Thrilling Series For Gator Softball Pays Off As They Climb In Standings By EDDIE GILLEY GatorBaitMedia.com When the number 1 team in the nation shows up in any sports, it’s a big moment. When they leave losing two out of three games, it’s a great weekend for the home team. Beating the unbeaten Vols twice to win the series advanced The Gators to number three nationally behind number one Texas number two Texas Tech. That put SEC teams in five of the top 6. That’s the weekend that happened in Gainesville as the previous #8 Florida Gators took the final two games against the #1 Tennessee Lady Vols at a packed Katie Seashole Pressley Stadium. In front of 2,455 fans, the Gators jumped out to a one-run lead in the bottom of the 2nd inning on a Kenleigh Cahalan home run off of the Vol starter Sage Mardjetko. That lead would stand until the top of the fifth inning when the Vols got a double down the left field line by Ella Dodge to score Sophia Knight from second. Alannah Leach followed with a single to score her sister Gabby Leach to take a 2-1 lead. Tennessee turned to their ace, Karlyn Pickens to save the game by going the final three innings in relief. She struck out five and gave up only one hit while walking 3 Gator batters. She was able to strike out the side after the Gators loaded the bases in the 6th and the Gators left runners on the corners in the seventh. Rothrock picked up the loss giving up only the two earned runs in 6 innings of work and only 4 hits. She walked 5 and struck out five in the outing. The ‘Hole was packed again on Saturday with the fourth largest home crowd on record with 2,635 fans. Olivia Miller picked up the win in relief allowing only two hits in 4.1 innings of work. She relieved starter Katelynn Oxley who went 2.2 innings giving up two hits and two earned runs. The Vols jumped on top 2-0 in the second inning when Elsa Morrison took an Oxley change up over the left field wall with a runner on. The Gators scored a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the 2nd to tie the game. Ella Wesolowski scored on a wild pitch from Tennessee starter Erin Nuwer. Taylor Shumaker scored from second on an error made by the Vol infield on a Jocelyn Erickson ground ball to tie the game. Vol Ace Pickens came into the game to start the third inning. She induced a fly out from Kendall Grover. Towsen Thomas got a swinging bunt single and moved to second when the throw from the catcher ended up in right field. Madison Walker followed with a laser beam home run that just cleared the fence in left center field to put the Gators on top 4-2. Cassidy McLellan followed with a deep bomb to right field that chased Pickens and saw the return of the starter Nuwer. Neither team would score again and the Gators evened the series with a 5-2 victory. After Keagan Rothrock was able to strand a two-out single in the first inning, Taylor Shumaker made a statement. She took a 2-1 fastball from Vol ace Karlyn Pickens and hit a towering home run to dead center field to give the Gators a 1-0 lead. An old-fashioned pitching duel between Rothrock and Pickens continued until the 5th inning. Pickens walked the first two Gator batters. Gabbi Comia reached on a fielder’s choice that moved McLellan to third base while Wesolowski was out at second. Following a Comia steal, the Vols set up to intentionally walk Shumaker. However, Pickens’ first pitch sailed wide of the catcher allowing McLellan to score and Comia to advance to third. The Vols then decided to pitch to Shumaker who made them pay with a single up the middle to score Comia. That chased the starter Pickens who entered the series with a .062 era and only giving up 5 earned runs and 2 home runs. She left Gainesville with a 1.24 era and the totals are now 11 earned runs and 5 home runs. The Vols scored two runs in the top of the 6th off Rothrock after a leadoff walk to the pinch hitter, when the umpire seemed to miss a third strike from the righty Gator. With two outs, Gabby Leach, hit the right field foul pole for a two-runshot to cut the Gator lead to one. The top of the seventh began with a routine fly ball to left that McLellan lost in the sun resulting in a double to start the inning. Rothrock induced a ground ball to first base but moved the runner to third with one out. Rothrock was able to strike out the next batter to leave the equalizer 60 feet from home. Maddi Rutan hit a line drive to right field but that’s where Taylor Shumaker plays and she made the easy catch to seal the victory for the Gators in front of 2,164 fans. The two wins move Rothrock to 17-2 on the year. The crowds were awesome over the weekend. That fact was noticed by the Gator coaches and players. Coach Tim Walton said, “Our crowd was awesome. I thought just the number of people and their ability to stay connected the whole weekend was awesome.” Rothrock said, “That is why I chose to be here. The fan base that we have and the support that they show is insane. We kind of feed into them and feed off of them, in both ways. That’s why you choose to be a Gator.” It was a series that lived up to the hype. Two outstanding teams went toe-to-toe and the Gators came out on top. To win the SEC you have to win your home series and win at least one game on the road. Both teams accomplished that goal. But I bet if you ask the Vol players they don’t want to come back to Gainesville anytime soon. One weekend of those crazy Gator softball fans is all any team wants to experience!

