Good morning, Gator Nation:
Don’t know about you, but after reading Buddy Martin’s feature on Trey Burton and the practice reports from Franz Beard and Cody Jones, I can’t wait to see Saturday’s Orange and Blue Game at 1 p.m. inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
1. PLAYMAKERS, PLAYMAKERS: The Gators seem to have a bunch of them, more than they had last season. Nothing against Brandon James, who had the unenviable task of being the guy who had to replace Percy Harvin, I believe Chris Rainey and Andre Debose make the position very dangerous again.
2. HE’S GOT A GOOD POINT: Returning running backs coach Stan Drayton believes he’s accomplished what he wanted this spring. “I’m ahead of schedule,” he said. “I needed to see (Emmanuel) Moody come out here and play through some injuries and he did that. I needed to see (Mike) Gillislee come out here and execute play after play after play and he did that. The only player I didn’t get a chance to evaluate (was) Jeff Demps (who belongs to the Florida men’s track team this spring), but with a 10.11 100-meter dash (Demps’ time in winning the event last weekend in the Pepsi Florida Relays, the fastest time in the world by the way), I think I’m good.” You think?
3. OK, WHAT ABOUT SCHOOL? One of the arguments against having a true Division I college football playoff has been that it would interfere with final exams and the student-athletes would be asked to miss more school. But apparently that’s OK with the NCAA, which is thinking about expanding its 65-team tournament to 96 teams. Let’s be honest about it – how much attention was given to academic matters in the three weeks of this year’s tournament. I don’t know about you but I think it’s hypocritical making more money at the expense of the student-athletes.
4. GOOD-BYE NIT? The general consensus is if the NCAA expands the field to 96 teams, then the NCAA, which owns the tournament, will pull the plug on the National Invitation Tournament. At one time a long time ago, the NIT was considered to be more prestigious. In fact, when the NCAA extended Marquette a berth in 1970 that then Warriors head coach Al McGuire did not like, he turned it down and went on to play in (and win) the NIT. So the NCAA passed a “commitment to participate” rule that made schools accept the berth or not be able to play in any other post-season tournament. The five New York area schools that ran the NIT – St. John’s, Fordham, Wagner, Manhattan and NYU – sued for antitrust relief and won $56.6 million, after which the NCAA assumed ownership of the NIT.
5.THE CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT: Some observers make an argument that if there had been 96 teams in the tournament this year that Butler might not have made the Final Four. I’m not sure that would have been the case, but I can see where future “David vs. Goliath” matchups will be fewer. For brevity’s sake, let’s just add the 32 teams that received NIT bids to the 65 NCAA teams (keeping in mind we’ll have 97 teams, not 96) and see how the “David” conferences fared. Only 13 teams from the “David” conferences got NIT bids. The other 19 were from the so-called “Goliath” conferences. The Big East, which had 8 NCAA bids, picked up another 5 NIT for a total of 13 (only DePaul, Providence and Rutgers were shut out from post-season play).
6. THE MAGIC NUMBER: Is it too early to figure out the magic number to clinch the American League East for the Tampa Bay Rays, who find themselves 2-0 for the first time under Joe Maddon and a half-game ahead of the New York Yankees in the AL East. Well, it’s 160, if I figured it correctly. There’s lots to like about the Rays. They are going to score runs with Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena, B.J. Upton, Ben Zobrist and Jason Bartlett and their starting rotation looks strong after fine starts by James Shields and Matt Garza. Yep, I’ve been telling all those Yankees and Red Sox fans that I know that one of the teams isn’t going to make the playoffs.
7. NBA EARLY ENTRANTS: Five – count ‘em, FIVE – players off Kentucky’s basketball team – freshmen John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Bledsoe and Daniel Orton plus Patrick Patterson have declared for the NBA Draft. Most observers believe that all of them will elect to secure agents (which immediately makes them professionals) and end their college careers. They have until May 8 to withdraw their names if they haven’t chosen an agent. Yep, John Calipari was an excellent choice—ask UMass and Memphis.
8. SPECTACULAR LAUNCH: Monday morning’s pre-dawn launching of the Space Shuttle Discovery at the Kennedy Space Center was a thing of beauty. It was the last time the shuttle will be launched into dark skies. The remaining three launches will take place during the daytime. There has been some conjecture that the program will be extended, especially since we’ll be forking over $50 million per astronaut seat to Russia to take our people to the Space Station. I’d be for the extension, especially after viewing Monday morning’s launch – the flame and plume were visible over the trees around Sabal Trace Golf Club in North Port. I remarked to my wife that it appeared that Discovery was pulling up the curtain of another dawn. We’re spoiled down here.
9. WHAT A PAYNE! Billy Payne, the chairman of Augusta National Golf Club which hosts The Masters Tournament, had some choice words for Tiger Woods: “It is not simply the degree of his conduct that is so egregious here – it is the fact he disappointed all of us, and more importantly, our kids and our grandkids,” Payne said while meeting with the media on Wednesday. “Our hero did not live up to the expectations of the role model we saw for our children. … His future will never again be measured only by his performance against par but by the sincerity of his efforts to change.” Well-spoken except that Payne opens himself and Augusta National up for criticism of its membership qualifications and lack of minority members, especially women.
10. DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN: With apologies to the noted baseball philosopher Lawrence Peter Berra (or as we know him Yogi), wasn’t it great to see golf’s Big 3 of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player participating in the Par-3 Tournament Wednesday at Augusta National. Yes, they move slower than they should and don’t hit it like they once could. But it still gives me chills seeing them at Augusta National – Jack knocking down the flagsticks, Gary putting his whole body into his swing and Arnold electrifying his “Army” by rolling in that long putt on the 9th hole Wednesday. I’ll be getting up early today to watch Jack and Arnie hit those ceremonial opening tee shots (and I hope they soon add Gary to make it truly perfect).
VIDEO VAULT: It’s hard to believe that next year will be the 25th anniversary of Nicklaus’ back-nine comeback to win his sixth Masters green jacket. So for your viewing pleasure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqisX1ESLT8&NR=1
Later Gators,
John Fineran