By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
TRINITY THOMAS SCORES TWO PERFECT TENS AT AUBURN REGIONAL
There is no better collegiate gymnast in the country than Trinity Thomas. The two-time SEC Gymnast of the Year proved it Thursday evening in the Auburn Regional of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships with a pair of perfect 10s and a nation’s best 39.875 all-around score as the 2nd-ranked Gators blew the field away with a 198.135 team score. Advancing to the Saturday night regional final along with Florida are Auburn (197.650), Kentucky (197.250) and Denver (196.650).
The two perfect scores were the 15th and 16th of Thomas' storied career, the 7th and 8th this season alone. Already one of 12 collegiate gymnasts to complete the gym slam (perfect score on vault, bars, beam and floor), Thomas completed the rare in-season gym slam and the first in the NCAA since 2019 when she got her first 10 on bars this season. She followed that up with a 10 on floor to finish out Florida’s outstanding performance. Thomas scored a 9.900 on the vault and a 9.975 on the beam. Her bars, beam, floor and all-around scores were the best of the night.
What made Florida’s team score all the more remarkable was a poor 49.100 score on vault and the absence of Nya Reed, ranked 11th nationally on vault and third on floor. Reed had some pain in her heel during warmups and was scratched from the lineup. The Gators got a 39.625 all-around score from Megan Skaggs and a 39.600 from Leanne Wong.
NAPIER: “WE’RE A WORK IN PROGRESS”
The first scrimmage of the spring is in the books for the Gators and true to form, head coach Billy Napier went out of his way to avoid heaping praise on individuals. He did praise converted defensive lineman Dante Zanders for his work at tight end, where injuries and attrition have taken a toll, but otherwise he spoke in general terms. The two biggest takeaways: The Gators are what Napier calls a “work in progress” and the Gators will be hitting the transfer portal very hard once spring practice has concluded.
Napier pointed out that five walk-ons will be awarded scholarships this spring. That was one of the indicators that there has been a bit more attrition than we’re aware of. The other? Napier said the Gators will go hard after transfers. There are six on the roster this spring, but he indicated that UF could recruit 10 or more in the weeks ahead.
Here are some of the Napier’s comments from his post-scrimmage press conference:
General comment about the scrimmage: “I was proud of the effort that I saw. As we’ve discussed many times before, I think the execution has got to improve. We got out of here relatively healthy today, which is a positive. And there’s a lot of bright spots. There’s also a lot of opportunities to teach, but we’ll get better as a result of today’s scrimmage. It’s our first one. Very impressed with the overall organization and in general the players’ approach. So good day for Florida, and still a lot of work to do, but a lot of football we can teach from today.”
Injuries, attrition and where the Gators are: “If you did research, thirty percent of a football organization turns over each year. You have that much attrition. You start over, new goals, new people. That’s where we’re at. We’re a work in progress. We’re a year one football outfit right now. There’s a lot of learning going on. We’re installing systems. We just need repetitions. We’ve gotten a lot so far. We need more. I don’t think I’d ever stand up here and say that’s not the case. This is college football. It’s a developmental game and you’ve got a new team every year. We’re going to work on ways to solve the problems that we do have and make the best of each situation and go play a brand of football that fits this team and the dynamics within this team.”
Transfers: “So, the University of Florida, you can anticipate us being very aggressive in the portal this spring, we need players. Now, I think the approach is going to be, you know, acquire as many good players as we can at any position, right? So, you know, we're thin and we need help in a lot of different spots. So, I think we have, we're approaching double digits if that makes sense.”
Quarterback: “I think overall we took care of the ball for the most part. I think we turned the ball over one time, maybe. It was one of the younger players. Outside of that a lot of good. Sometimes, when you’re watching the scrimmage for the quarterback you can be critical sometimes. But I think they get too much of the blame and too much of the credit. I think when a quarterback’s playing well or playing bad it’s usually the result of the players around them playing poorly or playing really well. So a lot of film to teach and learn from and ultimately that’s the best thing about a scrimmage. We’re certainly going to take advantage of it.”
