By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
SHORTER: “EVERYONE’S WORKING SO MUCH HARDER”

What Justin Shorter said after the Gators concluded their Saturday practice must bring a smile to Billy Napier’s face. Napier knows that for Florida football to catch up to the Alabamas and Georgias of the SEC, there has to be a cultural change and that starts with each individual player taking stock of himself and the team.

Shorter, Florida’s most experienced returning wide receiver, is back for one more year. Some of it has to do with believing there is more he can accomplish individually. More important, he doesn’t want to go out on a losing note.

He isn’t the only Gator who is motivated by the disappointment of a 6-7 season that saw the Gators go from top 10 to freefall and the dismissal of the entire coaching staff.

"We've got players that are hungry and just hate losing," Shorter said. "Just thinking about last year, every loss, it makes me so angry, like upset, where everyone's working so much harder. I'd really say just all of us, every single player, is just so pissed off from last year. We're all just trying to come back and get after it really."

The Gators will practice Tuesday and Thursday, then hold their second scrimmage of the spring on Saturday.

THE THIRD HIGHEST SCORE IN NCAA GYMNASTICS HISTORY
The record, held jointly by UCLA and Stanford, set two days apart back in 2004, is 198.875. Florida’s team score Saturday night at the Auburn Regional of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships was 198.775. It’s the highest score in 18 years and the third highest score ever and the highest in an NCAA postseason championship event.

For the second straight night, Trinity Thomas raised the Florida standard with a pair of perfect 10s. She is so good that we almost expect a 10 any time it is her turn in the rotation no matter the event. Florida opened up on floor where she was flawless as the Gators racked up a team score of 49.650. Then it was off to the vault where Trinity came through with her second perfect score, joined by freshman Leanne Wong who had the first 10 on vault of her still-young career. On the bars, Wong scored a 9.975 and Thomas came in with a 9.950. The Gators set a school record on the beam (49.750) with Thomas coming in with another 9.950. The Gators were so good on the beam that they were able to throw out a 9.925.

Thomas won the all-around title with a 39.900, the highest score in the nation so far. Wong finished at 39.875, her career best, which is tied for the second best score (with Thomas) in the country so far. An all-around score of 39.850 or better has been scored six times in the country this season. The Gators have five of the six scores with Thomas three times and Wong two.

Florida’s final score of 198.775 was total domination. Auburn finished second at 197.775. In football teams that’s like getting blown out by 30 points.

The Gators will be in a rotation with (3) Michigan, (7) Auburn and (11) Missouri at the NCAA Championship meet in Fort Worth. The other rotation will feature (1) Oklahoma, (4) Utah, (5) Alabama and (8) Minnesota.

UF BASEBALL: SWEPT BY GEORGIA
The bullpen let the 14th-ranked Gators (18-10, 3-6 SEC) down again as they dropped all three games of their weekend series with 23rd-ranked Georgia in Athens. The Saturday game, won by Georgia (22-6, 6-3 SEC), 14-8, was indicative of just how bad Florida’s bullpen was during the series. The Gators held a 6-3 lead going into the seventh when Georgia scored eight runs with two out and then added another three in the eighth.

The only bright spots for the Gators were Jud Fabian, who hit his SEC-leading 11th and 12th homers during the weekend and Mac Guscette, who went 6-12 and hit a home run.

The Gators will play host to Florida A&M Tuesday at the Florida Ballpark (6 p.m., SEC Network+). The Gators will host 2nd-ranked Arkansas (21-5, 7-2 SEC) for a 3-game SEC series starting Thursday evening (6 p.m., SEC Network).

UF SOFTBALL: GATORS WIN AUBURN SERIES ON HIGHTOWER’S 3-HITTER
Elizabeth Hightower threw a 3-hit shutout Sunday to lead the Gators (30-6, 7-5 SEC) to a 3-0 win over Auburn (29-6, 7-5 SEC) in the series clinching game. The Gators lost Friday night but took the Saturday and Sunday games.

Hightower (10-2, 1.68 ERA) walked two and struck out five. She gave up two hits in the third inning and a single in the fifth. No Auburn baserunner advanced past second base.

Florida got the only run it needed in the fifth when Cheyenne Lindsey doubled and Katie Kistler drove her home with a one-out single to right. The Gators added two insurance runs in the sixth on an RBI single by Reagan Walsh that drove home Skylar Wallace and a wild pitch.

The Gators will play host to 3rd-ranked Florida State at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium Wednesday night.

