By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:
TAUREAN GREEN: THE GAME HAS EVOLVED
Gainesville, in many ways, is a lot like the game of basketball in Taurean Green’s mind. Neither one is anything like it was back in 2007 when he left Gainesville along with the other three members of the fabled Oh-Fours after winning back-to-back NCAA championships while playing for Billy Donovan.
“Gainesville was a little town and now it’s a city,” Green remarked Wednesday morning at a press conference at the Florida basketball practice facility. Taurean is the newest member of Todd Golden’s coaching staff. He’s here as the Director of Player Development, which in many ways means he’s the general manager. He’s getting acclimated to the new job just as he is getting accustomed to a far different Gainesville than the one he left.
“Time flies, but just being able to be back on campus and seeing everything it’s surreal,” he said, noting that Gainesville now has a Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang’s, neither of which were in existence in the city back in 2007. He thinks the way Gainesville has grown will be good for recruiting.
Gainesville has changed. So has basketball since the days when he played point guard for a Florida team that became the first to win back-to-back national titles since the 1991-92 Duke teams. For two straight years, the Gators ran with the same starting lineup – big guys Al Horford and Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey on the wings and Taurean at the point. When Donovan subbed, he brought in big guys Adrian Moss and Chris Richard with guards Walter Hodge and David Huertas in 2006 when the Gators beat UCLA for the national championship. A year later, Donovan brought in Richard and Marreese Speights along with Hodge.
That was pretty much the way the game was played and that wasn’t all that long ago. It isn’t just the college game that has changed, either. The game has evolved in Europe, where Green spent all but one year of a lengthy professional career, and in the NBA.
“Like, you know, back when I played it was traditional two bigs, a wing, two guards,” he said. “Now it’s about this four out [beyond the 3-point line], you know sometimes five out so it’s just the game has evolved. It’s crazy, but like you have to be able to adapt to how the game’s played now. You’ve got to be able to shoot it. You’ve got fives who can step out to the three now, and you’ve just got to be able to adapt and just go with it.”
After spending the last year on Billy Donovan’s staff with the NBA Chicago Bulls, a year in which he spent being a sponge, absorbing everything he could from coaches, scouts and players, he’s on a collegiate staff, starting out in player development. Green says his role with the staff is fairly fluid. He’ll be doing a little bit of everything to help first year Florida coach Todd Golden get the basketball program re-started after seven years of Mike White at the helm.
Everything Taurean has seen about Golden tells him this is the right guy at the right time and the right place to get UF back to a championship level.
“He [Golden] wants to be here, he’s excited to be here, he’s appreciative of being here,” Green said. “He works hard, great energy, you know. It’s just a good vibe around him … The guys really respond around him … I feel like the most important thing is he wants to be here. You know, he's excited and he's just ready to get rolling.”
UF BASEBALL: NIL AND THE PORTAL SHOULD MAKE UF VERY APPEALING
Tommy White and Ethan Groff have entered their names in the NCAA transfer portal. If you don’t follow college baseball closely, then White is the best freshman hitter in the country who is departing North Carolina State and Groff is a stud outfielder who has said sayonara to Tulane. White had a monster year for the Wolfpack, hitting .362 with 12 doubles, 27 homers and 74 RBI. Unlike a lot of big boppers who suffer from Pedro Ceranno disease, White makes plenty of contact and only struck out 50 times in 235 at bats. Groff hit .404 for Tulane with 15 doubles, two triples, nine homers and 35 RBI. He struck out only 26 times in 151 at bats.
White is from St. Petersburg Beach, who finished his prep career at IMG Academy. Groff is a redshirt sophomore from Orlando (graduate of Trinity Prep) with as many as three years of eligibility remaining because of the 2020 COVID year.
White, for sure, is on Florida’s radar. Groff wants to return to the state of Florida although it’s unknown how high he is on Kevin O’Sullivan’s list of transfer portal priorities.
