By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:
GOLDEN EMBRACES THE DONOVAN LEGACY
Here are some excerpts from Florida basketball coach Todd Golden on Jon Rothstein’s College Hoops Today podcast:
On the pressure of the Billy Donovan legacy
“I got the job on Friday. I called him on Saturday. He called me back and we talked for 30 minutes on that Saturday and straight from the get-go he was saying how happy he was for me to get this opportunity and that he was willing to help as much or as little as I wanted. He just wanted me to know he was rooting for me and he wanted me to be successful. It meant a lot, someone who had such great success here at Florida – won back-to-back national championships – and really put this program on the map, everything from our practice facility to the rehabilitation of the O-Dome back in 2016. All those things were done because of Coach Donovan. Sometimes people ask me are you worried about living up to Billy, are you worried about the pressure? I’m embracing that. He’s one of the best coaches to ever to do it in the college game. I would love to be the next Billy Donovan. That is my goal. My goal is to get this place back to where we’re competing for national championships, playing in the second and third weekend of the NCAA Tournament and to know I have his support means a lot.”
On the conversations with Scott Stricklin that led to getting the Florida job
“We hit it off quickly. We both felt it was a really good fit. For me, once Florida became an option some of these other programs that had shown interest, they didn’t interest me nearly as much as Florida. I think this is an incredible job, one of the top ten jobs in the country. When Scott and I realized that we would be able work together and shared a similar vision in terms of what this program needs to be it was really a no-brainer for me and my family and it was easy to commit to this opportunity.”
On the roster he inherited plus the transfers/recruit he’s added so far
“We return six guys that are going to become great, really impactful players for us. You look at Colin Castleton, first and foremost, a guy who had a chance to go play pro after graduating this summer. We were able to get him to buy into our vision, of what we plan to do to get back into the tournament next year.”
After mentioning Myreon Jones – “I feel like he’s getting his confidence and swag back” – and the other four players (Kowacie Reeves, Jason Jitoboh, Niels Lane, CJ Felder) how he sees the roster
“You’ve got some really good pieces there, guys you can build around … With the guys we’ve added (Alex Fudge, Will Richard, Trey Bonham, Denzel Aberdeen) I think we have a really solid nucleus as we head into next year and we’ll had a couple more guys before summer starts.”
His expectation for next year and beyond at Florida
“Definitely to get back to the NCAA tournament. I think this is a place where the expectations should be to make it every year and then as you build your program and as you add depth and get the right people on board, our expectation is to play deep into the NCAA Tournament. I don’t expect us to go to the Final Four every year, but I expect us to be in contention to be in the Sweet 16, to be a team that’s getting really good seeds, having an opportunity to wear home jerseys the first couple of rounds of the NCAA Tournament. This is a top 10 job and our expectation as we build this program back up in the next couple of years will be to be deep in the NCAA Tournament.”
SEC SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT: GATORS WILL FACE AGGIES TONIGHT
Texas A&M (29-25) will be the opponent tonight (5 p.m., SEC Network) when the 12th-ranked and 5th-seeded Gators play their first game in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The 12th-seeded Aggies advanced by taking out South Carolina (26-30), 5-3. During the regular season, the Gators beat Texas A&M two out of three games in College Station. In taking that weekend series, Elizabeth Hightower (14-7, 2.30 ERA) was the winning pitcher in the first and third games. Hightower figures to get the ball tonight while the Aggies will probably go with Makinzy Herzog (9-7, 2.47 ERA), who shut out the Gators on three hits in College Station.
Florida’s hopes to host both an NCAA regional and super regional depend on what the Gators do this week. at the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Right now, the Gators are ranked 12th in the USA Today Coaches Poll but 13th in RPI. That bodes well for hosting a regional, but to host a super regional as well, the Gators probably need to win at least three times this week to leap some teams for a No. 8 overall seed.
