Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential

This is THE weekend for Florida recruiting. Kenny Boynton (6-2, 180, Plantation, FL American Heritage, #13 ESPN Top 100) will be in Gainesville for his official visit and it’s Homecoming so the campus and city will be alive with activity the entire weekend.

No matter what you’ve heard out of other services, the Gators are definitely the team to beat for Boynton, who will visit Texas next weekend and then Duke before he finally announces his decision. Boynton has been to Gainesville three times since August 1 and he’s made two unofficial visits with his family. Boynton’s dad is originally from Ocala and there are plenty of family ties to this area.

There were reports a couple of months ago that Boynton’s mother, an English teacher, was thoroughly enamored with Duke because of the quality of education but apparently Coach Billy Donovan and Florida academic support people have been able to show and convince her that the University of Florida has plenty to offer. Good sources have indicated that both of Boynton’s parents are plenty impressed with the entire situation at Florida starting with Donovan and his assistants to the quality of academics and the support system that’s in place.

One qualified source says that the Gators really got the entire Boynton family on board when…

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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.