It was a night for every Gator to Boogie Woogie -- especially Fland. (UAA photo by Maddie Washburn)   This was sloppiness dressed up as indifference. Then — just like that — Golden called timeout, flipped the switch everyone says doesn’t exist, and the whole thing changed .       They tell you all season long you can’t just flip a switch. Coaches say it like gospel, players nod like choir boys and everybody pretends effort is some permanent setting, not a dimmer.   Then Friday night happened.   Florida came out against Prairie View — a 35.5-point underdog that probably needed GPS just to find the arena — and promptly treated defense like an optional elective. The score said 15-15, which was less a basketball result and more a clerical error.   Prairie View didn’t belong on the same court, same time zone, or frankly the same weather pattern. And yet there they were, raining threes like it was open gym and nobody told Florida the game had started.   Five blind mice? That was generous. At least mice scatter. The Gators just stood there, hands down, watching uncontested jumpers like patrons at a Clay pigeon shooting clinic. A decent high school sophomore could’ve knocked down a few of those  — and Prairie View looked like a varsity team at the local rec center.   We’ve seen this movie before. Vanderbilt rang the bell from deep because Florida chose to live with it — a strategic gamble by Todd Golden that blew up when the Commodores shot 48 percent from three and laughed all the way to the box score.   This time it wasn’t strategy. This was sloppiness dressed up as indifference. Then — just like that — Golden called timeout, flipped the switch everyone says doesn’t exist, and the whole thing changed.   Close Out City.   Suddenly there were hands in faces, feet moving, urgency where there had been apathy. The Gators ripped off an 18-0 run, then another avalanche, outscoring Prairie View 45-6 over the final 13:30 of the half. The game didn’t just tilt — it fell off a cliff.   That’s Florida basketball. Pressure, paint points, bodies flying around like they’ve got somewhere important to be. Not standing around conducting a three-point seminar for the opposition. By the end, it was a 59-point demolition — the second-largest margin in NCAA Tournament history and the biggest ever in a 1-vs-16 game.   Florida dropped 114 points, handed out 29 assists, shot 64.3 percent, and basically turned the second half into a highlight reel with a scoreboard attached.   Seven Gators in double figures. Thirteen players scored. Boogie Fland led the parade with 6x6 for 16. Thomas Haugh dished up a season high of seven assists. Alex Condon climbed the career rebound charts. And somewhere in all that, the ball never seemed to hit the floor without a Gator attached to it.   And then there’s Rueben Chinyelu, who quietly — or not so quietly anymore — set the program record with his 19th double-double. Nineteen. That’s not a stat, that’s a habit.   He talked afterward about wanting everybody to eat, everybody to feel it, even the deep reserves like Ollie Rioux getting their moment. That’s the part you can’t fake — the chemistry, the joy, the sense that this team actually likes sharing the stage.   But don’t let the warm feelings fool you. This was a game that doubled as a reminder. Florida can be dominant. Florida can be nasty and devastating. Florida can also drift into a fog where Prairie View looks like a problem.   And that’s the part that should bother Todd Golden more than anything — because if you can turn it on, you can also leave it off a little too long.   Around the SEC, everybody else handled their business… more or less. Tennessee won by 22. Alabama by 20. Arkansas by 19. Texas A&M by 13. Vandy squeaked by with 10. Florida?   Fifty-nine.   Up next: Iowa on Sunday night. If this same Florida team shows up, do you Hawkeyes really want some of this? Which brings us to a small memo up the road to Nashville: It’s not wise to piss off a team that can hang 114 and still feel like it left something on the table.   Let’s not get over our skis and all eat up with a win over tiny Prairie View, however, or you can quickly find yourself packing for home tomorrow.

TAMPA – There was rejoicing among the Prairie View A&M faithful when Corey Wells fired in a 3-pointer from the left of the key with 13:41 left in the first half to pull the 16-seed Panthers dead even with No. 1 Florida, 15-15. Hope sprung eternally.   Okay, hope lasted for 31 seconds, which isn’t exactly eternity. Now, what happened in the final 13:19 of the half probably seemed like an eternity to the Panthers, who gave up runs of 18-0, 10-0 and 17-0. Pure carnage. The Gators outscored Prairie View 45-6 for a 60-21 halftime lead.   This was nuclear winter and there was still an entire half of basketball to be played. By the time the clock struck zero, the Gators had a 114-55 statement win at Benchmark International Arena. Not only did Florida (27-7) look the part of the No. 1 seed in the South Region, but the Gators did a dandy impersonation of THE team to beat the remainder of the NCAA Tournament.   The win advanced the Gators to the second round where they will meet No. 9 seed Iowa (22-12) at 7:10 Sunday evening (TBS) for the right to advance to the Sweet 16 in Houston.   Evident from the beginning Friday night was the connection the Gators had at both ends of the court. This was not the team that looked bored and out of synch in Nashville. Rather, this was the team that went 16-1 in SEC play after losing its conference opener to Missouri. This was the team that won all but three of its 16 SEC wins by at least 13 points. Prairie View was already down 13 with 10 minutes remaining in the first half and the Gators were just getting warmed up.   Now, no one will mistake Prairie View for an SEC caliber team, but the way the Gators were playing, it really wouldn’t have mattered. Friday night, the Gators played like they were on a mission. Every bit as important, the Gators played like a team that was truly joyful for another chance to play together. This is the lose and go home time of the year, so every single game has to be approached with the attitude of squeezing out every ounce of joy and fun that can be had.   “The fun was back” is how Alex Condon described Florida’s effort, a statement echoed by Micah Handlogten who said, “Last weekend in Nashville wasn’t fun. When we are connected and playing together the way we know we can play, the game is fun and we can have games like this.”   The way the Gators gave up 3-pointers in the first 6:19 of the game made it seem like there was still a hangover from the Southeastern Conference Tournament games last Friday and Saturday. The Panthers had nothing going in the paint where Florida’s superior size made treading dangerous, but they found openings from three and buried a few shots. The Prairie View faithful thought they could hang with the mighty Gators and maybe some in the crowd of 20,112 sardined in the arena all the way up to the rafters sensed not much had changed since Nashville. Little did they know the tsunami that was about to drown out all the hope Prairie View A&M could muster up. Almost like a secret button was pushed, the Gators elevated their level of play from ho-hum to overwhelmingly dominant. During a media time out after a running hook by Tommy Haugh gave the Gators a 17-15 lead with 12:52 remaining, there was an unspoken "enough of this nonsense" agreement in the Florida huddle.   Prairie View was about to become an armadillo on a highway that gets hit by an 18-wheeler barreling along at 80 miles per hour.   “We had to treat them like they were a top-seeded team in the tournament,” Haugh said. “They got some threes, but we kind of decided no more.”   At least from a Florida perspective, the fun was about to begin.   The Gators scored the next nine points before the next media time out gave the Panthers an opportunity to pick themselves up and ask if someone got the license plate of the semi that ran then over. When play resumed, the Gators finished off the 18-0 run by scoring seven straight for a 33-15 lead. The Panthers put together a 4-0 mini-run but all that did was make the Gators play angry. The Gators scored 10 straight points highlighted by threes by Boogie Fland and Xavian Lee. Those two struggled to make shots in Nashville even when they were wide open. Not so Friday night. The game was already out of hand when they knocked down the 3-pointers, but those shots did have the effect of taking the lid off the basket.   In Nashville, the Gators were a combined 8-37 from 3-point range in the win over Kentucky and the loss to Vanderbilt. Friday night, the Gators shot 3-7 from three in the first half, 7-15 in the second. Going 10-22 from three was highly reminiscent of the way the Gators were shooting prior to Nashville. All week since the loss to Vandy the talking heads nationally questioned if the Gators could make threes. Well, question asked and question answered.   The shooting was impressive but that was just one phase of the complete game the Gators used to turn Prairie View into an abuse victim. And it wasn't just making threes, either, because the Gators were 35-48 (72.9 percent) of their 2-point shots, among them 20 layups and four dunks. The Gators outscored Prairie View 64-10 in the paint, 38-0 in the first half when they made the inside a no-fly zone. On the backboards, the Gators dominated with a 54-20 advantage, 25 rebounds in the first half, 29 in the second. Nearly every Prairie View possession was one-shot-and-done.   After Prairie View opened up 5-7 from three, the next 14 3-point shots were SCUDs. It wasn't until there were 43.3 seconds left in the game before Prairie View found the range for a sixth 3-pointer. In between there were 14 consecutive misses, most of them contested. That three and an alley-oop dunk with 15 seconds left got a rise out of the Prairie View A&M fans. It had been a long time since they had anything positive happen. Prairie View's inability to make shots had everything to do with Florida's defense. The Panthers' inability to get second chance points off the misses had everything to do with the Gators, who seemed to grab every available rebound and turn it into a fast break.   “When we are at our best, our identity is being a really gritty defensive team that cleans up the glass and gets out in transition,” Florida coach Todd Golden said after earning his seventh NCAA Tournament win as the Gators’ head coach. “When we do that we’re going to be tough to beat and we were able to do that tonight.”   The Gators were everything Golden wanted them to be which made them Prairie View's nightmare on Elm Street. The first half was bad for the Panthers but as bad as it was in the second half, it could have been worse except Golden emptied his bench with 7:30 left in the game. About 90 seconds earlier, the crowd erupted in chants of “We want Ollie (7-9 redshirt freshman Olivier Rioux)! We want Ollie!”   They had to wait awhile but they got what they asked for. Ollie got in the game with 1:54, grabbed two rebounds, handed out an assist and dunked with 1:11 left, thrilling the crowd as Prairie View players sidled up next to the big guy to see how far their heads rose about his waistline.   In between the end of the first half and the Rioux dunk, the Gators were on fire offensively. Whatever shots they wanted, they got whether in the paint or beyond the 3-point line. In the first four minutes of the second half, the Gators lit up Prairie View with three consecutive 3-pointers – two by Xavian Lee that sandwiched one by Boogie Fland. Inside or outside, it really didn’t matter. Golden played 14 players and all but walk-on Cooper Josefsberg scored.   Seven Gators scored in double figures led by Fland with 16. Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu each scored 14 while Condon scored 13, Urban Klavzar 11 and Handlogten and Lee 10 each. Chinyelu also grabbed 13 rebounds to set the single-season Florida school record for double-doubles with 19. Handlogten came up one rebound short of a double-double.   If there was a concern coming into the game with the Panthers it was ball security. The Gators spent two games in Nashville playing giveaway. Against Prairie View, there were only seven that the Panthers were able to convert into six points. In the first half of the Vanderbilt loss in Nashville, nine first half turnovers were turned into 20 Vandy points. No such problem against Prairie View.   “I  thought our biggest issue in Nashville was just ball security more than anything else, and I thought tonight we did a really good job of limiting our turnovers and playing together and just making the simple plays,” Golden said. “We call it hitting singles, taking what the defense gives us and living with that. Early on, I think we had a 38-0 paint advantage in the first half scoring-wise, so we weren't settling, we were getting good shots, and I thought we played with great purpose all night.”   Purpose showed in the Gators racking up a phenomenal 29 assists on 45 made baskets. Led by Haugh, who passed for seven assists, the ball moved and open Gators made shots. Condon and Lee had five assists each while Fland had four and Handlogten three. Great ball movement is why the Gators scored on 52 of 71 possessions (73.2 percent), averaging 1.606 points per possession, which is borderline ridiculous.   Scoring was no problem for the Gators. Once past the opening barrage of threes, the Gators clamped down defensively to hold the Panthers to 17-63 shooting overall (27 percent) and 6-22 from the 3-point line (27.3 percent). The Panthers scored on 24 of 69 possessions (34.8 percent). As the NCAA Tournament progresses, the games will get tougher and scoring more difficult, but the Gators got hot again. Last year, when they heated up at tournament time there was no stopping the Gators. The way they played against Prairie View evokes memories of that championship run. To earn a second straight NCAA title, the Gators need to win five more games. The way they played against Prairie View, who's going to suggest they're incapable of repeating?     FRIDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND SCORES South/Tampa 1 FLORIDA (27-7) 114, Prairie View A&M (19-18) 55 9 Iowa (22-12) 67, 8 Clemson (24-11) 60   East/San Diego 4 Kansas (24-10) 68, 13 California Baptist (25-9) 60 5 St. John’s (29-6) 79, 12 Northern Iowa (23-13) 53   East/Philadelphia 2 UConn (30-5) 82, 15 Furman (22-13) 71 3 Virginia (30-5) 82, 14 Wright State (23-12) 73 7 UCLA (24-11) 75, 10 UCF (23-12) 71   Midwest/Philadelphia 6 Tennessee (23-11) 78, Miami OH (33-2) 56   Midwest/Tampa 4 Alabama (24-9) 90, 13 Hofstra (24-11) 70 5 Texas Tech (23-10) 91, 12 Akron (29-6) 71   Midwest/Saint Louis 2 Iowa State (28-7) 108, 15 Tennessee State (23-10) 74 7 Kentucky (22-13) 89, 10 Santa Clara (26-9) 84, OT   West/Saint Louis 2 Purdue (28-8) 104, 15 Queens (21-14) 71 7 Miami (25-8) 80, 10 Missouri (20-12) 66   West/San Diego 1 Arizona (33-2) 92, Long Island University (24-11) 58 9 Utah State (29-6) 86, 8 Villanova (24-9) 76   SATURDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT SECOND ROUND GAMES East/Greenville (CBS) 5:15: 1 Duke (33-2) vs. 9 TCU (23-11)   East/Buffalo (CBS) 2:45: 3 Michigan State (26-7) vs. 6 Louisville (24-10)   South/Oklahoma City (TNT) 6:10: 2 Houston (29-6) vs. 10 Texas A&M (22-11) 8:45: 4 Nebraska (27-6) vs. 5 Vanderbilt (27-8)   South/Greenville (CBS) 7:50: 3 Illinois (25-8) vs. 11 VCU (28-7)   Midwest/Buffalo (CBS) 12:10: 1 Michigan (32-3) vs. 9 Saint Louis (30-5)   West/Portland (truTV) 7:10: 3 Gonzaga (31-3) vs. 11 Texas (20-14) 9:45: 4 Arkansas (27-8) vs. 12 High Point (31-4)   SUNDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT SECOND ROUND GAMES South/Tampa (TBS) 7:10 1 FLORIDA (27-7) vs. 9 Iowa (22-12)   Midwest/Tampa (TBS) 9:45: 4 Alabama (24-9) vs. 5 Texas Tech (23-10)   Midwest/Saint Louis   2 Iowa State (28-7) vs. 7 Kentucky (22-13)   West/Saint Louis (CBS) 12:10 2 Purdue (28-8) vs. 7 Miami (26-8)   East/San Diego (CBS) 5:15: 4 Kansas (24-10) vs. 5 St. John’s (29-6)   East/Philadelphia (TNT) 6:10: 3 Virginia (30-5) vs. 6 Tennessee (23-11) 8:45: 2 UConn (30-5) vs 7 UCLA (24-11)   West/San Diego (truTV) 7:50: 1 Arizona (33-2) vs. 9 Utah State (29-6)

Made with Ai To paraphrase the old cliché, “I couldn’t pick my grandmother out of Count Basie’s band.” By BuddyMartin gatorbaitmedia.com   Ever since Dr. James Naismith nailed up those peach baskets and invented basketball, people have been trying to predict who’s going to win in March.   Let me be the first to tell you: I am possibly the worst forecaster of basketball outcomes since before peach baskets were made. To paraphrase the old cliché, “I couldn’t pick my grandmother out of Count Basie’s band.”   This was not a talent bestowed upon me by the sports gods.   The first clue should have been at home. Every year my wife would beat me like a rented mule in the bracket pool and she didn’t even pretend to know the teams. Even though I covered quite a few tournaments personally.   She picked based on uniform colors. If the shade of blue “pops,” that’s her Final Four team. Meanwhile I’m interviewing coaches and players, studying matchups, reading box scores, pretending to be some kind of basketball scholar.   Guess who always won? Her. By Thursday.   Now understand, I’ve covered sports for more than half a century. I’ve interviewed insiders, broken down zone defenses and watched more basketball games than most people have eaten hot dogs. And yet when it comes to filling out a bracket, I might as well be picking lottery numbers with oven mitts on.   Rodney Dangerfield used to say he got no respect. I get no results or respect, understandably. When I pick a Cinderella team, the slipper doesn’t even come in the correct size or color. In fact, I’m so bad that when I picked Cinderella one year she sent me a rejection notice. “Thanks, but we’re going with someone else.”   I’ve tried every method known to man. Coin flips. Pulling names out of a hat. Consulting people who claim to understand analytics. At one point I even considered a fortune teller. The crystal ball fogged up and refused to cooperate.   I even attempted the “lose every game on purpose” strategy once. Surely, I thought, if I intentionally picked the wrong team every time I might accidentally end up right. Didn’t work.   Which is why I retired from filling out brackets a few years ago. But like many retirements, it didn’t take.   My friend Paul Wilson of the Sports Blitz on ESPN NW Florida 104.3 recently roped me back in because he wanted me to fill one out for his radio show at the Lone Star Boil House & Sports Bar in Panama City.   Apparently nothing attracts listeners like self-flagellation and watching a grown man publicly sabotage his own credibility.   So here I am again, pretending to be an expert as March Madness officially gets underway Tuesday night with those infernal play-in games.   To be fair, I’ve seen other experts make fools of themselves in sports. I remember former Florida coach Jim McElwain once bragged about how easy it was to find quarterbacks.   “My dog Clarabelle could play quarterback,” he said.   Well, I don’t have a dog, but if I did, I’d hand over the brackets him or her the immediately. They couldn’t do worse than I do.   In fact, I’ve developed a very reliable system for friends who want to win their office pool. Just defer to my terrible real estate acumen.   Follow me around. Whenever I buy, you sell. When I sell, you buy. Or in other words, buy high and sell low, as I generally have done in the transactions on five houses.   And when I fill out my March Madness bracket, simply pick the opposite teams.   Think of it as the George Costanza Method of sports forecasting. Do the opposite of everything I do. Trust me — you’ll be far more successful. On second thought, don’t trust me.   I cannot bear to fill out a whole bracket so let me start with my Final Four and give you a couple other hot teams: Chalk, no Cinderella. Michigan, Arizona, Florida and tournament favorite Duke. I will take the privilege of picking my winner just before the round of 16. I love how Arkansas, Vandy and Michigan are playing, but let me hold off on the Gators. The loss to Vandy wasn’t  a disaster, but it wasn’t nothing either.  Remembering that no team coming in on hot streak wins it — the last one being Indiana in 1976. Forget picking an underdog #16 over  #1. Otherwise, forget everything I just said.