Offensive line: “You know I think it's a position where we've got a handful of players that can play, you know? And then, I think every team, I mean every position on our team, we need more players, right? We need more depth. I think the offensive line is a reflection of the entire team. I mean, we have a pretty good first group we can put out there, and if you really evaluated the team relative to experience, this is a very inexperienced team. After the first team if you look at the experience, the number of plays that a lot of these guys have played, they haven't played any. So we have a lot of work to do to develop that second and third group."
Running back: “I think that room is getting more comfortable with the system. I think we’ve seen more consistent play. Running back is a position where I think everybody thinks, just toss the guy the ball and let him run. In reality there’s a lot that goes with that position. Footwork, eye-discipline. A number of different protections that you’re involved in. A route tree at that position. We’re fortunate in that I think we have one of the best running back coaches in the entire country in Jabar Juluke. His room has consistently produced and I see this room getting better. So I’m hopeful that that room can play winning football; we’re a long way from it. But in general I see them getting better.”
Tight end: “We’re thin there. A long snapper caught a pass today and Big Griff (Griffin McDowell) caught a pass today. If that gives you any indication. We’ve got two defensive tackles that are over there. We’ve got a long snapper just taking reps. that’s an area on our team where we anticipated potential depth issues. We signed three. We’ve also had injuries. We’re thin. Like I mentioned before. Every team’s got its problems. You do your best with it. No complaining. Just make the best of your situation. There’s lots of answers to that problem.”
UF BASEBALL: GATORS BLOW IT IN NINTH TO GEORGIA
Florida’s bullpen woes continued Thursday night in Athens as the Gators (18-8, 3-4 SEC) blew a 2-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, falling to Georgia (20-6, 4-3 SEC), 7-6. The Gators had taken a 6-4 lead in the top of the ninth on Jud Fabian’s 11th homer of the year, a towering blast over the wall in left center field, but in the bottom half of the inning, Georgia scored three runs with two outs thanks to a walk, a hit batter, a single and a game-winning 2-run double by Josh McCallister.
It was an uphill struggle the entire game for the Gators, who fell behind 2-0 in the first inning when Hunter Barco struggled to get into a groove. Georgia led 4-2 in the seventh when Mac Guscette hit his first career homer at UF, a 2-run shot that plated Deric Fabian ahead of him.
In the ninth, Guscette came through with a single and Fabian delivered a 2-run homer to put the Gators ahead for the first time in the game.
The Gators will try to even the series tonight (6 p.m., SEC Network+).
UF ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES FOR 2022
Jeff Demps (football/track); Michelle Moultrie (softball); Connor Dwyer (men’s swimming); Joe Haden (football); Chandler Parsons (men’s basketball); Christian Taylor (men’s track and field); Mike Zunino (baseball); Steve Beeland (men’s tennis, men’s and women’s tennis coach); and Jeremy Foley (athletic director)
UF SOFTBALL: NO. 7 GATORS TRAVEL TO AUBURN
The 7th-ranked Gators (28-5, 5-4 SEC) hope to rebound from last week’s series loss to Tennessee when they travel to Auburn to face the 17th-ranked Tigers (28-4, 6-3 SEC). The Gators lost two out of three to the Vols last weekend, but they rebounded somewhat Wednesday night with a non-conference 10-3 win over UCF.
The Gators are expected to pitch Elizabeth Hightower (9-1, 2.03 ERA) in tonight’s first game of the series (7 p.m., SEC Network+). Offensively, the Gators are led by Skylar Wallace (.434), who four homers and 31 RBI along with a perfect 30-for-30 on stolen bases.
Florida coach Tim Walton will serve as one of the assistant coaches for Team USA for the 2022 world championships. Walton, who led the Gators to the 2014 and 2015 NCAA championships, is 867-187 in 17 seasons at Florida, 990-251 for his career.
