Florida Gator fans got good news this morning via the Twitter account of senior-to-be guard Kenny Boynton.  Rather than make an early exit to the NBA, Boynton will return to Gainesville for one more year:


“To confirm the questions being ask lately I have reached a decision and I am returning to Gainesville for my senior season #go gators”


Boynton averaged a career-best 15.9 points per game last season along with 2.6 rebounds and 2.7 assists per contests.

Florida tight end AC Leonard has been in the news quite a bit lately.  In February he was arrested for allegedly shoving his girlfriends and then dragging her out of his apartment by here hair and feet.  Nice guy.

Will Muschamp said such behavior would not be tolerated and immediately suspended the sophomore-to-be.  Then, just a week ago, Leonard returned to spring practice… though UF’s coach said that didn’t mean he would play in the spring game (gasp!) or this fall.

A day after Leonard returned to practice, the State Attorney’s Office in Gainesville decided to push through with a charge of misdemeanor battery against the player, shining some bad light for the UF program and Muschamp.

Yesterday, Leonard pled nolo contendre — that’s “no contest” to you and me — to a single count of misdemeanor battery and he accepted six months of probation.  He’ll also got the usual court costs, anger management punishments.  And he’ll not be allowed to have contact with the ex-girlfriend.

Muschamp said in a press release yesterday: “As I stated last week, AC has a number of things he has to work through before his status for the fall is addressed.”

Probably at top of the list — stop dragging girls around by their hair and feet.

On Wednesday, Will Muschamp allowed tight end AC Leonard to return to the practice field despite the player having been arrested in February for simple domestic battery.  Yesterday, the Gainesville State Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor battery charge against Leonard.

And that doesn’t make Muschamp’s action the day before look too good.  Here’s what the Gator coach said Wednesday regarding the tight end:


“After a six-week suspension from team activities, AC Leonard has been cleared to return to practice only.  He still has a lot of things to work through before his status for the fall is addressed.”


That after initially stating “this behavior will not be tolerated.”  What behavior, you ask?  The police report — the one the State Attorney’s Office is now acting on — was summarized by the folks at CollegeFootballTalk.com:


“(Leonard) reportedly ‘shoved (his girlfriend) forcibly with both hands in here chest/neck area.  The force of the shove knocked her down to the ground, causing here head to strike a dog cage that was behind her.’

Leonard then reportedly told the woman to leave and attempted to drag her by her hair out the door.  When she resisted, the police report states Leonard grabbed his girlfriend by her feet and pulled her out of the apartment before locking her out.”


That was the girlfriend’s story.  But the arresting officer said he did see bruises on the woman’s elbow and arm.  Leonard said he never hit her, “I just wanted her to leave.” 

The attorney for the sophomore tight end — who played in nine games for the Gators last year — said earlier this week that he and his client were “in plea negotiations with the state and we are hopeful that we’re going to work out a resolution to this case without a trial.”

Even with the decision by the State Attorney’s Office yesterday, a deal could still be struck and the case could still be settled.

But it’s another black eye for a Florida program that has had more than its share of run-ins with the law since Urban Meyer touched down in Gainesville back in 2006.  Leonard was the ninth Gator arrested since Muschamp took over the UF program in January of last year.

UConn forward Alex Oriakhi has been granted a release from his scholarship and will be allowed to transfer to another program.  In three seasons, Oriakhi has averaged between 5.0 and 9.6 points per game and between 4.8 and 8.7 rebounds per game. 

Stunning numbers?  No.  But a darn solid addition to any team’s interior?  You bet.

That’s why at least three SEC schools are reportedly pursuing the senior-to-be.  The Connecticut Post reports that Kentucky and Missouri — along with North Carolina and Duke — “are among the teams that have contacted Oriakhi.”  ESPN’s Andy Katz reports that Florida is also in the mix for his services.

If UConn remains ineligible for next year’s NCAA Tournament due to NCAA sanctions, Oriakhi can step right in and play immediately for his new school.  UConn should learn of its appeal to play in next season’s tourney within the next 10 days.