Have a night Xavian Lee! UAA (Photo by Maddie Washburn) The domination we saw Friday night will not translate into Sunday against Iowa. By CARLTON REESE GatorBaitMedia.com The formality of Florida’s Game 1 in the NCAA Tournament now concluded, the Gators take their one-game winning streak into Sunday against the Iowa Hawkeyes, who present a far more formidable challenge than Prairie View A&M. Although Florida will again be a solid favorite to advance, something still gnaws at the psyche, something born in Nashville last week that is hard to ignore. Complacency? Perhaps too strong a word, but more like comfort. After being thoroughly manhandled by the Vanderbilt Commodores in the SEC Tournament semifinal, things seemed a bit too “business as usual” afterward, especially in the postgame press conference featuring head coach Todd Golden, Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh. The typical platitudes lofted the way of the conquerors, but no visible anger, disappointment or even frustration. Some may point to this as a good thing: Florida not getting caught up in the emotion of the moment, staying supremely focused on the greater task at hand. The golfer that gets too pumped up over a great shot risks a tad less focus on the next swing – the opposite true: Getting too angry and emotional over a bad shot distorts the clear mind over the next one. Then there’s the B-side of this record: You know how good you are, and you take nearly too much comfort in the notion that the cream will rise to the top as an inevitability. And when that comfort translates into a loss like it did against a Vanderbilt team that dedicated itself to a fist fight when Florida was geared for checkers, perhaps the loss administers less of a sting, and those stings are what put a team into that extra gear when it matters most. During last year’s run to the title, the sting of that opening-round loss to Colorado in 2024 was still felt. But, did the loss to Vandy sting that hard? Based on the outward reaction, not so much. In the early part of Friday’s 114-55 win over Prairie View, Florida seemed not to care about defending the 3-point line, the same game plan against the Vanderbilt big men that blew up in their face. Given open looks from long range, Prairie View drilled them like free throws and even drew even with the Gators at 15-15. Here’s a thought: How about defending the 3-point line no matter what? Good defense need not be a strategy of proximity – it’s about covering your man, and Florida has been known to excel at such endeavors. At 15-15, Golden shifted gears, called for denial of the perimeter and Florida outscored the Panthers 45-6 into the half. Perhaps the Vanderbilt game and the first few minutes of the Prairie View game will close the book on this “surrender the 3-point line” strategy. That’s good news. More good news is the defensive intensity Florida exuded even when it rolled out to an ocean of a lead. It would have been easy to get lazy and sloppy – even understandable – but the Gators played every moment the rest of the way as though it was in a do-or-die battle, which is the most important ingredient in advancing all the way in one-and-done tournament formats. The win over Prairie View A&M proved very little nor was it supposed to. By halftime, the game had become a televised scrimmage where habits are formed that carry on to the next game. Whereas Florida looked like it was having a lot of fun, thankfully, it did not appear a critical comfort level had been reached. Players were still making the extra pass for the assist in circumstances that make it very tempting to simply beat your guy on the dribble in order to raise your points-per-game average. The domination we saw Friday night will not translate into Sunday against Iowa. The Hawkeyes physically match up more closely with Florida than Prairie View ever could, so those plays the Gators made look easy Friday will be more of a grind Sunday. That’s why the tournament starts this weekend – the practice rounds at the muny don’t translate to inside the ropes at Oakmont. Todd Golden and the Florida Gators know all this. They know the domination of Prairie View is in no way an indication of what is to come. Florida knew this destruction was coming and never pretended as though the Panthers were more than they were. Give Golden credit, he’s not Vince Dooley, who would tell you William & Mary is a tough matchup. No, Golden said beforehand the Panthers weren’t a good rebounding team and was limited in his overall praise of the opponent, something that should help keep the players grounded after such a monumental destruction. How does one rake 83-mph fastballs then step in against Nolan Ryan? That’s the adjustment Florida must make against Iowa and it’s not an easy one to make. To Florida’s credit, this is the very thing its monster schedule prepared them for. Miami-Ohio went 32-1 against a schedule of cupcakes, then was thoroughly dismantled once it faced a real team in the form of Tennessee. Florida won’t be so surprised. Most interesting to note will be whether Iowa pulls a page from the Vanderbilt playbook of physicality. The Hawkeyes, though at a significant height disadvantage, have the bodies to do some pushing of their own while also strafing the net from the 3-point line. Their best chance at beating the Gators may just be to hack away and cause some frustration of their own. Either way, Florida can’t afford to get comfortable Sunday because Iowa makes its living on a grinding pace that could make Ghandi angry. Friday night was fun; the starters enjoyed the last seven minutes as fans of their scrub teammates, and it was the expected way to start defense of a title. As nice as it was, it still did not wash away whatever concerns arose after two bad performances in the SEC Tournament. The Vanderbilt game and the seemingly carefree acceptance of that debacle were not thrown down the memory hole by crushing Prairie View A&M. On Sunday, we find out for real the mental direction of this team as the real games begin.

Associate head coach Carlin Hartman works with bigs at Thursday practice (Photo by Franz Beard) Prairie View A&M already had Todd Golden’s attention based on the Panthers’ takedown of Lehigh in a First Four Game Wednesday night, but just in case he needed an example of what happens when you take a No. 16 seed casually, Siena had a 13-point lead on Duke in the second half.   Ahead 47-34 with a little more than 17 minutes remaining in the game, Siena missed a pair of dunks on the same possession. The second dunk attempt caromed off the back rim and bounced all the way past the 3-point line at the top of the key. Duke’s Isaiah Evans sprinted out of a pack of players, ran the ball down and dunked at the other end.   That was Duke’s wakeup call. The Blue Devils ran off nine straight points, shifting momentum clearly in their favor. Although they never completely shook Siena, the Blue Devils got the lead and held on for a 71-65 first round win in the East Regional.   Bad things can happen if you are foolish enough to take an opponent lightly in March when a loss sends your team packing because the season’s over. Prairie View has Golden’s undivided attention. The Gators, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, may be a whopping 35.5-point favorite to put an end to Prairie View’s season tonight (9:25 p.m., TNT), but Golden knows the Gators have to play at a high level, eliminating the turnovers that were so instrumental in poor play at the SEC Tournament in Nashville last weekend.     At Thursday’s press conference, Golden treated the Panthers (19-17) with utmost respect.   “They're always going to be gritty, they're going to be tough,” Golden said. “They have a unique style defensively where they get after you and try to turn you over, and they're old. They're mature, they're old, they play six seniors. A couple of those guys are grad school guys.   “We don't anticipate them being afraid of the moment or being scared coming into the game. We think they're going to be ready to compete, and looking forward to the opportunity for this game tomorrow night.”   Prairie View is in this game because it shocked Lehigh in the First Four game in Dayton Wednesday. Though undersized even against a not particularly tall team, Prairie View forced 16 turnovers to keep Lehigh from ever getting into a solid offensive rhythm. At 6-7, Corey Wells used his quickness to offset a 3-inch and perhaps 40-point disadvantage to Hank Alvey. Although he gave up points and rebounds to Alvey (23 and 15), Wells was a force in the paint with 19 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots. Wells was solid enough in the paint that it opened things up for Dontae Horne to go off for 25 points.   Defensively, Prairie View ran a full court press and swarmed to the ball even when Lehigh got the ball safely across the midcourt line. The Panthers were credited with 12 steals out of their helter-skelter style.   “We have a great level of respect for them and for their ability to beat Lehigh in a quick turnaround coming down here, and we have to be ready to play and do a really good job tomorrow night," Golden said.   What caught his eye was Prairie View’s ability to turn Lehigh over. In their win over Kentucky last Friday, the Gators turned it over 18 times. Saturday in their loss to Vanderbilt, nine first half turnovers were converted into 20 points in what became a 17-point loss by the Gators.   That led to practices in Gainesville designed to address ball security among other problems that were exposed in Nashville.   "Well, we had a really good week of practice,” Golden said. “I think when you have a bad game like we did last Saturday, you've got to use it as a learning experience and try to find ways to improve, and I think we did that. I think we highlighted some areas that we haven't been very good over the last week and addressed that this week in practice and competed really well.   “My hope is that we'll be able to address those areas and play better this weekend."   THURSDAY’S NCAA RESULTS East 1 Duke (33-2) 71, 16 Siena (23-12) 65 3 Michigan State (26-7) 92, 14 North Dakota State (27-8) 67 6 Louisville (24-10) 83, 11 South Florida (25-9) 79 9 TCU (23-11) 66, 8 Ohio State (21-13) 64   South 2 Houston (29-6) 78, 15 Idaho (21-15) 47 3 Illinois (25-8) 105, 14 Pennsylvania (18-12) 70 4 Nebraska (27-6) 76, 13 Troy (22-12) 47 5 Vanderbilt (27-8) 78, 12 McNeese (28-6) 68 11 VCU (28-7) 82, 6 North Carolina (24-9) 78, OT 10 Texas A&M (22-11) 63, 7 Saint Mary’s (27-6) 50   Midwest 1 Michigan (32-3) 101, 16 Howard (24-11) 80 9 Saint Louis (29-5) 102, 8 Georgia (22-11) 77   West 3 Gonzaga (31-2) 73, 14 Kennesaw State (21-13) 64 4 Arkansas (27-8) 97, 13 Hawaii (24-9) 78 12 High Point (31-4) 83, 5 Wisconsin (24-11) 82 11 Texas (20-14) 79, 6 BYU (23-12) 71   CONFERENCE RECORDS SEC 4-1; Big Ten 3-2; A-10 2-0; Big XII 2-1; SWAC 1-0; Big South 1-0; MEAC 1-1; WCC 1-1; ACC 1-3; Patriot 0-1; Metro Atlantic 0-1; Summit 0-1; American 0-1; Big Sky 0-1; Ivy 0-1; Sun Belt 0-1; Southland 0-1; Southern 0-1; Big West 0-1   FRIDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES   South/Tampa (TNT) 6:50: 9 Iowa (21-12) vs. 8 Clemson (24-10) 9:25: 16 Prairie View A&M (19-17) vs. 1 FLORIDA (26-7)   Midwest/Saint Louis (CBS) 12:15: 10 Santa Clara (26-8) vs. 7 Kentucky (21-13) 2:50: 15 Tennessee State (23-9) vs. 2 Iowa State (27-7)   Midwest/Tampa (truTV) 12:40: 12 Akron (29-5) vs. 5 Texas Tech (22-10) 3:15: 13 Hofstra (24-10) vs. 4 Alabama (23-9)   Midwest/Philadelphia (TBS) 1:50: 14 Wright State (23-11) vs. 3 Virginia (29-5) 4:25: 11 Miami OH (32-1) vs. 6 Tennessee (22-11)   West/San Diego (TNT) 1:35: 16 Long Island University (24-10) vs. 1 Arizona (32-2) 4:10: 9 Utah State (28-6) vs. 8 Villanova (24-8)   West/Saint Louis (truTV) 7:35: 15 Queens (21-13) vs. 2 Purdue (27-8) 10:10: 10 Missouri (20-12) vs. 7 Miami (25-8)   East/San Diego (CBS) 7:10: 12 Northern Iowa (23-12) vs. 5 St. John’s (28-6) 9:45: 13 California Baptist (25-8) vs. 4 Kansas (23-10)   East/Philadelphia (TBS) 7:25 10 UCF (21-11) vs. 7 UCLA (23-11) 10:00: 15 Furman (22-12) vs. 2 UConn (29-5)   SATURDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES East/Greenville (CBS) 5:15 1 Duke (33-2) vs. 9 TCU (23-11)   East/Buffalo (CBS) 2:45: 6 Louisville (24-10) vs. 3 Michigan State (26-7)   South/Oklahoma City (TNT) 6:10: 2 Houston vs. 10 Texas A&M (22-11) 8:45: 5 Vanderbilt (27-8) vs. 4 Nebraska (27-6)   South/Greenville (CBS) 7:50: 11 VCU (28-7) vs. 3 Illinois (25-8)   Midwest/Buffalo (CBS) 12:10: 9 Saint Louis (29-5) vs. 1 Michigan (32-3)   West/Portland (truTV/TBS) 7:10: 11 Texas (20-14) vs. 3 Gonzaga (31-3) 9:45: 12 High Point (31-4) vs. 4 Arkansas (27-8)

Chinyelu Is the leader of intensity as Gators try to reboot (UAA Photo)   Usually after a painful loss, the Gators go on a winning streak.     It's nothing more than a scrimmage, if that, Friday night after most seniors' bedtime when the Florida Gators finally get back to the business of playing basketball as a whopping 35-point favorite in their first round of March Madness. Their first hane will be against Prairie View A&M in Tampa, but it is really against themselves. There is some unattended business to handle as Florida shakes off the memories of the butt-whipping they got from Vanderbilt. Todd Golden thinks the painful loss to Vanderbilt was an anomaly, and I agree. But they've got to show it. If they muscle up and get back to the physical style of play against the Panthers that made them a No. 1 seed on the way to a 26-7 record and don't turn the basketball over then we'll know they have shaken it off. That will get them back on track for the Sunday game with the Clemson-Iowa winner and the gauntlet that most likely goes through Houston, but not on the Cougars' campus. The “road game” for a 1‑seed? No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Houston are set up for a potential Elite Eight rematch of last year’s title game in Houston’s backyard at the Toyota Center, a few miles from campus. You don’t need a PhD in Bracketing Principles to know that sounds more like a neutral‑site guarantee game than a fair regional final for the higher seed. When the defending national champion can realistically find itself playing a de‑facto road game as the better seed, the message is subtle but clear: “Congrats on the trophy, now go prove it all over again under somebody else’s banners.”   If that happened to a blue‑blood with a hundred years of committee goodwill, it would be a talking‑point crisis; with Florida, it’s another shrug and a footnote.   They can use the disrespect card as motivation. Frankly most Gator fans are disgruntled about how some of their stars were blown off in post-season honors. Thomas Haugh, who did everything you’re supposed to do in the script, went from glue guy on a title team to headliner, leading Florida at 17.1 points, 6.2 boards, 2 assists with a block and a steal on a 26‑7 group that earned a 1‑seed.   That’s lottery‑pick chatter, face‑of‑the‑program production and best player on a legitimate repeat contender, and somehow the ledger spits out…??? AP Third‑Team All‑American.?   And there's more. SEC Defender of Rueben Chinyelu, a mighty force and prime motivator for intensity, was certainly undervalued. And who played better basketball these past five weeks than Alex Condon? On paper, those are big-time stars, especially when you factor in that it’s the engine of the defending national champions. But who cares? “Paper” is where Florida keeps losing the argument: In a crowded national conversation, Haugh’s year gets treated like a nice story instead of the kind of season that usually gets you a fat TV feature and a reserved seat at the awards show. I have several well-known media friends out of the market who still like Florida and love Golden's roster. When I prompted a Birminham guy to pick which Gator would be the biggest factor, he blurted out " I like them all!" I ascribe to the notion that this is the time of year where teams get better or worse. Certainly they are not worse and have a history of big winning streak after a painful loss. That's badnews for Prairie View A&M, and likely for those to follow.

Prairie View A&M (19-17) won its ninth straight game Wednesday night, taking down Lehigh (18-17), 67-55, in a matchup of 16 th -seeded teams in the NCAA’s First Four in Dayton. The reward for the Panthers, eighth during the regular season in the Southwestern Athletic Conference but winners of the league tournament is a Friday night date with the Florida Gators, reigning NCAA champions and the No. 1 seed for the South Regional.   The Panthers earned their win with a scrambling defense that completely stifled Nasir Whitlock, who came into the game averaging 20.5 per game and with eight games of 30 or more points under his belt. Against the quick Prairie View defense, Whitlock scored only five points, going 1-8 on 2-point shots and 1-7 on threes. Without Whitlock’s scoring to inject energy into the offense, Lehigh struggled to get into any kind of rhythm.   Down at the other end of the court, Lehigh had no answers for Georgia Southern transfer Dontae Horne, who lit up the Mountain Hawks for 25 points and was equally effective defensively with four steals and a blocked shot. Despite being undersized and the tallest player on the floor for the Panthers at 6-7, Corey Wells dominated on the inside with 19 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots.   The Gators (26-7) have been established as 35.5-point favorites as they begin their quest for a second consecutive NCAA championship at Tampa’s Benchmark Arena (9:25, TNT).   From a purely analytical standpoint, Florida is fourth in both the kenpom.com and barttorvik.com analytics. At kenpom.com , the Gators are the No. 9 offensive team and No. 6 defensive team in the nation. The barttorvik.com analytics rank the Gators 11 th offensively and fourth defensively.   Prairie View is No. 280 at kenpom.com and No. 281 at barttorvik.   The winner of the Friday night encounter between the Gators and Prairie View advances to a second round game Sunday against the winner of No. 8 Clemson and No. 9 Iowa.   TOMMY HAUGH NAMED TO TWO MORE ALL-AMERICA TEAMS Tommy Haugh added to more awards to his growing list of accomplishments Wednesday when he was named second team All-America by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) and third team United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Previously, Haugh was named second team All-America by The Sporting News and third team by the Associated Press.   