In morning practice Tuesday, Sumrall looks on as Philo throws. (Eddie Gilley Photo) During his presser on Tuesday, as he was jumpstarting spring practice, you could hear the passion in his cracking voice, the joy in the spirit and the intentionality of his thoughts. Jon Sumrall swears he’ll never change, which is a noble sentiment right up until the moment he has to tell a 5‑star quarterback, three boosters and half the message board that somebody’s favorite son is now the third‑team guy.   The truth is, in Gainesville, the only thing that never changes is the distance between “culture builder” and “hot seat,” and it’s measured in Saturdays, not slogans.  One thing that has differentiates him, though, is the ability to build relationships with players in a period of skepticism. “Relationships are built on trust,” he said. “One one way to build that is through getting to know their story.” And so he asks, listens and learns,. Sumrall arrived at Florida with a laminated card of values that sound like they were carved on a church pew: Attitude, toughness, discipline, love.   During his presser on Tuesday, as he was jumpstarting spring practice, you could hear the passion in his cracking voice, the joy in the spirit and the intentionality  of his thoughts. He touched on many topics, but the one that got our attention early was a quickie evaluation of his quarterbacks. He admitted, while the competition was about “dead even,”Aaron Philo could have a slight advantage over Trammell Jones in experience because he knows the system.  “But we can win with either of them,“ Sumrall said. And he’s not counting out others as well. “I like the room,“ he kept repeating. So the sermon was on script. The message was forthright. And he took all questions head-on, ducking nothing. Clearly his energy level and the vibe are already impacting this program. At Troy and Tulane, that sermon produced a 23‑4 run at one stop, a conference title game at the next, and a reputation as the guy who could walk into a fixer‑upper and have it under contract by Thanksgiving.  Gainesville, however, is less fixer‑upper and more historic home with angry neighbors and an HOA president who thinks the Spurrier years are a constitutional right.  Florida hasn’t won the SEC since 2008, has stacked losing seasons like cinderblocks and has had more “new eras” than a cable package. Sumrall keeps talking about high character, mental toughness, and “love demands sacrifice,” which sounds terrific until the sacrifice has a last name on the back of the jersey and an NIL deal on the line.  At Tulane, that kind of talk gets you a standing ovation on Freret Street; at Florida, it gets graded on a curve that starts with Georgia and ends with whoever made the playoff last season.  Sumrall says it all starts with the quarterback and the pieces around him, which in the SEC is a bit like saying it all starts with oxygen.  He inherits a room headlined by the star recruit who was supposed to be the last coach’s salvation, plus assorted contenders, pretenders and future portal entries all waiting to see how this new preacher divvies up the snaps.   In public, he’ll talk about competition and accountability, but in private, he knows the first real test of his “never change” mantra will come when the depth chart meets the donor list. Actually, he’s saying pretty much the same thing at both places. The modern quarterback battle is not just about who can make the field‑side out; it’s about who can make it to Tuesday without their camp calling his agent or a reporter.  Name a value on his ATDL board — attitude, toughness, discipline, love — and it will be pushed to the edge by a 19‑year‑old with options and a social media following.  Sumrall can preach discipline as something “you do for yourself,” but in Gainesville, discipline also shows up as how firmly you tell the wrong quarterback “no” when his camp expects “yes.” Either Aaron Philo or Tramell Jones — are possibly (but unlikely) about to experience that in a few weeks. But another thing he kept harping on was the way Philo and Jones are “working with each other – not against each other.” He believes the road to leadership is someone who builds the other person up and not tearing him down just to elevate himself. “They're challenging each other, but they're doing it in a healthy competitive way … I tell them all the time, you don't elevate by pushing someone else down,” he said. To his credit, Sumrall walked into a dispirited Florida program, thanked the kids who didn’t bolt and told them they chose Florida for something bigger than one man.  It’s a nice reminder, except this is the one place in America where they’ve spent the better part of 15 years proving one man actually does make a difference — especially if he wears a visor, calls ball plays, and hangs half a hundred on Georgia.   Sumrall’s track record suggests he can flip environments quickly; the SEC’s track record suggests it will happily flip him just as fast if it doesn’t see immediate return on investment. B He has already gone outside his comfort zone to assemble staff, then circled back to familiar faces, a classic sign of a coach trying to balance his internal compass with the external noise.   At Troy and Tulane, alignment meant everybody pulling the same direction; at Florida, alignment means getting players, staff, administration, NIL collectives  and a restless — but extremely supportive fan base pointing in roughly the same zip code.  The slogans will travel well, but the politics are stickier than Sun Belt media days. So, can Jon Sumrall stay the same man who told his teams that misfortune was just “good” in disguise and rode those values to rings at places that needed saving?  The odds say he will have to change something— his recruiting board, his patience, maybe his tolerance for fourth‑quarter analytics — but if he’s smart, he won’t change the part that actually made him worth hiring: The conviction that character and toughness are not marketing terms. If he bends his core for a couple of early wins, Gainesville will clap for a season and forget him in three; if he sticks to it and still finds a way to pick the right quarterback, build the right line and survive the first rough patch, he might actually drag Florida back to mattering.   In this league, “never change” is more myth than policy, but there is a version of this story where Sumrall stays fundamentally who he is while learning just enough of the local dialect to be understood.  The smart money says he’ll get tested early and often; the romantic money says this might finally be the man who doesn’t melt in the Gainesville glare but hardens. So, can Sumrall stay the same man who turned lesser‑resourced programs into something nobody wanted to play and still survive the Gainesville spotlight?  The hopeful answer is yes — with a few smart edits around the margins. He’ll adapt the scheme, tweak the staff, ride the portal when he has to, but he doesn’t sound interested in renting his soul just to win a press conference. He sure sounds like he can — and I am more convinced every time I hear him.  If he keeps that core intact and still finds the right quarterback, the right leaders and the right moments to bend without breaking, Florida might finally have the one thing it hasn’t had in a long time: A coach whose personality outlasts the honeymoon.  There will be rough Saturdays and louder critics, but when the dust settles, the program that bets on authenticity usually beats the one that chases the trend. If you’re a Florida fan looking for a reason to believe, here it is: For the first time in a long time, the man with the whistle sounds like he knows exactly who he is — and he’s inviting the Gators to grow into that, not the other way around.

