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.”
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.”
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