NABC All-America teams First team: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas; Cameron Boozer, Duke; AJ Dybantsa, BYU; Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan; Braden Smith, Purdue   Second team: Tommy Haugh, Florida; Kingston Flemings, Houston; Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State; JT Toppin Texas Tech; Keaton Wagler, Illinois   Third team: Jaden Bradley, Arizona; Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State; Graham Ike, Gonzaga; Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama; Caleb Wilson, North Carolina   USBWA All-America teams First team: Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas; Cameron Boozer, Duke; AJ Dybantsa, BYU; Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan; Baden Smith, Purdue   Second team: Kingston Flemings, Houston; Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State; JT Toppin, Texas Tech; Keaton Wagler, Illinois; Caleb Wilson, North Carolina   Third team: Tommy Haugh, Florida; Christian Anderson, Texas Tech; Jaden Bradley, Arizona; Jeremy Fears Jr., Michigan State; Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama   THURSDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES (SEC teams bold face)   East/Greenville, SC (CBS) 12:15: 9 TCU (22-11) vs. 8 Ohio State (21-12) 2:50: 16 Siena (23-11) vs. 1 Duke (32-2)   East/Buffalo (TNT) 1:30: 11 South Florida (25-8) vs. 6 Louisville (23-10) 4:05: 14 North Dakota State (27-7) vs. 3 Michigan State (25-7)   South/Oklahoma City (truTV) 12:40: 13 Troy (22-11) vs. 4 Nebraska (26-6) 3:15: 12 McNeese (28-5) vs. 5 Vanderbilt (26-8) 7:35: 10 Texas A&M (21-11) vs. 7 Saint Mary’s (27-5) 10:10: Idaho (21-14) vs. 2 Houston (28-6)   South/Greenville, SC (TNT) 6:50: 11 VCU (27-7) vs. 6 North Carolina (24-8) 9:25: 14 Pennsylvania (18-11) vs. 3 Illinois (24-8)   West/Portland (TBS) 1:50: 12 High Point (30-4) vs. 5 Wisconsin (24-10) 4:25: 13 Hawaii (24-8) vs. 4 Arkansas (26-8) 7:25: 11 Texas (19-14) vs. 6 BYU (23-11) 10:00: 14 Kennesaw State (21-13) vs. 3 Gonzaga (30-3)   Midwest/Buffalo (CBS) 7:10: 16 Howard (24-10) vs. 1 Michigan (31-3) 9:45: 9 Saint Louis (28-5) vs. 8 Georgia (22-10)   FRIDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT GAMES   South/Tampa (TNT) 6:50: 9 Iowa (21-12) vs. 8 Clemson (24-10) 9:25: 16 Prairie View A&M (19-17) vs. 1 FLORIDA (26-7)   Midwest/Saint Louis (CBS) 12:15: 10 Santa Clara (26-8) vs. 7 Kentucky (21-13) 2:50: 15 Tennessee State (23-9) vs. 2 Iowa State (27-7)   Midwest/Tampa (truTV) 12:40: 12 Akron (29-5) vs. 5 Texas Tech (22-10) 3:15: 13 Hofstra (24-10) vs. 4 Alabama (23-9)   Midwest/Philadelphia (TBS) 1:50: 14 Wright State (23-11) vs. 3 Virginia (29-5) 4:25: 11 Miami OH (32-1) vs. 6 Tennessee (22-11)   West/San Diego (TNT) 1:35: 16 Long Island University (24-10) vs. 1 Arizona (32-2) 4:10: 9 Utah State (28-6) vs. 8 Villanova (24-8)   West/Saint Louis (truTV) 7:35: 15 Queens (21-13) vs. 2 Purdue (27-8) 10:10: 10 Missouri (20-12) vs. 7 Miami (25-8)   East/San Diego (CBS) 7:10: 12 Northern Iowa (23-12) vs. 5 St. John’s (28-6) 9:45: 13 California Baptist (25-8) vs. 4 Kansas (23-10)   East/Philadelphia (TBS) 7:25 10 UCF (21-11) vs. 7 UCLA (23-11) 10:00: 15 Furman (22-12) vs. 2 UConn (29-5)   REGION BY REGION ANALYSIS South (1. Florida; 2. Houston; 3. Illinois; 4. Nebraska)   Florida, Houston and Illinois will score easy first round game wins. Nebraska might struggle a little bit early with Troy’s style, but should pull away in the second half. Potential first round upsets include No. 11 VCU over No. 6 North Carolina and No. 10 Texas A&M over No. 7 Saint Mary’s.   Second round predictions: 1 FLORIDA vs. 9 Iowa; 2 Houston vs. 7 Texas A&M; 3 Illinois vs. 6 VCU; 4 Nebraska vs. 5 Vanderbilt   East (1. Duke; 2. UConn; 3. Michigan State; 4. Kansas)   Duke, UConn, Michigan State and Kansas will have no trouble advancing past the first round. Two potential upsets are No. 11 South Florida over No. 6 Louisville and No. 10 UCF over No. 7 UCLA.   Second round predictions: 1 Duke vs. 9 TCU; 2 UConn vs. 10 UCF; 3 Michigan State vs. 11 South Florida; 4 Kansas vs. 5 St. John’s.   Midwest (1. Michigan; 2. Iowa State; 3. Viginia; 4. Alabama)   Michigan, Iowa State and Virginia will win big. Alabama should win but may have focus issues after the arrest of second leading scorer Aden Holloway on drug charges back on Monday. Minus JT Toppin, No. 5 Texas Tech is vulnerable against No. 12 Akron. It is a bad matchup for No. 7 Kentucky and No. 10 Santa Clara. Put the Mildcats on upset alert. Georgia-Saint Louis will be a track meet but depth favors Georgia. The crowd in Philadelphia will be very Pro-Miami (OH), but Tennessee should end the storybook season for the Red Hawks.   Second round predictions: 1 Michigan vs. 8 Georgia; 2 Iowa State vs. 10 Santa Clara; 3 Virginia vs. 6 Tennessee; 4 Alabama vs. 5 Texas Tech   West (1. Arizona; 2. Purdue; 3. Gonzaga; 4. Arkansas)   Arizona, Purdue, Gonzaga and Arkansas score easy first round wins. Texas won’t be able to handle No. 6 BYU and AJ Dybantsa. No. 9 Utah State will win the matchup with No. 8 Villanova. No. 10 Missouri’s size will overwhelm No. 7 Miami.   Second round predictions: 1 Arizona vs. 9 Utah State; 2 Purdue vs. 10 Missouri; 3 Gonzaga vs. 6 BYU; 4 Arkansas vs. 5 Wisconsin

There are losses and then there are bad losses. The bad losses – there have been two of them in the past two seasons – tend to bring out the best in Todd Golden and his Florida coaching staff.   There were two bad losses a season ago – 64-44 at Tennessee and 88-83 at Georgia –  that became springboards for success. In the six games after the loss to the Vols in Knoxville, the Gators learned to compensate for injuries, which paid off during the Gators’ championship run as Tommy Haugh and Denzel Aberdeen blossomed into confident, dependable guys off the bench. After Alex Condon suffered a high ankle sprain in the opening minutes of a win at Mississippi State, Micah Handlogten burned his redshirt.   On paper, a 5-point loss to Georgia on the road doesn’t seem all that bad, but there was a point in the first half when the Gators trailed by 25. They rallied, took the lead late, and then missed a chance to score what would have been one of the more remarkable comebacks in Southeastern Conference history. Following that loss, the Gators went on a 12-game tear that took them to the national championship.   Rather than go into a funk over those two losses, the Gators self-corrected, re-focused and played with a heightened sense of urgency, particularly in the six NCAA Tournament games after the Georgia loss.   The Gators have lost seven games this season, five that were within their grasp to win and two that can only be categorized as bad losses. The bad losses – a 76-67 home court defeat at the hands of Auburn; a 91-74 loss to Vanderbilt in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament last Saturday.   The response to the Auburn loss was a 12-game winning streak in which nine of the wins were by at least 13 points and the other three were over Kentucky, one at home, one at Rupp and one at the SEC Tournament. The Vanderbilt loss was just the second in the last two seasons in which the Gators have gone down in flames by at least 10 points.   What will be the Gators’ response to the Vandy loss Friday night (9:25 p.m., TNT) when they face the winner of the play-in game between Prairie View A&M and Lehigh in their first round NCAA Tournament game in Tampa? Any way you dissect it, that should be a win by at least 20-25 points. There is no such thing as a moral lock in NCAA play. Just ask Virginia whose 2018 loss to UMBC in the first round is the only time in the history of the NCAA Tournament that the No. 1 seed lost to a No. 16.   The better question might be how will the Gators respond Sunday when they face the winner of No. 8 Clemson and No. 9 Iowa in the second round? Whereas Prairie View and Lehigh are like layups, Clemson and Iowa are very capable of beating good teams if they get on a roll.   “I think both those teams provide different challenges,” Golden said. “Iowa's really good offensively. They have a great point guard (Bennett Stirtz), really, really good coach (Ben McCollum) that runs good stuff. And Clemson, I would say, is one of the tougher programs in America. Coach (Brad) Brownwell has done a remarkable job there.”   Against outstanding competition and with the pressure of the NCAA Tournament where a loss ends the season, can Golden get the Gators back into the groove they were in prior to the SEC Tournament in Nashville? Prior to Nashville, the Gators were playing scorched earth basketball, laying waste to whoever got in their way. In Nashville, the Gators were out of sorts offensively in a 71-63 win over Kentucky and then came the 91-74 loss to Vanderbilt.   Golden thinks yes, the Gators can regain their momentum.     “I think we want to be consistent,” Golden said Monday. “I think we're probably a little better as a staff at holding teams accountable. We've been pretty good after wins too, so it's not that … we're just like, oh, we need a loss to get back to what we're capable of. But I do think it allows you to kind of re-center, focus on the areas that we haven't been good enough, even when we've been winning, because there are certain things even though we have been winning the games, where we haven't been as sharp as we need to be.   “And so that's kind of what might be masked a little bit during the winning streak that we can adjust and approach right now.”   Against Kentucky, the Gators played exceptional defense in holding the Wildcats 19 points below their norm. The Vanderbilt loss had everything to do with a lack of ball security. That was a carryover from the Kentucky game, but the turnovers against Kentucky weren’t nearly as devastating.   Against Vanderbilt, the Gators turned the ball over nine times in the first half which the Commodores converted into 20 points. Eliminate the turnovers and even with a poor shooting night, the Gators could have won the game. There were opportunities to score because the Gators outrebounded Vandy by 15. The day before against Kentucky, it was a 50-29 rebounding margin.   Despite all the rebounds, however, the offense couldn’t get untracked, something that will have to improve this weekend.   “We need our offense to be better,” Golden said. “We can't turn the ball over 20 percent of the time against really good teams and expect to win.”   HAUGH MAKES THIRD TEAM ASSOCIATED PRESS ALL-AMERICA   Tommy Haugh got another All-America honor when he was named to the Associated Press third team. A week ago, Haugh was selected second team All-America by The Sporting News.   A first team All-Southeastern Conference selection by both the coaches and the Associated press, Haugh had a true breakout season, his first as a full-time starter at UF. Moved from the post to the wing by Golden prior to the beginning of the season, the junior from Pennsylvania is averaging 17.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game.   AP All-America First team: Cameron Boozer, Duke; Darius Acuff Jr., Arkansas; AJ Dybanta, BYU; Yaxel Lendeborg, Michigan; JT Toppin, Texas Tech   Second team: Joshua Jefferson, Iowa State; Braden Smith, Purdue; Jeremy Fears, Michigan State; Keaton Wagler, Illinois; Caleb Wilson, North Carolina   Third team: Tommy Haugh, Florida; Kingston Flemings, Houston; Labaron Philon Jr., Alabama; Christian Anderson, Texas Tech; Graham Ike, Gonzaga