Isaiah Brown shoots the free throw that put UF ahead 72-70 (Photo by Chris Spears) TAMPA – The simple thing is to point fingers at all the mistakes that were made in the final 8.9 seconds of Florida’s shocking 73-72 loss to Iowa in the second round of the NCAA South Regional at Benchmark International Arena. Yeah, mistakes were made both defensively and offensively. Sometimes in the heat of an intense battle assignments are blown. In this case, the Gators gave up a game-winning 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds to go and then blew a chance for a last second shot or at least a foul call that would have put UF at the foul line with a chance to rectify the defensive mistake and salvage the season.   Boogie Fland blew his defensive assignment, which is why Bennett Stirtz was able to dribble down the sideline, veer toward the top of the key and then deliver the perfect bounce pass to Alvaro Folgueiras in the right corner. Once Stirtz was past midcourt with Fland trying to catch up, it was a textbook 3-on-2 situation. Tommy Haugh had to try to cut off Stirtz and that left Folgueiras wide open.   “The idea was to keep the ball out of Bennett's hands, let them throw it to somebody else,” Florida coach Todd Golden said.” So we wanted a face guard and [to make them] throw it to somebody else and then take a foul and put one of their role players in a pressure situation, but they ran a little kind of double stagger, got him loose. We just didn't make a good enough play off the ball there to stop him from getting down the court, and then we had to make a split-second decision and we just didn't make the right one.   “Again, I think we had a good plan in terms of what we were trying to do, but we didn't execute it very well. They still had to step up and make a tough shot in a big moment, and they did that.”   On Florida’s ensuing inbounds play, Xaivian Lee dribbled past midcourt and into the paint. As two Iowa defenders tried to cut him off Lee had to make a split-second decision – shoot the ball, try to draw contact for a foul or try to pass to Haugh for perhaps a game-winning dunk. He chose to pass and the ball never got to Haugh as time expired.   “Maybe I could have shot a floater or pull up or something,” Lee said. “I was going pretty fast, and I thought I had time for the dunk in, but I don't know.”   In retrospect, the game shouldn’t have come down to either a single defensive stand or a last second shot to win by the Gators. There were mistakes made in those last 8.9 seconds, but those paled in comparison to all those made in the previous 39:51. Despite falling behind by 10 points in the first half and 12 in the second, the Gators gave themselves adequate opportunities to win the game.   In the days and weeks ahead, Florida players will be asking themselves why thousands of times. Why did I not make a closeout defensively? Why did I not secure that rebound? Why did I leave that shot short? Why didn’t I knock down that free throw?   It’s all part of the pain teams go through as seasons end in this lose and go home tournament. Already 48 teams – including Florida – have fallen by the wayside. Two weeks from now only one team will be left standing. Only one team can go 6-0 and earn the NCAA title. It won’t be the Florida Gators this year. They are the eighth NCAA champ of the last nine years that didn’t make it out of the second round.   Making Florida’s pain more intense is the fact the game-winning shot was ironically made by Folgueiras, who was involved in a controversial play that almost caused an on court melee. With 8:34 remaining in the first half and the Gators trailing Iowa 19-13, Alex Condon tried to flip in a shot in the lane from about eight feet out. When the ball caromed off the rim, Folgueiras and Condon grabbed for the ball. In the struggle for control, Folgueiras went hard to the floor with Condon still holding on. Folgueiras then pounced on top and threw a punch. In the near-melee that followed, the zebra crew of Joe Lindsay, Bert Smith and Randy Richardson somehow restored order, then spent the next five minutes viewing the monitor.   Their decision: an offsetting double technical foul and Iowa basketball on the alternating possession. No flagrant foul on Folgueiras who clearly threw a punch and a technical foul on Condon for wrestling with another player for a held ball?   Asked what he was told by Lindsay, Golden said, “Yeah, I was told that he [Folgueiras] threw a punch, but it didn't connect so it didn't go any higher than a flagrant 1. I'm not exactly sure what this means and I still don't understand why Condo got a technical. They were both fighting for the ball equally. Condo was just stronger and pulled him down to the floor, but they were both grabbing the ball. It was a confusing play and I'm not really sure how they landed on that result.”    