Wednesday’s SEC Tournament games
12 noon: 11 Mississippi State (32-23) vs. 6 LSU (34-20)
2:30 p.m.: 10 Auburn (39-14) vs. 7 Missouri (33-19)
5 p.m.: 12 Texas A&M (29-25) vs. 5 FLORIDA (41-15)
7:30 p.m.: 9 Georgia (33-19) vs. 8 Ole Miss (38-16)
UF BASEBALL: HOT GATORS SHUT OUT BCC, 7-0
Tyler Nesbitt, Nick Ficarrotta and Blake Purnell combined to limit Bethune-Cookman to five hits Tuesday night as the surging Florida Gators won their 30th game of the season, 7-0, at the Condron Family Ballpark. The win was the fifth straight and seventh in the last eight games for the Gators (30-18), who travel to Missouri this weekend.
Nesbitt (2-3, 4.56 ERA) gave up four hits and struck out four in the first four innings. Ficarrotta (3.67 ERA) followed by giving up one hit while striking out six in four innings and Purnell (2.45 ERA) followed up with a strikeout in a spotless ninth.
Patience at the plate paid off as the Gators supplemented their seven hits with nine walks. Wyatt Langford (.355, 50 RBI) hit his 16th homer of the season while Sterlin Thompson (.351, 9 HR, 43 RBI) had a single, a double and two RBI and Josh Rivera (.276) had a pair of hits. Thompson extended his on-base streak to 17 consecutive games.
UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS DROP TO FIFTH IN ALBUQUERQUE REGIONAL
It was a rough day for the Gators Tuesday as they shot a collective 8-over par to drop to fifth place in the Albuquerque Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Heading into today’s final round, the Gators are at 584, a single shot behind fourth place TCU and 16 behind first place and top seeded Oregon. Only the top four teams advance to the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Florida’s Marina Escobar Domingo shot a 72 Tuesday. She is in third place, six shots off the individual leader’s pace.
Here are the top ten team scores: 1. Oregon 568; 2. Georgia 576; 3. Texas 577; 4. TCU 583; 5. FLORIDA 584; 6. (Tie) Arizona and Sam Houston State 588; 8. Louisville 591; 9. Oklahoma 602; 10. North Texas 603.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Alabama: Keon Ambrose-Hylton, who scored 32 points and pulled down 22 rebounds last season, is transferring to SMU to play for former Gator assistant Rob Lanier.
Georgia: The Bulldogs rank No. 122 out of 130 Division I football teams for percentage of returning production on the defensive side of the ball.
LSU: Bradley Ezewiro, who had seven points and six rebounds in seven games last season, is transferring to Georgetown.
Missouri: Bradley Sternberg, who scored six points in seven games, will transfer from Cleveland State to Mizzou as a preferred walk-on. He is the third former Cleveland State player to transfer to Mizzou to play for Dennis Gates.
Texas A&M: Marcus Williams, who averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game last season, is transferring to San Francisco.
CHARLES BARKLEY ON ACADEMICS AT AUBURN
On the Monday night “Inside the NBA” broadcast on TNT, former Auburn star and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley told host Ernie Johnson that he wasn’t much on math but was more into science when he was a student at Auburn. Johnson then asked Barkley what was his major at Auburn?
“Music Appreciation,” was Barkley’s response. “They played music and I said, ‘I appreciate it’ and they gave me an A.”
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Sir Isaac Newton, credited with the theory of gravity, once wrote, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Football hadn’t been invented yet so he couldn’t have been talking about NIL and the transfer portal, the two issues that plague the NCAA these days which plans to fight back.
Perhaps you think it’s good that the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, will fight hard to get this NIL thing under control by reigning in the booster-dominated collectives. Maybe you think the NCAA, while it’s about it, can find enough bubble gum to plug up all the holes in its transfer legislation. Perhaps you still believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny. You must if you think the NCAA is going to come up with a practical solution to issues that are bad enough individually, but intertwined are like a wrecking ball that is crumbling the structure of collegiate sports’ guiding body in such a way that it probably won’t exist in three or four more years.