Townsen Thomas (44) Named Freshman Of The Week (UAA Photo) Gators host the #1 ranked Lady Vols in a three-game series.   Every weekend in SEC softball is important, but this is a big weekend for Gator softball. Coming off a sweep of Kentucky on the road, the Gators will host the #1 ranked Lady Vols in a three-game series starting on Friday night.  It’s not a win-or-the-season-is-lost series, but if Florida can win the series it sets them up to be in the front row position to win the conference championship.  The Gators not only swept the Cats in Lexington but did so in run-rule fashion in every game. Jocelyn Erickson led the way on offense hitting a home run in each game to extend her team leading HR total to 16, which is also a new single season record for her.  Freshman Townsen Thomas may have had the best weekend going 6-9 over the series and picking up Freshmen of the Week honors for the effort.  In the circle, Keagan Rothrock picked up wins in games one and three to move to 16-1 for the season. Sophomore Katelynn Oxley had a stellar performance in game two to pick up the win. She threw a complete game shutout to move to 2-0. She struck out 7 and only allowed two hits. Florida will need her along with the rest of the staff to contribute in the Saturday games until the normal Saturday starter, Ava Brown, can return from being injured. Tennessee is coming off a tough weekend in Starkville against a surprising Bulldog team that handed them their first loss of the season on Saturday.  The Vols were pushed to extra innings on Friday night before winning the game 3-1 in 9 innings. They won the series on Sunday with a 4-1 victory. The usually potent offensive lineup was handled pretty well in the series. The Vols pitching continues to be outstanding. Ella Dodge and Makenzie Butt are tied for the lead in HRs with 7 each for the Lady Vols. Sophia Knight leads the team with a .467 batting average followed by Dodge at .366 with a team leading 57 RBI. Gabby Leach and Butt are also hitting above .300. As a team they hit .319 and have 36 Home Runs in their 28 games.  Karlyn Pickens leads them in the circle. She has a 7-0 record with a .65 era and 1 save.  The Vol staff is pretty balancedthough. Sage Mardjetko is 6-0 in 8 starts with a .83 era. The pitcher most often used appears to be Erin Nuwer. She has appeared in 15 games with 8 starts and 3 saves to go along with an 11-1 record. Nuwer has also started 8 games. All three of them are averaging over 1 strikeout an inning.  The Gators will have their hands full this weekend. They will need to continue doing what they have so far.  Taylor Shumaker will need to keep setting the pace from the lead-off position. Erickson and Kenleigh Cahalan will need to keep driving in runs. Thomas and Gabbi Comia will need to keep getting on base. The rest of the lineup will need to contribute timely hits to drive in runs as well. Rothrock will need to be strong in the circle in games 1 and 3. Oxley, Leah Stevens, and Olivia Miller will need to provide some quality innings in game 2 and if needed in relief of Rothrock. The crowd needs to be extra rowdy this weekend. They may just be the difference between winning and losing the series.  A packed and loud Katie Seashole Pressley stadium is an intimidating place to play softball. Time will tell if it’s enough to help the Gators upset the #1 team in the land this weekend.

Boogie Fland drives on Auburn (Photo by Chris Spears) Was Nashville just a speed bump for 4 th -ranked Florida or a signal that perhaps the Gators have run out of gas? Those two games at the SEC Tournament – an 8-point win over Kentucky; a 17-point loss to Vanderbilt – bore faint resemblance to the Gators who, from January 7 until the end of the Southeastern Conference regular season, were playing as well or better than any team in the country.   Getting the Gators back into their winning groove is the focus this week as they prepare for their first round NCAA matchup with the winner of Wednesday’s play-in game in Dayton between Lehigh (18-16) and Prairie View A&M (18-17) Friday night in Tampa (9:25 p.m., TNT). Game one should be nothing more than a glorified scrimmage for the Gators, who will face the winner of the 8-9 game between Clemson (24-10) and Iowa (21-12) Sunday in the second round.   “Obviously we play either Prairie View or Lehigh on Friday,” Todd Golden said Monday. “We're going to be heavy favorites in that game. There's no way around it. I think they're 284 and 288 on kenpom or something like that. That's a game that we expect to win, regardless of who we play.”   The better test for the Gators will be the Clemson-Iowa winner. The Gators like to play the game at breakneck speed but that’s not the pace that either Clemson or Iowa prefer. They milk the shot clock, shoot the three reasonably well and prefer playing games in the 70s. Florida, on the other hand, has scored 90 or more points 10 times since the Gators got their first SEC win over Georgia.   Two things have to happen for the Gators to dictate a faster pace: (1) Significant reduction in turnovers; and (2) take the physical battle to whoever they play.   In Nashville, the Gators turned the ball over 18 times in their 71-63 win over Kentucky. Against Vanderbilt, nine first half Florida turnovers were converted into 20 points, which had everything to do with a 47-32 halftime deficit.   “There's not a worse recipe for success against Vanderbilt than doing that,” Golden said. “We'll address it, and I feel confident that we'll get it right for this week.”   Both Kentucky and Vanderbilt employed a no body bag, no foul approach in Nashville. Any time the ball went inside, they surrounded whoever had the ball for the Gators and did what amounts to a mugging. Sometimes fouls were called. Too often they were not.   Now, in both games, the Gators were the dominant rebounding team but because of the physicality in the paint, point production was off.   “We got back 46 percent of our misses against Kentucky and then 57 percent of our misses against Vanderbilt,” Golden pointed out, later admitting, “I think teams did a good job being physical with us … we want to bring the fight to everybody physically. We do that more often than not. We talk a lot to our team about being the mentally and physically tougher team. We might have been that on Friday, but we weren't that on Saturday.”   Resolve those issues in practice this week and perhaps the Gators will get back to where they were when the good times were rolling in January and February.   “We had been playing like the number two team in America since January 7 th ,” Golden said. “So we know what we're capable of. We know what that looks like. We just got to go back out and do it.”   Associated Press top 25: 1. Duke 32-2; 2. Arizona 32-2; 3. Michigan 31-3; 4. FLORIDA 26-7; 5. Houston 28-6; 6. Iowa State 27-7; 7. UConn 29-5; 8. Purdue 27-8; 9. Virginia 29-5; 10. St. John’s 28-6; 11. Michigan State 25-7; 12. Gonzaga 30-3; 13. Illinois 24-8; 14. Arkansas 26-8; 15. Nebraska 26-6; 16. Vanderbilt 26-8; 17. Kansas 23-10; 18. Alabama 23-9; 19. Wisconsin 24-10; 20. Texas Tech 22-10; 21. North Carolina 24-8; 22. Saint Mary’s 27-5; 23. (Tie) Tennessee 22-11; Louisville 23-10; 25. Miami 25-7   Coaches top 25: 1. Duke 32-2; 2. Arizona 32-2; 3. Michigan 31-3; 4. FLORIDA 26-7; 5. Houston 28-6; 6. Iowa State 27-7; 7. UConn 29-5; 8. Virginia 29-5; 9. St. John’s 28-6; 10. Gonzaga 30-3; 11. Michigan State 25-7; 12. Illinois 24-8; 13. Purdue 27-8; 14. Nebraska 26-6; 15. Arkansas 26-8; 16. Vanderbilt 26-8; 17. Kansas 23-10; 18. Alabama 23-9; 19. Texas Tech 22-10; 20 Wisconsin 24-10; 21. North Carolina 24-8; 22. Saint Mary’s 27-5; 23. Miami 25-8; 24. Louisville 23-10; 25. Tennessee 22-11   SEC FIRST WEEKEND   FLORIDA (1 South/4 Overall No. 1 seed) First round: vs. 16 Prairie View/Lehigh Second round: vs. 8 Clemson vs. 9 Iowa winner   Florida (26-7) will probably win the first round game by at least 30-35 points. This will be carnage. Second round, Clemson (24-10) suffered a huge loss when second leading scorer Carter Welling (10.2 points, 5.4 rebounds) suffered a torn ACL. Iowa (21-12) has two outstanding shooting guards in Bennett Stirtz (20 points, 37.5 percent on threes) and Tavion Banks (10.5 points, 47.2 percent on threes). Iowa is a 2.5-point favorite in a low possession, low scoring matchup.   Prediction: After the first game tuneup, there will be a significant step up in competition. Clemson and Iowa are good teams but neither one has the size or inside power of the Gators. As long as the Gators defend the perimeter, they advance to the Sweet 16.   ALABAMA (4 Midwest) First round: vs. 13 Hofstra Second round: vs. 5 Texas Tech-12 Akron winner   When Alabama (23-9) goes into a shooter’s coma, the Crimson Tide can cover up its deficiencies in the paint and on defense. The question as of Monday is how will Nate Oats compensate for the loss of second leading scorer Aden Holloway (16.8 points, 43.8 percent 3-pointers)? Even without Holloway Bama should outrun Hofstra with its 4-guard offense, but the second round game against the Texas Tech (22-10)-Akron (29-5) winner could be problematic. Both those teams shoot and rebound well.   Prediction: Even if Alabama gets to the Sweet 16, Michigan (31-3) will be waiting.   ARKANSAS (4 West) First round: vs. 13 Hawaii Second round: vs. 5 Wisconsin-12 High Point winner   Arkansas (26-8) went 3-0 in Nashville to claim the SEC Tournament. So much attention is given to freshman Darius Acuff Jr. (22.9 points, 6.5 assists) but the guy who makes the Razorbacks go is Billy Richmond III, their version of the Swiss Army Knife. When Arkansas is making threes it’s capable of beating anyone. Injuries have forced John Calipari to get by with a 7-man rotation. That won’t be a problem in the first round with Hawaii (24-8). The Razorbacks have the firepower to overwhelm Wisconsin (24-10)-High Point (30-4) winning in the second round.   