Here is why the University of Florida and all the Division I public schools should be very appealing to White, Groff and what is expected to be a tidal wave of transfers, many of whom are kids from the state of Florida. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, limits baseball to 11.7 scholarships that can be spread among 27 players. At the University of Florida where a full scholarship costs about $20,000 a year, KOS has about $234,000 in scholarship money to work with. That gives him an average of about $8,600 per player that he can dole out. With the SEC mandated cost of attendance stipend that every athlete whether on full or partial scholarship receives (thought to be between $5,000-6,000) and a Pell Grant (as much as $6,495) a baseball player can basically attend school at no cost. Now if KOS can get the collectives to spend some money, a baseball player like Tommy White or Ethan Groff can come back home and not have to pay any money out of pocket. Out-of-state tuition at North Carolina State is in excess of $29,000 per year. At Tulane, which is a rather expensive private school, tuition alone is more than $60,000 per year.
Both White and Groff will find the financial burdens significantly less by returning to their home state. A high profile baseball program like Florida, which will only need a couple of pieces to make a loaded roster next year might be an ideal landing spot, not just for White and Groff but for others in the portal.
UF SOFTBALL: WALTON LANDS A TRANSFER
Pal Egan always dreamed of playing softball for Tim Walton and the Gators and now she will have her chance although her route to Gainesville hit a few detours along the way. Egan, who played shortstop last season at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, started her collegiate career at Vernon College (juco) before transferring into Corpus Christi, where she was the 2022 Southland Conference Player of the Year and third team NFCA All-Region.
Egan began dreaming of playing for the Gators as a 10-year-old growing up in Bakersfield, California. Even when she was playing juco softball she hung a Florida pennant on her wall to remind her that playing for the Gators was her dream.
Now, after a season in which she hit .426 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs, 36 RBI and 27 stolen bases, she will be coming to UF as a graduate transfer. Egan had a .794 slugging percentage and a .555 on-base percentage that ranked eighth nationally.
Walton is likely to reach into the transfer portal for another player or two, particularly for power pitchers who throw high-60s for strikes.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL/BASEBALL
Alabama: Former All-American offensive lineman (1991) Robert Stewart passed away. He was 55 years old … Former Bama wide receiver Javon Baker, who was at one time committed to transfer to Kentucky, is transferring to UCF. Baker caught nine passes for 114 yards and a TD in two years at Alabama.
Arkansas: Sam Pittman, whose 12-11 record in two years represents a dramatic football turnaround for Arkansas, is rather happy with his contract extension that could average out to more than $6 million a year. “It was an honor that the school thought enough of me to give me a longer contract,” Pittman said at a Tuesday press conference ... The Razorbacks (41-19) travel to North Carolina (42-20) Saturday for super regional play.
Auburn: The Tigers (40-19) will travel to Oregon State for NCAA super regional play beginning Saturday.
Kentucky: John Calipari has hired K.T. Turner as an assistant. Turner spent last season working for Porter Moser at Oklahoma.
Mississippi State: Former Michigan reserve defensive back Jordan Morant is transferring to Mississippi State. He played in eight games in 2021, mostly on special teams.
Ole Miss: The Rebels (35-22), who were one of the last teams to make in for the original 64-team NCAA field, open play Saturday in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss (40-21) in super regional play.
Tennessee: The Vols (55-7) open play in their super regional Friday night against Notre Dame (38-14). Asked what he thinks of the No. 1 seeded Vols, Notre Dame outfielder Ryan Cole said “if I were them I’d be a little scared.”
Texas A&M: The Aggies (40-18) open super regional play Friday night against Louisville (42-19-1) in College Station … Offensive lineman Smart Chibuzo, who played in three games in two years, will medically retire.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It should be a moment to savor for Big 12 Conference outgoing commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Big 12 teams have won the last two NCAA championships in basketball and with Oklahoma and Texas playing for the national championship at the Women’s College World Series, the Big 12 will have won the last two softball titles, too. Back in April, Oklahoma edged Florida by a tenth of a point to win the NCAA gymnastics title. Texas just won the NCAA golf championship, too, and the Longhorns have the No. 1 ranked teams in both men and women’s track and field at the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon.