SEC Football/Basketball
Auburn: Devan Cambridge will join his brother Desmond (Nevada) in transferring to Arizona State ... Yohan Traore, who decommitted LSU when Will Wade was fired, has committed to Auburn.
Georgia: Linebacker CJ Washington is out for the rest of the spring with a neck injury suffered in a contact drill … Former UGa offensive lineman Owen Condon has transferred to SMU.
LSU: Starting center Efton Reid and reserve guard Eric Gaines are the 8th and 9th Tigers to put their names in the transfer portal. Reid is a former 5-star who averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds while Gaines came off the bench to average 9.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
Texas A&M: The Aggies (27-13) lost to Xavier in the final three seconds in the NIT championship game.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Bob Huggins will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. I have no problems with that. Huggy deserves it. He’s been one of the best coaches in the country since 1981 and has 916 career wins at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia to show for it.
I do have a problem with Billy Donovan once again being overlooked by the Hall. Huggy is a fine coach who has made two Final Fours and two Elite Eights in 41 years. In his 21 years as a college coach Billy Donovan won two national championships, made the Final Four four times, the Elite Eight seven times, and won six SEC regular season championships and four SEC Tournaments. He did it in the Southeastern Conference at a school not named Kentucky and other than Adolph Rupp, he’s the only SEC coach in history to win two national championships.
How is it that John Calipari, Bill Self, Gary Williams, Nolan Richardson, Frank McGuire, Al McGuire, Jim Boeheim and John Thompson are in the Hall with only one championship and Billy has two? How is it that Eddie Sutton, Everett Case, Harry Litwack, Ray Meyer, Ralph Miller, Lou Carnesecca, John Chaney and Lefty Driesell are in and they never won even one NCAA championship?
What Billy did at a football first school in a football first league is remarkable and should be honored with Hall of Fame membership. Shame on the people who did the voting.
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
TRINITY THOMAS SCORES TWO PERFECT TENS AT AUBURN REGIONAL
There is no better collegiate gymnast in the country than Trinity Thomas. The two-time SEC Gymnast of the Year proved it Thursday evening in the Auburn Regional of the NCAA Gymnastics Championships with a pair of perfect 10s and a nation’s best 39.875 all-around score as the 2nd-ranked Gators blew the field away with a 198.135 team score. Advancing to the Saturday night regional final along with Florida are Auburn (197.650), Kentucky (197.250) and Denver (196.650).
The two perfect scores were the 15th and 16th of Thomas' storied career, the 7th and 8th this season alone. Already one of 12 collegiate gymnasts to complete the gym slam (perfect score on vault, bars, beam and floor), Thomas completed the rare in-season gym slam and the first in the NCAA since 2019 when she got her first 10 on bars this season. She followed that up with a 10 on floor to finish out Florida’s outstanding performance. Thomas scored a 9.900 on the vault and a 9.975 on the beam. Her bars, beam, floor and all-around scores were the best of the night.
What made Florida’s team score all the more remarkable was a poor 49.100 score on vault and the absence of Nya Reed, ranked 11th nationally on vault and third on floor. Reed had some pain in her heel during warmups and was scratched from the lineup. The Gators got a 39.625 all-around score from Megan Skaggs and a 39.600 from Leanne Wong.
NAPIER: “WE’RE A WORK IN PROGRESS”
The first scrimmage of the spring is in the books for the Gators and true to form, head coach Billy Napier went out of his way to avoid heaping praise on individuals. He did praise converted defensive lineman Dante Zanders for his work at tight end, where injuries and attrition have taken a toll, but otherwise he spoke in general terms. The two biggest takeaways: The Gators are what Napier calls a “work in progress” and the Gators will be hitting the transfer portal very hard once spring practice has concluded.