Monday the NCAA talked about coming up with rules and enforcement to put the kibosh on booster-dominated collectives that are nothing more than a legalized version of what the NCAA rulebook says is cheating. Cheating was then. NIL is now as in “Now It’s Legal.”
Since the NCAA can’t stay out of its own way, it will try to legislate control of NIL collectives. You should know the lawyers representing the collectives are sharpening their knives, ready to take on the NCAA in court, where the NCAA will inevitably lose. It always loses and this will not be an exception. The NCAA losing in court is like death and taxes. You know it’s unavoidable.
Hours before the NCAA’s proposed crackdown on collectives was announced Monday, Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network weighed in on how NIL is changing recruiting on WJOX in Birmingham.
“I spent the early part of my career thinking I could play a role in maybe cleaning up the cheating in college athletics,” Finebaum said. “I’m on the other side of that right now. If I’m at a school that needs players, I’m going to go out and get those players, guys. Why not?
“We’re not talking about Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher here. We’re talking about coaches that need star players to maintain their viability. I think everyone is pushing the envelope as much as you can and some are obliterating the line between good and evil here. There’s no one in charge.”
The key phrase here: “There’s no one in charge.” As my grandmother Ivey Van Sickle would have put it, “They’ve got squirrels in their attic.”
NIL and the transfer portal are messes of the NCAA’s own doing. Instead of thoughtful, well-thought out rules for dealing with these issues, the NCAA basically threw them out there, perhaps taking the politically correct “being nice will solve everything” approach. Nothing has been solved. We have chaos that will only become more chaotic.
In the meantime, Finebaum offers this gem:
“If you’re trying to get a player right now, like the guy from Pittsburgh, you have to cheat. You’re not just going to call that guy up and say, ‘Mr. (Jordan) Addison, we’d love for you to come visit our school, we want to show you around, the academic center, show you the library, show you the research and development. You basically have to do one thing: you have to show him the money. That’s where we are right now.”
Show me the money. That’s where college sports are. Get used to it.
A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:
GOLDEN EMBRACES THE DONOVAN LEGACY
Here are some excerpts from Florida basketball coach Todd Golden on Jon Rothstein’s College Hoops Today podcast:
On the pressure of the Billy Donovan legacy
“I got the job on Friday. I called him on Saturday. He called me back and we talked for 30 minutes on that Saturday and straight from the get-go he was saying how happy he was for me to get this opportunity and that he was willing to help as much or as little as I wanted. He just wanted me to know he was rooting for me and he wanted me to be successful. It meant a lot, someone who had such great success here at Florida – won back-to-back national championships – and really put this program on the map, everything from our practice facility to the rehabilitation of the O-Dome back in 2016. All those things were done because of Coach Donovan. Sometimes people ask me are you worried about living up to Billy, are you worried about the pressure? I’m embracing that. He’s one of the best coaches to ever to do it in the college game. I would love to be the next Billy Donovan. That is my goal. My goal is to get this place back to where we’re competing for national championships, playing in the second and third weekend of the NCAA Tournament and to know I have his support means a lot.”
On the conversations with Scott Stricklin that led to getting the Florida job
“We hit it off quickly. We both felt it was a really good fit. For me, once Florida became an option some of these other programs that had shown interest, they didn’t interest me nearly as much as Florida. I think this is an incredible job, one of the top ten jobs in the country. When Scott and I realized that we would be able work together and shared a similar vision in terms of what this program needs to be it was really a no-brainer for me and my family and it was easy to commit to this opportunity.”
On the roster he inherited plus the transfers/recruit he’s added so far
“We return six guys that are going to become great, really impactful players for us. You look at Colin Castleton, first and foremost, a guy who had a chance to go play pro after graduating this summer. We were able to get him to buy into our vision, of what we plan to do to get back into the tournament next year.”