As proud as Bowlsby might be, however, the moment has to be bittersweet because Texas and Oklahoma will soon depart for the Southeastern Conference. The Big 12 will be losing its bell cows and the SEC, already the strongest league top to bottom in the entire country, will only be stronger. This is precisely why the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 formed “The Alliance.” They can stomp their feet and throw tantrums until they are blue in the face and they can do their best to obstruct expansion of the College Football Playoff, but the fear goes far beyond the playoff. The fear has everything to do with the SEC dominating everything except maybe hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, water polo, rowing and a bunch of other sports that aren’t SEC sponsored.
In sports sponsored by the SEC, here are national championships won in the league since 2000. Since Oklahoma and Texas are joining the SEC, their national titles in the Big 12 will be added to the SEC.
Football: 16
Men’s Basketball: 3
Women’s Basketball: 5
Baseball: 10
Softball: 9
Men’s Track and Field Indoor: 15
Men’s Track and Field Outdoor: 14
Women’s Track and Field Indoor: 11
Women’s Track and Field Outdoor: 13
Men’s Swimming and Diving: 15
Women’s Swimming and Diving: 12
Men’s Tennis: 5
Women’s Tennis: 8
Women’s Volleyball: 2
Men’s Golf: 10
Women’s Golf: 3
Women’s Gymnastics: 15
Men’s Cross Country: 1
Women’s Cross Country: 1
It can be argued that the only sport that really matters is football and in terms of generating revenue, it’s definitely the king, but since conferences have networks, these other sports do fill time and therefore create growth which translates into more revenue. More championships means lots of good programming for the network and therefore more money for every team in the league.
The fine folks in “The Alliance” have reason to be fearful. For one thing they’ll have to explain to their fans how it is they let the SEC become so dominant and not just for football.
A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:
TAUREAN GREEN: THE GAME HAS EVOLVED
Gainesville, in many ways, is a lot like the game of basketball in Taurean Green’s mind. Neither one is anything like it was back in 2007 when he left Gainesville along with the other three members of the fabled Oh-Fours after winning back-to-back NCAA championships while playing for Billy Donovan.
“Gainesville was a little town and now it’s a city,” Green remarked Wednesday morning at a press conference at the Florida basketball practice facility. Taurean is the newest member of Todd Golden’s coaching staff. He’s here as the Director of Player Development, which in many ways means he’s the general manager. He’s getting acclimated to the new job just as he is getting accustomed to a far different Gainesville than the one he left.
“Time flies, but just being able to be back on campus and seeing everything it’s surreal,” he said, noting that Gainesville now has a Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang’s, neither of which were in existence in the city back in 2007. He thinks the way Gainesville has grown will be good for recruiting.
Gainesville has changed. So has basketball since the days when he played point guard for a Florida team that became the first to win back-to-back national titles since the 1991-92 Duke teams. For two straight years, the Gators ran with the same starting lineup – big guys Al Horford and Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey on the wings and Taurean at the point. When Donovan subbed, he brought in big guys Adrian Moss and Chris Richard with guards Walter Hodge and David Huertas in 2006 when the Gators beat UCLA for the national championship. A year later, Donovan brought in Richard and Marreese Speights along with Hodge.
That was pretty much the way the game was played and that wasn’t all that long ago. It isn’t just the college game that has changed, either. The game has evolved in Europe, where Green spent all but one year of a lengthy professional career, and in the NBA.
“Like, you know, back when I played it was traditional two bigs, a wing, two guards,” he said. “Now it’s about this four out [beyond the 3-point line], you know sometimes five out so it’s just the game has evolved. It’s crazy, but like you have to be able to adapt to how the game’s played now. You’ve got to be able to shoot it. You’ve got fives who can step out to the three now, and you’ve just got to be able to adapt and just go with it.”