Napier pointed out that five walk-ons will be awarded scholarships this spring. That was one of the indicators that there has been a bit more attrition than we’re aware of. The other? Napier said the Gators will go hard after transfers. There are six on the roster this spring, but he indicated that UF could recruit 10 or more in the weeks ahead.
Here are some of the Napier’s comments from his post-scrimmage press conference:
General comment about the scrimmage: “I was proud of the effort that I saw. As we’ve discussed many times before, I think the execution has got to improve. We got out of here relatively healthy today, which is a positive. And there’s a lot of bright spots. There’s also a lot of opportunities to teach, but we’ll get better as a result of today’s scrimmage. It’s our first one. Very impressed with the overall organization and in general the players’ approach. So good day for Florida, and still a lot of work to do, but a lot of football we can teach from today.”
Injuries, attrition and where the Gators are: “If you did research, thirty percent of a football organization turns over each year. You have that much attrition. You start over, new goals, new people. That’s where we’re at. We’re a work in progress. We’re a year one football outfit right now. There’s a lot of learning going on. We’re installing systems. We just need repetitions. We’ve gotten a lot so far. We need more. I don’t think I’d ever stand up here and say that’s not the case. This is college football. It’s a developmental game and you’ve got a new team every year. We’re going to work on ways to solve the problems that we do have and make the best of each situation and go play a brand of football that fits this team and the dynamics within this team.”
Transfers: “So, the University of Florida, you can anticipate us being very aggressive in the portal this spring, we need players. Now, I think the approach is going to be, you know, acquire as many good players as we can at any position, right? So, you know, we're thin and we need help in a lot of different spots. So, I think we have, we're approaching double digits if that makes sense.”
Quarterback: “I think overall we took care of the ball for the most part. I think we turned the ball over one time, maybe. It was one of the younger players. Outside of that a lot of good. Sometimes, when you’re watching the scrimmage for the quarterback you can be critical sometimes. But I think they get too much of the blame and too much of the credit. I think when a quarterback’s playing well or playing bad it’s usually the result of the players around them playing poorly or playing really well. So a lot of film to teach and learn from and ultimately that’s the best thing about a scrimmage. We’re certainly going to take advantage of it.”
Offensive line: “You know I think it's a position where we've got a handful of players that can play, you know? And then, I think every team, I mean every position on our team, we need more players, right? We need more depth. I think the offensive line is a reflection of the entire team. I mean, we have a pretty good first group we can put out there, and if you really evaluated the team relative to experience, this is a very inexperienced team. After the first team if you look at the experience, the number of plays that a lot of these guys have played, they haven't played any. So we have a lot of work to do to develop that second and third group."
Running back: “I think that room is getting more comfortable with the system. I think we’ve seen more consistent play. Running back is a position where I think everybody thinks, just toss the guy the ball and let him run. In reality there’s a lot that goes with that position. Footwork, eye-discipline. A number of different protections that you’re involved in. A route tree at that position. We’re fortunate in that I think we have one of the best running back coaches in the entire country in Jabar Juluke. His room has consistently produced and I see this room getting better. So I’m hopeful that that room can play winning football; we’re a long way from it. But in general I see them getting better.”
Tight end: “We’re thin there. A long snapper caught a pass today and Big Griff (Griffin McDowell) caught a pass today. If that gives you any indication. We’ve got two defensive tackles that are over there. We’ve got a long snapper just taking reps. that’s an area on our team where we anticipated potential depth issues. We signed three. We’ve also had injuries. We’re thin. Like I mentioned before. Every team’s got its problems. You do your best with it. No complaining. Just make the best of your situation. There’s lots of answers to that problem.”
UF BASEBALL: GATORS BLOW IT IN NINTH TO GEORGIA
Florida’s bullpen woes continued Thursday night in Athens as the Gators (18-8, 3-4 SEC) blew a 2-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, falling to Georgia (20-6, 4-3 SEC), 7-6. The Gators had taken a 6-4 lead in the top of the ninth on Jud Fabian’s 11th homer of the year, a towering blast over the wall in left center field, but in the bottom half of the inning, Georgia scored three runs with two outs thanks to a walk, a hit batter, a single and a game-winning 2-run double by Josh McCallister.
