For Scottie Lewis, it wasn’t so much the message that was standing out but the messenger. “It’s not too many times Coach White steams,” explains Lewis. “He wants us to have our individual confidence and our confidence as a team but his coaching mindset is a ‘do your job’ mindset…so if Coach White kinda gets out of his comfort zone and says that we can do certain things that we’re not used to him saying, it’s kinda, it’s big time for us.” The space outside of the Florida Gators head coach’s comfort zone in this instance was openly discussing the NCAA Tournament with multiple regular season games still on the schedule. White discussed the tournament, at least in theory, with his team at the beginning of the season when they were ranked pre-season No. 6 and labeled a Final Four contender. He admitted then it wasn’t in his norm to do so but felt it necessary given the weight of expectations that his guys were openly acknowledging. But with four regular season games and at least one SEC Tournament game left and sitting at 17-9 (now 18-9 following Wednesday's win), he brought up the subject once again. “Our guys know the big picture. They know it. I told them yesterday, for probably the third or fourth time, our spectrum is we could potentially make a big run in the NCAA Tournament or we could potentially not go to the NCAA Tournament. That’s where we are. I think there are a bunch of teams like that. We’re promised five more. Who knows beyond that? This is the way I believe this team needs to play, so let’s get on the same page. Again, that’s what we can control, right now.” The message was received. “We control our destiny, and that’s like a luxury we have as a team. We can decide whether we want to maybe finish out in the NIT, not make a tournament, or make a run in the NCAA Tournament,” explains graduate senior Kerry Blackshear. Added freshman Tre Mann, “basically he was just letting us know that it’s on us to decide where we want to go in the tournament…it kind of woke us up a little bit. Like we’re right around the corner so we don’t have time to be taking chances and stuff.” After a stretch of losses in the middle of the season, this stocked roster looked poised to disappoint. Now they sit as a near guaranteed lock for the big dance and are floating around the nine to 10 seed according to ESPN Bracketology expert Joe Lunardi. While a higher seed is ideal, the point of course is simply to make the dance. From there, everyone must win. The Gators worked themselves off the bubble, winning six of their last eight with one of those losses coming at No. 10 Kentucky and affordable. Now they look towards the postseason as a team playing their best basketball at a time when you want to peak. “I’d say like last few games we been playing real good. Kentucky we did good,” notes forward Keyontae Johnson, referencing the last month and the 65-59 loss at Rupp Arena that was tied at halftime. “I feel like we playing more as a team than we was before, it’s just more ball movement and getting open shots and everybody shooting with confidence. “Everybody just coming in, we still have a lot of things we can work on on defense but we all buying in on the floor. Tre Mann playing good on defense and Ques [Glover] is coming in, being like helpful for us when we get out the game, they just keeping the lead up for us and just everybody doing their job and that’s what Coach’s been preaching this whole season and we’re all just finally buying into it.” Three things Johnson mentioned—the ball movement, open shots and defense—have been noticeably different the past month. Improvement in all three areas have helped the Gators evolve from a team liable to lose a double digit lead to a team that can jump out to a lead early and keep things relatively drama free. Even the tie in Lexington that then ended in a loss was never a meltdown so much as a punch for punch battle that ended in a home town flurry within the last minute. Take these examples. Early in the win versus LSU, the Gators were up 14-4. Kerry Blackshear Jr. took a shot that was blocked, sending the ball back out towards the court. As a LSU defender went to close his hands on the ball, Johnson jumped in to nab the rebound out of his hands. He quickly sent it back around the arc to Scottie Lewis. The freshman phenom took a jump forward as if to shoot. While in mid-air, he zipped an assist to Andrew Nembhard waiting in the corner. Nembhard’s 3 shot didn’t fall, but it was a good selection. What was taken from this play was the ball movement. When the season began, Florida would take shots early in the shot clock, forcing errant jumps that had little to no chance of landing. “My shots,” White and players called them. So coaches began preaching, make the extra pass. Keep the ball moving and find the best shot. Sometimes it’ll fall, sometimes it won’t, but the percentages are better when the opportunities are coming off of good selections as opposed to quick ones. Essentially, instead of forcing a bad shot in the first eight seconds simply to move fast, take the shot clock down to 0:08 and take a good shot. “It’s literally very, very simple things,” explains Lewis. “If two guys are on you, you pass the ball to the open guy. It’s those reads, valuing the ball. We would rather have a shot clock violation than to have teams be able take advantage off of turnovers. We had five turnovers [versus LSU] with a bunch of assists (17). Taking care of the ball, not allowing teams to run on us, staying together, making the right play and everyone is enjoying the process.” Ball movement begets open shots, like the rainbow from Noah Locke late in the 2nd half that gave the 3-point sniper his stroke back. Or it opens lanes that lead to a five dunk night—it was like Captain Kirk was on the court, Scottie Lewis was being beamed so high—and leads to a well graded day for Mike White’s squad. “We label them A’s, C’s and F’s,” explains White. “Ultimately when we take an F shot, it’s on me and we’ll correct them on film or in a timeout. But we got a bunch of A’s there in the second half [versus LSU]. Noah Locke’s last three, beautiful. We’re getting pressured and do you hold on to it, do you allow them to go jump ‘em again. Well he’s a catch and shoot guy for us. When he’s open we want him to shoot it, that’s always an A. I thought Andrew, he, he wasn’t pressing for early clock, ball screen 3’s without any movement. He got that thing moving for us and fought pressure and he gotta back late clock often for open 3’s and sometimes you get great shots too, you get A shots that don’t go in and you can’t control that all the time. “I don’t think [Scottie] took one [bad shot]…I remember a couple of F’s off the top of my head and he didn’t have one. When I watch film I’m sure we’ll as a staff find a couple more that weren’t very good. But for the most part our shot selection was as good as it’s been and the ball moved and it got back to other guys. We passed up some pretty good ones to get better ones. Played late clock a few times especially with the lead which showed some maturity, some growth and you know Scottie is an example of that. Noah’s gotten better with his shot selection. He took some steps backwards in Lexington. Andrew took only really good shots [verus LSU] I thought. We’re just best off, we’re not an isolation team, we’re not a ‘this guy can go get 20 let just continue to play off him.’ We’re a team that we have found out when the ball moves, when we share it, when we—again, when we strive to get our best shot, that’s when we’re at our best offensively.” When at their best offensively, the defense can withstand a 25-point night from Emmitt Williams due to holding the rest of the team to 41 points. The Tigers notched only four fast break points and never led at any point in the night. Coming in to the game, Will Wade’s group was second in the league, averaging 40.1 rebounds per game. The two came away tied on the night for 33 as Florida kept LSU off the glass where they typically abuse opponents. Now, they prepare for a final stretch and an offseason where they’ll look to do what so many in the pre-season thought was inevitable. Mike White still thinks this team is capable of a deep run. And he’s breaking his own rules and talking about it with them now. The message isn’t anything new, but the messenger is and that’s what Scottie Lewis feels is inspiring this team. “I think more so [him] saying that we have the capability and the pieces to win the tournament—the SEC and the NCAA Tournament. He knows that if we play at the highest level the way we know we can, there’s not too many teams that can beat us. “Coach White said it a couple times throughout the year, but [Wednesday] he made it clear- he knows that if we play at the level that we know we can play at and our staff knows we can play at, we can compete with anyone and we can beat anyone in college basketball. He made that clear today and that definitely gave us a lot of confidence hearing that from our head coach.”

Gators handcuff LSU with brilliant defensive effort That Florida would score 81 points on LSU Wednesday night at the O-Dome should come as no surprise to anyone. The Gators hung 82 on the Tigers in Baton Rouge a month ago so it’s fairly obvious they don’t find anything LSU does defensively perplexing. That the Gators (18-10, 10-5 SEC) were able to play defense with such intensity that LSU’s vaunted backcourt of Skylar Mays and Javonte Smart managed only 11 points, a full 18 below their combined average, spoke volumes. Stop Mays and Smart and LSU’s high-flying offense slows to a crawl. As in 66 points of crawl. “We needed that,” Florida coach Mike White said after the Gators manhandled the Tigers (19-9, 10-5 SEC, 81-66, and took a rather large step toward securing their fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen Skylar Mays struggle. He’s that good of a player.” Mays scored three points. He averages 16.4. He air-balled a three-pointer, bricked a dunk and missed two free throws. That’s how shaky he was against a Florida defensive effort that at times resembled an attacking school of piranhas. Smart wasn’t that much better. He managed eight and had only one assist. This was the second straight game the Gators have locked in defensively against a high level offensive team. Although they lost to Kentucky last Saturday at Rupp, the Wildcats managed only 65 points and for the most part shot very poorly. LSU went 6-23 from the three-point line, had eight turnovers that were turned into 14 Florida points and spent the better part of the game struggling to get off a decent shot. “I thought our guards were pretty locked in [defensively],” White said. “I thought Scottie Lewis was really good defensively.” Neither Mays nor Smart could drive on Lewis and up front, Keyontae Johnson and Kerry Blackshear Jr. kept the Tigers from getting second chance points (only seven for the entire game) and living at the foul line. “Tonight, I thought we made improvement with foul discipline especially against a team that’s so good at getting to the foul line,” White said. LSU managed only nine offensive rebounds and the Tigers shot only 12 free throws. Compare those numbers with what happened in Baton Rouge when LSU had 15 offensive rebounds and 31 free throws. On the offensive end, this was Johnson’s night. He scored 19 on the Tigers in Baton Rouge. He was even better Wednesday night when he scored 25 points to go with 11 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. Johnson hit 11-15 of his shots overall and was 2-3 on three-pointers. Lewis not only got the job done on the defensive end, but he was a superb 8-12 from the field, 2-3 from the three-point line and good for 18 points. He also had four assists and a blocked shot. Six of his 18 points came on spectacular alley-oop dunks. After a quiet first half in which he was 1-5 shooting and scored only three points, Andrew Nembhard came on strong in the second half to finish the game with 17 points, four assists and no turnovers. For the night, the Gators turned the ball over only five times. LSU got two points off the turnovers, a far cry from the 19 they got on UF miscues in Baton Rouge. The Gators shot 54.8% overall (34-62) and 42.9% (9-21) on three-pointers. With the win, the Gators moved into a two-way tie for third in the SEC with LSU, a game behind second place Auburn (24-4, 11-4 SEC), and they assured themselves of a winning record in conference play. UF is pretty close to being a lock for the NCAA Tournament but with two or possibly three more regular season wins in the final three games, they could earn as high as a seven seed when the selection committee announces the field two weeks from Sunday. SEC BASKETBALL Wednesday’s scores FLORIDA (18-10, 10-5 SEC) 81, LSU (19-9, 10-5 SEC) 66 South Carolina (17-11, 9-6 SEC) 94, Georgia (14-14, 4-11 SEC) 90, OT Arkansas (18-10, 6-9 SEC) 86, Tennessee (15-13, 7-8 SEC) 69 Missouri (14-14, 6-9 SEC) 61, Vanderbilt (9-19, 1-14 SEC) 52 Saturday’s games FLORIDA (18-10, 10-5 SEC) at Tennessee (15-13, 7-8 SEC), ESPN2 Texas A&M (14-13, 8-7 SEC) at LSU (19-9, 10-5 SEC), ESPN2 Vanderbilt (9-19, 1-14 SEC) at Ole Miss (13-15, 4-11 SEC), SEC Network Mississippi State (18-10, 9-6 SEC) at Missouri (14-14, 6-9 SEC), SEC Network #15 Auburn (24-4, 11-4 SEC) at #8 Kentucky (23-5, 13-2 SEC), CBS Arkansas (18-10, 6-9 SEC) at Georgia (14-14, 4-11 SEC), SEC Network South Carolina (17-11, 9-6 SEC) at Alabama (15-13, 7-8 SEC), SEC Network SOUNDING OFF ON A THURSDAY If you haven’t already, you need to read Dan Wolken’s scathing commentary in USA Today about the dilemma the NCAA faces if Kansas wins the national championship in basketball. Kansas is certainly good enough to win it all, largely because the Jayhawks are right there with Baylor as the best defensive team in the country and they couple that with two of the country’s best three players in point guard Devon Dotson and ginormous center Udoka Azubuike. That Kansas is capable of cutting down the nets in April is indisputable. What is in dispute is should the Jayhawks even have a chance to win it all given all we know from the college basketball corruption trials? To penalize the Jayhawks now, when all they’ve received is a Notice of Allegations, goes against the lengthy and tenuous process that allegedly metes out justice. There are procedures to follow and by NCAA rules, Kansas gets to dispute the allegations and then there is time set aside for both the NCAA and Kansas to figure out its trial strategy. Once that’s done, then a trial before the Committee on Infractions is set and after that, the committee gets to deliberate on just how much punishment it’s willing to deal out. If you have followed the NCAA then you know fully well that a blueblood program can be guilty as hell only to receive a slap on the wrist. If you don’t believe that then check out what happened to North Carolina basketball when the NCAA had the Tar Heels dead to rights in the most extensive academic fraud scandal in history. Roy Williams and UNC men’s basketball got an excuse me, so sorry to trouble you from the NCAA while the women’s basketball got the book thrown at them. Since Kansas, like North Carolina, is a blueblood, the NCAA has a real dilemma on its hands, only this one is far worse since the evidence used to bring about the Notice of Allegations was collected largely from evidence gathered and presented in a federal court trial. How do you dispute evidence gathered on a legal wiretap? And does the NCAA really and truly want to drop the hammer on a basketball program whose roots date back to James Naismith and whose prominent branches on the coaching tree include Phog Allen, Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith? The hard reality is the NCAA really doesn’t have much choice but it can’t speed up its own procedures. Kansas won’t see the inside of an NCAA courtroom until late summer at the earliest and then once the Committee on Infractions hands out a sentence, Kansas can appeal. Meanwhile, Kansas can win the national championship this year and be well on the way toward another one next year. GOOD QUOTES FOR THURSDAY From Tom Van Haaren of ESPN, Nick Saban on the proposed one-time transfer rule that the NCAA is likely to approve starting with the 2020-21 academic year: “I don’t know how you manage a roster when this goes into effect. I can’t manage our roster now. Last year, we had eight seniors on our team. We had seven guys go out for the draft and three graduate transfers or guys that ended up transferring. So instead of having 18 seniors, you’ve got eight. You really have a three-year program at a place like this. I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to hurt our program because we’ll do a hell of a job recruiting players leaving other places to come here. But is that good for college football?” From Stewart Mandel of The Athletic on why it’s highly unlikely Chip Kelly will get fired any time soon by the powers that be at UCLA: “… UCLA’s athletic department is in rough, rough shape right now. Per Jon Wilner, it accrued an $18.9 million deficit last year, might approach that again this year, and it’s due in large part to the buyouts it has to pay to fired coaches Jim Mora ($12.5 million) and Steve Alford ($3.9 million). The school really needs Kelly to kick things into gear in 2020, because it really, really can’t afford to go through another coaching change. Kelly would be owed $9 million, plus payouts to his assistants. And to get someone good, they would likely have to pay the next guy even more than the $3.5 million-a-year Kelly signed on for in 2017.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: The NCAA gave former Penn basketball coach Jerome Allen a 15-year show-cause penalty on Wednesday for accepting $250,000 from a dad to help train, recruit and ensure the kid gets into an Ivy League school. The school was given two-year’s probation and a $5,000 fine. On paper it looks like the NCAA socked it to Allen and the University of Pennsylvania. In reality, Allen is still coaching (he’s an NBA assistant) and Penn doesn’t give out basketball scholarships. As they say in Texas, all hat and no cattle … At the NFL Combine, Florida’s Jonathan Greenard measured 6-3-3/8, 263 pounds with an 81-2/8 wingspan. Jabari Zuniga measured 6-3-3/8, 264 pounds with a 79-inch wingspan.