After spending the last year on Billy Donovan’s staff with the NBA Chicago Bulls, a year in which he spent being a sponge, absorbing everything he could from coaches, scouts and players, he’s on a collegiate staff, starting out in player development. Green says his role with the staff is fairly fluid. He’ll be doing a little bit of everything to help first year Florida coach Todd Golden get the basketball program re-started after seven years of Mike White at the helm.
Everything Taurean has seen about Golden tells him this is the right guy at the right time and the right place to get UF back to a championship level.
“He [Golden] wants to be here, he’s excited to be here, he’s appreciative of being here,” Green said. “He works hard, great energy, you know. It’s just a good vibe around him … The guys really respond around him … I feel like the most important thing is he wants to be here. You know, he's excited and he's just ready to get rolling.”
UF BASEBALL: NIL AND THE PORTAL SHOULD MAKE UF VERY APPEALING
Tommy White and Ethan Groff have entered their names in the NCAA transfer portal. If you don’t follow college baseball closely, then White is the best freshman hitter in the country who is departing North Carolina State and Groff is a stud outfielder who has said sayonara to Tulane. White had a monster year for the Wolfpack, hitting .362 with 12 doubles, 27 homers and 74 RBI. Unlike a lot of big boppers who suffer from Pedro Ceranno disease, White makes plenty of contact and only struck out 50 times in 235 at bats. Groff hit .404 for Tulane with 15 doubles, two triples, nine homers and 35 RBI. He struck out only 26 times in 151 at bats.
White is from St. Petersburg Beach, who finished his prep career at IMG Academy. Groff is a redshirt sophomore from Orlando (graduate of Trinity Prep) with as many as three years of eligibility remaining because of the 2020 COVID year.
White, for sure, is on Florida’s radar. Groff wants to return to the state of Florida although it’s unknown how high he is on Kevin O’Sullivan’s list of transfer portal priorities.
Here is why the University of Florida and all the Division I public schools should be very appealing to White, Groff and what is expected to be a tidal wave of transfers, many of whom are kids from the state of Florida. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, limits baseball to 11.7 scholarships that can be spread among 27 players. At the University of Florida where a full scholarship costs about $20,000 a year, KOS has about $234,000 in scholarship money to work with. That gives him an average of about $8,600 per player that he can dole out. With the SEC mandated cost of attendance stipend that every athlete whether on full or partial scholarship receives (thought to be between $5,000-6,000) and a Pell Grant (as much as $6,495) a baseball player can basically attend school at no cost. Now if KOS can get the collectives to spend some money, a baseball player like Tommy White or Ethan Groff can come back home and not have to pay any money out of pocket. Out-of-state tuition at North Carolina State is in excess of $29,000 per year. At Tulane, which is a rather expensive private school, tuition alone is more than $60,000 per year.
Both White and Groff will find the financial burdens significantly less by returning to their home state. A high profile baseball program like Florida, which will only need a couple of pieces to make a loaded roster next year might be an ideal landing spot, not just for White and Groff but for others in the portal.
UF SOFTBALL: WALTON LANDS A TRANSFER
Pal Egan always dreamed of playing softball for Tim Walton and the Gators and now she will have her chance although her route to Gainesville hit a few detours along the way. Egan, who played shortstop last season at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, started her collegiate career at Vernon College (juco) before transferring into Corpus Christi, where she was the 2022 Southland Conference Player of the Year and third team NFCA All-Region.
Egan began dreaming of playing for the Gators as a 10-year-old growing up in Bakersfield, California. Even when she was playing juco softball she hung a Florida pennant on her wall to remind her that playing for the Gators was her dream.
Now, after a season in which she hit .426 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs, 36 RBI and 27 stolen bases, she will be coming to UF as a graduate transfer. Egan had a .794 slugging percentage and a .555 on-base percentage that ranked eighth nationally.
