player on her roster tick and how to blend all those different personalities and skill sets to make a successful basketball team. “It comes from understanding each other and understanding where each other have been and where each other’s experiences,” Finley said. “So, once you can get that you can figure out how to go forward together. I want to say there’s some magical thing, but there is not. It’s a people-centered business. Sport is fun at its core and we try to keep it that way. It’s not always going to be like that. It’s hard. There are disappointments. There are expectations. There are games that you will lose that you didn’t want to lose but that’s part of it.” Every time the Gators take the floor, they know there will be a winner and a loser. She won’t blame her players when they don’t play as well as they are capable of playing nor will she take credit when they make all the right plays to win a game. She knows that as the head coach, she is the one ultimately responsible for the outcome and that means being able to tell the team the truth about their performances but in a way that makes good sense and without pointing fingers. “We don’t tell lies in our program,” she said. “We just don’t do that. It’s something that we stick with. If you want to be an elite, great team you have to be consistent: consistent in how you prepare, consistent in your mentality, consistent in your approach, all of those things.” Kelly Rae Finley is who she is. Smart, insightful, thoughtful, driven and yet not in an overbearing way, and always positive, always joyful. Her whole person approach to life and coaching has rubbed off on her players. This same team that was at rock bottom and ready to mutiny last summer is now fully behind their coach. She has their back. They have hers. Along the way they’ve discovered they are enough and they are capable of competing and winning against anybody they play. They believe in themselves individually and as a team. They believe in their coach. “I’m not sounding arrogant, but we don’t need validation from anybody,” Merritt said. “We believe in ourselves and we just go into every game knowing that we are enough, that we can compete with anybody in the country.” They do compete and they do it with a joy that’s evident even to the casual observer, joy that emanates from the head coach. She is the interim head coach for now, but that is expected to change very soon. There is no question in any observer’s mind that Kelly Rae Finley has earned a chance to be the permanent head coach of the Florida Gators and that it’s time for Scott Stricklin to remove the interim tag. Just a few months ago she was the assistant coach of a team in turmoil. Her boss, the head coach, was dismissed. From that moment of uncertainty came opportunity and from opportunity, the joy that makes Kelly Rae Finley who she is has become so contagious that the Florida women’s basketball team has become a legitimate upper division team in the rough and tumble Southeastern Conference. It amazes her to this day. “God works in mysterious ways,” she said. “I believe in God with my whole heart and some things are just unexplainable.”