Holiday Rewind
By Brian Edwards
Florida came into this season unranked with 50/1 odds to win the national championship. Most preseason publications had Billy Donovan’s squad pegged for a third straight trip to the NIT.
Sound familiar?
The Gators went into the 2005-2006 campaign unranked with no expectations after losing David Lee to graduation, in addition to Matt Walsh and Anthony Roberson, who both went pro a year early and went undrafted.
As it turned out, the loss of Roberson was addition by subtraction. He had great moments as a college player, but the Saginaw native was a high-volume shooter who didn’t play much defense.
The addition-by-subtraction thing can also be applied to Nick Calathes, who we ripped for his decision to leave Florida two seasons early because he didn’t accomplish a thing for the program.
The ’06 season ended in Indianapolis with the Gators cutting the nets down as national champions. Whether this year can approach that sort of level undoubtedly remains unclear, but one thing is for certain.
Florida is going back to the NCAA Tournament.
On Friday, UF put a big-time stamp on its resume by upsetting second-ranked Michigan State 77-74 in Atlantic City. It wasn’t that big of an upset, actually, as the Spartans closed as just three-point favorites. Nevertheless, Donovan’s team now owns quality wins over FSU and last year’s NCAA runner-up.
The Gators, who are 6-0 straight up and 4-1 against the spread, will take on FAMU this Tuesday before playing Friday at Jacksonville. Then they get a revenge game against Syracuse at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa on Dec. 10.
Florida State has obviously put last week’s blowout loss at Florida in the rearview mirror. The Seminoles won the Old Spice Classic with three consecutive wins, including a come-from-behind victory over Marquette in Sunday’s finals.
Trailing by 17 with 15:45 remaining, Leonard Hamilton’s team went on a 35-17 run to finish the game and prevail by a 57-56 count. The Seminoles hooked up their backers as one-point underdogs on the neutral floor in Orlando. Solomon Alibi’s baseline jumper with 11.9 seconds left proved to be the game winner against the Golden Eagles.
FSU also beat Alabama on Friday, taking the cash in a 60-51 win as a six-point favorite. The ‘under’ is 3-0 after easily cashing in the win over Marquette that had a 135-point total.
Although Anthony Grant’s team lost to the ‘Noles and also endured a season-opening defeat to Cornell in Tuscaloosa, the Crimson Tide has solid wins over Providence (at home), Baylor and Michigan. The wins over the Bears and Wolverines came in Orlando, adding even more value to them in that they didn’t come at Coleman Coliseum.
Alabama is looking to end a three-year stretch of not hearing its name called on Selection Sunday. That’s a lengthy absence from the Big Dance for this program, one still searching for its first trip to the Final Four but has otherwise been a steady winner dating back to Wimp Sanderson’s tenure.
That long-awaited debut at the Final Four won’t be coming this season, but it says here that Grant will eventually get the Tide to the national semifinals before leaving T-town.
Alabama has always been able to get the best players in the state and is usually in the mix for the best prospects from out of Georgia and Mississippi. With Grant, a tenacious recruiter who spent more than a decade with Donovan, ‘Bama will now get more players from Florida and especially the hotbed area of Dade and Broward Counties where Grant grew up.
We talked about how Florida is a big surprise so far this year. To the south in the Sunshine State, check out the Miami Hurricanes, who are out to a 7-0 start. Now UM hasn’t played much of a schedule yet, but it picked up a nice win over South Carolina in blowout fashion to win the Charleston Classic.
Other than the ‘Canes, only Duke is left unbeaten out of schools from the ACC. The Blue Devils, 6-0 SU and 4-1 ATS, beat UConn 68-59 at Madison Square Garden to win the NIT Season Tip-Off.
Jon Scheyer captured tourney MVP honors by producing 19 points, five rebounds and five assists against the Huskies. The senior guard, who isn’t a true point but plays the position out of need for the team, has an incredible 31-to-4 assists-to-turnovers ratio.
Coach K’s team returns to the court Wednesday with a tough non-conference matchup at Wisconsin.