Walton is likely to reach into the transfer portal for another player or two, particularly for power pitchers who throw high-60s for strikes.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL/BASEBALL
Alabama: Former All-American offensive lineman (1991) Robert Stewart passed away. He was 55 years old … Former Bama wide receiver Javon Baker, who was at one time committed to transfer to Kentucky, is transferring to UCF. Baker caught nine passes for 114 yards and a TD in two years at Alabama.
Arkansas: Sam Pittman, whose 12-11 record in two years represents a dramatic football turnaround for Arkansas, is rather happy with his contract extension that could average out to more than $6 million a year. “It was an honor that the school thought enough of me to give me a longer contract,” Pittman said at a Tuesday press conference ... The Razorbacks (41-19) travel to North Carolina (42-20) Saturday for super regional play.
Auburn: The Tigers (40-19) will travel to Oregon State for NCAA super regional play beginning Saturday.
Kentucky: John Calipari has hired K.T. Turner as an assistant. Turner spent last season working for Porter Moser at Oklahoma.
Mississippi State: Former Michigan reserve defensive back Jordan Morant is transferring to Mississippi State. He played in eight games in 2021, mostly on special teams.
Ole Miss: The Rebels (35-22), who were one of the last teams to make in for the original 64-team NCAA field, open play Saturday in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss (40-21) in super regional play.
Tennessee: The Vols (55-7) open play in their super regional Friday night against Notre Dame (38-14). Asked what he thinks of the No. 1 seeded Vols, Notre Dame outfielder Ryan Cole said “if I were them I’d be a little scared.”
Texas A&M: The Aggies (40-18) open super regional play Friday night against Louisville (42-19-1) in College Station … Offensive lineman Smart Chibuzo, who played in three games in two years, will medically retire.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It should be a moment to savor for Big 12 Conference outgoing commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Big 12 teams have won the last two NCAA championships in basketball and with Oklahoma and Texas playing for the national championship at the Women’s College World Series, the Big 12 will have won the last two softball titles, too. Back in April, Oklahoma edged Florida by a tenth of a point to win the NCAA gymnastics title. Texas just won the NCAA golf championship, too, and the Longhorns have the No. 1 ranked teams in both men and women’s track and field at the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon.
As proud as Bowlsby might be, however, the moment has to be bittersweet because Texas and Oklahoma will soon depart for the Southeastern Conference. The Big 12 will be losing its bell cows and the SEC, already the strongest league top to bottom in the entire country, will only be stronger. This is precisely why the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 formed “The Alliance.” They can stomp their feet and throw tantrums until they are blue in the face and they can do their best to obstruct expansion of the College Football Playoff, but the fear goes far beyond the playoff. The fear has everything to do with the SEC dominating everything except maybe hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, water polo, rowing and a bunch of other sports that aren’t SEC sponsored.
In sports sponsored by the SEC, here are national championships won in the league since 2000. Since Oklahoma and Texas are joining the SEC, their national titles in the Big 12 will be added to the SEC.
Football: 16
Men’s Basketball: 3
Women’s Basketball: 5
Baseball: 10
Softball: 9
Men’s Track and Field Indoor: 15
Men’s Track and Field Outdoor: 14
Women’s Track and Field Indoor: 11
Women’s Track and Field Outdoor: 13
Men’s Swimming and Diving: 15
Women’s Swimming and Diving: 12
Men’s Tennis: 5
Women’s Tennis: 8
Women’s Volleyball: 2
Men’s Golf: 10
Women’s Golf: 3
Women’s Gymnastics: 15
Men’s Cross Country: 1
Women’s Cross Country: 1
It can be argued that the only sport that really matters is football and in terms of generating revenue, it’s definitely the king, but since conferences have networks, these other sports do fill time and therefore create growth which translates into more revenue. More championships means lots of good programming for the network and therefore more money for every team in the league.
The fine folks in “The Alliance” have reason to be fearful. For one thing they’ll have to explain to their fans how it is they let the SEC become so dominant and not just for football.