Every year Nick Savage welcomes his team to a session born from love, at least in theory. In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, he hangs paper hearts and decorations, adds loving touches to the gym—“all Valentine's. Hearts, banners, Cupid, everything. Custom shirts”—and then proceeds to put his roster through the most intense day they experience in the sport. The Strength and Conditioning Coach for Florida Gators Football has created a legendary Valentine’s Day workout, adapted from a program builder under former Florida S&C coach (and Savage mentor) Micky Marotti. “It's just typical, simple movements that we do in the weight room in terms of exercises,” explained Savage back when first arriving in 2018. “But it's intense. We try to change the environment up in terms of decorations and all that. A lot of that is just to shock the system in terms of different atmosphere. We approach it as an away game. You never know what you're walking into. Our main goal is to program that brain, no matter what's in front of us, we're going to go attack…that is the most challenging workout." Players dread it, coaches warn about it and the lessons learned can reverberate the rest of the season. And this year, for the first time since head coach Dan Mullen and staff arrived, it came and went with little fanfare. Back in 2018, two months after Mullen took over the program, the Gators team was introduced to Savage’s infamous offseason tone setter. The moans and groans from players practically reverberated around Gainesville. It was a rude awakening to how far behind the former administrations strength program had been and just how far that team had to go to improve. “I want them to be uncomfortable,” continued Savage. “They need to learn how to be uncomfortable, because at some point in the game, in the offseason, whatever it may be, someone's going to be uncomfortable. So my job is to make sure they understand what being uncomfortable is about." In 2019, players, with a better understanding of what to expect, were able to explain the stations but more importantly, their impact through the season. “Valentine's (Day) it was something,” commented former middle linebacker David Reese II at the time. “Everybody across the country probably hears about it, but I feel like we out-worked every team that day. Quite a few of our workouts we probably out-worked a lot of teams around the country, but I don't know. He just cranked up the intensity. The expectations are more. We threw more weight on the bar. But naturally, as a team, we got stronger like we're supposed to." Added Savage, “the biggest thing is we were able to push harder and turn percentages, reps, schemes, all those things. We were able to do a lot more in terms of our foundation and programming on my part where we were able to push a little harder than last year. Last year it took us a while to build into the true workouts, this year from the get go we were able to put the gas pedal down.” Now, here in 2020, the Valentine’s Day workout was marked with little more than a few social media posts. And that is one of the greatest indicators of where the Florida Gators program now stands. Doing the most is now the minimum. A hard workout pushing guys boundaries is no longer a shock, it’s expected. The offseason is more difficult than the games and the standard won’t be lowered. After two seasons in a row with Top 10 finishes, expectations are greater than ever. And the Florida Gators are preparing to meet them; perhaps even surpass. This team—this program—has learned what it takes to win and taking the steps to achieve that success is no longer newsworthy. It simply is what must happen. Nick Savage knows that. “Guys don’t know really what’s inside of them until they hit that wall. And it’s all a belief and it goes back to that mindset. No matter what’s in front of you, who’s in front of you, where we’re at, we’re gonna go attack and we’re gonna go win.”

By BUDDY MARTIN Today I beg your indulgences in taking a beat away from Florida Gator sports and digging out some inspiration from the E-Mail Box. Not really a ”beat“ in absentia, but just a collaboration with myself, because to me it’s all connected. This is about my passion, journalism, and what is probably the biggest night in my 50-something-year newspaper/radio/tv career. So apologies for the reminiscence. It’s like my accountant said the other day about a billing question, whether to have the check made out to Buddy Martin, Buddy Martin Media LLC or Buddy Martin Media. “You are one in the same,” she said. Journalism connects the dots to my editing and writing, which is what I do for GatorBaitMedia.com. But more on that in a moment. First I want to share two missives from readers that were both informational and encouraging, if not downright inspirational. In a day when the printed word is almost on the endangered species list and we are fighting an uphill battle to both save this publication and to prosper it someday, these kinds of letters are like a long pull on a cold bottle of water when you’ve been baking in the sun. First, this one from one of our original members in response to my email asking that readers please check us out on occasion and comment to me at GatorBaitEditor@gmail.com: “Buddy, I am a charter subscriber and love it. As long as you’re publishing I’m in. Keep up the excellent work!” Lee Wedekind, Jacksonville Thanks for your loyalty Lee. Then these words came from a friend/acquaintance in Ocala who had no idea how to purchase the magazine/website/broadcast (GatorBaitMedia.com/subscribe). Yes it was good connecting with you again. You are in a damned good group of writers and reporters. You, and Franz Beard, are the most talented writers on the public circuit today. Wow!! How you two can raise dead spirits with your written expressions and printed feelings! Best respect, Lester Goodness, what praise! How much we appreciated those comments! Even if undeserved. Another friend wrote on my Facebook page about the 40-year anniversary of “Miracle on Ice” and a story I had co-written on the night that the young upstart Americans upset the Russians in the Winter Olympic semi-finals played in Lake Placid, N.Y. I had simply reflected on a few thoughts about that night, Feb 22, 1980. My team of New York Daily News writers and photographer happened upon this remarkable story. Almost accidently we crashed the scene, in an old fashioned “Hello sweetheart, give me rewrite” manner, previously unassigned but managing to bat out a few hundred words before newspaper deadline. Former Boulder Camera journalist Ed Werder, now a key member of ESPN’s NFL coverage, asked me on Facebook: “What was your lead?” I drew a blank. For the life of me I could not remember. There was no Internet back then and there is almost no record of the archives. Ed wrote … Buddy Martin: Amazing that Miracle on Ice became an epic moment in sports history, arguably the greatest of our lifetime all things considered, and was not even carried live in the US but viewed on tape-delay. A fantastic personal backstory you’ve shared with us. Appreciate that. Pretty remarkable and resourceful. Ed Gee, I thought, never having considered that it was worth sharing, maybe I should write that remembrance in a blog!? Now I was committed to finding a copy of my story, so for two days I pored over the Internet files to no avail. Nada, zip. And then BOOM, suddenly out of the innards of Google game came this link: Lake Placid erupts with patriotic fever over hockey upset. Page 3, New York Daily News, Feb. 23, 1980. “Tonight’s a night we can all be proud to be Americans…” There’s something instinctive about a good journalist when they smell a big story. Bill Madden, on his way to becoming a Hall of Fame baseball writer and author, was busily pounding out a Sunday feature story and I was editing and moving advance Sunday copy from our condo in downtown Lake Placid, which headquartered eight of us from the Daily News. (Side nite: I don’t hear from Bill often but on the 22nd of February this year he texted me: “Shouldn’t we be having a Lake Placid Cocktail?” I had to refresh my memory about the mixture for our “Lake Placid Cocktail” concoction which we devised while working the Winter Olympics in sub-freezing weather. It was a late-night beverage heavily laced with alcohol for purposes of relaxation after a 12-hour workday, to bring warmth, real or imagined. Mostly liqueurs – Courvoisier, Creme de Cocoa, Benedictine & Brandy, Vodka and Triple sec. It went down easy but evolved harshly in the stomach. However the L.P.C. steered us through fatigue and the cold nights. Only Bill and I were at the condo that night and we had not yet imbibed a “Lake Placid Cocktail.” We both kept an eye on the network feed of the closed circuit cable telecast of USSR-USA, being played about three blocks up the icy hill. (Remember, it was not televised live, but rather taped and played the next day). I had in my possession a press row seat credential at the arena where Mike Lupica and Lawrie Mifflin of the Daily News were already stationed. I had told Madden if the score was close after the second period I would make the trek to the arena. We expected a blowout by the Russian juggernauts, given that the USSR team was full of NHL players and had shut down the U.S. team in an exhibition 10-3 just 13 days prior. But to her credit, Mifflin gave the Americans a puncher’s chance and stayed close to Herb Brooks and his kids all week. She and Lupica were hot on the trail of the young Americans. And photographer Anthony Casale snapped beautiful photos form ice side. Half our eight-person team devoted time to the story. Regrettably columnist Dick Young would leave a week early for spring training and forfeit his chance to cover the epic game. After 40 years it gets fuzzy. So I looked it up. It was competitive after two periods. The Soviets took a 3-2 lead in the third and it would have been higher but for the goal-saving acrobatics of goalie Jim Craig. As I watched on TV, I knew it was decision time a few minutes into the third, so I pulled on my snow suit and boots and began tromping up the steep, icy three-block slope to the Olympic Fieldhouse Arena. Only to arrive and ask myself, “what was I thinking?” I could barely get in the door, let alone to my press seat. I had heard a giant roar. The USA had tied the game 3-3. The clock ticked under eight minutes. According to the History Channel’s article, this had taken place: “Nearly nine minutes into the period, Johnson took advantage of a Soviet penalty and knocked home a wild shot by David Silk to tie the contest again at 3-3. About a minute and a half later, Mike Eruzione, whose last name means ‘eruption’ in Italian, picked up a loose puck in the Soviet zone and slammed it past goalie Vladimir Myshkin (backup to starter Vladislav Tradiak) with a 25-foot wrist shot. For the first time in the game, the Americans had the lead, and the crowd erupted in celebration.” Final minutes of the "Miracle on Ice" By now the only vantage point for me was on the side of the bleachers, hanging on to a metal railing where I peered over the heads of spectators while the young Americans also hung on for the next eight minutes to pull off what I still consider the greatest upset in American sports history. As the horn sounded I remember seeing one American player, Jack O’Callahan of Boston University, tap dancing on his skates in celebration. There was an unscheduled story to be written about the night and the town while Lupica and Mifflin pounded out their wordage on game coverage. But who, where, how and how fast could we do it? We had less than an hour until deadline. Remember: No cell phones and no email were in play here. This is where journalistic instinct takes over. Madden, a former veteran UPI wire service reporter, grabbed his notebook and headed up the icy hill. Young Paul LaRosa, a Daily News copy boy who had been drafted as our team driver (we were only allowed one vehicle for eight people), came to the arena and began talking to fans. In a small dark room adjacent to a makeshift press center, as I recall, I plugged in my Texas Instruments computer/typewriter and began typing the dateline: Lake Placid… And then prayed for the words to appear. By necessity And happenstance it became a textbook exercise in teamwork and collaboration. Fifteen minutes later, Madden appeared over my shoulder. He had just left the America Legion Club down the street and had a quote from a veteran with a handful of tiny flags. “Take this down,” he said, dictating as I typed. A few minutes later LaRosa showed up with a few anecdotes, including one from a Cuban expatriate, who upon the U.S. victory, ripped a gold Russian pin from his sweater and threw it on the ice in disdain of the Soviets. And this is what I typed: By BILL MADDEN, BUDDY MARTIN AND PAUL LAROSA “Lake Placid – Moments before Jack O’Callahan began the victory dance on the heels of his ice skates, legionnaire Henry James Miller began passing out flags to the 403 celebrants who had jammed their way into American Legion Post 326. ‘Go out in the streets and start waving them,’ he said. ‘Tonight is a night we can all be proud to be Americans.’” (I remember this as the first swallow of Winter in a patriotic surge for America, due mostly to the Russians’ invasion into Afghanistan (when the Afghans were on our side and the feelings of hostility that had risen toward the Soviets.) And then I typed: “It was 7:30 p.m. and the town of Lake Placid, which had been semi-muted by the failures of U.S. athletes, other than Eric Heiden, suddenly erupted. Almost as if were intended to be a 21-gun salute, fireworks boomed in the sky at nearby Mirror Lake, where the award ceremony was coinciding with one of the richest Olympic moments in this country’s heritage. “The people cried, waved Old Glory, shouted ‘We’re No. 1!’ and chanted ‘U.S.A’ ‘U.S.A’ ‘U.S.A’ over and over. Some had even prayed.” “’I got down on my knees this morning,’ said Miller, wiping away tears, “and I said, ‘dear God, lead our nation to regain its way of life that was established long ago when people gave up their lives for something they believed in.’ I cried then and I am crying here again tonight because our young team did something out there tonight no team or earth could have done. They brought life to the conscience of our nation.” The quotes just flowed through my fingers to the keyboard. These are the moments when writing becomes a trance. With Madden and LaRosa clearing out their notebooks, I pushed the “send” button and called the news desk to tell a man named “Joe” I was all in, and asked if there were any questions. I could tell by his tone that the news editor, an accomplished man who was savvy about the matters of journalistic evaluation, wasn’t really sold on making this the main story on page one. (There was really only one main headline.) In fairness there was no live TV. He could make the case that hockey was not exactly the national pastime. And clearly he wasn’t feeling the political implications of the story. The next morning I was disappointed to see that the USA’s upset was played below the main headline, although it was always standard procedure for such a story to be on page 3. Miffin’s game story was played appropriately on the back page, in sports prominence. But our main color story doesn’t lead the paper, maybe it was an inadvertent travesty of journalistic justice. Maybe The Miracle On Ice wasn’t that big a deal then, but today it reigns as one of the greatest sporting events in history, maybe even the greatest upset ever. And my biggest story in 50 years of journalism.