The after-effect of this particular decision was the Gators fell further behind before they regained their composure.  The Gators were down 23-13 when their first half comeback began on a 3-pointer by Lee. That was Florida’s first make from the field since the 16:16 mark when Lee followed his own shot for a 9-8 lead. All the Gators had to show for the nearly 10 minutes before Lee popped in that three with 6:53 remaining was four free throws.    The Gators rallied to within two on a Fland-to-Condon alley oop dunk with 1:15 left in the first half that made it a 31-29 deficit. Fland tied the game at 31-31 with. 35 seconds left but Iowa got a short jumper in the paint from Kael Combs with eight seconds left for the 33-31 halftime lead.   “We were a little loose with the basketball in the first half, some uncharacteristic turnovers that you just can't make in a game like this if you want to win,” Golden said. “We had two guys step out of bounds in the first half. We threw a ball away … unforced turnovers that showed up and some bad transition defense decisions that led to easy run outs for them.”   Considering the Gators made only five of their first 20 shots, to close out the half down just by two seemed a rather remarkable achievement. That the Gators made five of their last seven shots made it seem as if they were poised to play the final 20 minutes like a team on a mission, but the warm and fuzzies of the final 4:08 gave way to more of the same old, same old to start the second half.   In the opening 5:29 of the second half, the Gators dug another deep hole to trail 51-39. The Gators were like a punch-drunk boxer leaning on the ropes to keep from being kayoed when a three from Haugh with 13:54 left snapped the Gators out of their funk and got the Florida juices flowing again.   Haugh’s three set off a 17-6 run in which the Gators went from 12 down to a one-point deficit (57-56) that got the crowd back into it. The Gators regained the lead for the first time since the first five minutes of the first half on back-to-back dunks by Isaiah Brown and Condon made it 60-58. A three by Haugh and a driving layup with 5:36 to go put the Gators ahead by four, 65-61.   The Gators had momentum that made it feel it was 2025 all over again. In both the semifinals and championship game in San Antonio, the Gators rallied from 12-point deficits to win. Texas Tech, which led the Gators by 10 late in the Elite Eight game, was in the house in Tampa awaiting a game for the Midwest Sweet 16 with Alabama. Memories of last year's Texas Tech game only fueled expectations that Florida had what it took to hammer home a win.   I thought we did a good job after they got out to that 12-point lead with 14 minutes to go,” Golden said. “Obviously we played really well the last 14 minutes, but we dug ourselves too big of a hole.”   The momentum-killer was an open three from the left wing by Cooper Koch with 4:17 left. For reasons unknown, the Gators kept leaving him wide open from beyond the 3-point stripe in the second half and he made them pay by hitting four of his five long distance jump shots.   Twice in the final four minutes, the Gators built 3-point leads but Iowa wouldn’t go away. Florida led 71-70 with 57 seconds left but Iowa’s scrambling defense left Haugh throwing up a highly contested air ball three that the Gators saved from going out of bounds with 35 seconds left. With 4.3 left on the shot clock, the Gators rushed another three off the inbounds pass.   The Gators came up with a defensive stand that forced a missed leaner in the paint by Stirtz with 8.9 seconds to go. When Isaiah Brown grabbed the rebound, Iowa fouled him immediately. It was a two-shot foul, but Brown missed the first of the two before knocking down the second one to put UF ahead 72-70.   Then came those last 8.9 seconds and two critical mistakes that ended Florida’s hopes of a repeat national championship. First there was the defensive mistake that put the Gators behind with 4.5 seconds to go but that was still manageable. In college basketball, that much time is an eternity.   When Lee passed midcourt on the dribble the better decision would have been to put up the last shot, but he deferred, thinking a dunk would have ended it with a Florida win.   "I would have preferred him to obviously get to the rim on that,” Golden said. “I thought he had a good advantage on the guy that was defending him. His defender was not in legal guarding position, so I feel like if he would have kind of jumped back into the body and shot a layup, we would have either scored it or got fouled, but a split-second decision, he's out on the floor, and he obviously played a really good game for us tonight. We've got to live with the results on that, but I thought he did a good job getting around his guy. I would have loved to have seen him go finish it."   