So we’re trying to figure out if he is good enough to start as a true Freshman…

Here’s what Scout.com had to say about him:

Beastly insider is also a very strong student. Finishes with powerful dunks in traffic. Needs to develop a singular, go to move. Love him as a shot blocker. Offense trails defense but on defensive and rebounding end, he has few peers in class.

Patric Young was also selected to the USA Basketball Men’s U-18 National Team, a squad comprised of 12 of the nation’s top players 18 and under. Young will join the USA squad in its quest for the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in San Antonio, Texas from June 26-30.

Here’s a little more on him.

Dunk off the backboard:

Working out:

Tyus is coming off a pretty good season where he averaged 11.8 points per game and 6.9 rebounds per game. He got a lot more playing time this season at the forward position. Remember, after the 2009 season Tyus talked about transferring because he didn’t want to play Center anymore at Florida. Now I guess he feels he’s done all he can do at the college level. Tyus spoke with the Gainesville Sun and said:

“Mainly, I just want to see where I stand,” Tyus told The Sun on Wednesday. “I want to go through the process, getting a chance to meet some teams, working out against other players, trying to get better.”

Tyus is listed at 6′8″ 220 lbs, so he definitely has the size of a NBA player… I’m just not sure he’s ready yet.

It was reported that St. Johns – a Catholic College – offered Donovan a deal worth $3 million per year to come coach their basketball team. “Thank you so much but no thank you” is how the Donovan confidant described the reply.

“Billy was hugely flattered about being offered a job with such potential,” the confidant said. “But he and his family have something great going on in Gainesville.”

Most people would be flattered to be offered a $3 million per year job… but not when you’re already making $3.5 with no state income tax! I was never really worried about Donovan leaving to go coach at a new college. Most people cite that if he leaves he can become the big dog on campus – his program would be in the spotlight, not football.

But I never really thought Donovan would leave Gainesville. He left Orlando (which his family wasn’t all too happy about him going there in the first place) and turned down a reported job offer from Kentucky. If you do those two things, you’re making it pretty clear that you are happy where you are.

Glad this is over … until next year.

The first overtime was pretty slow, both teams only scored 6 points in five minutes of play… forcing a second overtime. BYU got out in the second overtime fast, hitting 3 pointers like it’s nobody’s business. The Gators never stood a chance at that point. On one hand I am just proud of the Gators for making the tournament, but on the other hand this is a tough loss to swallow given the amount of chances they had to knock BYU out. We had the looks, just couldn’t hit the shots.

Kenny Boynton led the Gators with 27 points and was key in lighting the fire under the Gators in the second half. Boynton shot 50% from the 3-point line and was 6-7 from the free throw line. Chandler Parsons also had a good game with 20 points and 10 rebounds. We really missed Alex Tyus today… don’t know what happened to him. He was only 3-11 in field goals and never made it to the foul line – he also missed several easy put ins. Erving Walker also killed the Gators with his early turnovers, he had 7 for the game.

I’ve got a couple of pictures from the game, some are good and some make you want to puke.

For most Gators on the team, this will be their first trip to the NCAA Tourney… I think Tyus, Werner and possibly Macklin (as a member of Georgetown) are the only three with experience.

“We’re very, very excited and grateful for the opportunity,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m more excited for our players having a chance to experience this, for most of them this is something they haven’t been through yet. They’ve worked so hard from day one, and it’s great to see them rewarded.”

Once the Gators beat Auburn, I thought it was a pretty good chance that they would be in. Some people were saying Miss. State was a play in game, but I didn’t buy it. The Gators had 20+ wins and several very good victories over teams like Michigan State, FSU and Vanderbilt. “It was a stressful 48 hours not knowing if we were in or out,” Florida junior forward Chandler Parsons said. “We’re really excited to be a part of it. For most of us, it’s our first experience with the NCAA Tournament. We just don’t want to go and play one game, we want to prove we’re deserving of being there.”

First Round Gator Tickets are going for as low as $79, or as high as $1,000, a piece on StubHub. You better buy them up quickly, because they won’t last.

The Gators had big games last night from Alex Tyus (24 points) and Chandler Parsons (21 points, 6 rebounds). The announcers did a great job bringing awareness to the audience about the develop of Parsons over the year. He has turned into a hell of a starter and big time outside shooter for the Gators this year. I think even Kentucky’s coach Calipari said Parsons was the most improved player in the SEC this year – or maybe it was Bruce Pearl?

Another cool note from last night’s game – Dan Werner notched his 105th win as a Florida Gator, moving him into 3rd all-time. Werner has not been a fan favorite lately, but he did hit a big three last night and it’s pretty incredible that he has been part of so many wins.