GATORS HAVE TO AVOID EMPTY POSSESSIONS VS. LSU Empty possessions. That’s what happens when you either turn the ball over or you throw up a prayer at the end of the shot clock. It’s what happened to the Gators (17-10, 9-5 SEC) last Saturday evening at Rupp Arena, a 65-59 loss to then 10th-ranked Kentucky. When the game got away from the Gators in the second half, it had everything to do with about a half dozen empty possessions that allowed Kentucky to take charge of the game. The turnovers hurt, but the thing that Mike White remembers – perhaps more than the turnovers – are the bad shots, or, as he called them Tuesday afternoon “my shot.” Leading up to the Kentucky game, it had been all about making the extra pass to find the open shooter. “We had a good four- or five-game stretch where we were really sharing it, really moving it,” White said. Getting back to moving the ball to create good, open shots has to be a priority tonight when LSU (19-8, 10-4 SEC) comes to the O-Dome (9 p.m., ESPN2) for a game that not only keeps both teams’ dwindling SEC hopes alive but will factor in NCAA Tournament seeding. Because LSU already owns an 84-82 win over the Gators in Baton Rouge last month, it’s probably more critical for the Gators to score a win since it would guarantee a winning SEC record. With 19 wins including 10 in league play already, LSU is pretty much assured of playing in the NCAA Tournament. The Gators have work to do. “We’ve got to do a better job against LSU moving the ball and taking the best shot they give us regardless of who that person is on our team, and we’ve got to be okay with that,” White said. It would help if the Gators played with the kind of defensive intensity they showed against Kentucky. With the exception of a few possessions when Kentucky scored in transition, the Gators played good enough defense to win the game. Kerry Blackshear Jr. and Keyontae Johnson were extraordinary on the defensive end against UK, limiting Nick Richards and E.J. Montgomery to a combined 15 points and eight rebounds while combining for 37 (19 for Johnson and 18 for Blackshear) points and 15 rebounds. The Gators need that kind of production from those two, plus they need a bounce-back game from Andrew Nembhard (4 points on 1-6 shooting) and Noah Locke (0 points on 0-7 shooting). It’s a winnable game but the Gators can’t have empty possessions and bad shots if they want to have a statement game that will read well on their NCAA resume. “Our guys know the big picture,” White said. “They know it. I told them yesterday, for probably the third or fourth time, our spectrum is we potentially make a big run in the NCAA Tournament or we could potentially not go to the NCAA Tournament. That’s where we are.” SEC BASKETBALL Tuesday’s scores #8 Kentucky (23-5, 13-2 SEC) 69, Texas A&M (14-13, 8-7 SEC) 60 #15 Auburn (24-4, 11-4 SEC) 67, Ole Miss (13-15, 4-11 SEC) 58 Mississippi State (18-10, 9-6 SEC) 80, Alabama (15-13, 7-8 SEC), 73 Wednesday’s games LSU (19-8, 10-4 SEC) at FLORIDA (17-10, 9-5 SEC), ESPN2 Georgia (14-13, 4-10 SEC) at South Carolina (16-11, 8-6 SEC), SEC Network Tennessee (15-12, 7-7 SEC) at Arkansas (17-10, 5-9 SEC), SEC Network Missouri (13-14, 5-9 SEC) at Vanderbilt (9-18, 1-13 SEC), ESPNU WEDNESDAY RAMBLING ABOUT THE SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE (1) After he said all the required nice things about the departed Scott Cochran, the war officially commenced for Nick Saban. Georgia fans may think they have succeeded at firing a shot across Saban’s bow, one that will take them to a promised land that has eluded them for 14,300 days, but the only thing Kirby Smart has done is to raise the temp in the Saban boiler by to China Syndrome levels. If you need proof then know that Saban wouldn’t allow Cochran to speak to the Alabama players after he told Saban he was leaving for Georgia. Cochran was shown the exit and basically told don’t let the door smack you in the butt on your way to the parking lot. Some might think it was a tad on the petty side for Saban to deny Cochran a chance to say good-bye to the Alabama players, particularly since Cochran has been such a big part of the Alabama program the last 13 years. But, in Nick-think Kirby Smart has declared war and you don’t make nice with people with whom you are fighting a war. So, now that Alabama and Georgia are in a war, the next move is totally up to Nick Saban. It will start by finding a strength and conditioning coach who he thinks can one-up Kirby. This guy has to be a fire-breather because that was what Cochran was. Three names that might fit the bill both for their work in the strength field and also because of their personalities are Matt Balis, formerly the S/C director at Mississippi State under Dan Mullen, now S/C at Notre Dame; Oklahoma S/C director Bennie Wylie and former Stanford S/C director Shannon Turley. Balis is from the Mickey Marotti strength and conditioning coaching tree. When Turley was at Stanford it was rare the Cardinal suffered debilitating ankle and knee injuries. Wylie’s linemen are typically as strong as you’ll find anywhere in college football. Money will not be an object. You can also bet the farm that September 19 has been circled on the calendar of every Alabama coach, staffer and player. That is when Georgia comes to Tuscaloosa. If you’re the type that wagers on such things, put your money on Nick Saban and Alabama. War has been declared. Nick Saban isn’t going to lose this one. (2) So why would Kirby Smart provoke Nick Saban by hiring the one guy who’s been with him at Alabama since day one? And, why would Kirby offer a guy who never played college football or who has held down an on-the-field coaching position the job of special teams coordinator? Kirby is banking on Cochran being a thorn in Saban’s side on the recruiting trail, figuring if he can lure one or two difference-maker types to Athens instead of Tuscaloosa that it could put the Poodles over the top. This is a gamble any way you look at it. First off, why put something as important as special teams in the hands of someone who’s never coached them? Secondly, Cochran’s never recruited off campus. Who’s to say he can do it now? (3) One of the larger sets of hands on any NFL quarterback belonged to Brett Favre, measuring 10-3/8th inches from pinky to thumb. Bigger hands would seem to mean fewer fumbles. Alas, Favre fumbled 166 times more than any NFL quarterback in history. This is only important because of the uproar over the hand size of Heisman Trophy QB Joe Burrow of LSU. Burrow’s hands might not be monstrous but they didn’t prevent him from completing 76.3% of his passes for 5,671 yards and 60 touchdowns. (4) If there is any justice in the voting for SEC basketball coach of the year it will go to Texas A&M’s Buzz Williams. The Aggies have the worst talent in the league and they’re 8-7 in SEC play. (5) As of Tuesday night, Joe Lunardi still had only four SEC teams making the NCAA Tournament. He’s got Kentucky as a four in the South, Auburn as a four in the Midwest, LSU as an eight in the West, and FLORIDA as a nine in the East. (6) There are 10 SEC teams ranked in the D1Baseball.com Top 25 poll: 1. FLORIDA; 2. Vanderbilt; 4. Georgia; 6. Arkansas; 8. Mississippi State; 11. LSU; 15. Ole Miss; 18. Texas A&M; 20. Auburn; and 24. Tennessee. (7) In the USA Today/NFCA Coaches softball poll there are nine ranked SEC teams: 4. LSU; 6. FLORIDA; 8. Alabama; 12. Kentucky; 14. Georgia; 16. South Carolina; 20. Tennessee; 21. Missouri; and 22. Arkansas. GOOD QUOTES FOR WEDNESDAY From Twitter, Heisman Trophy QB Joe Burrow went full sarcastic about the uproar regarding his hands, which measure 9 inches from pinky to thumb: “Considering retirement after I was informed the football will be dropping out of my tiny hands. Please keep me in your thoughts.” ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg and Tom VanHaaren on one of the biggest reasons why Florida State football has sunk to its current levels: “Since 2016, Florida State has allowed 152 sacks, tied for sixth-most in the FBS and more than all but two Power. 5 teams (Louisville and Syracuse). FSU ranks in the top 15 (really bottom 15) in sack fumbles (18), percentage of plays for zero or negative yards (36.2) and other key categories during the same span. Coaches say any improvement under (Mike) Norvell starts with the offensive line.” From Terez Paylor of Yahoo Sports, Jalen Hurts at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis on why he thinks he can play quarterback in the league and handle any offense thrown his way: “The reality is, I’ve had six different coaches in four years and all six coaches – whether it be position coach or [the offensive coordinator] – have had different approaches to how they’ve taught whatever it is they’re teaching, so that shows the ability to adjust. I’m able to adjust to any type of coaching style, offense or whatever we’re running, whether it’s a lot of play-action under center or taking shots from certain ways or running this a certain way or reading this a certain way. So the ability to adjust is there for me.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Ohio State has given Ryan Day a $1.5 million raise to $6 million and a three-year extension to his contract … Cattrell Wallace, a 3-star linebacker who signed with Arkansas back in December, has been arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old … Further proof of how wacky the college basketball season has been. Duke went down in double-overtime to ACC bottom feeder Wake Forest Gump Tuesday night. That puts Florida State in the driver’s seat to win the ACC regular season championship … The Oklahoma City Thunder knocked off the Chicago Bulls Tuesday night to move 14 games over .500. Since their 6-11 start, Billy Donovan has gotten his OKC team to go 30-11.