After mentioning Myreon Jones – “I feel like he’s getting his confidence and swag back” – and the other four players (Kowacie Reeves, Jason Jitoboh, Niels Lane, CJ Felder) how he sees the roster
“You’ve got some really good pieces there, guys you can build around … With the guys we’ve added (Alex Fudge, Will Richard, Trey Bonham, Denzel Aberdeen) I think we have a really solid nucleus as we head into next year and we’ll had a couple more guys before summer starts.”
His expectation for next year and beyond at Florida
“Definitely to get back to the NCAA tournament. I think this is a place where the expectations should be to make it every year and then as you build your program and as you add depth and get the right people on board, our expectation is to play deep into the NCAA Tournament. I don’t expect us to go to the Final Four every year, but I expect us to be in contention to be in the Sweet 16, to be a team that’s getting really good seeds, having an opportunity to wear home jerseys the first couple of rounds of the NCAA Tournament. This is a top 10 job and our expectation as we build this program back up in the next couple of years will be to be deep in the NCAA Tournament.”
SEC SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT: GATORS WILL FACE AGGIES TONIGHT
Texas A&M (29-25) will be the opponent tonight (5 p.m., SEC Network) when the 12th-ranked and 5th-seeded Gators play their first game in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The 12th-seeded Aggies advanced by taking out South Carolina (26-30), 5-3. During the regular season, the Gators beat Texas A&M two out of three games in College Station. In taking that weekend series, Elizabeth Hightower (14-7, 2.30 ERA) was the winning pitcher in the first and third games. Hightower figures to get the ball tonight while the Aggies will probably go with Makinzy Herzog (9-7, 2.47 ERA), who shut out the Gators on three hits in College Station.
Florida’s hopes to host both an NCAA regional and super regional depend on what the Gators do this week. at the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Right now, the Gators are ranked 12th in the USA Today Coaches Poll but 13th in RPI. That bodes well for hosting a regional, but to host a super regional as well, the Gators probably need to win at least three times this week to leap some teams for a No. 8 overall seed.
Wednesday’s SEC Tournament games
12 noon: 11 Mississippi State (32-23) vs. 6 LSU (34-20)
2:30 p.m.: 10 Auburn (39-14) vs. 7 Missouri (33-19)
5 p.m.: 12 Texas A&M (29-25) vs. 5 FLORIDA (41-15)
7:30 p.m.: 9 Georgia (33-19) vs. 8 Ole Miss (38-16)
UF BASEBALL: HOT GATORS SHUT OUT BCC, 7-0
Tyler Nesbitt, Nick Ficarrotta and Blake Purnell combined to limit Bethune-Cookman to five hits Tuesday night as the surging Florida Gators won their 30th game of the season, 7-0, at the Condron Family Ballpark. The win was the fifth straight and seventh in the last eight games for the Gators (30-18), who travel to Missouri this weekend.
Nesbitt (2-3, 4.56 ERA) gave up four hits and struck out four in the first four innings. Ficarrotta (3.67 ERA) followed by giving up one hit while striking out six in four innings and Purnell (2.45 ERA) followed up with a strikeout in a spotless ninth.
Patience at the plate paid off as the Gators supplemented their seven hits with nine walks. Wyatt Langford (.355, 50 RBI) hit his 16th homer of the season while Sterlin Thompson (.351, 9 HR, 43 RBI) had a single, a double and two RBI and Josh Rivera (.276) had a pair of hits. Thompson extended his on-base streak to 17 consecutive games.
UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS DROP TO FIFTH IN ALBUQUERQUE REGIONAL
It was a rough day for the Gators Tuesday as they shot a collective 8-over par to drop to fifth place in the Albuquerque Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Heading into today’s final round, the Gators are at 584, a single shot behind fourth place TCU and 16 behind first place and top seeded Oregon. Only the top four teams advance to the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Florida’s Marina Escobar Domingo shot a 72 Tuesday. She is in third place, six shots off the individual leader’s pace.