Decisions have consequences and in this case the decision to dump the ball to Haugh doomed the chances of the Gators getting to the Sweet 16. Florida became the eighth national championship team in the last nine years that couldn’t get to the second weekend.   It shouldn’t have been that way.   SUNDAY’S NCAA SECOND ROUND SCORES South/Tampa 9 Iowa (23-12) 73, 1 FLORIDA (27-8) 72 (Iowa advances to the Sweet 16)   Midwest/Tampa 4 Alabama (25-9) 90, 5 Texas Tech (23-11) 65 (Alabama advances to the Sweet 16)   Midwest/St. Louis 2 Iowa State (29-7) 82. 7 Kentucky (22-14) 63 (Iowa State advances to the Sweet 16)   Midwest/Philadelphia 6 Tennessee (24-11) 79, 3 Virginia (30-6) 72 (Tennessee advances to the Sweet 16)   East/Philadelphia 2 UConn (31-5) 73, UCLA (24-12) 57 (UConn advances to the Sweet 16)   East/San Diego 5 St. John’s (30-6) 67, 4 Kansas (24-11) 65 (St. John's advances to the Sweet 16)   West/San Diego 1 Arizona (34-2) 78, 9 Utah State (29-7) 66 (Arizona advances to the Sweet 16)   West/St. Louis 2 Purdue (29-8) 79, 7 Miami (26-9) 62 (Purdue advances to the Sweet 16)

A Zebra Huddle: They decided to call it a double technical. (Chris Spears Photo)   There’s an old basketball testament which says you need guards to win in March. In the end their back court couldn’t make the play.   Florida had the better team. You knew that. I knew that. Iowa knew that. However, it’s not the best team that always wins in March Madness.   There was a sense that the Gators had been living on borrowed time with so many near misses, but this time of year when you’re playing basketball, you realize you’re going to be looking adversity straight in the eye on several occasions and need to survive.   This was that — down by 12 early in the second half, but battling back to take the lead and in a great place to win it on a night when they did not have their best stuff. No room for gloating on recent success.   The Gators had done that. We thought they had corrected their issues once they cleansed their pallet with the lopsided win over Prairie View. But I fear some people let their foot off the pedal.   In the past it had been a simple formula for pulling the game out: Give Tommy Haugh the ball. And with a three-point advantage having been earned earned in a brilliant comeback, that seemingly was the way to go. Except fate stepped in and took it way.   There’s an old basketball testament which says you need guards to win in March.  Backcourt had been one of the downfalls of the Gators early on, but presumably that had been fixed. In the end, however, when they needed a play from their guards from out of bounds for a chance to win the game, it was their backcourt man who couldn’t get it done.   Xavian Lee never got ball in play — he dribbled it too far and was trying to give it off to Haugh.   It should never have come down to that though. Too many things had gone wrong and it was Iowa’s night.   It was a slugfest, literally. Alvaro Folgueiras had clearly thrown a punch in the first half while battling for a loose ball with Florida's Alex Condon and was NOT ejected. Instead the zebra geniuses noodled it over and decided to assign a double technical foul.   And here’s the killer: Had they ejected him he would not have been around to put the dagger in the Gators’ hearts in the final seconds.   I’d rather foul Iowa early, preserve some time and force the shooter to make both shots just to tie.   In stead, Alvaro Folgueiras buried a corner 3 with 4.5 seconds left. Florida never got a final shot off after the Hawkeyes broke the Gators’ pressure and found Folgueiras open for the game winner.    Florida finished 27 and 8. Iowa moved on after leading for more than 26 minutes and shooting 51 percent from the floor, just enough to survive Florida’s late push. The Gators shot 50 percent themselves, but the details went Iowa’s way in the closing sequence. Florida got back in front late, then could not finish the final defensive possession or generate a closing look after Folgueiras’ shot.    Alex Condon led Florida with 21 points, five rebounds and seven assists. Thomas Haugh added 19 points and six rebounds in what could be his final college game.   I would never think my knowledge was superior to that of Todd Golden, but it seems to me his strategy was woefully  short in the final nine seconds of the loss to Iowa. Why press and leave the three open anyway? I’d rather foul him, preserve some time and force him to make both shots just to tie. We have quite a few months now to think that one over.