UF MEN’S TENNIS: NO. 1 GATORS EXTEND WINNING STREAK TO 12 MATCHES
The Gators (17-2, 9-0 SEC) remained unbeaten in SEC play over the weekend as they stretched their winning streak to 12 matches with a 7-0 win over LSU and a 6-1 win over Vanderbilt (14-8, 2-7 SEC). Ben Shelton ran his record to 25-3 this season with a pair of straight set victories and teamed with Sam Riffice for a pair of doubles wins.

The Gators will hit the road next weekend, facing Alabama (7-16, 0-8 SEC) on Friday and Auburn (17-5, 5-3 SEC) on Sunday.

UF WOMEN’S TENNIS: GATORS SCORE A PAIR OF ROAD WINS
The 16th-ranked Gators (16-4, 8-2 SEC) extended their winning streak to eight matches over the weekend with a pair of road wins, 5-2 at Kentucky and 6-1 at Vanderbilt. McCartney Kessler remained unbeaten (8-0) in SEC singles matches with a pair of weekend wins to lead the way for the Gators.

The Gators will be home next weekend, facing Alabama (14-7, 4-5 SEC) on Friday and 9th-ranked Auburn (17-3, 8-1 SEC) on Sunday.

Other UF sports: The Florida men’s golf team (-12) holds a 5-shot lead over Georgia Tech after one round of the Calusa Cup in Naples. Ricky Castillo shot an opening round 65 to sit atop the leaderboard with Fred Biondi tied for fifth with a 69 … Highlight of the rain-soaked Pepsi Florida Relays was a 2:02.2 800 meters by Imogen Hall, the best time in the NCAA this outdoor season … Florida’s American Athletic Conference lacrosse match with Cincinnati was postponed due to travel issues on Sunday. The 10th-ranked Gators (7-4, 0-0 AAC) and Cincinnati will make up the match this afternoon.

SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Alabama: Nick Saban likes what he’s seen of Alabama so far this spring. “This team doesn’t have any complainers,” Saban said Saturday … Jaden Shackleford, who led the Crimson Tide in scoring at 16.6 per game, will enter the NBA Draft.

Arkansas: KK Robinson, who played in 19 games and started two for the Razorbacks, has joined Chance Moore in the transfer portal. Robinson averaged 1.5 points per game.

Auburn: Walker Kessler, the SEC and National Defensive Player of the Year, is entering the NBA Draft. He averaged 11.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 4.5 blocked shots per game ... Zep Jasper, who averaged 5.1 points and 2.1 assists per game, will use his Super Senior season at Auburn next year … Quarterback Zach Calzada, who transferred to Auburn from Texas A&M, is seeing limited reps this spring due to a shoulder issue.

Georgia: Tight end Arik Gilbert, who missed the 2021 season while dealing with personal issues, is back with the team this spring.

LSU: Every scholarship player from last season’s basketball roster has either declared for the NBA or is in the transfer portal.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks not only went wire to wire as the No. 1 team in the country, but in beating UConn for the NCAA women’s championship Sunday, they became the first team ever to beat Geno Auriemma in a national championship game … Wing guard Erik Stevenson (11.6 points, 4.7 rebounds) is transferring to West Virginia, his fourth school in five years.

Texas A&M: Running back Devin Achane ran a 10.12 100 meters this weekend.

FINAL FOUR PREDICTION
The ties between Kansas and North Carolina are well documented. Dean Smith played for Phog Allen at Kansas then became the UNC coach who won two national titles. Roy Williams was Dean's assistant, then the head coach at Kansas before returning to UNC to win three national titles. Now, it's Hubert Davis, who played for Dean and coached for Roy, as the Carolina head coach going against Bill Self, who was Roy's replacement when he heard mama calling him home to Chapel Hill. Kansas plays better defense and can adapt to any style of play better. Carolina has more offensive weapons and it has Armando Bacot. I like Carolina. Close.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Friday afternoon, in his next-to-last press conference as the head basketball coach at Duke University, Mike Kryzyzewski took a flamethrower to the NCAA. Think of the irony. Here we have the winningest coach in college basketball history, owner of five national championships, as iconic a figure as there is in any collegiate sport and mentioned in the same breath with John Wooden, Dean Smith and Adolph Rupp as the greatest ever, taking aim at the NCAA the day before its showcase event rivets the entire nation.

