Gator Country

Florida Gators senior guard Kenny Boynton scored a game-high 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting, including 4 of 4 from three-point range, during the season opener on Sunday. / Gator Country photo by John Parady

A pair of Florida Gators basketball players have been named to 2012-13 Naismith Award early season watch list.

Senior guard Kenny Boynton and junior center Patric Young made the list, which includes 50 players and was announced by the Atlanta Tipoff Club.

The Gators are 1-0 after defeating Alabama State 84-35 at the O’Connell Center on Sunday. They are one of 10 teams with at least two players on the watch list.

Defending national champion Kentucky and Louisville, which eliminated the Gators in the Elite Eight last season, each have three players on the watch list.

A mid-season watch list comprised of 30 players will be announced in late February and the list will be trimmed to four finalists in March. The winner will be announced during the Naismith Award Banquet, which is scheduled for 6 p.m. on March 19 at the Georgia International Convention Center in Atlanta.

The award began honoring the top men’s college basketball player in 1969 with UCLA’s Lew Alcindor, aka Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, becoming the first winner. Last season’s winner was Anthony Roberson of Kentucky. No Florida player has even won the award.

About the author

MikeCapshaw

Mike’s 15 years in the business has included more than six years of covering SEC sports and recruiting at a daily newspaper in Arkansas. He has also helped launch a newspaper, magazines, websites and even a sports talk radio show. Mike has won Florida Press Association awards for Best Sports Game Story and Best Sports Feature Story in the past two years as well as a company-wide award at his former newspaper group that includes some 60 publications, for Excellence in Sports Reporting.

More Basketball | RSS