Franz Beard’s Basketball Confidential

Nine plus five equals 14 and if you’re following Florida basketball recruiting, you know what that means. There are nine scholarship players on the present roster and there are five recruits coming in which means Florida would be one over the limit. It might seem like a problem, but Billy Donovan isn’t worrying about it.

“I have been here now for 12 years and I don’t think we’ve ever had 13 guys on scholarship so I don’t have the slightest idea how we would get to that point but it generally works out,” said Donovan Tuesday night after the Gators lost to UMass in the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament in New York.

The Florida program is no stranger to transfers or early entries into the NBA Draft so it figures that the numbers are going to work out for Donovan.

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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.