Ah, but the SEC has a rule on the books that states any player transferring into the league must have at least two years of eligibility remaining.  Last summer, an additional loophole was closed that had allowed graduate students to transfer into the league for a single season.  (Yes, one-and-dones are okay on the front-ends of their careers, but not on the back-ends.  Go figure.) 

Last summer, Mike Slive said, “The rule is designed for a student-athlete to stay at our school long enough to have the kind of academic experience that we expect our student-athletes to have.  It is not acceptable for a student-athlete to transfer in solely for an athletic experience.”

Apparently the folks at Florida, Kentucky and Missouri believe they can get around that rule with a waiver from the league office.  (Heck, Mizzou officials might not even know about the rule yet… newbies.)

According to The Post, the Tigers might actually have the inside track to landing the 6-9 big man.  Oriakhi played AAU basketball with current Missouri guard Phil Pressey.

How serious is the league’s about its “no one-year transfers” policy?  We’ll find out if Oriakhi tries to move to Gainesville, Lexington or Columbia.

It was just three short years ago.  Billy Donovan’s Florida Gators had just wrapped up a three-game run in their second straight NIT.  There were more than a few rumbles, grumbles and questions about whether the coach had lost his mojo.  Maybe it was time for a change.  After all, Donovan had also taken an NBA job only to give it back hours later.  His heart just wasn’t in the college game anymore.  In the minds of a few, Florida needed someone new.

All this talk came after Donovan had already won back-to-back national titles in 2006 and 2007.  His whole team had gone pro on him afterward.  He was starting from scratch with his program in ’08 and ’09 and still winning 20+ games (he’s now put together 14 such seasons in a row) and he was still making postseason tournaments (15 in a row as of this season, with only three NITs in that mix).

Well, with Donovan’s Gators upsetting Marquette 68-58 last night in Phoenix to reach their second consecutive Elite Eight, maybe it’s time to look back and mock those finicky, fairweather folks who questioned UF’s coach.  Talk about “what have ya done for me lately.”

Tomorrow, Donovan and his 7th-seeded Gators will face 4th-seeded Louisville in the West Regional final.  Florida’s coach will be battling the man he played for at Providence, Rick Pitino. 

“Obviously, I’ve said that outside of my parents, he’s the most influential person in my life,” Donovan said last night of the man who is a perfect 6-0 against him as a coach.  But if UF can get past Louisville — who upset top-seeded Michigan State last night — Donovan will make his fourth trip to the Final Four.

Two national titles.  Five Elite Eights.  On the verge of a fourth Final Four.  People, that’s rarefied air.  That’s the Mount Olympus inhabited by the Mike Krzyzewskis, Roy Williams, Tom Izzos and Pitinos of the world.  That’s lifetime contract stuff.  In other words, it’s the kind of success that should keep fans’ mouths closed the next time Donovan’s program has to go through the bumps of a rebuilding cycle.

John Calipari might soon make Kentucky what it once was in terms of regular Final Four visitors and occasional national champs.  The Wildcats certainly appear to be heading in that direction.  But for now — until Coach Cal captures a crown — Florida and Donovan are the Kentucky of the SEC.  (Any insulted Gator fans should look up UK’s hoops history and realize what kind of compliment I just paid them.  Ditto insulted UK fans.)

As for last night’s win, it was a big dose of Bradley Beal — 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting — and some stingy defense that earned UF its latest Elite Eight trip.  Holding the up-tempo Golden Eagles to 58 points is no easy feat.  In its three NCAA tourney wins so far, the Gators have allowed just 51 points per game on average.

Earlier this week we told you that Marquette star Jae Crowder had said Florida is “a great offensive team,” but “they lack a few things defensively… we’ll get a lot of things we want offensively.”

Not so much.

Crowder scored 15 but connected on just 5-of-15 shots.  As a team his Golden Eagles shot just 30% from the floor.

With a dynamic Beal impressing on a nightly basis and the ability and desire to play some downright nasty defense, Florida is an uber-dangerous team right now.  And whether they take down Pitino’s Louisville squad tomorrow afternoon or not, Florida’s coach remains the SEC’s best.  Kentucky’s Calipari is good, but he’s got a ways to go before he equals Donovan in terms of hardware.