Prediction: On to the Sweet 16 where the likely opponent will be Arizona (32-2).   VANDERBILT (5 South) First round: vs. 12 McNeese State Second round: vs. 4 Nebraska-12 Troy winner   Now that Duke Miles is back and healthy, Vanderbilt (26-8) is playing at a very high level. First round opponent McNeese State (28-5) can make the Commodores work for a win, but if Nebraska (26-6) is the second round opponent, Vandy will have to have a night when all its shooters show up and go into one of those can’t miss comas when everything goes bottom of the net.   Prediction: Two-and-through. As much as Vandy wants a Sweet 16 matchup with Florida, Nebraska will be too much of an inside presence, plus the Cornhuskers don’t turn the ball over.   TENNESSEE (6 Midwest) First round: vs. 11 Miami (OH)/SMU winner Second round: vs. 3 Virginia-14 Wright State winner   The Vols (22-11) should get a first round win over the winner of Miami (31-1) or SMU (20-13). If Rick Barnes can convince his troops to play the kind of defense that is his trademark, the Vols are certainly capable of knocking off Virginia (29-5) to set up a Sweet 16 with Iowa State (27-7). The Vols will go as far as freshman Nate Ament (18 points, 6.6 rebounds) will carry them.   Prediction: Sweet 16 with a chance to make the Elite Eight if Felix Okpara plays lights out in the middle.   KENTUCKY (7 Midwest) First round: vs. 10 Santa Clara Second round: vs. 2 Iowa State-15 Tennessee State winner   Kentucky (21-13) got a potentially troublesome first round matchup with Santa Clara (26-8) of the West Coast Conference. The Broncos can match Kentucky’s size and in Christian Hammond, they have one of the better 3-point shooters in the tournament. If the Wildcats get past Santa Clara, Iowa State and matchup nightmare Milan Momcilovic (17.1 points, 49.6 percent on threes) await. Kentucky is capable of winning both these games, but it’s been a roller coaster of a season and you don’t know which Kentucky team will show up.   Prediction: Two-and-through. The Wildcats will eke by Santa Clara and will be sent packing by Iowa State.   GEORGIA (8 Midwest) First round: vs. 9 St. Louis Second round: vs. 1 Michigan-16 UMBC/Howard  winner   If you’re looking for a first round track meet, then this is your game. Georgia (22-10) is fifth nationally in scoring (89.8 per game) and Saint Louis (28-5) is tenth (87.2). The Billikens can score and they’re one of the best passing teams in the country. Georgia’s key to success will be keeping center Somto Cyril out of foul trouble. If he blocks shots and rebounds, Georgia can win. Second round? Georgia and Michigan share a common opponent – Auburn. Georgia beat Auburn by four in overtime. Michigan beat Auburn by 40.   Prediction: Two-and-through. Georgia wins one, then gets its doors blown off by Michigan.   TEXAS A&M (10 South) First round: vs. 7 Saint Mary’s Second round: vs. 2 Iowa State-15 Tennessee State winner   The Aggies (21-11) play what head coach Bucky McMillan calls mother-in-law defense, which is to say they full court press and try to be annoying. The only problem is if they can’t turn opponents over and have to play in the half court they’re vulnerable. First round opponent Saint Mary’s (27-5) rarely turns it over, shoots the 3-pointer well, and has a huge front line that rebounds and controls the paint. Should the Aggies get by Saint Mary’s and its stud power forward Paulius Marauskas (18.8 points, 7.7) rebounds, Iowa State (27-7) lurks. Bad draw for Bucky Ball.   Prediction: One-and-done.   MISSOURI (10 West) First round: vs. 7 Miami Second round: vs. 2 Purdue-15 Queens winner   Missouri (20-12) got blown out by Kansas, Illinois and Alabama. The Tigers’ win over Florida is more about what Florida didn’t do than what Mizzou did to win the game. The first round matchup with Miami (25-7) because Miami struggles against teams with size and that’s what Missouri has in abundance. But whether or not it’s a good first round, Big Ten champ Purdue (27-8) awaits.   Prediction: One-and-done likely but two-and-through just in case the Tigers score a first round surprise.   TEXAS (11 West) Tuesday play-in: vs. North Carolina State First round: (If Texas wins) vs. 6 BYU Second round: vs. 3 Gonzaga-14 Kennesaw State winner   Texas (18-14) barely got in the field and suffers the indignity of a first round game with North Carolina State (20-13). Fortunately for the Longhorns, who have lost three straight, North Carolina State was worse down the stretch losing six of its last eight. Get by the Wolfpack and BYU (23-11) and its stud freshman AJ Dybantsa stands in the way. The Longhorns won’t make it to Saturday and Gonzaga (30-3).   Prediction: A play-in win and a rapid exit.

Alex Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Tommy Haugh are key reasons why Florida could repeat as champs (Photo by Chris Spears) A year ago there was that embarrassing loss to Georgia in Athens when the Gators fell behind by as many as 25 points in the first half before roaring back to take the lead with 1:08 remaining in the game. Florida ran out of gas in the final minute and dropped an 88-83 decision to a team they had beaten by 30 points exactly one month earlier.   Back home in Gainesville, the Gators regrouped, re-focused and played with an agenda in winning their final three regular season games and all three games at the Southeastern Conference Tournament to earn the No. 4 overall seed for the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The Gators went 6-0 with four come-from-behind wins to capture the national championship.   So here we are a year later. The Gators are back home in Gainesville getting regrouped and re-focused after an embarrassing loss in the SEC Tournament, this one 91-74 at the hands of a Vanderbilt team they beat a few weeks ago in Memorial Gymnasium. The Vandy win preceded another embarrassing loss, this one to Auburn at the O-Dome back on January 24.   As they get their minds and bodies right for a potential 3-weekend, 6-game NCAA Tournament gauntlet, the Gators find themselves once again the overall No. 4 seed. A year ago, the three teams ahead of the Gators were 1. Auburn; 2. Duke; and 3. Houston. This year it’s 1. Duke; 2. Arizona; and 3. Michigan.   The Gators will begin their quest for a repeat national championship Friday night at Tampa’s Benchmark International Arena (9:25 p.m., TNT) as the top seed in the South Region. The No. 2 in the South is Houston, whom the Gators beat in last year’s NCAA championship game. The No. 5 seed in the South is Vanderbilt, which beat the Gators Saturday afternoon in the SEC Tournament semifinals.   There is a lot of familiarity here. If Yogi Berra were still alive he might take a look and say, “It’s déjà vu all over again.”   What could make this “déjà vu all over again” would be for the Gators to rebound from the Vanderbilt loss the same way they did last year when they went on a 12-game winning streak after losing to Georgia. After the loss to Georgia last year the winning streak included avenging wins over Missouri and Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, both of whom had beaten the Gators during the regular season.   When the Gators lost to Auburn back on January 24, it was a scorched earth run through the SEC regular season with a 12 th straight win in the SEC Tournament quarter-finals over Kentucky. The streak ended with the Vanderbilt loss. It is quite possible the Commodores will be standing in the way of Forida’s national championship ambitions if the two teams make it to the Sweet 16 game in Houston.  Another payback opportunity for Todd Golden. He's really been good whenever he's had a chance to avenge a loss.   The talking heads at the networks would love a Florida-Houston rematch in the Elite Eight. Imagine also the hype if the Gators reach the Final Four where those same talking heads are predicting Duke and Arizona will be waiting.   It sets up for a revenge tour for the Gators and don’t put it past Todd Golden to use the losses to those teams as motivation to become the only team other than UCLA to have a multi-championship repeat. UCLA went back-to-back in 1964 and 1965, then won seven straight from 1967-73. While the Gators are one of seven teams to win back-to-back titles (2006-07), only UCLA has multiple titles twice.   If it were to happen this year, it would take the Gators going on another scorched earth tear. They’ve done it before. Do they have it in them to go 6-0 over the next three weeks?   THE FOUR NCAA REGIONS AND THE SEC EAST 1. Duke (32-2); 2. UConn (29-5); 3. Michigan State (25-7); 4. Kansas (23-10) No SEC teams in the East SOUTH 1. FLORIDA (26-7); 2. Houston (28-6); 3. Illinois (24-8); 4. Nebraska (26-6) 5. Vanderbilt (26-8) 10. Texas A&M (21-11)   First round matchups Tampa: 1. Florida vs. 16. Prairie View (18-17)/Lehigh (18-16) winner (Friday) Oklahoma City: 5. Vanderbilt vs. 12. McNeese State (28-5) (Thursday); 7. Saint Mary’s (27-5) vs. 10. Texas A&M (Thursday)   WEST 1. Arizona (32-2); 2. Purdue (27-8); 3. Gonzaga (30-3); 4. Arkansas (26-8) 10. Missouri (20-12) 11. Texas (18-14)   Play-in matchup Dayton: 11. Texas vs. 11. North Carolina State (20-13)   First round matchups Portland: 4. Arkansas vs. 13. Hawaii (24-8) (Thursday); 6. BYU (23-11) vs. 11. Texas- 11. North Carolina State play-in winner (Thursday) St. Louis: 7. Miami FL (25-8) vs. 10. Missouri (Friday)   MIDWEST 1. Michigan (31-3); 2. Iowa State (27-7); 3. Virginia (29-5); 4. Alabama (23-9) 6. Tennessee (22-11) 7. Kentucky (21-13) 8. Georgia (22-10)   First round matchups Tampa: 4. Alabama vs. 13 Hofstra (24-10) (Friday) Philadelphia: 6. Tennessee vs. 11. Miami OH (31-1)/11. SMU (20-13) winner (Friday) St. Louis: 7. Kentucky vs. 10 Santa Clara (26-8) (Friday) Buffalo: 8. Georgia vs. 9. Saint Louis (28-5) (Friday)