TOUGH ROAD LOSS AT RUPP SHOWS GATORS HAVE COME A LONG WAY Moral victories don’t get you into the NCAA Tournament but the way the Gators performed at Rupp Arena Saturday shows they’ve come a long, long way from the team that seemed to be looking for a compass to guide it a month ago. A month ago Florida (17-10, 9-5 SEC) was on such a roller coaster ride that the NIT seemed the only likely destination. Saturday, the Gators looked like a team that can win games in the NCAA Tournament the way they battled Kentucky (22-5, 12-2 SEC) to the bitter end. The Gators needed a couple of shots to fall and a couple of breaks to go their way Saturday but to win at Rupp you’ve got to make some shots and you have to manufacture enough of your own breaks to overcome Kentucky’s decided home court advantage. If Noah Locke (0-7 on three-pointers) and Andrew Nembhard (four points) had gotten even a fraction of their recent contributions, Florida wins this game. You can credit Kentucky’s perimeter defense for that. Maybe only Baylor and Kansas have better backcourt defenders than Kentucky’s Immanuel Quickley, Ashton Hagans and Tyrese Maxey. On the positive side, Keyontae Johnson (19 points, nine rebounds, two steals) and Kerry Blackshear Jr. (18 points, six rebounds, two assist, one block, one steal) were outstanding at both ends of the court. Johnson took on E.J. Montgomery (6-11) and Nate Sestina (6-9), holding them to a combined eight points and four rebounds. Blackshear smothered 7-0 Nick Richards, who was being touted as SEC Player of the Year, holding him to nine points and six rebounds. Another positive was the play of freshman Tre Mann, who logged 29 minutes while scoring 13 points, including 3-4 from the three-point line. If he can give the Gators points off the bench and continue his solid improvement on the defensive end, it bodes well for the Gators the rest of the way. The Gators still have some work to do starting Wednesday night when LSU comes to the O-Dome, but if they can win two games of their last four they’ll go into the SEC Tournament comfortably off the NCAA bubble. Right now, Joe Lunardi has the Gators as a nine seed in the South Region, facing Illinois in the first round with a return match with Baylor if the Gators get past the opening game. SEC BASKETBALL Saturday’s scores #10 Kentucky (22-5, 12-2 SEC) 65, Florida (17-10, 9-5 SEC) 59 #13 Auburn (23-4, 10-4 SEC) 73, Tennessee (15-12, 7-7 SEC) 66 Texas A&M (14-12, 8-6 SEC) 87, Mississippi State (17-10, 8-6 SEC) 75 Arkansas (17-10, 5-9 SEC) 78, Missouri (13-14, 7-7 SEC) 68 LSU (19-8, 10-4 SEC) 86, South Carolina (16-11, 8-6 SEC) 80 Georgia (14-13, 4-10 SEC) 80, Vanderbilt (9-17, 1-13 SEC) 78 Alabama (15-12, 7-7 SEC) 103, Ole Miss (13-14, 4-10 SEC) 78 Tuesday’s games #10 Kentucky (22-5, 12-2 SEC) at Texas A&M (14-12, 8-6 SEC), ESPN Ole Miss (13-14, 4-10 SEC) at #13 Auburn (23-4, 10-4 SEC), SEC Network Alabama (15-12, 7-7 SEC) at Mississippi State (17-10, 8-6 SEC), SEC Network Wednesday’s games LSU (19-8, 10-4 SEC) at FLORIDA (17-10, 9-5 SEC), ESPN2 Georgia (14-13, 4-10 SEC) at South Carolina (16-11, 8-6 SEC), SEC Network Tennessee (15-12, 7-7 SEC) at Arkansas (17-10, 5-9 SEC), SEC Network Missouri (13-14, 5-9 SEC) at Vanderbilt (9-17, 1-12 SEC), ESPNU BROOM TIME IN MIAMI; GATORS SWEEP TOP-RANKED MIAMI With their 5-3 Sunday win over to-ranked Miami, the 2nd-ranked Gators (8-0) have set the stage to take over the top spot in the D1baseball.com and Baseball America polls. In getting the three-game sweep over the Hurricanes, the Gators earned their sixth straight season series win over UM and their first sweep in Coral Gables since 2012. The Gators needed extra innings to win the Friday (2-1 in 11 innings) and Saturday (7-4 in 10) games. Sunday, they got some ninth inning insurance on a double by Jacob Young and a run-scoring single by freshman Josh Rivera to seal a 5-3 win. Rivera went 5-11 with a double, a homer and three RBI in the series. The Gators got solid starts from Tommy Mace (Friday) and Jack Leftwich (Saturday) and they probably found their Sunday starter in freshman Hunter Barco, who went 5-1/3 innings while giving up only one run and two hits Sunday to pick up his first collegiate win. Nick Pogue picked up the win in relief Friday while Ben Specht got the Saturday win. Freshman Ryan Carbarcus got the save Sunday with two hitless innings. Next up for the Gators is FAMU Tuesday night followed by a Wednesday date in DeLand against Stetson. SEC CHAMPS! GYMNASTICS AND MEN’S SWIMMING Led by all-around champ Trinity Thomas (9.9 on vault, bars and floor, 9.95 on beam), the 2nd-ranked Gators demolished 8th-ranked Alabama, 198.050-197.450 Friday night before a sellout crowd at the O-Dome to win the Southeastern Conference championship. The Gators go on the road Friday to face 10th-ranked Georgia. The men’s swimming team won its eighth straight SEC title and 41st in school history over the weekend behind Kieran Smith and Ryan Finke, who both set American records. Smith, the swimmer of the meet, broke the American 500 freestyle record by a full second and Finke took six seconds off the 1,650 (one mile) freestyle record. GATORS GO 4-1 IN WEST COAST SOFTBALL SWING Three of 7th-ranked Florida’s four wins at the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs, California were against ranked teams. The Gators beat #5 Arizona, #16 Arizona State and #25 Northwestern to go with a Sunday win over unranked Nebraska. The only loss was in extra innings to top-ranked UCLA. The Gators (16-2) are getting tremendous production out of the top three hitters in the order. Hannah Adams (.380, 2 HR, 10 RBI), Kendyl Lindamin (.392, 3 HR, 13 RBI) and Charla Echols (.463, 6 HR, 22 RBI) have been rock solid at the top of the order. If Jordan Roberts (.235, 4 HR, 20 RBI) ever starts making constant contact Florida’s offense could really take off. Natalie Lugo gave the Gators 17-1/3 innings over the weekend, picking up two wins and a save while striking out 22 to improve to 6-1 (1.40 ERA). Freshman Rylee Trlicek is 7-1 with a 1.58 ERA. The Gators return home to Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium next weekend to face 11th-ranked Louisiana-Lafayette. Other UF sports: The 22nd-ranked men’s golf team won the Gator Invitational by 18 strokes over Vanderbilt … The 10th-ranked women’s golf team won the Allstate Sugar Bowl Invitational by 16 shots …The 4th-ranked men’s tennis team went 2-1 at the ITA National Indoors, taking down 9th-ranked Columbia, losing to 5th-ranked North Carolina and coming back for a win over 6th-ranked Wake Forest … The 41st-ranked women’s tennis team improved to 3-2 with a win over Georgia State ... With their 83-80 win over 22nd-ranked Arkansas, the Florida women’s basketball team improved to 15-12, 8-6 in SEC play ... Florida’s 4th-ranked lacrosse team lost to 12th-ranked Loyola (MD), 17-6. A MEANDERING MONDAY MIND (1) Kansas athletic director Jeff Long has come up with an idea that really does need to be studied by the football playing schools in Division I. Instead of the current hard cap of 25 scholarships per year, which results in all sorts of manipulating as schools count back scholarships the year before with kids who early enroll, Long suggests some flexibility in the form of a 50 scholarships every two years limit. So, because of attrition (graduation, NFL draft, transfers, dismissals, etc.) a school that has only 50 players on scholarship, could sign as many as 35. That would leave a maximum of 15 available scholarships the next year. This makes a lot of sense for roster management. (2) All expectations are that the NCAA will pass some form of legislation to allow a one-time transfer without penalty of sitting out for athletes in all sports. While there is speculation that the new rule could go in effect for the 2020-21 calendar year it seems more likely the NCAA will not announce the rule change until January 2021. When the rule is put in place, I hope it will include a provision that the athlete has to have one full year of real academic progress without taking a single remedial course. For example, if an athlete took remedial courses as a freshman, he/she could not transfer until after a sophomore year that was all courses that make progress toward graduation. (3) After watching the war between Kansas and Baylor Saturday, I’m convinced those are the two best teams in all of college basketball. The difference-maker for Kansas is Udoka Azubuike who had 23 points and 19 rebounds against Baylor. There isn’t a big man in the country capable of defending him, especially when the Kansas guards are getting him the ball up around the rim. Based on what happened Saturday, here is how I would seed the top 16 teams for the NCAA Tournament: (ONES) Kansas, Baylor, Gonzaga, Dayton; (TWOS) Maryland, Florida State, San Diego State, Kentucky; (THREES) Villanova, Auburn, Louisville, Duke; (FOURS) Creighton, Penn State, Seton Hall, Oregon. (4) It has been 14,298 days since Georgia’s last national championship in football. It has been 7,721 days since Tennessee’s last national championship in football. GOOD QUOTES FOR MONDAY Andy Staples of The Athletic answering a question on why the Pac-12 Conference seems to be on a level below the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC: “As for the root cause, the answer is as simple as it is unsatisfying. The fan bases in the Pac-12 don’t care as much about football as the fan bases in the other four leagues do. Sure, the fan bases at USC, Oregon and Washington care deeply about football, but they don’t care as much as the fan bases at Alabama, Ohio State, Auburn, Michigan, LSU, Penn State, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee or Texas A&M. Meanwhile, the rest of the fan bases in Pac-12 care far less, and that creates a gap the league can’t bridge.” Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated on what’s in store for Kansas basketball beyond the end of this season when the Jayhawks could win the national championship: “After this season, things could get dicey for the Jayhawks. The FBI investigation of corruption in college basketball that the heckler [at Baylor, yelling “FBI Bill!” to Bill Self] alluded to made it very clear that Adidas bag man T.J. Gassnola paid to help at least two players – Bill Preston and Silvio De Sousa – become Jayhaws. That in turn led to an NCAA Notice of Allegations, which officially put Kansas on the trail toward a Committee on Infractions hearing sometime in 2020, with potential major sanctions looming against the program and Self. Kansas is vigorously contesting the NCAA Enforcement findings.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: The highest paid offensive line coach in the country is Georgia’s Matt Luke, who is making $900,000. Second highest is Will Friend at Tennessee, $805,000 ... Former Arkansas HBC Chad Morris, now the offensive coordinator at Auburn, will pick up $1,715,000 in buyout money from Arkansas to go with the $735,000 he’ll get from Auburn. His Arkansas buyout money will continue for the next four years … Karl Dorrell, who was once the head coach at UCLA (35-27 from 2003-07), has been hired as the head coach at Colorado. What this tells us is Colorado has done a Tennessee, interviewing and offering a whole bunch of people who said no before making a panic hire ... The NFL Players Association has delayed a vote on an owner-proposed collective bargaining agreement that would expand the regular season to 17 games and expand the playoffs to 14 teams … Watching Florida-Kentucky Saturday, I got the impression that Dick Vitale would like to bear John Calipari’s love child.