Let’s hope people in the Sunshine State remember that the next time Florida stubs its toe.

When Will Yeguete went down with a season-ending foot injury it appeared that with him went Florida’s frontcourt game, its defense and its chances at a prolonged NCAA Tournament run.  Losing four of their last five entering the tourney, those prognostications of doom looked pretty darn accurate.

Two blowout wins over Virginia and Norfolk State later, the Gators are heading to a 10:15pm ET game with Marquette tonight (on TNT).  So what changed?

Yeguete says the team simply got “used to me not playing” and “we’ve been really good on defense.”  Head coach Billy Donovan says his players simply realized “things that they needed to do” in Yeguete’s absence.

Kenny Boynton agrees with his coach: “The main concern was who was gonna rebound?  Who was going to do the small stuff he did on the court?  I think the answer to that was basically the whole team.  It takes a whole team to equal that out.”

Freshman Bradley Beal has also emerged, averaging 14 points and 10 rebounds through two tourney games.  For the season he averaged 6.7 boards per game.  His added toughness will be needed tonight against a Marquette squad that’s a #3 seed and by far the best team UF has seen in this year’s March Madness.

For their part, Golden Eagles’ coach Buzz Williams — I still slip and call them the Warriors on occasion — says Florida may be the most dangerous offensive team his club has faced all year.

“There’s very few teams — everybody knows that they lead the country in three-point field goal makes, but there’s very few teams that have that offensive rebounding percentage that at the same time have those offensive efficiency type numbers,” Williams told the press yesterday.  “So it’s as potent an offensive team as I’ve studied this year.  And that speaks to Coach Donovan and his staff and the guys that they’ve recruited.  But it also speaks to their development of those guys and then their style of play and how it enhances their talent.”

Win and Donovan — complete with a team that reinvented itself late in the season — will reach his fifth Elite Eight in 16 years at Florida and his second in a row.  Considering how his team looked in the immediate aftermath of Yeguete’s injury, that’d be a helluva job well done.

Marquette forward Jae Crowder sounds pretty confident about what his squad can do offensively against Florida tomorrow in the teams’ Sweet Sixteen game in Phoenix:


“They are a great offensive team.  They lack a few things defensively.  Of course, they bring great pressure in the frontcourt and try to get you rattled a little bit.  I think it we handle that, we’ll get a lot of things we want offensively.”


If Billy Donovan needed any help in motivating his Gators to give it their all on the defensive end against the up-tempo Warriors, Crowder just provided it.

It hasn’t been a stellar year for Southeastern Conference basketball.  First, Kentucky ran away with the regular-season race.  Second, Vanderbilt — which seemed to be putting things together in the SEC tourney — had more ups and downs than anyone expected.  Third, Alabama had more suspensions than anyone ever dreamed.  And finally, Florida had more injuries (especially a year-ender for Will Yeguete) than might have been projected.

So when we broke down the Sweet Sixteen chances for each SEC team in the NCAA tourney field last Tuesday, we projected just two teams surviving.  One — the obvious one — we got right.  The other, not so much.

Here’s how things stand moving forward:


Alabama – We didn’t see the Crimson Tide advancing from a pod that included Missouri Valley champs Creighton and #1 seed in the Midwest North Carolina.  They didn’t.  Bama fell 58-57 in the first round despite holding the high-scoring Blue Jays well below their 80-point average.  Tide fans will tell you a foul should have been called on a late Bama attempt to take the lead, but we’ll tell you what we always say when it comes to officials’ decisions: Teams have 39+ minutes to take the game out of the refs’ hands.

Vanderbilt — We expected Vandy to slip past Wisconsin and into the Sweet Sixteen.  Barely.  In fact, here’s what we wrote of the Commodores: “If VU’s hitting their shots, they can make a long run.  But if they’re cold — as we’ve seen in previous tourneys — they can exit early.”  We gave Vandy the benefit of the doubt that their shooters would stay hot for two games.  Wrong.  In their 60-57 loss to Wisconsin, the Dores shot just 26% from 3-point range (5-of-19) and were adios’d.  Top gunner John Jenkins was just 3-of-13 from the field and just 2-of-9 from beyond the arc.  When you live by the three, you die by the three.  Vandy does so every year.