For the most part, Coach K was reflective, thoughtful and gracious for a chance to finish a 42-year coaching career on his own terms at the Final Four, but when he started talking about the NCAA, he was anything but gracious. He didn’t deliver a fire and brimstone speech complete with calling out names, but he didn’t have to. He just calmly said what everyone in the world except perhaps the brain dead bureaucrats and so-called leaders in Indianapolis knows: The Good Ship NCAA is listing and unless someone comes up with enough fingers and bubble gum to plug the holes in the bow, it’s going to sink. Coach K didn’t pretend to have all the answers, but he knows that something has to be done in a hurry or a brand new model must be introduced. He suggested autonomy for football and basketball might very well be on the table, but whatever is the model moving forward, it can’t be tied to the old NCAA way of doing things.

“This is a time not to look at knits and bits,” Coach K said. “It’s a time to look at the whole thing. This time is to catch up on all the things we didn’t adapt to but [also] to for an organization that can anticipate change, can forward look and say these things might happen.”

What a concept that is. An organization that can anticipate change and adapt on the fly. The NCAA’s way of doing things is to stonewall until there are court cases, then fight each case in full view of the whole world and lose. And after losing – again – point fingers at everyone else, then go crawling to the Congress to beg them for bailout legislation.

Mike Kryzyzewski knows that if the Congress gets involved in bringing about change and reformation to the NCAA, nothing good will come of it. Instead of going to Congress, Coach K has a rather novel approach, something that is far beyond the comprehension of Mark Emmert and his minions.

“You have got to listen to the coaches of each of these sports,” Coach K said. “They represent the players. Okay? And know what’s happening. Otherwise, you have absent congressmen who never know what the hell’s happening in their district.”

That is exactly why college sports is doomed in the event the United States Congress takes up reforming the NCAA and enacting legislation that will permanently reshape sports as we know them. Absentee congressmen. In the 116th Congress, Bernie Sanders missed 57 percent of the votes and Kamala Harris missed 55.1 percent. Corey Booker, who is a former tight end at Stanford and an outspoken voice that Congress must solve the NCAA problems, missed 40.6 percent of the votes and Ralph Abraham missed 39.5 percent of the votes. Not all the Senators and Representatives missed such a high percentage of votes, but the stats are mind-boggling, particularly when you add in how few of them ever work together for something meaningful.

Can we actually depend on these people to figure out a way to make college sports better?

Coach K knows the answer to that question: “I’m saying, ‘Come on. Do this the right way.’ I don’t see it happening the right way.”

Florida fans can expect to see Hall back on campus again soon...

All our trusted insiders are continuing to talk about how hot this staff is on the trail. With as many as 4-6 silent commits. Why is nobody going public? From a personal standpoint, if a prospect doesnt want to publicly commit, they are not committed. No reason to commit to UF, or any school, unless you want it known. Makes zero sense.

Love this! The little thing....


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THIS is true rim-rocking news here folks! The WH Press Secretary is hauling ass out of Washington for the failed liberal, race-baiting network no one dares to cast their eyes upon. She's perfect for that cadre of cartoon characters which already include Joy Race-Baiter Reid, Rachael MAN-Dow, Lawrence O'Douchebag, Tiffany Criss-Cross, Psycho Joe Scarborough, and his table-slut wife Mika Brezenski. There, that covers all of them. Meanwhile, Poopy Joe's admin continues to fall apart at the seams. Such is a beautiful thing. After all, stolen elections have DIRE consequences, right?

Does anyone have any updates on when it will open? I assume they are already taking recruits in there and showing them what it will be?

HAS to be one or the other. And this idiot is NO DIFFERENT than the snowflakes that frequent our board

What happened to the gators great bullpen. It was so good th r fist part of the season. Has Sully lost his edge. I mean look at Trnn vols. They are unstoppable. Will it get fixed . I hope so because I love gstor baseball.

Elizabeth Hightower hurled her second complete-game shutout of the season in the win over Auburn.

AUBURN, Ala. - The seventh-ranked Florida softball team clinched its third Southeastern Conference series of the season with a 3-0 victory over No. 17 Auburn in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Jane B. Moore Field.

The Gators (30-6, 7-5 SEC) picked up a complete-game shutout performance in the circle from senior right-handed pitcher Elizabeth Hightower (10-2). Hightower scattered three hits and struck out five Tigers (29-6, 7-5 SEC) over 7.0 innings pitched for her second complete-game shutout of the season.

Hightower battled Auburn starter Maddie Penta (18-3) as the pair worked scoreless frames through four-complete innings of play and combined to allow three total hits.

