By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:
YES IT WAS GEORGIA, BUT A WIN IS A WIN IN FEBRUARY
It is indeed true that Florida’s 72-63 win over Georgia (6-18, 1-10 SEC) at the O-Dome Wednesday night won’t move the college basketball Richter scale. This was a game the Gators (16-8, 6-5 SEC) probably should have won by more than nine points, too, but this is February and there are only seven more regular season games remaining. When you get to this stage of the season, you take a win any way you can get one. Sure, everyone would love a good old- fashioned blowout, but whether you win by one or 101 it only counts as one in the win column.
The win was Florida’s fourth straight and while it won’t do much for Florida’s NCAA Net Ranking (currently 43rd), a loss would have been disastrous for Florida’s NCAA Tournament hopes. That beatdown at the hands of Texas Southern (net ranking of 177) back in December could haunt the Gators on NCAA Tournament Selection Sunday. As bad as Texas Southern was, Georgia is worse (NCAA Net ranking 207) so this was absolutely a must win for UF.
The way the Gators began both halves, this should have been a blowout, but other than Myreon Jones (7-11 from the 3-point line, UF career best 23) and Colin Castleton (13 points, 9 rebounds, two assists, four blocked shots and a steal) there wasn’t a lot of consistency on the offensive end. Jones, who was 17-77 on his previous 3-pointers just a week ago, has now hit 14 of his last 23. Unknown to Gator fans and the media, Jones played through a broken finger dating back to December 18 against South Florida. That may have thrown off his shot but now the finger is healed and now he’s starting to find a shooting groove just when the Florida Gators need him the most.
It's a good thing Jones was red hot from the perimeter against Georgia because he was Florida’s difference maker.
“If he doesn’t go 7-11 from three, I don’t think we win this game,” Florida coach Mike White said. “He was terrific, shot it with confidence.”
Jones hit his first 3-ball at the 14:27 mark in the first half. He went on to hit three more as the Gators built a 16-point lead – 35-19 with 5:40 to go – before they lost their focus at both ends of the floor, which allowed Georgia to halve the deficit by intermission on a Christian Wright layup at the buzzer.
The Gators built the lead up to 13 on two occasions in the second half, but both times went into another scoring funk. It was a 3-pointer by Jones with 6:04 remaining in the game that put the Gators up 64-51 but that was followed by another scoring/focus lapse. Georgia scored 10 straight points before Castleton hit a 12-foot jumper in the lane with 2:35 left. That was followed by a 3-pointer by Tyree Appleby, who scored all 11 of his points in the second half with 37 seconds remaining. Appleby’s two free throws with 26 seconds left put UF up by eight (71-63) to all but seal the win.
“Obviously, there’s an intensity drop,” White said. “Are we watching the scoreboard? Are you just hoping it ends? Are you mentally fatigued? Are you down about your last missed shot? A mental toughness that we’ve been talking about all year … I thought at times, we played with a lot of edge. I thought we started with a lot of edge with the right mental approach. We’ve got to be better finishing, of course. We’re fortunate, man.”
Take away Jones’ 7-11 on 3-pointers and a 2-4 night from deep by freshman Kowacie Reeves and the Gators were an abysmal 3-20 from the 3-point line.
Asked what the basket looks like now that he’s broken out of his shooting slump, Jones responded, “It’s huge, honestly. When I get in that groove, I’m just shooting. I don’t think about anything else, I just shoot. That’s just the results.”
The Gators travel to Lexington Saturday to face No. 5 Kentucky (20-4, 9-2 SEC), which has won its last five games.
SEC Basketball
Wednesday’s scores: FLORIDA (16-8, 6-5 SEC) 72, Georgia (6-18, 1-10 SEC) 63; Alabama (15-9, 5-6 SEC) 97, Ole Miss (12-12, 3-8 SEC) 83; No. 19 Tennessee (17-6, 8-3 SEC) 72, Mississippi State (14-9, 5-5 SEC) 63
Saturday’s games: FLORIDA (16-8, 6-5 SEC) at No. 5 Kentucky (20-4, 9-2 SEC); Texas A&M (15-9, 4-7 SEC) at No. 1 Auburn (22-2, 10-1 SEC); Arkansas (19-5, 8-3 SEC) at Alabama (15-9, 5-6 SEC); South Carolina (13-10, 4-7 SEC) at Georgia (6-18, 1-10 SEC); Vanderbilt (13-10, 5-6 SEC) at No. 19 Tennessee (17-6, 8-3 SEC); Mississippi State (14-9, 5-5 SEC) at LSU (17-7, 5-6 SEC); Ole Miss (12-12, 3-8 SEC) at Missouri (9-14, 3-7 SEC)
UF WOMEN HAVE TO AVOID A LETDOWN
It’s been a real grind, but the Gators (17-6, 7-3 SEC) have finally cracked the Associated Press Top 25 rankings. Now comes the tough part for Kelly Rae Finley and her 19th-ranked Gators – avoiding a letdown after fighting so hard to finally get some recognition. They will be put to the test in Starkville tonight when they face Mississippi State (14-7, 5-4 SEC), which has won three in a row
With seven wins in their last eight games including five over ranked teams, the Gators have overcome an 0-2 start in the SEC to move into a third-place tie with 14th-ranked LSU, just a game out of second place behind No. 13 Tennessee. The Gators own wins over both LSU and the Lady Vols.