It was a memorable trip as Florida traveled to Tulsa to compete among the top four regular season SEC teams --with Oklahoma, LSU and Alabama. Georgia had posted the top morning score. However no morning team has ever won the event. This was a winner-take-all, high score wins meet that did not disappoint. The difference was as slim as it gets to decide the championship. Selena Harris-Miranda celebrates a perfect 10 on Bars. (Photo UAA) What a competition! After a year of inconsistent scoring and working on the lineup. Coach Jenny Rowland has knocked it out of the park the last three weeks, scoring a 198+. These three meets have seen Kayla DiCello, Skye Blakely and eMjae Frazier take a larger role. Competing  in the All-Around. Could this have been the plan all along? Resting during the regular season to be ready for the postseason. It definitely looked that way at the SEC Championship. Next up is Regionals and then on to Fort Worth for Nationals. Coach Rowland on the meet: "I couldn't be more proud of the fight, grit and determination of this team tonight. They did it big. That's what they've been doing all year long and everything just came together nicely with much ease, much confidence. They had a great time tonight." Six gymnasts competed, with Florida having the rotation of Balance Beam, Floor Exercise, Vault and Uneven Bars. The five highest scores count. On to the recap: Beam: Last Week: 49.800. Average: 49.536, 2nd in the Nation. Oklahoma: 49.523, 2nd nationally. LSU: 49.488, 3rd nationally. Alabama: 49.248, 10th nationally. -Skylar Drasser:  Double series. Stag leap combination. Twisting front dismount 1 1/2 twist. Stuck- 9.875 -Alyssa Arana: Double back handspring. Front leap. Gainer Full side dismount. Stuck - 9.80 (The dropped score) -Skye Blakely: Triple wolf turn. Front to back handspring. Gainer full twisting side dismount. Stuck - 9.90 -eMjae Frazier: Springboard mount. Front flip to back flip. Wobble. Split jumps. Cartwheel to twisting dismount. Stuck.-9.850 -Kayla DiCello: Springboard candle mount. 180 leaps. Double back a handspring. Front arial. Side dismount. Stuck.- 9.950 -Selena Harris-Miranda: 9.970 average Beam routine so far this season. Second in nation. Side split mount. Triple series back handspring. Twisting dismount. Stuck.- 9.950. 49.525 -Florida leads after one rotation. LSU is second, 49.525. Bama is third, 49.475. Oklahoma is fourth at 49.325. Floor: Last Week’s Score: 49.800. Average: 49.436, 6th in the Nation. Oklahoma: 49.489, 5th nationally. LSU: 49.543, 1st nationally. Alabama: 49.507, 2nd nationally. -Gabby Disidore: 1st pass (The long runs from corner to corner)- Double layout into a leap. Stuck. 2nd pass- Front twisting flip. Misstep. Almost out of bounds.- 9.825 (The dropped score) -Danie Ferris: 1st- Double tuck flip. Hop. 2nd- Combination twisting layout into a jump.-9.875 -eMjae Frazier: 1st- Front double layout. Stuck. 2nd- Double front flip. Stuck. Nic routine!.- 9.90 -Kayla DiCello: 1st- Front twisting layout. Stuck. 2nd-Double front flip. Stuck- 9.90 Skye Blakely: 1st- Front handspring. Double flip to stag leap. Hop. 2nd-Huge leaps. Twisting combination pass. Stuck- 9.850 -Selena Harris-Miranda: 1st- Front double tuck. Stuck. 2nd- Combination pass to stag leap- 9.90 49.425- LSU leads after the second rotation. 98.975.:Florida is second at 98.950. Oklahoma is third at 98.925 and Bama is fourth, 98.600 Vault: Last Week’s Score: 49.475. Average: 49.256, 9th in the Nation. Oklahoma: Average: 49.543, 1st in the nation. LSU: 49.440, 2nd in the nation. Alabama: 49.264, 7th in the nation. -Anya Pilgrim: Yurchenko 1 1/2. Small hop.- 9.90 -eMjae Frazier: Yurchenko Double. Twisting to face the Vault.- 9.850 -Kayla DiCello: Yurchenko 1 1/2. Tiny hop- 9.90 -Danie Ferris: Yurchenko 1 1/2. Small hop- 9.825 -Skye Blakely: Yurchenko double twist. Facing the table. Hop- 9.90 -Selena Harris-Miranda: Yurchenko 1 1/2. Step backwards.- 9.80 (The dropped score) 49.425 - Florida has another decent showing on Vault. Oklahoma had their lowest score of the season on vault Saturday. Proving it’s not just the Gators having consistency issues. Oklahoma takes the lead off a monster Beam score. 148.550. LSU is second at 148.500. Florida is third at 148.375. Alabama is a distant fourth at 148.000. After the third rotation. Uneven Bars: Last Week’s Score: 49.725. Average, 49.586, 1st in the Nation. Oklahoma: 49.443, 4th nationally. LSU: 49.445, 3rd nationally. Alabama: 49.489, 2nd nationally. -eMjae Frazier: Low bar mount. Legs glued together. Nice handstands. Double layout dismout. Stuck- 9.90 (The dropped score) -Anya Pilgrim: Low bar mount. Legs together. Full twisting double tuck dismount. Stuck- 9.925 -Skye Blakely: Springboard mount. Extra long handstands. Inverted grip to a double half twist dismount. Stuck. Time for a 10!