Florida broke the scoreless tie and took a 1-0 lead in the top of the 5th inning of play. Senior Cheyenne Lindsey led off the frame with a double to left center field and sophomore Katie Kistler followed up to drive her home on an RBI single to right field.
Auburn tried to rally and tie the game in the home half of the inning as a single and a sacrifice bunt put a runner on second base with one out, but UF's Skylar Wallace and Charla Echols thwarted the effort with a heads up play on a groundball to shortstop that Wallace scooped up and threw to Echols at third for the tag. Hightower capped the inning and shut down the Tigers with fifth strikeout of afternoon.

The Gators capitalized on the momentum against with two more runs in the 6th inning to extend their lead out to 3-0. Wallace and Hannah Adams produced back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and Reagan Walsh drove in Wallace with her RBI single to left center.

UF went on to load the bases with a walk from Lindsey and Adams scored in the next at-bat on a wild pitch thrown by Penta.
Hightower and the Gators would allow only one more Auburn batter to reach base in the final two innings to secure the series victory.

The Gators return home for a four-game stretch of games at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The team will host No. 2 Florida State at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, and No. 4 Alabama for a three-game series that is set to start Saturday, April 9, at 3 p.m.

Notables:

* The Gators claimed their third SEC regular season series, second on the road, of the season with today's shutout of Auburn.

* UF has won its last seven SEC regular season road series. The last road series dropped occurred at Ole Miss in 201To9.

* Today's complete-game shutout hurled by Elizabeth Hightower is the second of the season and the second against an SEC opponent.

* No other pitcher has hurled two complete-game shutouts in conference play so far this season.

* It's also the 12th complete-game shutout of her career.

* Skylar Wallace notched her 11th multi-hit game of the season while Kistler produced her sixth of the year after the duo both went 2-for-3 at the plate.

* Freshman Reagan Walsh is currently on a five-game hitting streak after going 1-for-3 in today's game. She is one game shy of tying her season-high of six that she earned earlier this year.

I'm a part of my med school's EM club leadership board and we're currently in the phase of coming up with event ideas and scheduling. With that being said, is there anything y'all would have wanted to know/learn prior to residency? We currently have US stuff set-up along with IV and the potential for overnight ride-alongs with EMT, but any and all ideas are welcome since we want to give our members as much hands-on experience as possible. We're also considering the possibility of doing tag-along events with the Wilderness Medicine club. Just wanted to reach out and see if any of y'all had suggestions.

I am watching the Open Water Nationals and it’s great to see Katie Ledecky wearing a Gator swim cap! I know she is training with Nesty, but didn’t know she was going to rep UF at her meets.

The Gamecocks refused to appear for the anthem; SEC should punish that action. Maybe rename to the Wokecocks.

😭😭😭😭

mocking how insane these leftist are 🤓

VIDEO] GOP Rep Calls Pelosi “Person Speaker” Because He’s Not a “Biologist” And Can’t Confirm She’s “Madam”​

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Any idea who R.F. is?

UF MBK: Gators Name Carlin Hartman Associate Head Coach

Hartman coached five seasons at Oklahoma before joining UNLV's staff in 2021-22

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Carlin Hartman has been named associate head coach for Florida men's basketball, head coach Todd Golden announced on Friday. Hartman brings 22 years of experience at the collegiate level, including five seasons at Oklahoma under Lon Kruger before coaching at UNLV in the 2021-22 season. The Buffalo, N.Y., native was associate head coach at Columbia during Golden's two seasons on staff there.

"Carlin brings a wealth of experience and a highly-respected track record to Florida," Golden said. "We're excited to add his expertise as a basketball mind, a developer, a relationship-builder and a recruiter to our staff. He sets a great example for all of us as a family man, and he will be a tremendous mentor to our student-athletes off the court in addition to helping us collectively and individually become our best on the court."

"I'm thrilled to join my good friend and former colleague Todd Golden at a national championship-caliber program such as Florida," Hartman said. "The program's success has been well-documented, starting over 30 years ago with Coach Kruger, who I had the pleasure of working for. For Todd to ask me and my family to join him is an honor, and I look forward to getting started in Gainesville."

Hartman helped UNLV to an 18-win season in 2021-22, including double-digit conference victories. The Rebels boasted a pair of All-Mountain West performers this season as Bryce Hamilton earned first-team honors and Royce Hamm Jr. received honorable mention recognition, while Donovan Williams was named MWC Sixth Man of the Year.