‘I came here as a boy. I left as a man.’ – Patrick Young BY FRANZ BEARD GATORBAIT SENIOR COLUMNIST It is what Billy Donovan didn’t do that convinced Patric Young the University of Florida was the right place for him to play basketball. A 5-star recruit and McDonald’s All-American out of Jacksonville Providence, Young was looking for a coach with real integrity. His search ended with Donovan. “You can’t believe some of the things people were offering me,” Young said Saturday night as players, coaches and support staff from the Donovan era at the University of Florida gathered to honor their former coach for whom the court at the O-Dome was being named. “I wasn’t for sale.” Young wasn’t for sale and Donovan wasn’t buying. That’s not to say promises weren’t made, but the promises had nothing to do with illegal payments or hooking him up with the right agents that would make him an instant millionaire many times over when he turned pro. Donovan simply told Young that if he became a Gator he would become a better basketball player and more importantly, a better man. That sealed the deal. “That’s what he promised me and he never broke his promises,” Young said. “When it was time for basketball, Coach was all about basketball and making sure we were working the right way, doing the right things. Right from the start he was pushing us to use each practice as a chance to get better. I know some coaches are all about basketball all the time – 24 hours a day, every day – but Coach invested the time to help me grow as a person. I came here as a boy. I left here as a man. He was more than a coach. He was a mentor, a friend … someone you could talk to about anything. When my four years here were up, I wanted to sign on for four more years.” Billy Donovan the coach is the cloth legends are made from. He was barely 30 years old when he came to Florida, not that far removed from his days as a Providence All-American where he earned the nickname “Billy the Kid” while leading the Friars to a most unlikely Final Four in 1987. After a short professional career and a few months getting his feet wet as a stockbroker, Donovan knew his heart was still in basketball. So he took a position as the last man on Rick Pitino’s coaching staff at Kentucky where he worked his way to the first seat next to Pitino on game day. After two years as the head coach at Marshall (35-20 record), Jeremy Foley came calling, offering the Florida job. Florida had a vacancy because Lon Kruger departed just two years removed from taking the Gators to their first ever Final Four in 1994. Two years after that enormous feat, Kruger was convinced he had captured lightning in a bottle for that one unexpected run to glory and that repeating it was next to impossible because there was no commitment to basketball at UF. With Kruger gone, Foley wasted no time in zeroing in on Donovan. He instantly saw greatness and potential. “When I met with him I loved his passion, his enthusiasm and his knowledge of the game,” Foley said. “He had incredible charisma. Came across as someone who could absolutely recruit. He had the ‘it’ factor.” To get Donovan to come to Florida meant Foley had to convince Pitino that he would give Donovan the resources he needed to succeed. That wasn’t easy, but Foley recognized what was possible with Donovan and convinced Pitino to give his blessings. The rest is history. A 467-186 record that makes him the second winningest coach in SEC history. Back-to-back national championships (2006-07), just the second time that’s been done since John Wooden’s UCLA dynasty. A national runner-up (2000) and a Final Four (2014). Four straight Elite Eight appearances (2011-14). Six SEC championships and four SEC Tournament championships. The on-the-court accomplishments turned “Billy the Kid” into “Billy the Legend,” but it was far more than the Xs and Os and the ability to adjust strategy on the fly that resonated with his players. Lots of coaches can do that, but only the really special ones can allow their players to grow without stifling their personalities. The Gators won national championships in 2006 and 2007 with the same starting five of Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey. Horford’s quiet, thoughtful demeanor disguised a China Syndrome burning desire to win. Noah had a suck-the-oxygen-out-of-the-room exterior demeanor but an inner desire to fit in and be a part of something greater than himself. Brewer, whose joy for simply playing the game was reflected by the perpetual smile on his face, was the only McDonald’s All-American of the bunch. Green was the point guard, the imp who knew how to push everyone’s buttons on and off the court. Humphrey was the country boy, the deadeye three-point bomber that grew up a stone’s throw from the Tennessee campus but who was never offered by the Vols. When the 2005-06 season began, expectations for the Gators were lower than they had been since Donovan’s second season when the Gators limped into the NIT. By the time the season was over, they were the Gator Boyz, the team that captured the imagination of the country due to the way they played for each other. They were the magnificent sum of five parts with a bench of ready and willing contributors who knew their roles and what was expected. Donovan’s greatness as a coach showed in how he could take an off-the-radar team to a national championship in 2006, then with a win it all or it’s a failure season squarely on their shoulders, repeat in 2007. Let’s put it in perspective. Mike Kryzyzewski has gone back-to-back only once (1990-91). Bobby Knight never did it. Dean Smith never did it. Adolph Rupp never did it. Bill Self never did it -- nor has John Calipari. And all of those coaches were at basketball schools with blueblood traditions. Billy Donovan did it at Florida, perceived as a football school. Horford offered some insight to why Donovan was so successful at Florida. “Coach Donovan knew how to treat each of us as an individual and get us to play as a team,” Horford, many times an NBA All-Star. “He gave us room to grow individually and I don’t think that’s easy. You could talk to him about anything and he listened to you. He always respected you no matter what you were going through. He made us want to do the right things and to play the right way.” Without a moment of hesitation, Horford added, “He’s the best coach I’ve ever seen.” After the two national championship teams, the Gators went through three years of transition. There were two trips to the NIT followed by a first round NCAA Tournament loss to BYU in Oklahoma City. That set the stage for four consecutive Elite Eights, the last one which resulted in a trip to the Final Four. There for the Oklahoma City loss and a last second missed shot away from a 2011 Final Four was Vern Macklin, a former McDonald’s All-American who transferred to UF after spending two uneventful years at Georgetown. He sat out the 2009 season due to NCAA transfer rules, then blossomed his final two seasons for the Gators. To Macklin, Donovan is the best basketball coach he ever played for, but more importantly, the mentor and friend he needed at a time when life wasn’t kind. “I came here from a coach who wouldn’t push me mentally or physically push me or make me a better man,” Macklin said. “It was so different with Coach Donovan. He loved his players and wanted the best for each of us. He learned who we were and found out what we needed. It was amazing. I went through a lot in my childhood and in high school, then Georgetown. Coach D saw that I was on an emotional roller coaster and he got me through it. I could talk to him. He understood. He helped me become a real man.” It wasn’t only the players who were impacted by Donovan. Fired as Clemson’s head coach and hurting deeply, Larry Shyatt wondered what was next when Donovan invited him to join the Florida coaching staff in 2004. Shyatt was in his 50s and coming to a program that was already successful, working for a younger coach who already had a lot of things figured out. Shyatt was eager to come to UF, but he wondered exactly how he would fit in. It didn’t take long to figure it out. “For a while it had been really tough because I had come up short in my attempt to be a successful head coach in the toughest basketball conference in the country,” Shyatt said. “Right off the bat, Billy let Pam (wife) and I know that we were welcome here, that we had a home. There are not many men in this profession that would allow someone older that had been around awhile to join such an already successful program.” Yes, Florida was an already successful program but Donovan wanted more and knew that to get the Gators to that next level some things had to change. Shyatt became his Minister of Defense, transforming the Gators by helping them find and unleash their inner piranha. It started with heels on the three-point line and forcing teams to take bad shots. Proof is in the two NCAA championship games. UCLA went 5-23 from the three-point line in 2006 and Ohio State went 4-23 in 2007. What impressed Shyatt about Donovan after those two championships was the demeanor never changed then and hasn’t changed in the years since. Donovan was Shyatt’s boss then and a friend who allowed a chance to heal. Shyatt sees that as a sign of true greatness. “Billy gave us a chance to heal and a chance to be a part of something great,” Shyatt said. “And when we had accomplished so much, he was still the same Billy Donovan. The greatest compliment we could give Billy Donovan is this: Power, money and ascension usually changes so many people yet for all the wonderful things that were accomplished and couldn’t have been accomplished without him, he did not change. He still treats people the same, with love and respect. It’s probably the highest compliment I could give him or any person.” That is the Billy Donovan that Bradley Beal remembers. Beal was the second highest ranked player nationally in the 2011 recruiting class. He was a one-and-done who could have gone someplace other than Florida to score 25-30 points a game (He averages 29 points per game in the NBA playing against the best players in the world; averaged 14.8 at UF). He came to Florida willing to sacrifice scoring to learn to be a better defender, passer and teammate. He got more than he asked for. “It wasn’t just basketball,” Beal said. “I knew coming to Florida he was a great basketball coach. He became a mentor, a listener … someone I could talk to. He never talked down at you. Not just me, everyone on the team. There aren’t a lot of coaches like that. I was only here for one year, but I am a Gator and will always be a Gator because of Coach Donovan. He cares about you. It’s never about him. He can let you be who you are and teach you how to be a part of a team.” As a senior, Young was the SEC Defensive Player of the Year while helping the Gators go through the SEC schedule 18-0. The Gators won the SEC Tournament and then got to the Final Four in Dallas before falling to UConn in the 2014 semifinals. During a Florida career in which he was a three-time winner of the SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year while helping the Gators to at least reach the Elite Eight all four years, Young never missed a game. As a professional, he’s had to fight his way through one injury after another. He’s had to deal with such adversity, but the four years playing for Donovan and the Gators prepared him to deal with whatever issues and circumstances life has dealt him. “Coach Donovan mentored me and took me from a boy to a man who could deal with anything,” Young said. “I loved playing basketball for him, but it was never just about basketball. There are a lot of basketball coaches. There is only one Coach Donovan. He is more than just a coach.”

It took the joyful return of the Master Builder, Billy Donovan. And the spirit of people like Augie Greiner. BY BUDDY MARTIN If you go in the WayBack Machine when basketball was only a mere shadow of itself, when the Florida Gators played in what was considered a pretty good facility called Florida Gym, a place unlike most which boasted among the first glass backboards, when the UF team had only a few scholarships and was coached by a member of the football staff, it would look and feel like the Dark Ages. Recruiting not being at all sophisticated, Gator players were a mixed bag from anywhere and everywhere. One such player was Augie Greiner from St. Louis, who first arrived at the Gainesville Airport in the early 1950s, sight unseen, got in a cab and promptly asked the driver: “Which way to the beach?” The driver pointed to the East and said, “Eighty miles that way.” Instead, they drove to the Florida campus, where Augie’s fascinating life – after a rather ordinary career as a player – would take root. Years later he would buy a condo at the Crescent Beach. As I watched the joyful celebration of Billy Donovan’s return Saturday night, I thought about Augie Greiner and how in his own way he helped shape the future of Gator basketball. You probably wonder how the dots are connected, but you’re going to be surprised how easily they did. In short, pound for pound, dollar for dollar, nobody was more generous with his time and effort in enthusiastically supporting Florida basketball than Augie Greiner. There were some people with more zeroes on their bank account, but none with a bigger heart. Augie was among the first to greet Donovan’s arrival in 1996, as he had done every coach since Norm Sloan. Augie and another former player, broadcaster Bill Koss, lent an immeasurable depth of support and loyalty to Donovan that almost cannot be calculated. It was their dream to see Gator hoops grow into a major force with a highly respected reputation, as opposed to basketball being just another sport at a “football school.” In short, gaining respect. I think we saw all that pride and respect walk back in that door again Saturday night. The naming of Billy Donovan Court was long overdue and the sheer delight and emotional connection with Gator fans felt transformative. It was more of a coronation than a celebration. Wisely, when Donovan arrived at UF to begin his 19-year reign, he immediately befriended the football coach. It was the year Steve Spurrier’s team would win the school’s first national football championship. Donovan embraced the football program instead of being in competition with it. And Spurrier reciprocated by supporting Donovan and even helping him in recruiting when prospects would come to visit campus. “We’re good friends and I admire everything he’s done,” said Spurrier, who reunited with Billy Saturday night with a hug. “He’s the winningest basketball coach in school history, so I guess we have a few things in common. It was really neat to see his name on the basketball court. And it will be there forever. “Billy forgot to say one thing,” Spurrier told me a couple of days later. “When I talked to him afterward, I said, ‘You forgot to say this was the greatest honor of your life.’” Having his name on the field across Gale Lemerand, Spurrier knew that. And Donovan agreed. “Somebody said, ‘Well, no bigger a deal than you winning the Heisman Trophy’,” recalled Spurrier. “Of course it is. They award the Heisman every year to somebody.” Donovan’s brief talk, of course, was centered on everybody else, suggesting that the names of his former assistant coaches and players should be on that floor as well. Billy Donovan is also a master of humility. In years to come, the solidarity between football and basketball relationships paid dividends to both programs. "Our legacies as coaches are not going to be about how many games or how many championships we won. Our legacies as coaches are always going to be measured by how our players talk about us,” Donovan said in addressing the crowd. When Spurrier left and Urban Meyer wound up as football coach, he and Donovan lived in the same upscale neighborhood in Southwest Gainesville – their houses about a half a football field apart and I nicknamed it “The Cul de Sac of Champions” in Meyer’s biography “Urban’s Way.” They became friends during that remarkable era of dominance: Four national titles in five years. Meyer said his 2006 national champions benefitted by observing Donovan’s 2005-2006 title team. “I still think a lot of our success of that whole ’06 (football) team was because we got to experience one of the greatest basketball teams ever to play the game — the most unselfish, probably, I’ve ever seen,” Meyer says. “I became a better coach watching that team. I bent Billy’s ear to death.” As we look in the rear-view mirror at such an incredible footprint of champions, we come to appreciate what a mammoth accomplishment we have witnessed at Florida during that era. That pride reverberated in the O-Dome Saturday night as Donovan went for a pre-game walkabout and hug-a-thon. One of proudest people on hand Saturday night was Jeremy Foley, who was primarily responsible for hiring Donovan and served as AD during Spurrier’s tenure (although he didn’t hire Steve). Very diplomatically, Donovan graciously thanked the current boss Scott Stricklin. But in context later he thanked Foley, calling him “the greatest athletic director” ever. I never saw Foley’s smile light up like that. Those fortunate enough to hear Donovan’s heartfelt talk before ESPN’s SEC channel cut him off were very touched and rejuvenated. But back to Augie and Billy. They became so close that they began an annual comedy routine as the prelude to the Ocala Gator Tip-Off Club. Like two young boys they pranked each other. This is how I described it in a column after Augie’s death in 2010: “Once he (Augie) sat in a chair while several hundred people watched Billy Donovan mousse his hair to match the ‘do that the Florida basketball coach was rocking back in those days. “Another time, over a decade ago, Donovan forced Augie Greiner to wear a dress because the founder of the Ocala Gator Tip-off Club didn’t have any female members in the group. “Year after year at the annual tip-off dinner, Donovan and Greiner made sport of each other, all in the name of good fun, all in the name of raising money for basketball scholarships. All in the name of the team and school they both loved so deeply and for which Augie played basketball in the 1950s. “They took turns being the foil. And they played it like two kids in a game of one-upmanship – with great fun and glee. I don’t know which of them enjoyed it the most. “When it was Augie’s turn, he dressed Donovan in a ‘Billy The Kid’ outfit. Another year, assistant head coach Larry Shyatt announced the appearance of a brand new recruit, ‘Gunner,’ and Greiner came out wearing a Gator uniform, dribbling a basketball with one hand and leaning on a cane (for real) with the other. “There was always a prank.” At those dinners, their bonding entertained several hundred Ocala people who became big Gator basketball fans, many of whom bid on items to support Gators scholarships and also became season-ticket holders. So Augie was on the minds of many. Billy and his family will never forget him. At the O-Dome Saturday night, Billy’s parents, Bill Sr. and Joan, ran into their good friend Susan Greiner, widow of Augie. “How do you think Augie would have liked tonight?” Bill Sr. asked her. “He would have been bursting with pride,” said Sue. I think that pretty much describes how most Gators felt.