Here are the top ten team scores: 1. Oregon 568; 2. Georgia 576; 3. Texas 577; 4. TCU 583; 5. FLORIDA 584; 6. (Tie) Arizona and Sam Houston State 588; 8. Louisville 591; 9. Oklahoma 602; 10. North Texas 603.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Alabama: Keon Ambrose-Hylton, who scored 32 points and pulled down 22 rebounds last season, is transferring to SMU to play for former Gator assistant Rob Lanier.
Georgia: The Bulldogs rank No. 122 out of 130 Division I football teams for percentage of returning production on the defensive side of the ball.
LSU: Bradley Ezewiro, who had seven points and six rebounds in seven games last season, is transferring to Georgetown.
Missouri: Bradley Sternberg, who scored six points in seven games, will transfer from Cleveland State to Mizzou as a preferred walk-on. He is the third former Cleveland State player to transfer to Mizzou to play for Dennis Gates.
Texas A&M: Marcus Williams, who averaged 7.9 points, 2.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game last season, is transferring to San Francisco.
CHARLES BARKLEY ON ACADEMICS AT AUBURN
On the Monday night “Inside the NBA” broadcast on TNT, former Auburn star and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley told host Ernie Johnson that he wasn’t much on math but was more into science when he was a student at Auburn. Johnson then asked Barkley what was his major at Auburn?
“Music Appreciation,” was Barkley’s response. “They played music and I said, ‘I appreciate it’ and they gave me an A.”
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Sir Isaac Newton, credited with the theory of gravity, once wrote, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Football hadn’t been invented yet so he couldn’t have been talking about NIL and the transfer portal, the two issues that plague the NCAA these days which plans to fight back.
Perhaps you think it’s good that the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, will fight hard to get this NIL thing under control by reigning in the booster-dominated collectives. Maybe you think the NCAA, while it’s about it, can find enough bubble gum to plug up all the holes in its transfer legislation. Perhaps you still believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny. You must if you think the NCAA is going to come up with a practical solution to issues that are bad enough individually, but intertwined are like a wrecking ball that is crumbling the structure of collegiate sports’ guiding body in such a way that it probably won’t exist in three or four more years.
Monday the NCAA talked about coming up with rules and enforcement to put the kibosh on booster-dominated collectives that are nothing more than a legalized version of what the NCAA rulebook says is cheating. Cheating was then. NIL is now as in “Now It’s Legal.”
Since the NCAA can’t stay out of its own way, it will try to legislate control of NIL collectives. You should know the lawyers representing the collectives are sharpening their knives, ready to take on the NCAA in court, where the NCAA will inevitably lose. It always loses and this will not be an exception. The NCAA losing in court is like death and taxes. You know it’s unavoidable.
Hours before the NCAA’s proposed crackdown on collectives was announced Monday, Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network weighed in on how NIL is changing recruiting on WJOX in Birmingham.
“I spent the early part of my career thinking I could play a role in maybe cleaning up the cheating in college athletics,” Finebaum said. “I’m on the other side of that right now. If I’m at a school that needs players, I’m going to go out and get those players, guys. Why not?
“We’re not talking about Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and Jimbo Fisher here. We’re talking about coaches that need star players to maintain their viability. I think everyone is pushing the envelope as much as you can and some are obliterating the line between good and evil here. There’s no one in charge.”
The key phrase here: “There’s no one in charge.” As my grandmother Ivey Van Sickle would have put it, “They’ve got squirrels in their attic.”
NIL and the transfer portal are messes of the NCAA’s own doing. Instead of thoughtful, well-thought out rules for dealing with these issues, the NCAA basically threw them out there, perhaps taking the politically correct “being nice will solve everything” approach. Nothing has been solved. We have chaos that will only become more chaotic.
In the meantime, Finebaum offers this gem:
“If you’re trying to get a player right now, like the guy from Pittsburgh, you have to cheat. You’re not just going to call that guy up and say, ‘Mr. (Jordan) Addison, we’d love for you to come visit our school, we want to show you around, the academic center, show you the library, show you the research and development. You basically have to do one thing: you have to show him the money. That’s where we are right now.”
Show me the money. That’s where college sports are. Get used to it.
