After seeing Kentucky up close and personal in a 78-58 loss last night, Florida’s Billy Donovan has high praise for John Calipari’s team:


“The one thing I like about their team is I love their disposition on the floor.  There’s a certain disposition you have to have and I’m not talking about an arrogance or a cockiness, but there’s like a focus level in terms of what really goes into winning at that level.  There’s a mentality there.”


Donovan — whose Gators lost to #2 Syracuse earlier this season — also said #1 Kentucky has a bit more talent than the Orange in that they have six future NBA first-round picks on their roster.  Still, “it would be a heck of a game,” he said.

Kentucky is the top-ranked team in the country.  They’ve lost just one game all season (by one point at Indiana).  They’ve won 15 in a row overall.  They’ve won 48 in a row at home.

So?

Florida’s Kenny Boynton says the Gators aren’t awed by the Wildcats success:


“At the end of the day, they’re just another SEC team to us.  No different than Tennessee or South Carolina.  I think if we go out there and play the way we’ve been playing lately, I think we’ve got a great chance at winning.”


Perhaps.  But it’s worth noting Florida lost at Tennessee when they played there. 

The Gators shouldn’t be scared of going into Lexington to face Kentucky.  Upsets happen and if anyone can steal one at Rupp it’s probably Florida.  But UF’s players hopefully have at least some awareness of what the Cats are capable of on their home court. 

The average score at Rupp this season: UK 83, Visitors 60.

As far as the matchup is concerned, the Wildcats are #1 in the league in scoring offense in SEC contests (71.9 ppg) and scoring defense (56.4 ppg).  The Gators are #4 in both categories (69.7 ppg versus 61.0 ppg).

UK should hold an edge outside the arc (they’re second in 3-point field goal percentage while UF ranks 11th in 3-point field goal percentage defense) and on the glass (the Cats are third in rebounding margin while the Gators are eighth).

Here’s hoping for a fun one tonight at Rupp.

Will Muschamp has been maintain stability in his program this offseason.  He got good news on that front today.

The Gainesville Sun reports today that Gator defensive coordinator Dan Quinn has passed on an offer to join Greg Schiano’s new staff with the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  He served in the NFL with the 49ers, Dolphins, Jets and Seahawks from 2001 through 2010 before joining Muschamp’s first staff in Gainesville.

The Gators will return 10 starters on defense this fall.  Last season they ranked fifth in the SEC in scoring defense, fifth in rushing defense, third in passing defense, and fifth in total defense.

If you thought Nike only made a mockery of traditional football uniforms, boy, are you in for a surprise.  The global sports manufacturer will outfit Florida, Kentucky and a number of non-SEC schools in a new wave of silver unis, featuring half-hidden logo patterns and just a hint of school colors in the coming weeks.

The new duds from Nike’s Hyper Elite Platinum series were unveiled today.  And the word “duds” was chosen for a reason.  They’re sci-fi, right down to the lone padded arm band.  (Click the headline for a better look.)

Look, this writer isn’t 20, he’s 40.  So the target audience I’m not.  And it’s likely that many teens will go coo-coo for Nike puffs once again.  But personally, I like Nike’s designs when they provide tweaks to past uniform designs.

Not when they look like they’re one step removed from what Starbuck and Apollo would wear in the Colonial Triad League.

Kevin Stallings, you’ve got company.  Yesterday, Florida’s Billy Donovan voiced his concerns about the quick Thursday-Sunday turnarounds that some league teams are having to deal with this season.  Rather than suggest that his team is at a disadvantage, Donovan used another team as an example of the difficulties of the turnarounds (possibly because he’s 9-1 in such back-to-backs). 

Donovan specifically mentioned Alabama — a team that hosted Vanderbilt at 7pm last Thursday before facing Kentucky at noon on Saturday. 


“If you’re trying to get more teams into the NCAA tournament, don’t put the teams inside your league into a competitive disadvantage.  That’s my only problem with it, where teams are at a competitive disadvantage…

There’s got to be some level of balance there.  The league needs to look at those situations where maybe there’s a clear, distinct advantage.  I think an advantage sometimes is if a team’s playing a late-night game on Thursday night, there should be some rule put in that you’re not going to play Saturday until after 4 or 5 o’clock.  I’m using Alabama because it just happened.”