As Scottie Lewis looked up and down the court and around the bench at those sitting next to him, something stood out, something he hadn’t seen in a while. “Everyone just looked like they were having fun cause everyone was playing their part and everyone was getting touches and we were getting stops and just the vibe around the team was really good.” The game was winding down in route to the Florida Gators defeating the Arkansas Razorbacks 73-59 to move to 17-9, 9-4 in the SEC. For a team that teetered on the precipice of .500 in the middle of an unsure season, the win and the record provided breathing room heading in to the last stretch of the season and tournament play. “When we, like a game when we had the lead down or we get in foul trouble, we’ll be moping around, not like just playing for fun, being tense, not shooting with confidence,” recalls forward Keyontae Johnson. “Then the Arkansas game we came out strong, like the first 15 minutes we came out hard and just everybody was hitting shots, everybody was into it, the bench was into it. I feel like it stated with the bench, whoever came off the bench, the sixth man or whoever, they came in with the energy and it just carried over to the whole game.” And for Scottie Lewis, that fun provided confidence for that stretch. “If we keep that up I think we’re gonna make a bigger stretch towards the end of the season.” The end of the Gators season though comes with numerous potential pitfalls and slip-ups. On Saturday, Florida will travel to Kentucky to take on the No. 10 Wildcats. They’ll then return home for a rematch against LSU before hitting the road to face Tennessee and Georgia. Then on March 7, UF and Kentucky will close out the regular season back in Gainesville. The SEC Tournament begins in Nashville on March 11. As the rankings currently stand, the Gators are in a three way tie for 2nd in the SEC along with Auburn and LSU. Florida split the games with those two teams. Kentucky, at 11-2, is in sole possession of 1st place. At this point though, that will largely only affect who gets a banner to hang in the rafters. Each team is projected to make the field for the NCAA Tournament with the Gators at a No. 9 seed according to bracket expert Joe Lunardi. So how do the Gators navigate this minefield? It begins in Lexington this weekend and it will have to be done in transition. If there was one thing Florida left the Arkansas game still concerned about, it was transition defense. It’s what head coach Mike White, Lewis and Johnson all pin-pointed as the key to the game and it’s what has received the bulk of their attention in preparation as Keyontae Johnson explains. “Recently Coach White has put like an ‘X’ down for the crash guys, where to crash at for this game. So like, he doesn’t want us to behind the defender, like the ball goes, he doesn’t want us to be behind the defender, so we can get back in transition, and then he gave certain guys who can crash and who not to. So I feel like people should buy into it and get back.” Adds Scottie Lewis, “[Kentucky’s] very up and down. Obviously transition [defense] is one of our focal points, one of our deficiencies around this time of the season and they’re really, really good at that. So the more we score and the more we can stop the ball earlier, the better chance we’ll have of winning the game. They wanna play full court; they have a lot of athletes in Nick Richards who runs the floor and Ashton Hagans who’s pushing the ball and obviously they’re historic for having wings who love to run. So if we can slow them down and force them to play in the half court, it puts us in a better position to win.” Arkansas scored 14 points against Florida Tuesday night off of fast breaks. Kentucky scored nine fast break points against LSU earlier this week. Barring a complete meltdown, the Gators have won enough games to be a near lock for the NCAA Tournament in March. On a young team stocked with talent, getting to this point has taken letting go of what Johnson called “my turn shots” and instead looking for the open man. “We’re just playing well as a team together. I feel like we’re learning each other more as the games go by.” As they’ve learned more of each other, so have we. Winning five of their last six is a direct result of the squad playing more cohesively which comes from figuring out each guy’s strengths and how they can be complemented as a teammate. Here’s what they’ve discovered. In the last nine minutes of the win against Arkansas, all but three moments (a layup and two rebounds) came courtesy of Andrew Nembhard and Keyontae Johnson. The two sophomores accounted for the points, rebounds, forced turnovers, steals; they did it all. At one point, Johnson shot a three from one corner, watched it rim out, got a screen from Nembhard and made it to the other side to grab his own rebound. “Coach, he been preaching motor and I just try to like use that, that play is for me is motor for him and it had Coach White smiling so I feel like he see that I’m out there trying to hustle for my team.” The play was a good snapshot but not out of the ordinary. As Johnson has become more and more comfortable behind the three point line (shooting 39%, behind only Noah Locke) teams have had to stretch out to cover the forward. From the four spot, Johnson has picked teams apart. On Tuesday, he took advantage of the empty lane and crashed in to draw 17 fouls, converting 15 times at the line. He’s leading the team averaging 16 points a game during the month of February and has three double-double’s in the last four games. “I think he gives us a lot of energy…it’s almost impossible to stop. He’s a really strong guard that can get to the rim. It’s hard to stop him,” notes guard Noah Locke. As the floor general, Nembhard has gotten a grasp on his team and serves as—what White describes—one of the best passers in the league. He is averaging 14.2 points a game this month and leads the team with an average of 5.5 assists per game and he’s gotten help all around the court. Kerry Blackshear got into foul trouble against Arkansas, something that Mike White has communicated can’t happen in order to beat Kentucky. But when “KJ” is on the court, he changes everything about the Gators. "If KJ can touch the ball every possession, the plus-minus of this team is going to be ridiculous,” says Lewis. “He's not someone who is caught up within himself, he knows he's our best player. He's one of our best playmakers, and when he touches the ball and he and Andrew are on the same page, it makes the rest of us look better. It makes the team look better, and our connectivity from the outside looking in and the inside looking out is on point." With the regular season entering it’s last grind and then tournament play on the horizon, Blackshear’s last season experience from Virginia Tech will make him even more valuable. Says White, “We’ll rely upon him heavily on the court, off the court, moving forward as we have all season as well as these sophomores. These are the four guys that for the most part are the models, who have that type of experience.” Blackshear—along with freshman Omar Payne—has been vital under the basket. But it’s the sharp shooter from outside that has helped turn the tide of Florida’s season during the month of February. He’s averaging 13.8 points per game this calendar month and is shooting 55% from beyond the arc during that time. His 53% from 3-point land during league play is 3rd overall nationally. Guarding him is a tall task. Just ask the teams best defender, Scottie Lewis. “I think it’s hard to guard Noah now just because the way we move the ball and his ability to search and kind of find the open spot on the floor and kind of hide in a way — which is still surprising to me people are leaving him open as much as he is. He does such a good job doing that, he’s always in the right spot to score so if I was going to guard him I’d probably stay attached to him and stick to our principles. “He knows when the defender is guarding him, if he’s turning his head and ball watching, stuff like that, kinda moving or if Andrew or myself or Keyontae drives, he’s searching for the open spot, making sure the defender is kinda baiting, kinda pick your poison; 'he’s either gonna let Andrew or Keyontae to the basket or give me an open 3,’ so he’s really good at reading that.” And then there’s Scottie himself. Mike White has seen Lewis boldly take on responsibilities as a leader in practice and games, often coaching from the bench or gathering teammates during timeouts. “Scottie Lewis has picked it up in terms of leading by example and communicating at a high level in the last month. Part of the reason that he’s playing better. I think he’s in a good place.” The outspoken and confident freshman who worked his way into the starting lineup has held himself to a higher defensive standard all year and it’s paying off; he leads Florida in steals (31) and blocked shots (33). It’s why he has the leeway to preview his matchup with Kentucky’s Tyrese Maxey (13.9 ppg) by saying, “my 7’1” wing span. That’s how I guard Tyrese Maxey. “I been playing against Maxey since I was in 5th grade. Playing against all these guys on that team, I’ve known for a really long time so I’m not going into the game like thinking I need to do anything that I haven’t done for the last couple of years of my life. So I’m gonna guard the way I guard and whoever has to step up to the plate and try to score on me, good luck to them.” On Tuesday against Arkansas, there was a moment, just over a minute and a half into the second half when Florida was technically punished but it was for something which Mike White and this team had been looking. The Razorbacks had been on a 17-5 to that point and White was forced to call a timeout early in the period. As the Gators huddled together, the Hogs Adrio Bailey came and stuck his head into the Florida scrum. Johnson and Locke both reached out to push him out and Locke was called for a technical after Bailey’s Oscar worthy flop. “They reacted the way I wanted them to,” admitted Bailey following the game. But it was also the way Florida wanted to react. Earlier in the season, White reamed his players for letting an opponent step fully into their huddle and fool all five that he was a part of their team. When Bailey tried the same trick, it was against a different Gators team. “I just say, he’s just trying to come in the huddle, I feel like it’s disrespectful. It’s like somebody trying to come in your house and we trying to protect our house,” poses Johnson. Now the Florida Gators will take that connectivity, their improved offense and lessons learned this week about transition defense into Lexington. It’s the start of the hardest part of the season—the last leg. Scottie Lewis knows they’re ready. “I think we’re capable of going undefeated in the rest of the SEC play as long as we stick to what we’ve been doing and playing to our principles.”

THREE KEYS TO UF KNOCKING OFF KENTUCKY AT RUPP SATURDAY (1) Space the floor, make the extra pass and get Noah Locke clean looks at the basket. Locke is the hottest shooter in the SEC right now, having hit 14 of his last 22 three-point shots (63.6%), which has elevated him into a tie for seventh nationally at 44.5%. Locke is the leading three-point shooter in the SEC, hitting an astounding 52.6% of his shots (41-78) in SEC play. Locke has been on radar lock recently because the Gators have been doing such an outstanding job of spacing the floor and then making the extra pass. Since a passed ball moves faster than feet and proper spacing makes it next to impossible for opponents to disrupt the passing lanes, the Gators have to space, pass and get Noah his shots. If Noah is on radar lock, it will open up the game for his teammates and the Gators have an extraordinary chance to walk out of Rupp with a win the could erase all doubts about their NCAA chances. (2) Keep Tyrese Maxey out of the lane. Maxey is a streaky outside shooter, who can heat up periodically, but that’s not where he’s going to beat you typically. Where Maxey makes his living is beating people off the dribble and getting into the lane where he has a rather lethal floater. Once he’s in the lane he forces bigs who rotate to either let him shoot that floater or foul him. Florida is probably going to start Scottie Lewis on Maxey one key to neutralizing him is keeping running defenders with fresh legs at him. Kentucky has other very good offensive options, but Maxey is the one guy who can jumpstart the team when things are going bad and if he gets it going from the perimeter light an opponent up for big numbers. (3) Put the pressure on Nick Richards at both ends of the floor. After two disappointing seasons, Richards has matured into a franchise player as a junior and he’s doing it on both ends of the floor. The Gators desperately need Kerry Blackshear Jr. to score 12-15 points in this one and they need his ability to pass out of double teams so they have to put some defensive pressure on Richards. To do that they’ll need some straight line drives from Keyontae Johnson and for Andrew Nembhard to get into the lane where he can hit that little pull-up jumper or dump it down low. When Blackshear gets the ball down low he needs to get a shoulder in Richards’ chest when he goes up for a shot and force a foul. Richards has had some foul issues in all but one of the last eight games so it’s imperative the Gators put the pressure on him from multiple angles. Richards isn’t a great offensive rebounder but he has a nice baby hook and he’s a good finisher on alley-oops. He has to be pushed 5-7 feet away from the basket. He’s not a very good passer so the Gators need to get good enough defensive rotations that they can double him up down low when he gets an entry pass. SEC BASKETBALL Saturday’s games FLORIDA (17-9, 9-4 SEC) at #10 Kentucky (21-5, 11-2 SEC), ESPN Tennessee (15-11, 7-6 SEC) at #13 Auburn (22-4, 9-4 SEC), CBS Missouri (13-13, 5-8 SEC) at Arkansas (16-10, 4-9 SEC), SEC Network Mississippi State (17-9, 8-5 SEC) at Texas A&M (13-12, 7-6 SEC), SEC Network Georgia (13-13, 3-10 SEC) at Vanderbilt (9-17, 1-12 SEC), SEC Network LSU (18-8, 9-4 SEC) at South Carolina (16-10, 8-5 SEC), ESPN2 Alabama (14-12, 6-7 SEC) at Ole Miss (13-13, 4-9, SEC), SEC Network MACE ON FRIDAY, LEFTWICH ON SATURDAY, TBD SUNDAY FOR UF Kevin O’Sullivan knows who he’ll send to the mound Friday and Saturday nights when the 2nd-ranked Florida Gators (5-0) take on top-ranked Miami (4-0) at Alex Rodriguez Park in Coral Gables. Tommy Mace (1-0, 3.00 ERA) gets the call Friday with Jack Leftwich (1-0, 0.00 ERA) getting the call Saturday night. Nick Pogue (1-0, 15.00 ERA), who was the starter last Sunday against Marshall, could get the start in the final game against Miami after a strong 10th inning in relief to pick up the win against Jacksonville Wednesday night. O’Sullivan is likely to pick his Sunday starter based on matchups he’s seen the first two games. Through five games, the Gators are hitting .326 with an SEC-leading eight home runs. Third baseman Kirby McMullen leads the Gators with a .467 batting average. Center fielder Jud Fabian is hitting .429 with two homers and seven RBI. A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO BASTE: FRIDAY EDITION (1) Duke’s 22-point blowout loss to unranked North Carolina State is just another sign of the weird times in college basketball this season. Normally, a season in which more than half the ranked teams have six or more losses would spell trouble for the power conferences, who routinely dominate the selections to the NCAA field. This year, however, there aren’t that many decent teams outside of the Power Five conferences so there will be a lot of teams with 9-12 losses chosen for the NCAA Tournament. Joe Lunardi has four SEC teams – Kentucky, LSU, Auburn and Florida – making the field but that could expand by one or two depending on how well Mississippi State and South Carolina finish. The ACC, traditionally billed as the best basketball conference in the country, has four in Lunardi’s brackets – Florida State, Duke, Louisville and Virginia – and it is slim pickings in the conference after those four. From what I have seen, the six best teams in the country are Baylor, Gonzaga, Kansas, San Diego State, Dayton and Florida State with Maryland and Kentucky the next two. (2) There is big trouble at Arizona State where former ASU football player Bart Wear is accused of harassing the wives of three women married to people in the athletic department including basketball coach Bobby Hurley. As bad as that is, former senior associate athletic director David Cohen has filed a suit, claiming he was fired