Kentucky — Big whoop, we had the Wildcats reaching the Sweet Sixteen.  Who didn’t?  Thanks to Iowa State’s win over UConn, the Cats avoided one of few teams analysts thought might – might – be able to give them some trouble.  Now the bracket is really setting up nicely for them.  UK should be plenty motivated for their next game as it’s a rematch with Indiana, a team that nipped the Cats on a buzzer-beater in December.  Win that and they’ll face either 3-seed Baylor or 10-seed Xavier.  The #2 seed in the region — Duke — was ousted in the first round.  Another #2 is gone in Missouri.  And UK’s rival #1 seeds are having their own issues — a suspension at Syracuse and a broken wrist at North Carolina.  This is looking more and more like John Calipari’s year.  At least on paper.

Florida — The Gators are the surprise SEC team left in the field.  A #7 seed due to their poor finish (they lost four of their last five entering the tourney), Florida pounded 10-seed Virginia in the opening round 71-45 and then crushed #15 Norfolk State 84-50 yesterday.  Minus Yeguette, the Gators’ had struggled in the frontcourt at year’s end.  Not in the tourney.  As is the case in all tourneys, the Gators had to have a little luck go their way, too, however.  Instead of playing #2 Missouri, they played Norfolk State the team that upset Mizzou.  Against the Tigers, NSU shot 54.2% (32-of-59) and connected on 10-of-19 3-pointers.  Against the Gators, they shot 27.3% (18-of-66) and were just 4-of-24 from 3-point range.  Credit Florida’s defense for some of that, but let’s face it, basketball’s all about who’s hot on a given night.  Norfolk State couldn’t miss a shot on Friday.  By Sunday, they couldn’t throw a ball in the ocean.  So now the Gators will face West #3 Marquette in Phoenix with the winner of #1 Michigan State and #4 Louisville waiting for the victor.  By seeds, those are the best teams Florida could possibly have remaining in their path — #1, #3 and #4.  Rough draw.  But UF’s surprised us once already.  So we’re not going to right them off just yet.

Spring practice gets underway in Gainesville this week but for a number of Gators, they’ll be too banged up to participate.  That’s hardly the start to Year Two that Will Muschamp would like.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, the injury list looks like this:


Jeremy Brown, CB — recovering from a knee injury that cost him the 2011 season

Dominique Easley, DT — recovering from an ACL injury suffered against Florida State in November

Kendric Johnson, DE — out with “shoulder issues”

Cole Gilliam, OL — more shoulder issues

Tommy Jordan, OL — ditto

Ian Silberman, OL — double ditto

Lerentee McCray, LB — rehabbing his own shoulder injury

Marcus Roberson, CB — suffered a “scary” neck injury late last season

Neiron Ball, LB — he’s been cleared by doctors, but he’s still going to sit out spring drills as he recovers from a burst blood vessel in his brain that cost him the 2011 season


On the plus side, Florida has in part recovered from the roster attrition that accompanied the change-over from Urban Meyer to Muschamp.  They have better depth this spring than last.

But no coach wants a tenth of his team on the shelf for spring practice, regardless of depth elsewhere.

The University of Florida has released details of the deals they used to lure three new coaches onto Will Muschamp’s coaching staff:


* New offensive coordinator Brent Pease will make $590,000 per year for three seasons.  Incredibly, in this age of million-dollar coordinators, that’s not that big a payout for the guy coming from Boise State.  His predecessor Charlie Weis had a deal worth $875,000 annually.


* New offensive line coach Tim Davis inked a one-year contract worth $275,000.  Poor guy.  Davis will replace Frank Verducci — an ex-Weis aide who was skedaddled by Muschamp after signing day.


* Finally, new strength coach Jeff Dillman will be paid $215,000 a year for two years to replace the incredibly popular Mickey Marotti.  Marotti exited Gainesville to join old boss Urban Meyer at Ohio State.


For Florida, those salaries are far from exorbitant.