- 9.975 -Kayla DiCello: Springboard high bar mount. Legs together. Twisting layout dismount. Stuck- 9.975. Wow! Pulling close to Oklahoma. -Selena Harris-Miranda: Top bar mount.High bar to low bar into a handstand. Extra, extra long handstands! Double layout dismount. Stuck- 10! Riley McCusker: Riley is 5th nationally at 9.940 in Bars. Low Bar mount. Toes pointed. Great low to high bar transition. Double tuck dismount. Stuck- 9.925 49.800 - Sixth best score in NCAA history. Florida waits on the last competitor of the evening, Oklahoma’s Mackenzie Estep. If she scores a 9.975 OU ties a perfect 10 gives OU the SEC championship. She’s close. 9.950. Florida wins the SEC tournament championship. 198.175. Oklahoma is second at 198.150. LSU is third at 197.950 and Alabama is fourth at 197.475. Vault winner:     Kailin Chio, LSU   9.975 Bars winner:      Selena Harris-Miranda, UF 10.0 Beam winner:    Faith Torrez, OU  10.0 Floor winner:     Gabby Gladieux, ALA, Kaliya Lincoln, LSU, Keira Wells, OU, Mackenzie Estep, OU            9.95 All-Around: Kailin Chio, LSU          39.775

Tommy Haugh defends against Prairie View A&M (Photo courtesy of UAA) TAMPA –  If basketball were a street race, the Gators would be the built low to the ground street legal muscle car capable of going zero to 60 in less than two seconds. The Iowa Hawkeyes would be the series of speed bumps, all of them strategically placed to slow down and frustrate a team like Florida that prefers breakneck speed to a leisurely drive through the city streets.   Todd Golden has built his very successful basketball philosophy around the concept of speed. He wants the Gators to dictate the tempo of the game at both ends of the court, forcing opponents way out of their comfort zone. In Todd-think, defensive pressure forces bad shots and turnovers which convert into transition at such a pace that opponents wear down and submit over the course of a 40-minute game. Over the course of the current season, the Gators average 87.6 points per game (9 th nationally) with a 16-point (8 th -nationally) margin of victory.   When the Florida engine cranks up and hits on all cylinders we get things like Friday night’s first round NCAA South Regional game in which the Gators hung 114 points on Prairie View A&M while holding the Panthers to 55. The 59-point differential was the second highest margin of victory in NCAA Tournament history. The Gators had 71 possessions, scored on 53 of them, and had scoring runs of 18-0, 10-0 and 17-0 in a 60-point first half.   That’s the pace Golden and the Gators (27-7) would love to duplicate tonight when they face Iowa (22-12) in a second round game at Benchmark International Arena (7:10 p.m., TNT). Contrast Florida’s preferred tempo to that of Iowa coach Ben McCollum. His Hawkeyes slowed the pace to barely above a crawl in their 67-60 Friday night first round win over Clemson. That was a combined 105-possession game in which Iowa frustrated Clemson to the point the Tigers fouled early and often. Iowa won the game at the foul line where the Hawkeyes connected on 24-for-31 shots. Clemson wanted a faster pace, particularly at the end of the game when the Tigers were trying to come from behind, but the shot clock and the foul line worked in Iowa’s favor.   There is no secret to what Iowa intends to do tonight when the Hawkeyes and Gators square off with the winner advancing to Houston to take on Nebraska in the Sweet 16 round next Thursday. The Hawkeyes want to frustrate Florida's fast pace with speed bumps that limit the Gators' opportunities to get on those rolls that transform tight games into blowouts. Ben McCollum wants defense so tight and sticky that the Gators are frustrated. On the other end, he wants the Hawkeyes to milk the 30-second clock in search of wide open shots.   “A lot of teams want to dictate tempo when you play, and for us, I think we've got to make sure that we just focus on the things we can control,” Golden said at Florida’s Saturday press conference. “Defensively they're going to take their time and try to find matchups they like and play with a ball screen. We've just got to make them miss and make sure they don't get a second chance.   “That was an issue for Clemson last night. They got some first shot misses but they allowed Iowa to get back about 45 percent of their misses or something like that, which is a really bad formula against a team like that. Then on the offensive end, we're at our best when we're playing with pace. They want to slow the game down. We want to play fast. We have to make sure we do what we can to impose our will and not allow them to slow us down. We've got to be able to win no matter what the pace looks like.”   For the Gators to impose their will on the Hawkeyes it will start on the defensive end where they have to make life uncomfortable for Bennett Stirtz, the point guard who makes the Iowa offense flow. Stirtz comes into the game averaging 19.