because he complained that the department was moving slowly to act on claims that his wife had been fondled by Mr. Wear while on her way to the bathroom at a basketball game. There were other incidents and they were reported to athletic director Ray Anderson in March of 2019 but the university is just getting around to admitting it was “slow” in acting on the claims. This is the kind of thing that, if true, will be the end of Anderson’s career and could do serious and lasting damage to the ASU athletic department, which can’t be in great shape when you consider how badly the Pac-12 is lagging behind the Big Ten, SEC and Big 12 in money. (3) Steve Sarkisian has withdrawn his name from consideration to be the next head coach at Colorado. Sark is probably going to get a rather hefty raise to stay at Alabama and with another year of rehabbing at St. Nick’s Rehab Center for Former Head Coaches, he’s going to be in line for a head coaching job in a better conference than the Pac-12. Colorado, meanwhile, could turn to former Wisconsin HBC Bret Bielema but if he says no, a panic hire might be in the works. They have two huge problems at Colorado: (a) they’re swimming in red ink and (b) because it’s in the Pac-12 and not in a state that produces enough talent to compete at a high level, recruiting is going to be very, very difficult. (4) Since we’re on the subject of St. Nick’s, analyst Butch Jones has been promoted to special assistant to the head coach, which prompted some on Twitter to suggest that he will be in charge of getting coffee and lunch for Nick Saban. There is no telling what his specific duties will be but one thing for certain, he’ll get his monthly buyout check from Tennessee, which is more than $200,000 and will continue for one more year. GOOD QUOTES FOR FRIDAY Max Olson of The Athletic explains why nobody should be panicking about the proposed one-time transfer proposal, largely because there are more players in the transfer portal than there are players who have found a new home, and many of the players who find a new home are actually taking a step down: “Let’s focus on the current transfer portal cycle, which began on Aug. 1. More than 1,100 FBS football players have gone into the portal since then. Around 750 of them are scholarship players, and 550 are still listed as active in the portals as of Wednesday afternoon. And only one-=third of the players in the portal are grad transfers. “Right now, the numbers for the 2019-20 cycle are pretty much right on pace with what we saw in Year 1. We’re bound to see even more players test out the transfer market if the one-time exemption gets approved. Those players need to understand the odds their facing when they make that choice. “The transfer portal database for 2019-20 lists 170 scholarship players who have matriculated to their new schools … If you look at where those 170 players previously attended school and where they landed, more than 60 percent (107) ended up having to move down a level in the process, whether they ended up at a Group of 5 program or found an opportunity at an FCS or Division II school. And again, we’re only talking about the players who have already enrolled at new schools and are not even looking at the ones who enroll at junior colleges. There are hundreds more still looking for a place to go who’ll eventually figure out they’re moving down a level, too.” From Joon Lee of ESPN, former Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz takes issue with former Houston Astros (now Oakland A’s) pitcher Mike Fiers, who was the whistleblower for the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal: “I’m mad at the guy, the pitcher who came out talking about it. And let me tell you why. Oh, and after you make your money, after you get your ring, you decide to talk about it? Why don’t you talk about it during the season when it was going on? Why didn’t you say I don’t want to be no part of it? So you look like you’re a snitch. Why you gotta talk about it after? That’s my problem. Why nobody said anything about it while it was going on?” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Former Gator tight end Jordan Reed, who missed all of 2019 after suffering his seventh documented concussion since he started playing college football, has been released by the Washington Redskins. It is being reported that someone close to Reed says he wants to continue playing football. If whoever that is really is a friend, he will talk Reed out of ever strapping on another helmet … Pitt football and basketball have been placed on three years probation by the NCAA. Former basketball coach Kevin Stallings – who stupidly left Vanderbilt for Pitt – got a three-year show-cause order … The 12-team Basketball Africa League will begin play in about three weeks with teams from Dakar, Senegal; Bamako, Mali; Sale, Morocco; Yaounde, Cameroon; Maputo, Mozambique; Vakinankaratra, Madagascar; Algiers, Algiera; Kigali, Rwanda; Luana, Angola; Port Harcourt, Nigeria; Monastir, Tunisia; and Giza, Egypt. Each team can have four foreign players but at least eight on the roster have to be local players … Arkansas track All-American Josh Oglesby, hinted on social media that he’s going to play football for the Razorbacks. He was a running in high school. His dad played football at TCU … Georgia’s assistant director of player development Fernando Velasco announced he’s leaving the program … Spring football practice begins at South Carolina next Wednesday.

GATORS GET SOME HELP IN RACE FOR DOUBLE BYE A couple of weeks ago after the Florida Gators (17-9, 9-4 SEC) had laid a sizeable egg at Ole Miss (68-51 loss), only the most optimistic thought the Gators had a chance to earn a double bye at the SEC Tournament in March, much less stay off the NCAA Tournament bubble. What a difference two weeks and a three-game winning streak will do for you because the Gators find themselves in a three-way tie with LSU (18-8, 9-4 SEC) and 13th-ranked Auburn (22-4, 9-4 SEC) for second place in the Southeastern Conference and ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has moved UF up to a #9 seed in the West Regional. The double bye is so important because if the Gators can hold on to one of the top four spots heading into the conference tournament in Nashville, they wouldn’t have to play until the Friday night quarter-finals, meaning they would be facing a team that had already played one or two games. A fourth or better finish in the regular season would almost certainly put the Gators comfortably in the NCAA Tournament field, quite possibly as high as a #7 seed. What has caused Florida’s fortunes to change so dramatically has been a combination of good shooting, good defense and a little help from some SEC brethren. The Gators have shot 50% or better in each of the last three games while averaging 78.3 points per game. With Noah “Radar” Locke hitting 14 of his last 22 three-pointers (63.6%), the Gators are stretching defenses and that has opened up the rest of the floor. In Florida’s 73-59 win over Arkansas Tuesday night, Locke went 3-4 from the three-point line. The Gators, meanwhile, shot 56.7% on their two-point shots. Locke was 6-8 on his three-balls against Vanderbilt (Gators scored 84, hit 53.1% of their two-point shots) and was 5-10 against Texas A&M (Gators scored 78, hit 60% of their two-pointers). Contrast that to the loss at Ole Miss when Locke hit 2-6 on his threes and the Gators managed only 5-23 (21.7%) while hitting 13-32 (40.3% on twos). Defensively, the Gators have given up an average of 62 per game in the last three while holding opponents to 40.4% overall shooting and 30.3% from the three-point line. This is one of Florida’s better defensive stretches of the season. Finally, there is that matter of help from the brethren. LSU got whacked by Kentucky in Baton Rouge. Auburn went on the road to Georgia and lost its second straight game, both of which were played without stud freshman Isaac Okoro. For good measure, South Carolina, which was tied for fourth with the Gators heading into Wednesday night, lost to Mississippi State. There are five regular season games remaining for every SEC team. The Gators simply have to stay one game ahead of South Carolina and Mississippi State to earn the double bye. To make the NCAA field, they probably need two wins of a last five that includes games at Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia and homers with LSU and Kentucky. Three in the last five and one at the SEC Tournament could move UF up to a #7 seed. SEC BASKETBALL Wednesday scores Mississippi State (17-9, 8-5 SEC) 79, South Carolina (16-10, 8-5 SEC) 76 Georgia (13-13, 3-10 SEC) 65, #13 Auburn (22-4, 9-4 SEC) 55 Texas A&M (13-12, 7-6 SEC) 74, Alabama (14-12, 6-7 SEC) 68 Saturday games FLORIDA (17-9, 9-4 SEC) at #10 Kentucky (21-5, 11-2 SEC), ESPN Tennessee (15-11, 7-6 SEC) at #13 Auburn (22-4, 9-4 SEC), CBS Missouri (13-13, 5-8 SEC) at Arkansas (16-10, 4-9 SEC), SEC Network Mississippi State (17-9, 8-5 SEC) at Texas A&M (13-12, 7-6 SEC), SEC Network Georgia (13-13, 3-10 SEC) at Vanderbilt (9-17, 1-12 SEC), SEC Network LSU (18-8, 9-4 SEC) at South Carolina (16-10, 8-5 SEC), ESPN2 Alabama (14-12, 6-7 SEC) at Ole Miss (13-13, 4-9 SEC), SEC Network GATORS BEAT JU IN 10 ON ISAAC NUNEZ WALK-OFF SINGLE Unbeaten and 2nd-ranked Florida (5-0) spotted Jacksonville a 3-0 first inning lead, then got shutout pitching the rest of the way for their first comeback win of the season. The Gators earned a 4-3 win over Jacksonville in 10 innings when freshman Isaac Nunez hit a walk-off single to right field, driving home Cal Greenfield. Jacksonville scored three-unearned runs in the first inning off starter Jordan Butler, but the next five pitchers shut out the Dolphins while the Gators chipped away with single runs in the second, third and fifth innings. Jud Fabian’s second home run of the season tied the game at 3-3 in the fifth. Ben Specht went 2-2/3 innings, the longest stint of any Gator pitcher, allowing no hits while striking out two. David Pogue bounced back from his disappointing start on Sunday to pitch the 10th, striking out two to get the win. Next up for the Gators is their annual series with Miami in Coral Gables. The Gators have won the last five series with the Hurricanes. LUGO PITCHES NO-HITTER AS UF RUN RULES JACKSONVILLE Natalie Lugo (5-1, 1.29 ERA) pitched the first complete game no-hitter of her career Wednesday evening as the 7th-ranked Gators (12-1) took an 8-0 run-rule win over Jacksonville at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Only a first inning hit batter and a fourth-inning walk prevented Lugo from a perfect game. She used 70 pitches and struck out nine. Lugo got all the run support she needed in the first inning when Kendyl Lindaman jacked a two-run homer, her second of the season, and Charla Echols followed with a solo shot, her fifth. Echols went 2-3, raising her batting average to .513. Next up for the Gators is their annual trip to the West Coast where their five-game schedule in the Mary Nutter Classic in Palm Springs will includes matchups with #2 UCLA, #6 Arizona, 20 Arizona State and #24 Northwestern. THINKING OUT LOUD ON THURSDAY (1) With the NCAA suddenly getting serious about the Big Ten (and ACC endorsed) proposal to allow athletes in all sports a one-time transfer without penalty, old friend Larry Vettel emailed with this common sense suggestion: “One thing that needs to be added ... a limit to how many transfers any school can accept in any given school year. I'd set it at four for football and two for all other sports. That way a dozen football players can't follow their coach to his new school.” Limiting the number any one school could accept as transfers wouldn’t eliminate bunches of players electing to leave one school at any given time but it would certainly eliminate the prospect of a coach leaving and dragging with him his entire offensive line or backfield. (2) Former Michigan coach John Beilein “resigned” as coach of the Cleveland Cadavers Wednesday and will take a new assignment with the team. Sorry if I don’t buy the “resignation” explanation. If he resigned he walked away from four years of guaranteed $5 million a year money. Even if Beilein hated coaching a bad team with lousy players, he’s not that stupid. The Cadavers saved a little face, assigned him to a new position in the organization and will spend the next couple of months negotiating the final terms of the buyout. (3) Former NFL quarterback Steve Bartkowski told Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he advised Joe Burrow to go an Eli Manning or John Elway to avoid being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals. Manning told the San Diego Chargers that if they drafted him in 2004 he would refuse to play for them. The Chargers drafted him but had a deal in place to trade Manning to the New York Giants. After being drafted by the Baltimore (now Indianapolis) Colts, Elway threatened to pursue a Major League Baseball career, forcing the Colts to trade him to the Denver Broncos. Burrow is from Athens, Ohio, a couple of hours east of Cincinnati so there is added pressure on the Bengals to do whatever it takes to draft and sign him. (4) Dane Brugler of The Athletic has come out with his ranking of NFL draft eligible pass rushers. It’s no surprise that Ohio State’s Chase Young gets the top ranking. He’s followed by A.J. Epenesa (Iowa); K’Lavon Chaisson (LSU); Yetur Gross-Matos (Penn State); Terrell Lewis (Alabama); Jonathan Greenard (Florida); Josh Uche (Michigan); Bradlee Anae (Utah); Curtis Weaver (Boise State) and Khalid Kareem (Notre Dame). Regarding Greenard, Brugler wrote, “Overall, Greenard is a menacing ball hunter, and although that relentless style works against him at times, he surprises blockers with his initial quickness and length, projecting him as an immediate pass-rush contributor in the NFL.” (5) These college basketball coaches shouldn’t be thinking about building that dream home in the community where they currently reside: (1) Shaka Smart, Texas; (2) Josh Pastner, Georgia Tech; (3) Brad Brownell, Clemson; (4) Danny Manning, Wake Forest; (5) Chris Collins, Northwestern; (6) Allen Edwards, Wyoming; (7) Brian Gregory, USF; (8) Dave Leitao, DePaul; (9) Archie Miller, Indiana; (10) Richard Pitino, Minnesota. GOOD QUOTES FOR THURSDAY Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports on the dilemma faced by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, who has had to deal with one cheating scandal with the Houston Astros (2017 World Series champs) and will soon have to deal with one with the Boston Red Sox (2018 World Series champs): “Stripping Houston of the World Series is simple, but not easy. There’s a good chance (and Manfred may know this better than anyone) that the pending investigation of the Boston Red Sox will come to a similar conclusion on cheating, meaning that championship would likely have to be vacated as well. “And then there are concerns about what cause should a punishment. Organizes sign stealing? OK but what about a single player stealing signs? Or what if a Game 7, game-winning home run is hit by someone who later tests positive for PEDs?” From Twitter, former Georgia and Miami head coach Mark Richt expresses opposition to the proposed one-time transfer rule that could be adopted by the NCAA as early as this spring: “I know, I have an idea. You recruit and develop players and when I think they’re good enough I will poach them from your roster! Welcome to what the new normal will look like in college football!” RANDOM THOUGHTS: At $601,000, Florida’s Billy Gonzales is the second highest paid receivers coach in college football. The highest is South Carolina’s Bryan McClendon ($1 million), who kept his salary even though he was demoted as offensive coordinator … Former Auburn offensive lineman Greg Robinson, who started 22 games the last two years for the Cleveland Browns, was arrested for possession of a significant amount of marijuana with intent to distribute at a Mexico-US border checkpoint … To make room for Clemson on its 2021 schedule, Georgia will pay San Jose State the full $1.8 million guarantee to cancel its trip to Athens … Former Arizona head coach and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Mike Stoops is reportedly about to join Mark Stoops staff at Kentucky where he will share duties coaching the secondary with Steve Clinkscale … LSU is paying new passing game coordinator Scott Linehan $800,000 … When North Carolina State buried 6th-ranked Duke Wednesday night, it marked the first time in his coaching career that a Coach K ranked team had lost by 20 or more points to an unranked team.