To take out Mississippi State, the Gators have to find a way to neutralize the backcourt tandem of point guard Myah Taylor (7.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3.0 steals per game) and shooter Anastasia Hayes (18.7 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.4 steals per game). During the past eight games, the Gators have gotten dominant play by guards Kiki Smith (14.9 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 2.5 steals) and Zippy Broughton (8.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals). In the wins over Tennessee and Georgia last week, Smith and Broughton combined for 56 points, 22 rebounds, 16 assists and nine steals.
SEC Basketball
Thursday’s games: No. 19 FLORIDA (17-6, 7-3 SEC) at Mississippi State (14-7, 5-4 SEC); Missouri (16-7, 5-5 SEC) at No. 13 Tennessee (19-4, 8-2 SEC); No. 1 South Carolina (21-1, 9-1 SEC) at Kentucky (9-10, 2-7 SEC); Vanderbilt (12-12, 3-7 SEC) at Texas A&M (13-9, 3-7 SEC); Auburn (9-12, 1-9 SEC) at Arkansas (14-8, 4-5 SEC); No. 17 Georgia (17-5, 6-4 SEC) at No. 14 LSU (19-4, 7-3 SEC)
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Arkansas: Arkansas has been fined $250,000 by the Southeastern Conference after fans stormed the court when the Hogs beat No. 1 Auburn Tuesday night. This was the third offense for Arkansas, which was fined after its fans stormed the field in September when the Hogs beat Texas in football.
FLORIDA: Garrick McGee, who was Florida’s quarterback coach in 2021 and the interim offensive coordinator for the Gasparilla Bowl, has landed a job as the wide receivers coach at Purdue.
Georgia: Kirk Benedict, who spent the last eight seasons as the special teams coordinator at Duke, has been hired as a special teams analyst ... Georgia starts spring practice on March 15 and will play its spring game on April 16.
Kentucky: It’s looking more and more as if offensive coordinator Liam Coen will be named offensive coordinator of the Los Angeles Rams after the Super Bowl. Current Rams OC Kevin O’Connell will take over as head coach of the Minnesota Vikings after Sunday’s game.
Missouri: It’s official. Defensive coordinator Steve Wilks has departed to take over as the DC with the NFL Carolina Panthers.
Tennessee: After beating Mississippi State in Starkville Wednesday night, the Vols have won three in a row and six of their last seven games.
Texas A&M: The Aggies will hold their annual Maroon and White Game on April 9.
Vanderbilt: The Commodores have won three of their last four games. Their 13 wins are the most for any Vandy team since the 2017 seasons when they went 19-15.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Gus Malzahn needs to get some callouses on his knees. Callouses from getting down on his knees to thank God every single night that he is no longer having to deal with the three-ring circus that is Auburn University and its loony band of boosters.
Bryan Harsin has been on the job a little more than 13 months. What he’s going through dealing with the Auburn boosters, who want him pink-slipped is just a taste of what Gus Malzahn went through during the eight years he was the AU football coach. First they loved him, then they hated him. Then he got the miracle win over Georgia followed by the Kick Six win over Alabama in 2017 and they loved him again and gave him a monster contract.
And then they hated him again, so much that they paid him $21.7 million to go away. He’s at UCF now, knocking down a tidy $2.3 million at a place where the boosters think he could walk all the way across Lake Eola without so much as going ankle-deep after winning nine games despite a ton of injuries and beating Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl.
When Mike Bianchi suggested Wednesday that Auburn should have never fired Gus, he replied, “I just feel blessed to be here [at UCF].” And why not? He’s got $21.7 million collecting interest in the bank, he’s well paid by UCF and the Knights will be playing in the Big 12 in another year where they’ll have a better chance of making the College Football Playoff than Auburn will at its present pace.
Up at Auburn, if Bryan Harsin makes it through another 48 hours without the loony boosters writing an $18.3 million check to ease the pain from the indignity of getting fired, then this will rank right up there among miracles with the walls of Jericho tumbling down. Odds that Harsin will get a stay of football execution from the Auburn warden (president Jay Gogue)? You have a better chance of winning the $172 million Power Ball Jackpot on Saturday.
Driving to the Florida-Georgia basketball game this evening, I was listening to Van Morrison’s album “Hymns to the Silence.” When the song “Professional Jealousy” started playing my first thought was Auburn University. Bryan Harsin is a scapegoat for the Auburn boosters. Their problem isn’t so much Harsin as it is Alabama, which drives the Auburn boosters insane with jealousy to the point that the fat cats who write the big checks are willing to spend millions to get rid of a good coach and millions more to hire someone they hope and pray can beat Alabama. Bryan Harsin lost to Alabama and then was out-recruited by Nick Saban, unpardonable sins to the Auburn boosters.
Auburn will hire a new coach. You would think anyone decent would shy away, but money talks and Auburn’s loony boosters will throw an insane amount at someone whose mission in life will be to beat Alabama. Gus Malzahn beat Nick Saban and Alabama three times but it wasn’t enough for the boosters. The next guy should be so lucky to beat Nick Saban three times in eight years.
Down in Orlando, Gus Malzahn probably breaks into uncontrollable giggles every time he passes his bank. Money can’t buy you love, so they say, but it sure does make you feel good when you realize you’ve got a small fortune in the bank and you don’t have to deal with the Auburn loonies any longer.