We’ve got no problem with Donovan’s suggestion that the league try to implement rules regarding start times.  We’d suggest going to a pure 48-hour rule.  If a team plays at 7pm Thursday, it couldn’t tip before 7pm Saturday.

Unfortunately — and we’ve said this before — that’s not what television executives want.  And while TV execs may be paying for Alabama, Florida, LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Auburn, Arkansas during football season… they’re paying for Kentucky’s brand name during hoops season.  Like it, don’t like it, that’s a fact.  Kentucky versus anyone is likely a better ratings draw national than any other SEC school versus any other SEC school. 

Donovan knows this.  “Kentucky’s program is extremely valuable and important to our league and their success is important to our league.  There’s no question about that.  And I’m sure ESPN wants (them), but ESPN also has a Thursday night game, too.”

Sadly, what coaches and fans seldom realize is just how difficult in-conference scheduling can be.  Until every team plays every other team at home and on the road, you’re always going to have complaints.  And even then some would bark about who’s facing who early in the season, late in the season, in back-to-back games, etc.

SEC spokesperson Craig Pinkerton told The Gainesville Sun that the league has certain parameters it must live within regarding Thursday-Saturday turnarounds.  But, “While we make our best efforts to balance out the Thursday-Saturday tandems amongst all of the team, we can’t always make it perfectly balanced.”

Of the major BCS leagues, only the Big East requires its teams to face fewer two-day turnarounds than the Southeastern Conference.


(For some reason I’d initially headlined this piece “Thursday-Sunday Turnarounds.  Obviously, it’s Saturday as is written throughout the piece.)

Every year it’s like clockwork.  The BCS Championship Game is played.  A week later, the arrests begin.  Ex-Alabama star Dre Kirkpatrick was the first to be popped for possession of marijuana.  Now it’s a Florida Gator.

Sophomore defensive tackle Leon Orr faces misdemeanor marijuana possession charge after less than 20 grams were found in his on-campus dorm room by UF police.  He’s also being charged with possession of drug paraphernalia thanks to a pipe and rolling papers that were also found in the room.

For those thinking that Will Muschamp would be able to clean up the Gators’ marijuana culture, that’s a no-go.  Orr is the eighth Florida player arrested under Muschamp and six of those arrests have been pot-related.

Smoking marijuana in college isn’t as rare as it used to be and from the 60′s on it hasn’t been that rare to begin with.  But if Florida were to strengthen its drug policy, it might lead one or two Gators to occasionally put down their pipes.

There are two things that are said about 99% of the college football and college basketball coaches in the country — they’re having an affair or they drink too much.

Whenever a coach leaves a school, jilted fans — who get their info from an “insider” or “big booster” — always say “Coach left because his wife gave him an ultimatum” or “Coach left because the school was tired of his drinking.”  It happens so often that those of us who cover multiple schools usually roll our eyes as soon as someone starts down that path.

I can tell you that I don’t believe a single one of these negative rumors about coaches when I hear them or have them emailed to the MrSEC.com inbox.  Not when I see ‘em on Twitter or messageboards. 

When it comes to rumors, there have been many surrounding Urban Meyer’s departure from Florida.  Many, many, many.  His health is bad, NCAA investigations are on deck, and worse.  One recent one bit of gossip making the rounds had the coach’s family telling him to get lost, that they weren’t going to be moving to Columbus with him.

Well, maybe they were just putting on a good show, but Meyer’s whole family was in Columbus yesterday.  His wife and his progeny.  They were on hand to be introduced to a cheering Ohio State crowd at a Buckeye basketball game.





Believe and pass rumors and gossip if you like.  Just know that Coach X in your hometown isn’t the only one “insiders” claim to be boozing it up or messing around with a coed or a secretary.  That’s said about coaches all across America… just as soon as they leave or another job.  And the stories are always ridiculously similar.

That’s why this writer doesn’t buy it when he hears such chatter.  It’s ugly and it’s nonsense 99.9% of the time.

After all, the Meyers sure looked happy in Columbus yesterday just as they did on the day Papa Urban was introduced as OSU’s new coach back in November.