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. Against Clemson, Stirtz was held to 16 points on a bad shooting night – 4-17 from the field (3-10 from three) – but he was good when it mattered, nailing critical free throws (5-6) that kept the Tigers from mounting a successful comeback.   When Stirtz is at his best, he keeps both ball and shot clock moving. For the Gators to speed the tempo and force Iowa to play faster, the defensive game plan begins with taking Stirtz out of his preferred rhythm. When the Gators have the ball, force Stirtz to constantly chase while battling through Florida’s constant screening action. Essentially, this is the old Al McGuire cut the head off the snake theory: Make the other team's best player work the hardest and wear him down.   “I feel like for us to be successful, we've got to use our quickness tomorrow to bother him, to get on his hip and not leave his side, and we've got to wear him down,” Golden said. “That doesn't mean solely on his offensive side of the floor, guarding him in ball screens but also when he's guarding, we can't allow him to rest on the defensive end. It's one of the things that I think should show up for us tomorrow, playing multiple ball handlers. He's not going to be able to just sit there on a guy that is not in action. He is going to have to be guarding ball screens. He's going to have to be involved in those things. So over the course of 40 minutes, my hope is that'll wear him down a little bit.”   Per the kenpom.com analytics, Florida is elite at both ends of the floor, ranking 9 th in offensive efficiency, 6 th defensively. The barttorvik analytics have the Gators No. 10 offensively, No. 4 defensively.   Critical for Florida at both ends of the floor will be rebounding. The concept is dominate the backboards, forcing one-and-done possessions for opponents, then outlet the ball for a fast transition to the offensive end. No team in the country transitions from defense to offense after a rebound faster than Florida. The Gators lead the nation in rebounding (45.68 per game) and rebound margin (+15 per game). In the win over Prairie View, the Gators held a 54-20 rebounding edge. Through 34 games, the Gators have only been outrebounded twice.   Additionally, it is imperative for the Gators to take care of the basketball. The Gators have lost only one game all year in which they turned the ball over 10 or fewer times. In the SEC Tournament in Nashville, the Gators turned the ball over 32 times in two games. Against Prairie View there were only seven. There is a correlation between fewer turnovers and points in the paint. Earlier in the season against Alabama the Gators scored 72 points in the paint on a night in which they turned the ball over just two times. Against Prairie View the Gators scored 62 and turned it over just seven times.   “Offensively as always for us we have to do a great job taking care of the basketball,” Golden said. “We're at our best when we value the basketball and get shots at the rim.”   Anticipated starting lineups No. 1 FLORIDA (27-7): Alex Condon (6-11, 236, JR); Rueben Chinyelu (6-11, 265, JR); Tommy Haugh (6-9, 215, JR); Boogie Fland (6-3, 185, SO); Xaivian Lee (6-4, 185, SR)   No. 9 Iowa (22-12): Cam Manyawu (6-9, 250, JR); Cooper Koch (6-8, 250, RFR); Tavion Banks (6-7, 215, SR); Kael Combs (6-4, 205, JR); Bennett Stirtz (6-4, 190, SR)   SATURDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT SECOND ROUND SCORES East/Greenville 1 Duke (34-2) 81, 9 TCU (23-12) 57 (Duke advances to Sweet 16)   East/Buffalo 3 Michigan State (27-7) 77, Louisville (24-11) 69 (Michigan State advances to Sweet 16)   Midwest/Buffalo 1 Michigan (33-3) 95, 9 Saint Louis (29-6) 72 (Michigan advances to Sweet 16)   South/Oklahoma City 2 Houston (30-6) 88, 10 Texas A&M (22-12) 57 (Houston advances to Sweet 16) 4 Nebraska (27-6) 74, 5 Vanderbilt (27-8) 72 (Nebraska advances to Sweet 16)   South/Greenville 3 Illinois (26-8) 76, 11 VCU (28-8) 55 (Illinois advances to Sweet 16)   West/Portland 11 Texas (21-14) 74, 3 Gonzaga (31-4) 68 (Texas advances to Sweet 16) 4 Arkansas (28-8) 92, 12 High Point (31-5) 88 (Arkansas advances to Sweet 16)   SUNDAY’S NCAA TOURNAMENT SECOND ROUND South/Tampa (TBS) 7:10 1 FLORIDA (27-7) vs. 9 Iowa (22-12)   Midwest/Tampa (TBS) 9:45: 4 Alabama (24-9) vs. Texas Tech (23-10)   West/St. Louis (CBS) 12:10: 2 Purdue (28-8) vs. 7 Miami (26-8)   Midwest/St. Louis (CBS) 2:45: 2 Iowa State (28-7) vs. 7 Kentucky (22-13)   Midwest/Philadelphia (TNT) 6:10: 3 Virginia (30-5) vs. 6 Tennessee (30-5)   East/Philadelphia (TNT)8:45: 2 UConn (30-5) vs. 7 UCLA (24-11)   East/San Diego (CBS) 5:15 4 Kansas (24-10) vs. 5 St. John’s (29-6)   West/San Diego (truTV) 7:50: 1 Arizona (33-2) vs. 9 Utah State (29-6)

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

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

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

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

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

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