@wingtee played at UF in baseball back in the dark ages. Yes, the Head Ball Coach won the Heisman but it was like when Paul Hornung won it on a losing team at Notre Dame. "The kick" got him the trophy. A very special moment that propelled him. Florida football was nothing back then. No SEC championships and no SEC championships in basketball either. I came to UF in 1982 as an assistant prof and I knew that they had some limited success on the diamond and had some really good golfers and I knew about Neil Walk. I didn't follow track and field, tennis, swimming and diving and other sports. We tasted excellence like no other school with having both the basketball and football national championships at the same time. That was magic and no rational person would think that should be the expectation.
He was coming off a 3 game suspension. TG had to deal with a bunch of different personalities. When certain players didn’t perform it allowed him to get ZP into starting lineup.
Watched the game late. Noticed it was 2:30 and knew it was either some weird issue or we went to ot. Watching the game, I figured it was some weird issue until late.... Was really hoping for another step forward in defense. That was disappointing. Our rotation has two shrink. Not a typo, I'm just afraid to say more. Richard is key. Zion is indespensible. Micah and Condo are gems. Tyrese is solid. Everything else is dicey. Our depth used to be a strength.... FT% is fun! To hell with Georgia
It was obvious to me early on that this team has good chemistry with Richard in with Clayton and Pullin. His game just compliments the flow. Then he hit the shooting skids and Kugel looked like he was getting over his emotional funk. But then, Richard's mojo came roaring back and coincidentally (or just the way it works) Kugel is channeling his "inner Reeves" in that he wants to get to greatness instead of to capable. Obviously, Reeves' problem was shooting too many crazy shots whereas Kugel seems to want to do well and just doesn't seem to figure it out, gets into an emotional funk and makes the lazy pass and doesn't act like a first round player on defense. He is about to go the way of Scottie Lewis if he doesn't get off the path he is on. If he still plays pouty, we HAVE to get some help somewhere else. Aberdeen seems to have hit his ceiling, which is unfortunate. Other than giving the Big 3 a chance for a breather, he isn't doing anything against the better teams to win games. Rishwain did not get much of an audition and it appears to be too late to get him into real game action. Mr. Consonants needs to get in there if we are going to get serious about winning against the tough teams coming up. And hope that the 3-shooting and FT percentages hold up away from home. Kind of a tall task.
Have tons of respect for you & Wingtee. But I don't think anyone has said the expectation is to have the 2006-2008 football and basketball success as an ongoing thing. What I have said and many have said is that the expectation for all Gator sports programs is that we be in the hunt for conference titles on a regular basis. Ups and downs? Of course. But we are a Top 5 athletics department year in and year out. When one program has an off year or two, another one steps up to win a title or at least be in the Top 3 of the SEC. Football and basketball haven't been carrying their weight for a decade or more in that regard and, to me, that's not acceptable. I follow ALL Gator sports and am proud of the accomplishments all over the place. Football is the money train for all the Gator programs and it needs to be churning along for everything to be working at peak performance. Men's Basketball is the #2 sport in that regard. Both need to be performing at a better level than they have been and that doesn't seem irrational or unrealistic to me.
You think Walter Clayton Jr. is "dicey?" That's extremely disrespectful and it pisses me off.. glad you aren't our coach.
I appreciate what you are saying Ocala. And I respect your great posts!! But not many people outside of Gainesville care about the other sports. Football , Basketball and Baseball is what matters to most non Gainsvillians . I know that the gymnastics and softball are big in Gville , but anywhere else , no .
I don’t care one wit what others know or think. Not living for them. I enjoy Gators sports. I follow them and root for them, all of them. Football and basketball championships were thrilling, but I very much consider our soccer championship of long ago, our baseball championship, a few of our tennis, track, gymnastics and softball championships and our most recent golf championship as some of the most tense, thrilling, entertaining and enjoyable tv/sporting events I’ve ever seen/experienced. Didn’t care whether anyone else in the world knew or cared about them; they were glorious. We, Gators, win at least one National Championship per year, and that’s both amazing and fun.
I think he meant Clayton is spicey. I am sure he didn't mean dicey. If we could get Clayton production out of Kugel we would probably have only one loss in the SEC. Sure he has a few too many boneheaded turnovers for my linking, but, on balance, he's been huge for us.
Yeah wing not gonna give you bacon but this is wrong. So many care about other sports outside the 3 you mentioned. I live in sc and I speak often to a non Gator friend about Parker Valby. I’ve talked to many about softball, Trinity Thomas, and volleyball. Here in sc women’s b-ball is all the rage. People talk about a lot. Not about us but if we ever got decent… It’s a big world and Gator Nation is everywhere.