Is another NCAA title run in the works for the Gators? (Photo by Chris Spears) NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Road tripping to the Southeastern Conference Basketball Tournament. Half the fun is getting here.   It was about 7:45 when I left the continental United States. The once-thriving outlet mall at Lake Park, Georgia is 95 percent empty. I know it’s empty because there used to be a Polo store there and my car didn’t automatically take a right turn to get off I-75. South Georgia still has numerous Stuckey’s. Back in the day before there was an interstate highway and the way north was on sometimes 4-lane highways that often went through small towns with speed limits of 17 or 22 miles per hour, we used to beg our parents to stop at Stuckey’s. If we still had Christmas or birthday cash from grandparents, we treated ourselves to their famous pecan logs. I wonder if Stuckey’s still has pecan logs or if it’s simply Stuckey’s in name only?   Heavy storms between Hahira and Warner Robins. Got a weather warning in my car and on my phone. Passing through Fort Valley, I’m reminded of one of my favorite Gators ever – Jaquez Green – and Dallas Cowboys Hall of Fame O-lineman Rayfield Wright. I’m also reminded of the infamous basketball game between Fort Valley State and Savannah State in the spring of 1973. Six or seven Fort Valley players fouled out, leaving just five to finish the game. When another one fouled out, SSU coach Mike Backus pulled a player to make it a 4-on-4 game. When the game ended mercifully, it was 3-on-3. Could have been 2-on-2, but the zebras let a couple of Fort Valley muggings go.   Buccee’s in Warner Robins. Brisket and a side order of the best beef jerky on the planet for breakfast but first time to recycle a 32-ounce travel cup’s worth of coffee. Just doing my part for the environment. Washing my hands, the attendant I notice is taking pride in his work. I thank him for his hard work and say “God bless.” He smiles, thanks me for the nice words and then we talk for three or four minutes. “Some people may laugh that I am a bathroom attendant, but I get paid twice what I made at Walmart and I get some overtime. Couldn’t get a job at the Air Force base because I didn’t have the connections. This place is a lifesaver. I can support my family with my paycheck and this place stays so busy that I know I’ll have a good paycheck.” I compliment him on the joy he takes in a job that a lot of folks consider beneath them. “Any job that you can work hard, give the folks an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay, is a good job. I don’t care what no one else says.” I leave Buccee’s with a tank full of gas, a brisket sandwich, Korean barbecue flavored beef jerky, a sugar free Dr. Pepper and a smile because the guy cleaning the bathroom took joy in his work.   Atlanta. Always tons of fun getting through particularly when the Emory Health ambulance bobs and weaves its way through traffic like it’s a Formula 1 race. He’s followed by a couple of police cars sirens blaring. These guys are real pros. No accidents. No fender benders. No slammed on brakes. Just a 25-minute excursion through the heart of Atlanta. I miss the days when the SEC Tournament and the NCAA (2007) were held at the Georgia Dome. In 2007 Joakim Noah nearly caused Verne Lundquist to have a major coronary with his dance moves after the Gators beat Arkansas to win the SEC. Three weeks later, it was all business as the Gators bushwhacked UCLA and then Ohio State for the title. I remember the Oh-Fours sitting on the podium as “One Shining Moment” played. Corey Brewer mouthed the words and teared up. A year later, the Oh-Fours and Lee Hump gone, the Gators were playing Alabama on Thursday night when a tornado ripped through Atlanta and ripped holes in the fiberglass dome. The bolt missed my head by inches. When Tim Casey and I departed an hour later we were astonished at the damage that had been done outside the stadium. Georgia beat Kentucky on Friday over at Georgia Tech, then the Poodles vanquished Mississippi State and Arkansas, both games played on Saturday. It was Dennis Felton’s finest hour, a good coach who made the mistake of coaching at Georgia which really had no commitment to good basketball.   Next stop Buccee’s in Dalton where the gas is 40 cents a gallon cheaper. It’s noon-time and buses full of high school and college kids heading to Florida for spring break unload. An already croweded Buccee's is standing room only . There must be 500 people inside getting food and shopping, another 200 waiting in line to get into the bathrooms and all 150 gas pumps have lines. This is WaWa on steroids.   Chattanooga. This is where the adventure begins. I get off I-75 for I-24 and that’s when Waze tells me there have been two accidents ahead. I’m re-routed. I see parts of Chattanooga I’ve never seen before and then with one right turn, I pass the entrance to Ruby Falls and Lookout Mountain. Haven’t been to those places since 1963. An hour since the detour I hit railroad tracks. The gate goes down and the lights blink. Everybody stops. Then the lights stop blinking and the gate goes up. Two cars make it across, then the lights and gate go to work again. I’m seventh in line. One car at a time from each direction . This reminds me of “The Karate Kid.” Wax on. Wax off. When it’s my turn finally I dash across. Prayerfully. The way Chattanooga is going, I think the train is finally going to come roaring through. Lucky for me, another false alarm. The road across the tracks may be the one they use to test the effect of potholes on cars. Then comes the line … at least 200 ahead of me before I take a right turn onto another 2-lane road that is 10 miles from I-24 … where they are cleaning up from another wreck. Ya-hoo.   The drive to Nashville. I catch the end of the Missouri-Kentucky game on Sirius XM. I’m actually happy that it’s going to be Kentucky. The thought of beating the Mildcats three times in one year goes beyond my fondest dreams. Auburn takes off like a Roman candle against Tennessee, but like a Roman candle it burns out. The Vols win. They were going to get into the NCAA anyway so I wanted Auburn to win so the SEC would get another school in the Big Dance.   Nashville. I get boxed in by a couple of semis and go a full exit beyond where I’m supposed to get off. Once I get off and try to turn around, I get cut off at the light by this guy in a huge pickup. He sticks his head out the window, gives me the finger. To paraphrase the immortal words of Dandy Don Meredith, “I’m still No. 1!” Somehow I don’t think he meant it quite that way. I’m just glad he didn’t hit my car.   Checking in. Twelve Germans are ahead of me. They try to convince the desk manager to break up the payment to three rooms so that each one pays 1/4 th of the room. He is from Bombay. He is not happy. He is less happy when they start talking to each other in German. “I speak German,” he says. “Your rooms are already guaranteed. One card for each room or else I just charge the card that guaranteed three reservations.” The fat German guy isn’t happy. The tall, skinny one, who apparently put his card up to guarantee starts cursing in German. I know this because the desk manager threatens to call the police on them. They pay but say they will never stay at this place again. The manager looks at me apologetically. “One room, one card,” I tell him. He gives me a discount. We talk about Bombay. I was there in 1986. A gazillion people give or take a billion or so. At least that’s what it seemed to me. He loves Nashville, says he has even taken a liking to country music. Good thing he does. I ask if he likes basketball. “Not as exciting as cricket,” he answers. “A smashing game of cricket?” I ask him. “You know it! Yes! Yes! So exciting.” I don’t argue.   Nashville Gator Club. I’m here to do a book signing at something called the Fogg Street Lawn Club. It is on Fogg Street but there is no lawn in sight. This is THE place for Euro soccer fans, or as my old business partner from Southampton used to call it, “Proper football.” Whatever. Nice place though with great people and huge TV screens showing the SEC Tournament, but one channel is devoted to Florida State and the Dookies. Marcelo, who is the prez of the Gator Club, was born in Cuba, raised in Miami, went to UF and now is a spy for the Gators behind enemy lines. Kendrick the lawyer is sitting with me talking basketball. Sumeet graduated from UF in finance in 2006. He’s from Sanford originally, lives among the heathens in Atlanta but remains in full grasp of his mental faculties. Also with us is Emily Pope, who’s getting her master’s at UF. Family in the ag business from Pahokee. She and her family are great friends of the Wedgworths, and she has great memories of my dear friend, the late, great Doug Wedgworth. Here’s what I’ll never forget about Dougie. If you needed anything all you had to do was ask and if he could he helped. What I also remember is that no one I know can ever recall a time when he asked something in return. Friends like that are hard to come by.   Dook trailed by eight, then led by eight and finally beat the Seminoles 80-79. Now as impressive as it might seem that Dook won without Caleb Holt and Patrick Ngongba, they’re going to have issues without the two of them. A really good team would have stuck it to the Dookies. No Holt means no effective point guard. No Ngongba and not enough size.  Georgia was down 20 and almost came back to beat Ole Miss. Too many missed free throws did the Poodles in. Meanwhile Ole Miss is playing like the Ole Miss everyone thought we’d see before the Rebels lost their will and their way during the season.   One game to go but I’m not sure I’ll last that long. Been awake too long, drove all the way from Florida through storms and accidents on the interstate. I’m fading fast. Gotta rest up. SEC semifinals tomorrow starting with the Gators and the Mildcats.   As I reminded this Kentucky fan as he was leaving, there are two kinds of college sports fans in the world – Gators and everyone else who wishes they could be one.