Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential

By
Franz Beard
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Look for Florida’s first starting lineup to be the three-guard look with Jai Lucas at the point and Nick Calathes and Walter Hodge on the wings with Dan Werner at power forward with Marreese Speights at center. That’s the five that will open up Thursday night when the Gators play an exhibition game against Flagler College.

Flagler is coached by UCF’s greatest player of all time, Bo Clark, son of Torchy Clark, who was UCF’s first basketball coach. In addition to basketball, Torchy made a name for himself as a high school football coach in Wisconsin where he coached Rocky Bleier. Flagler will come at the Gators with a front line that measures 6-9, 6-10 and 6-11. That would be good size in Division I. It’s unbelievable size for an NAIA program.

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Franz Beard
Franz Beard
Back in January of 1969, the late, great Jack Hairston, then the sports editor of the Jacksonville Journal, called me on the phone one night and asked me if I wanted to work for him. I said yes. The entire interview took 30 seconds. It's my experience that whenever the interview lasts 30 seconds or less, I get the job. In the 48 years that I've been writing and getting paid for it, I've covered Super Bowls, World Series, NCAA basketball championships, BCS championship games, heavyweight title fights and what seems like thousands of college football, baseball and basketball games. I'm a columnist and special assignments editor for Gator Country once again, writing about the only team that ever mattered to me, the Florida Gators.