It’s always tough for a team to play back to back games, especially when their opponent has had several days rest. The Gators will have their work cut out for them tonight against Mississippi State. They need to dominate the boards and shoot well from the free throw line. If they can keep the pace of the game down a little, I like their chances to advance.

The University of Florida has three SEC Tournament titles, all coming during a three-year run from 2005-07. They haven’t been as fortunate in the last two year where they were first round exits in 2008 and second round exists in 2009. Depending on what other teams around the NCAA do this week, the Gators may only need one win in the SEC Tournament or they might need two. The Gators have a few key signature wins this year, including victories over Michigan State, Florida State and Tennessee. Those should help give them an edge even if their RPI is in the 50s.

The Gators may have lost three SEC games in a row to close out the regular season, but there were actually some positives in those games. Several players showed key improvements on offense. Vernon Macklin has shown tremendous offensive improvement in recent weeks and has been in double figures in five of the last seven games, including a career-high 22 points at Ole Miss on Feb. 20. Chandler Parsons has been in double figures in seven of the last nine games including a career-high 29 against Georgia on Feb. 27… Parsons had 17 points, six rebounds and four assists in the first meeting with Auburn.

Also, despite losing against the SEC’s top two teams in their last two outings, UF has out-rebounded both, including 19.5 offensive rebounds per game in those two outings. The Gators are a lot bigger than Auburn and should be able to dominate in the low post and on the rebounds. The Tigers only have one starter over 6′8″, while the Gators have three – Tyus, Macklin and Parsons.

In a must-win situation these Gators haven’t always come away with the win in the past few years, but I really have to believe Billy will have them ready to play tonight and they will defeat Auburn. If the Gators win, they will play Mississippi State tomorrow night.

The Gators got down big in the first half – trailing by as much as 18 points. But they were able to bring the deficit down to 10 points at halftime and made a great comeback in the second half. With about 4-5 minutes left in the game, the Gators were down only 2 points… but they were never able to take the lead. By the closing minutes the Gators got desperate and Kentucky pulled away.

Alex Tyus led the team in scoring with 12 points, followed by Kenny Boynton who had 11. Can you believe our leading rebounder was not someone by the name of Macklin, Tyus or Chandler? But by someone who is like 5′8″ – Erving Walker, who had 8 boards.

The Gators are slated to take on Auburn at 7:30 p.m. (ET) in the first round of the SEC Tournament and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network. We have a lot of work to do if the Gators want to advance in the SEC Tournament. It won’t come easy – even against Auburn.

Last week, the Tebow show moved it’s cameras to Indy and the NFL scouting combine. Tebow did fairly well at the combine, despite not throwing because of his throwing motion and mechanics being under reconstruction. Tebow posted a 4.72 40-yard dash(4th among quarterbacks, and beating Colt McCoy’s 4.79), a vertical jump of 38.5 inches(tying the record for quarterbacks set by Josh McCown, and beating Michael Vick’s score by ½ an inch), a broad jump of 9ft. 7in., and a 3-cone drill of 6.66 seconds. And even though Tim did well by combine standards for a quarterback, the criticism of him all together never stopped to breathe. His athletic ability even raised thoughts of playing another position in the NFL such as tight end or fullback. It seems to me that the NFL analysts, reporters, and writers are never going to give any kind of chance to Tim because he is not the prototypical NFL quarterback(immobile and a pure passer). Timmy is still set to premier his new throwing motion and footwork at the Gator’s Pro Day on Saint Patrick’s Day in Gainesville. Which will be open to the public.

Other former Gators showing off their skills at the combine did not overly impress. Joe Haden posted a 40-yard dash time of 4.57. We all know he is faster than that. But that’s not stopping the media from claiming that Florida’s 40 board is absolutely bogus. He will have a chance to redeem himself at the pro day, hopefully posting a 4.4 or better. Haden threw down a 10ft. 5in. broad jump, a 35 inch vertical leap, and bench pressed 18 reps of 225lbs. Riley Cooper also ran at the combine, showing a 4.52 40. He, however, did not participate in other drills. Former Gator safety Major Wright ran the fastest of Gator 40’s at this year’s combine, posting a 4.48. Third among participating safeties. Brandon Spikes, and Carlos Dunlap participated as well, Dunlap being most impressive out of the two. Dunlap posted a vertical leap of 31.5inches, two and ½ inches better than Spikes. And a broad jump of 9ft. 3in., 1 inch better than Spikes. Dunlap also ran a 40 time of 4.71, and threw up 225lbs 21 times. Spikes did not participate in those drills. After all of this, I expect the pro day to be a media circus. With Joe Haden trying to improve his 40 time, Tim Tebow 2.0 premiering, and other Gators trying to improve on things they were unhappy with at the combine. I personally will be attending the pro day. And I will tell you all how I think things went for our beloved Gators.

