(GYM) Gymnastics 2024 - 2025

Not great, but better after 2 1/2 days into my antibiotic. At least it isn't cancer which I have now beaten twice.

1. at LSU: Yes, I agree with those who saw a UF win instead of a loss. It came down to a few scores in which I think the judges decided against sending 13,000+ LSU fans celebrating their 2024 national championship home with a close loss. For LSU, Kaliya Lincoln's vault received a gift at 9.725 when she hopped off the mats and towards the tunnel like she was headed to the lady's room before saluting the judges. Her vault was at best 9.60. I'd have given her a 9.50. Aleah Finnigan was awarded a 9.95 on floor that should have scored at 9.90 as she stepped in the wrong direction after landing short with her chest down. The female announcer, Samantha, had just finished saying that it was a .1 deduction. (shaking head)

For UF, I have 2 scores I questioned. Anya Pilgrim received a 9.825 on bars and should have received a 9.90 like she did at home against Georgia. On Selena Harris, can't complain too badly about her 9.825, but she did receive at 9.875 at home.

Bottom line, it's a good road score loss, but UF was slightly underscored while LSU was slightly overscored.

2. Georgia: The Gators done good beating down the poodles. The 198.125 score was well deserved. It was refreshing to see UF not darn near give away the home meet like it almost did in UF's meet 1.

I still cringe when Ellie Lazzari performs. My hope is CJR requires her to specialize, say on floor where UF needs improvement.

I wish Leanne Wong would ditch her beam mount after having messed up twice now. Get on the beam and throw 9.9+ scores rather than being the one dropped. It's amazing UF is #1 on beam without getting any help from Leanne.

3. Oklahoma - Watched last week at Alabama. As I predicted before the start of the year, OU is far too heavily dependent on their Kiddie Corps who account for 10 of OU's 24 routines each week. Lack of depth is an issue, and I don't think college gymnastics will see the best out of the Kiddie Corps until next season.

KJ Kindler talks about floor being easy for her team. It helps that all of the OU gymnasts are proficient in being taught how to dance out of tumbling passes rather than risk having deductions. If this gets you the best scores, everybody else should take this page out of the OU playbook.

4. Yes, I still have UF with the best shot at winning the national championship. I'm amazed at how much better the Gators can be and especially on floor. Being #1 on vault and beam and #6 with lots of room to improve on bars are good places to be.

5. The Sunday meet at West Virginia with Utah is now an ESPN+ televised meet. I don't have ESPN+ but may buy a month to get to watch on Sunday. There is one bonus in that the softball game at USF between the Gators and bulls is an ESPN+ game during the month of coverage.

 

Skye Blakely is a world class gymnast and Sloane is dang good too. I think both have earned the right to their performances. It just isn't possible to be the best without introducing difficult elements to set the gymnasts apart from the others.

Disagree on Riley McCusker. After missing what amounts to 2 years of performance time, Riley is just now getting her confidence and legs back under her. Riley scored 9.875 on bars against Georgia which was good enough to match Leanne Wong. I don't think we have seen her best yet as she is capable of hitting 9.90+ on her bars routines.

I'm still hoping Riley gets her confidence and legs back under her on beam too. You really can't have too much depth on beam. Riley is capable of producing beautiful routines on both bars and beam. I'd be surprised if the coaches aren't doing everything possible to facilitate Riley's comeback as quickly as possible.

Insofar as our freshmen are concerned, both Ly Bui and Taylor Clark are being given performance time. Lily Bruce missed all of her senior season due to an injured ankle. Lily just isn't ready for prime time yet.

Finally, don't worry, be happy. I expect a national championship will be delivered by the Gators come national finals in late April.

 

Love Kennedy Baker and am so sorry how her career ended with her Achilles heel injury. I do hope she has gotten over the racism she experienced/felt during her UF career. Apparently, all was not well under Rhonda Fain for Kennedy Baker and Kytra Hunter according to this ESPN article:

Former Florida gymnast alleges frequent racism

Kennedy Baker had her say with Jenny Rowland. I am glad to see things were better for her under Jenny Rowland's leadership. It would be awfully nice to have Kennedy Baker's full public support for UF gymnastics.

Things have changed much over the years in the racial makeup of UF team rosters. Trinity Thomas is a huge example and outstanding UF ambassador. Hopefully Trinity can help with Kennedy with them both working for ESPN.

UF has much to be thankful under Jenny Rowland, just have to win the big one at the end of the season.

 

The OU Kiddie Corps did not get the job done again at a high enough level. The 3 senior AAs led the team. The final score, 197.825, may be close to the peak of what OU can deliver due to such strong reliance on true freshmen, say a peak of 198+-. Have an injury to one of the OU 3 AA seniors and the Sooners can turn out the lights on the season as they would have no way to recover. Bottom line, this is not the typical OU team the media is pointing to as a likely national champion.

My top 3 preseason:

1. Florida
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma

I have seen nothing to change my preseason expectations.

 

Somebody with ESPN+ will need to take the lead tomorrow. Insofar as I know, it isn't possible to add ESPN+ through YouTube TV to which I subscribe. I don't like missing the UF vs. Utah showdown in a neutral location, but those are the cards I've been dealt. The meet is on ESPN+ at 2 PM ET for those who have ESPN+.

No. 2 Florida Competes Sunday in Tri-Meet at West Virginia with No. 4 Utah - Florida Gators

 

Good article on Selena Harris-Miranda:

Natural Competitor: Harris-Miranda Brings A Hate-To-Lose Attitude - Florida Gators

Apparently, there was a lot of illnesses on the team last week that I hope has been cleared up for this week.

 

Dr. Sam will be in Morgantown for the meet today:

 

Been there and done that and I'm still with YouTube TV. Hulu + Live TV was slow and had too much buffering, so I decided to stay put.

Amazon and Disney MUST detest each other. I use fire sticks which work just dandy for the most part, but the Amazon Watch ESPN App is unworkable. Amazon will sell me ESPN+, but the Amazon Watch ESPN App won't let you get past sign in. This has been the case for about a year now.

I get to watch the ESPN app through my Silk Internet App because it will allow me to sign in with YouTube TV as my TV provider. Unfortunately, that gets me back to having no way to pay for ESPN+.

I should just be thankful that I can watch the app to get our overflow sports on SECN+. When the big wigs get around to offering standalone sports streaming packages, these problems will go away. Unfortunately, that also means I will miss the first round of the NCAA gymnastics tourney as the regionals are shown, you guessed it, exclusively on ESPN+. Grrrr!