The SEC’s first “Super Tuesday” of the season has come and gone and the favorites easily took care of business.  Which is bad news for Darrin Horn and Mark Fox.


Florida 78, Georgia 48

So much for Bradley Beal’s slump.  So much for Florida not playing defense.  The Gators bounced back from a surprising loss at Tennessee on Saturday with a thorough beatdown of Georgia in Gainesville.  The Dawgs have now lost 10 straight at the O’Connell Center.

Beal — the top signee in the country — connected on 4 of 6 shots from 3-point range to tally 17 points.  He also added 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.

The Bulldogs fell to 0-2 in the SEC, 9-7 overall.  For Fox — who was hailed as a savior following his first season in Athens — the natives might soon start to turn restless.  The coach went 14-17 in Year One and then led UGA to the NCAA tourney with a 21-12 record last season.  But he’s now just 14-20 in SEC play and 18 of those losses occurred with NBA’ers Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie on his squad (holdovers from the Dennis Felton era). 

Fox deserves time to turn around a long-troubled program at Georgia, but dealing with SEC fans we’ve come to know one thing for sure: They have zero patience.


Vanderbilt 67, South Carolina 57

The sands in Darrin Horn’s coaching hourglass continue to run out at South Carolina.  Vanderbilt — behind 13 made 3-pointers — opened up a 24-point lead late before allowing the Cocks to notch the game’s final 14 points.

Bruce Ellington had 20 points to lead Carolina, but USC is now just 8-8 overall and 0-2 in the SEC.  Granted, they’ve opened against NCAA tourney sure-things Kentucky and Vandy, but blowout home losses like last night’s won’t help Horn keep his job at year’s end.

Meanwhile, after a so-so non-conference start to the season — due in part to injuries — the Commodores are off to a blistering start in league play.  Taking into account VU’s 65-35 demolition of Auburn on Saturday, Kevin Stallings’ team has won its first two SEC contests by a combined 40 points.  And as we noted above, the score at Carolina could have been worse.

It looks like the Florida offensive coordinator search is down to three candidates: Brent Pease, Brian Schottenheimer and Brian White.  But question marks have to be placed beside all three men’s names.

Pease — the offensive coordinator at Boise State — is reportedly mulling offers from both Florida and Alabama.  It is believed he will meet face-to-face with Nick Saban in New Orleans tomorrow.

Schottenheimer — the New York Jets’ offensive coordinator and former Gator backup quarterback — was thought to have removed his name from Will Muschamp’s hat late last week.  But yesterday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Schottenheimer had not pulled his name from consideration.

Finally, White — UF’s current running backs coach — handled the offensive coordinator duties leading up to the Gators’ bowl win, but things looked much like they did under Charlie Weis (263 total yards, one offensive touchdown.  White is a former offensive coordinator at Wisconsin and UNLV and his promotion would provide the Gators some much-needed continuity on the coaching staff.

Nothing’s more important than spending time with his wife and kids.  He never wanted to coach anywhere else after wearing the orange and blue.  He wasn’t going to raid Florida’s football program for staffers.

By now, it’s become pretty clear that what Urban Meyer says and what Urban Meyer does can be two completely different things.  So prepare for the coach’s latest canard:


“I’m sure I’ll watch some (of the Gator Bowl between Florida and Ohio State).  It’s hard or me to sit and watch a whole game.  I think people are making more of it than I would.  At some point, that story is going to go away.”


Uh, yeah.  As soon as the fourth quarter ends on January 2nd in Jacksonville.  Until then, the 2012 Gator Bowl is in reality the Urban Meyer Bowl.

And if you think the head coach at Ohio State won’t be watching his new squad battle his old squad — if for no other reason than to simply gauge his new troops’ abilities against athletes he’s familiar with — then you’ve probably believed every other fabrication Meyer has spun in the past 24 months.

“I want to form my opinions after we coach them,” Meyer said of his new Buckeye players.  “It’s a great opportunity for these players to push restart.  I’m not going to develop an opinion based on this game.”

Maybe not, but the idea that he won’t be watching the game from start to finish is downright laughable.