It was an uphill struggle the entire game for the Gators, who fell behind 2-0 in the first inning when Hunter Barco struggled to get into a groove. Georgia led 4-2 in the seventh when Mac Guscette hit his first career homer at UF, a 2-run shot that plated Deric Fabian ahead of him.
In the ninth, Guscette came through with a single and Fabian delivered a 2-run homer to put the Gators ahead for the first time in the game.
The Gators will try to even the series tonight (6 p.m., SEC Network+).
UF ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES FOR 2022
Jeff Demps (football/track); Michelle Moultrie (softball); Connor Dwyer (men’s swimming); Joe Haden (football); Chandler Parsons (men’s basketball); Christian Taylor (men’s track and field); Mike Zunino (baseball); Steve Beeland (men’s tennis, men’s and women’s tennis coach); and Jeremy Foley (athletic director)
UF SOFTBALL: NO. 7 GATORS TRAVEL TO AUBURN
The 7th-ranked Gators (28-5, 5-4 SEC) hope to rebound from last week’s series loss to Tennessee when they travel to Auburn to face the 17th-ranked Tigers (28-4, 6-3 SEC). The Gators lost two out of three to the Vols last weekend, but they rebounded somewhat Wednesday night with a non-conference 10-3 win over UCF.
The Gators are expected to pitch Elizabeth Hightower (9-1, 2.03 ERA) in tonight’s first game of the series (7 p.m., SEC Network+). Offensively, the Gators are led by Skylar Wallace (.434), who four homers and 31 RBI along with a perfect 30-for-30 on stolen bases.
Florida coach Tim Walton will serve as one of the assistant coaches for Team USA for the 2022 world championships. Walton, who led the Gators to the 2014 and 2015 NCAA championships, is 867-187 in 17 seasons at Florida, 990-251 for his career.
SEC Football/Basketball
Auburn: Devan Cambridge will join his brother Desmond (Nevada) in transferring to Arizona State ... Yohan Traore, who decommitted LSU when Will Wade was fired, has committed to Auburn.
Georgia: Linebacker CJ Washington is out for the rest of the spring with a neck injury suffered in a contact drill … Former UGa offensive lineman Owen Condon has transferred to SMU.
LSU: Starting center Efton Reid and reserve guard Eric Gaines are the 8th and 9th Tigers to put their names in the transfer portal. Reid is a former 5-star who averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds while Gaines came off the bench to average 9.0 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
Texas A&M: The Aggies (27-13) lost to Xavier in the final three seconds in the NIT championship game.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Bob Huggins will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. I have no problems with that. Huggy deserves it. He’s been one of the best coaches in the country since 1981 and has 916 career wins at Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and West Virginia to show for it.
I do have a problem with Billy Donovan once again being overlooked by the Hall. Huggy is a fine coach who has made two Final Fours and two Elite Eights in 41 years. In his 21 years as a college coach Billy Donovan won two national championships, made the Final Four four times, the Elite Eight seven times, and won six SEC regular season championships and four SEC Tournaments. He did it in the Southeastern Conference at a school not named Kentucky and other than Adolph Rupp, he’s the only SEC coach in history to win two national championships.
How is it that John Calipari, Bill Self, Gary Williams, Nolan Richardson, Frank McGuire, Al McGuire, Jim Boeheim and John Thompson are in the Hall with only one championship and Billy has two? How is it that Eddie Sutton, Everett Case, Harry Litwack, Ray Meyer, Ralph Miller, Lou Carnesecca, John Chaney and Lefty Driesell are in and they never won even one NCAA championship?
What Billy did at a football first school in a football first league is remarkable and should be honored with Hall of Fame membership. Shame on the people who did the voting.
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