Now, to basketball. With the back to back losses to Georgia in Athens, and Vanderbilt at home, Billy Donavon’s Gators are in trouble of not making the tournament. The game against Vanderbilt marked the first time this year that the Gators have lost after leading at the 5 minute mark. Which was on senior day for Dan Werner, who contributed 8 points on 3-6 shooting. In my opinion, with the win over Tennessee, the Gators clinched a spot in the dance. But with the recent heartbreakers, they will have to be impressive this Sunday against Kentucky, and get at least a win in the SEC tournament to be considered in the NCAA tourney. This unpredictable team could very well go into Rupp Arena and upset the Wildcats. But they will have to bring their A+ game, and have some luck as well. I would look for a close loss this Sunday. The Gators should be playing a mid to low-tier team in the first round of the SEC tournament. A team like Alabama, or Auburn. Should the Gators lose in the first round to one of those type teams, they do not deserve a spot in the tourney, in my opinion. But we have seen that they can get inspired when truly needed, and I think that the Gators will earn a spot in the big dance. Should they not, they will have missed the tournament for 3 years straight. A first under Billy Donavon. The game against Kentucky will air on Sunday, March 7th at noon on CBS.

Until next time, be well Gator Nation.

p.s. I know its a little late, but I just ordered my UF Football Vault and I am so excited. Any of you have it? and if so, what do you think??

Hard to believe the Winter Olympics are already over; aside from the pre-opening ceremonies tragedy involving the luger from Georgia (Nodar Kumaritashvili) being killed on a training run, Vancouver deserves to be highly commended on a job well done. Based on the fact that the United States and Canada brought in the lion’s share of the total medals as well as staged impressive championship hockey games, albeit with Team USA settling for silver medals in both the men’s and women’s finals, they could very well be called “North America’s Games”.  Though Canada was on a mission to “own the podium” and came away with the most gold medals (14 total) the USA prevailed in the overall total medal count with a record and best-ever 37. We won’t see another Winter Games take place until 2014 when they’ll be in Sochi, Russia; I hope that the immature behavior of Russian athletes Evgeni Plushenko and Alex Ovechkin at these games aren’t a sign of things to come. If anything, the Russians should aim for a “coming-out party” on the same scale China did when they successfully hosted the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. All said, congrats to Team USA for a performance well beyond expectations – and a special congrats and Gator Chomp to former UF decathlete Steve Mesler for being part of the USA1 “Night Train” crew piloted by Steve Holcomb that won gold in the 4-man bobsled competition and ended an American drought in the event that went all the way back to 1948!!

Sounds like Tim Tebow’s making quite the impression at the NFL Scouting Combine going on right now up in Indianapolis; maybe now the critics will finally give credit where credit is due as far as his potential to succeed in the pros goes as well as get off Urban Meyer’s back about his supposedly “not having prepared him for the next level” (which IMO is an absurd statement as it is; Coach Meyer’s primary responsibility as Florida’s head coach is to have his team  as a whole -  not individual players – prepared for gameday, to win games and ultimately win championships.) Based on what I’ve read today, Joe Haden is attracting interest from the Cleveland Browns as well. Compared to recent years, Florida’s NFL draft class should be much stronger this year and we’ll likely see one or maybe two of our Gator alums off the boards in the first round.
(On a side note, it’s good to hear that Urban and Shelley Meyer were all right after being evacuated from where they were staying in Hawai’i during their recent vacation; it was a precaution taken due to fears of a possible tsunami hitting the islands following the recent earthquake in Chile. Can’t wait to see Urban back on the sidelines for the start of spring football coming up in two weeks!)

It’s been like a roller-coaster for Billy Ball lately; we achieved a “signature” win, for lack of a better word, over Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee Vol team but blew it in Athens against Georgia; the aftermath of which some Gator fans were calling for Dan Werner’s head due to a costly last-minute error he made. At first I didn’t think they had a chance of being invited to the Big Dance, but if they can beat Vandy and do well in the SEC tourney they still have a chance. If anything, Billy Donovan’s squad is composed of late-bloomers, especially with the likes of Vernon Macklin proving it was worth his transferring to UF from Georgetown, and they seem to be saving their best performances for when it really counts. An invite to the NCAA tourney this year instead of another consecutive NIT appearance will be an accomplishment in itself for this team.

Now that the Olympics have come and gone until the 2012 Summer Games in London, I can get back to just focusing on Gator sports….and how is YOUR week going so far?