At Oklahoma, the Sooners made NCAA Tournament appearances in each of Hartman's last four seasons in Norman. As a recruiter, Hartman played a crucial role in bringing in the best recruiting class of the Kruger era at OU. The 2019 class was ranked the highest in the Big 12 and No. 13 in the nation by Rivals. Hartman was recognized by Stadium as one of the top three assistant coaches in the Big 12, based on a poll of league coaches in 2020. Silver Waves Media also named him one of the top 50 impactful high-major assistant coaches in the country.

In 2019, Hartman was one of 31 assistant coaches throughout the country to receive an invitation to the Second Annual Collegiate Coaching Consortium, which brings together rising basketball coaches and NCAA Division I athletics directors to participate in a multi-day academy.

Hartman was the lead recruiter of a multitude of Sooner players including eventual NBA Draft selections and had a focus on the development of the team's big men position group, including All-Big 12 honorees Kristian Doolittle, Brady Manek and Khadeem Lattin. Lattin became the Sooners' all-time leader in blocked shots.

Hartman has also been an active participant in important social justice initiatives. He is a member of the Coaches Coalition for Progress, and he helped form the Black Assistant Coaches Alliance in the Big 12. The CCFP's mission is to effect change in inner cities and the BACA was formed in response to the ongoing social unrest throughout the country with the goal of creating effective platforms for building better opportunities through transparency, economic and financial literacy programs and civic engagement initiatives for all student-athletes and coaches.

Hartman made his coaching debut as an assistant at Rice in 1996 following his professional basketball career. He served in three separate stints with the Owls, returning for two seasons as director of operations from 2002-04 and as associate head coach from 2014-16.

Prior to his return to Rice, Hartman worked as Columbia's associate head coach for four seasons. In 2013-14, he helped lead the program to its most wins (21) since 1968. From 2012-14, Hartman served as the Ivy League representative on the National Association of Basketball Coaches' Assistant Coaches Committee.

Before his appointment at Columbia, Hartman was an assistant coach for one season each at James Madison and Centenary in 2009-10 and 2008-09, respectively.

From 2005-08, Hartman worked as assistant coach and was the lead recruiter at Richmond for three seasons where he recruited three of the top scorers in program history, including future NBA Draft pick Justin Harper.

Hartman mentored three future NBA talents at Rice from 2002-04 as director of operations, including the Owls' all-time leading scorer and rebounder Mike Harris, as well as All-America honoree and 2007 NBA Draft selection Morris Almond and All-WAC honoree Mike Wilks. The Owls won 41 games over those two seasons, including a 23-13 mark in league play.

Additionally, Hartman spent one season each at McNeese State and Louisiana as an assistant coach.

Hartman earned a degree in communications with a concentration in broadcast journalism from Tulane in 1994. He was inducted into the Tulane Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020 along with his teammates from the 1992 Green Wave team, which was the first in Tulane history to reach the NCAA Tournament and to win an NCAA Tournament game.

He wrapped up his Tulane career ranked 10th in scoring (1,180 points), third on the program's career field goal percentage list (52.8 percent) and seventh in career steals (146). In 2011, Hartman was named to Tulane's 1990s All-Decade Team as part of the Green Wave's celebration of 100 years of basketball. Following college, the Rapid City Thrillers selected Hartman in the third round of the 1994 CBA Draft.

Hartman and his wife, Christine, have four children - Sydney, Kailyn, Tess and Joseph.

Carlin Hartman Timeline
2022-

Florida Associate Head Coach

2021-22

UNLV Assistant Coach

2016-21

Oklahoma Assistant Coach

2014-16

Rice Associate Head Coach

2010-14

Columbia Associate Head Coach

2009-10

James Madison Assistant Coach

2008-09

Centenary Assistant Coach

2005-08

Richmond Assistant Coach

2004-05

Louisiana Assistant Coach

2002-04

Rice Director of Basketball Operations

1997-98

McNeese State Assistant Coach

1996-97

Rice Assistant Coach

1990-94

Tulane Men's Basketball Student-Athlete

Couple of notes from his podcast

-AR looks great and will be better in Napier's system than Mullen's. AR stills struggles with accuracy, consistency and makes a wow play followed by a terrible throw. Miller is more accurate and consistent but lacks ability comparably.
-Dajuon Reynolds is the best receiver right now
-M Johnson is best RB on roster and is a natural both in the backfield and split out wide