UF WIN LIKE THREE SEPARATE GAMES WITHIN ONE Florida’s 73-59 win over Arkansas Tuesday night at the O-Dome was like three separate games within the game. There was the first 12:30 of the first half when the Gators did nearly everything right at both ends of the court in building a 30-11 lead over the Razorbacks. The second game lasted from that 7:30 mark in the first half until 12:45 remaining in the game in which Arkansas outscored the Gators 31-14 to cut the lead to 44-42. The third game was the final 12:45 when the Gators woke up from their funk to outscore the Razorbacks 29-17 to win going away. In all three parts of the game within the game, the Gators played exceptional defense. Had they not, this one would have gone into the loss column, but by holding Arkansas (16-10, 4-9 SEC) to 40% shooting overall and just 18.8% from the three-point line, the Gators (17-9, 9-4 SEC) won their third straight game to stay on track to earn the two-day bye at the SEC Tournament. What allowed Arkansas to get back in the game and eventually cut 17 points off Florida’s 19-point lead had more to do with the Gators getting out of an offensive rhythm while battling through foul trouble. With Kerry Blackshear Jr. on the bench with two quick offensive fouls and with Keyontae Johnson picking up his second with 9:55 left in the half, Mike White played long stretches with four freshmen on the floor. The combination of only one made shot in the last 7:57, three turnovers and several questionable shooting decisions allowed Arkansas to cut the gap to 33-26 at the break. It was after Arkansas cut the UF margin to 44-42 with 12:45 left in the game that the Gators began awakening from their offensive slumber behind Andrew Nembhard and Johnson, who combined to score 23 of Florida’s final 29 points. Nembhard score 12 during that final stretch while Johnson scored 11, hitting 9-10 from the foul line. Once the offense began to find itself, the defense turned things up several notches. Florida held a 56-52 lead at the 7:00 mark before ripping off nine straight points for a 65-52. During that stretch the Gators held Arkansas to 0-3 from the field plus forced a shot clock violation at the 3:39 mark. From that point forward it was just a matter of maintaining composure and making some free throws. Winning in the way they did speaks volumes of how the Gators are starting to mature as a team. White will be all over the team in practice on Thursday and Friday about that nearly 15 minute stretch in the middle of the game in which offensive breakdowns allowed the Razorbacks to chip away at a 19-point deficit but he has to be pleased that they regained their composure and put the game away in the last seven minutes. He also has to be pleased that the defense was stout throughout the game, particularly down the stretch. This also marked the third straight game in which the Gators have shot 50% or better from the field. They didn’t force it up from behind the three-point line (6-16 shooting) and when they got to the foul line they made their shots (21-25). Johnson led the way with 24 points, most of them coming from the foul line (15-17), and 10 rebounds. Johnson had eight points and three rebounds at the half. Nembhard scored 17 while Noah Locke had 11 including 3-4 from the three-point line. In Florida’s last three wins, Locke is 14-22 on his three-pointers. Blackshear played only 12:22, picking up four offensive fouls, all called by the same zebra. Next up for the Gators is 10th-ranked Kentucky (21-5, 11-2 SEC) in Lexington Saturday evening. SEC BASKETBALL Tuesday’s scores FLORIDA (17-9, 9-4 SEC) 73, Arkansas (16-10, 4-9 SEC) 59 Tennessee (15-11, 7-6 SEC) 65, Vanderbilt (9-17, 1-12 SEC) 61 Missouri 13-13, 5-8 SEC) 71, Ole Miss (13-13, 4-9 SEC) 68 #10 Kentucky (21-5, 11-2 SEC) 79, LSU (18-8, 9-4 SEC) 76 Wednesday’s games #13 Auburn (22-3, 9-3 SEC) at Georgia (12-13, 2-10 SEC), ESPNU Texas A&M (12-12, 6-6 SEC) at Alabama (14-11, 6-6 SEC), SEC Network South Carolina (16-9, 8-4 SEC) at Mississippi State (16-9, 7-5 SEC), SEC Network #2 GATORS HAMMER JU 13-3, IMPROVE TO 4-0 One day after moving up to the #2 national ranking in the D1baseball.com and Baseball America polls, the Gators improved to 4-0 with a 13-3 win over Jacksonville. Through four games the Gators have scored 47 runs, the second best offensive output through the first four games of the season in Kevin O’Sullivan’s 13 seasons. Only the 2015 Gators (50 runs in the first four) scored more. Florida was clinging to a 4-2 lead in the sixth inning when they sent 15 batters to the plate and scored seven runs to break the game wide open. Freshman shortstop Josh Rivera, who had three hits on the night, had the big blow of the inning, a two-run double to deep center field. Coming into the game, Rivera was 1-10 to start the season. The Gators return home to McKethan Stadium tonight to face JU once again. This weekend Florida will face #1 Miami (D1Baseball.com) in Coral Gables for a three-game series. A WANDERING WEDNESDAY MIND (1) Charlie Strong is the latest to join St. Nick’s Rehab Center for Former Head Coaches. There were numerous reports that Strong was all set to join the Florida staff as an analyst but Saban and Alabama came calling to lure Strong to Tuscaloosa where he will join other former head coaches such as Steve Sarkisian (formerly Washington and Southern Cal, now Bama OC), Kyle Flood (formerly Rutgers, now Bama OL), Major Applewhite (formerly Houston, now offensive analyst) and Butch Jones (formerly Tennessee, now offensive analyst). While it’s entirely possible Strong will be elevated to an on-the-field position due to some potential poaching of Saban’s defensive staff by Mel Tucker at Michigan State or possibly whoever lands the HBC job at Colorado, he won’t have to sweat the cable bill if he remains an analyst. He’s owed $3.1 million by South Florida and he was paid a hefty buyout by Texas. (2) It’s a matter of if, not when, the NCAA penalizes schools involved in the basketball corruption scandal. Coaches caught on wiretap having conversations about buying players (See Will Wade, LSU; Sean Miller, Arizona; and others) won’t survive in the long run, but they’ll be coaching in this year’s NCAA Tournament. The reason is quite simple. The NCAA has a limited enforcement staff that presents a Notice of Allegations. Once received the school has 90 days to respond. Extensions are allowed and usually granted if the school says it needs some time to gather evidence that would support its defense but it’s not an unlimited amount of time, usually another 90 days maximum. At that time a hearing before the Committee on Infractions is scheduled. The committee meets six times a year. Once the hearing is concluded, it has eight to 12 weeks to submit a decision and, of course, the decision can be appealed. There are several cases being scheduled already so this is not going to be a quick process. It’s rare when a school gets an NOA that it gets off without penalties. Because the federal government was able to gather evidence and present in court under penalty of perjury, expect harsh penalties. (3) I’m reminded of Alabama football getting hammered for its recruitment of Albert Means. Evidence in federal court showed that prominent Alabama booster Logan Young paid $150,000 to Memphis Trezvant coach Lynn Lang and his assistant Milton Kirk to steer Means to Alabama. Since the NCAA has no powers of subpoena it can’t get bank records or other evidence, but since all the evidence needed was introduced under oath in federal court, the NCAA simply had to wait for the trial to be over, after which it used the collected evidence to hammer Alabama with a 21-scholarship reduction. The Alabama model is what the NCAA will follow when it brings the current basketball culprits to justice. (4) A day after the Atlantic Coast Conference voiced its approval of a Big Ten proposal that would allow a one-time transfer without penalty in all sports, the NCAA announced that it plans to take the proposal under consideration at its April meetings and would target approval for the 2020-21 academic year. Although it hasn’t been mentioned, the NCAA is likely to be sued by players who have been denied waivers that would allow them to play immediately after transferring. The process has been unevenly handled and we’ve seen kids who can afford to hire a high-powered attorney such as Tom Mars (Justin Fields and Tate Martell come to mind) get waivers while some kids with legitimate reasons to transfer have been denied. Adopting the rule change would be healthy if for no other reason leveling the playing field for all athletes in all NCAA sponsored sports. GOOD QUOTES FOR WEDNESDAY From Nicole Auerbach, a text message from an ACC athletic director regarding the conference backing the Big Ten proposal to allow a one-time transfer without penalty for athletes in every NCAA sponsored sport: “We cannot justify why some students can transfer and others cannot without sitting out. It is also hard to reconcile coaches moving from school to school, although there is a buyout usually, while still trying to limit student transfers.” From Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, former UF assistant Anthony Grant has Dayton sitting at 24-2, ranked 5th nationally and in the national championship picture thanks to an offense that was refined during his two seasons working for Billy Donovan with the Oklahoma City Thunder: “The outlandish statistic that defines this Dayton season is that they’ve hit 62.2% of their two-point shots. To put in proper context, that’s more than four percent better than Gonzaga’s 57.8 percent which is second best in the country. Grant didn’t find pixie dust or magic sets in the NBA, but it did help refine his offense. Dayton is the collegiate version of a fever dream of Rockets GM Daryl Morey, as less than five percent of the teams’ shots come from between the paint and the 3-point line.” Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred on why he didn’t punish Houston Astros players for their role in the sign-stealing scandal although he would have liked to: “Independent of what the GM did the manager did, [the players] have an obligation to play by the rules and they didn’t do it. I understand when people say the players should’ve been punished. I understand why they feel that way … If I was in a world where I could’ve found all the facts without granting immunity, I would’ve done that.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Clemson and Georgia will open their 2021 season in a neutral site game in Charlotte … Former Clemson defensive end Xavier Kelly is joining Arkansas as a graduate transfer. Kelly was a 4-star prospect out of high school … Kentucky D-line coach Vince Marrow parlayed the flirtations with Mel Tucker and Michigan State into a $300,000 a year raise. He’s set to make $900,000 which will make him college football’s highest paid non-coordinator assistant … Drew Brees announced he’s playing in 2020 and not retiring. He’s already earned $244.7 million in his career and his new paycheck will allow him to surpass Eli Manning ($252.3 million) and Peyton Manning ($248.7 million) as the highest paid player in NFL history … Baylor women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey got the 600th win over her career Tuesday night against Texas Tech. She got to 600 in just 700 games and only 20 seasons, making her the fastest coach in history whether men or women, to get to that mark.