I am having a really good time watching the young Gator basketball team play this season.  I have a similar feeling to the one I had a couple years back watching the Sophomore Sensations, the “04’s,” as they’ve come to be known early in their careers.  No one expected much out of Noah, Horford, et al two years ago, as they just began conference play for the season, but I saw some potential, and I see a bunch of it on this year’s team.   I am seeing the undeniable effects of good coaching on talented players, and their willingness to do whatever the moment dictates to be the right decision, at least for a half of each game now.    Speights in particular has progressed this season quickly, realizing finally his physical advantage over most post players in the league.   He is finally getting a little tougher, and trying to lead somewhat, especially the last two games.    The one weakness seems to be a drop-off in terms of depth, although Tyus has shown me some real hustle at times, as has Adam Allen.  And when Chandler Parsons gets his shot to start falling, LOOK OUT>  This kid could be something pretty special.   Calathes’ numbers this season, over 15 ppg, with tons of assists, pretty much speak for themselves.   I’m thinking we’re a shoe-in for the tourney at this point, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us end up with a couple wins during the “Madness.”

I’m not sure who those kids in the blue uniforms were last night, playing against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, but there was something very familiar about the way they played.

All kidding aside, it was a very pleasant surprise to hang in there for the second half before bed, and see the Gators offense and defense look like a Donovan-coached team as they ended up beating the Tide almost handily 90-83. Almost everyone stood out at times on both ends of the court, which was reminiscent of the two-year run just culminated last March in Atlanta with a second straight NCAA title.

To start with, at least for the second half, the hustle was back. A full-court press created a tempo which seems to suit the young Gators much more than a half-court game, bringing transition scoring opportunites to some very gifted passers and shooters. I was most impressed with the guard play. Nick Calathes and Jai Lucas seemed to grow up before my eyes in the face of their first SEC competition. Calathes probably more so with his passing and game management, and Lucas for his dead-eye, no conscience shooting, in clutch moments. Calathes had some absolutely beautiful passes to back-door cutters, and Lucas was coming off screens and drilling three point shots like Taurean Green did so well.

Not to diminish his play on the offensive end, Calathes did show flashes of real talent at times getting in close to the bucket and either dishing it off or making a well-timed pass for an assist. Oh, and let’s not forget Dan Werner, who seems to have become Mr. Everything for this team. He has an uncanny ability to be in the perfect position for key rebounds,  is shooting better,  and has an urgency to his game I haven’t seen previously. Hats off to him for the improvement. Speights had some nice moments in the paint, as did Chandler Parsons (needs some meat on his bones), and Alex Tyus (likewise w/the meat).

Not every moment was rosy. The first half was sloppy and inconsistent, full of turnovers and dumb fouls, which I’ve seen some of already this season, notably against Ohio State. But the second half goes a long way to proving, to me at least, that it is GREAT to have Billy Donovan back from his flirtation with the NBA.

Ok, so I’ve had almost a week to mull over the complete ineptitude displayed by the Gators in Orlando New Year’s Day.   Granted they were able to take the lead in the fourth quarter, but I never for a minute felt assured we would win this game against Michigan.   To the contrary, this reminded me of the last days of the Spurrier era, when jack-jawing and personal fouls were de-rigeur for the squad.   A complete lack of discipline would describe it accurately for me.   The offense had moments when they looked good, but those moments were like islands in the stream, with no consistency whatsoever.    The defense was another story.   Pathetic I’d say.   If this was an out-of-conference anomaly the second week of the season I would understand with a young squad, but after 12 games it goes to coaching.   I’m not NEARLY as confident about next season as I was a couple weeks ago.   Recruiting isn’t going all that well either, so this will be a test for the bullet-proof Urban Meyer next year.

Despite getting manhandled at Ohio State, the Gator basketball team tied a school record with their defeat of Temple 86-69 this week.   At 12-2, the team has equaled the highest-ever win total in a season prior to New Year’s Day.  As I suspected, Ohio State on their home floor was just too much for the Gators, even though they started off pretty well in the first half, at least for the beginning of the half.   I didn’t get to see the Temple game, but it was good to hear Marreese Speights tied a career high in points with 20.  We need him to become a dominating force if this team is to go very far in conference play and beyond.

2007 was arguably the best year ever to be a Gator Fan.   By starting the year off with a National Championship beatdown of OSU in the desert, and quickly adding a second straight title for the basketball team,  (again, over hapless OSU),  Gainesville became known as “Titletown.”   The bar has been raised, a standard has been set.   Hopefully it will be sooner than later when we can hope to match these amazing accomplishments.

For the Gators, this Saturday will be the day in the kitchen, to use the metaphor. Traveling to Ohio State, last year’s opponent in the National Championship game, will mean facing the first real test of the year for the young squad. I don’t know enough about OSU’s team this year to have a real guess on how things will turn out, and although I do know Greg Oden will not be in uniform, I’m not that optimistic. This may well be the slap in the face that says “so long” to the golden era of UF basketball, which helped create the moniker “Titletown” for Gainesville. The young team could easily get run out of the gym I’m afraid. From the interviews circulating today Coach Donovan doesn’t really know what to expect either. I remember having a chance early on in the sophomore seasons of a few guys we know to watch developing talent, and I just hope this season turns out to be the same kind of thing.

Unlike several other nearby institutions, the U of F football team has no players facing suspension for academic reasons heading into their bowl matchup with Michigan on New Year’s Day.   To the contrary, the team has a cumulative g.p.a. of 2.9, the highest during coach Urban Meyer’s tenure.    Even the injuries which plagued the team earlier in the year have healed up, save one, the broken finger of Riley Cooper, who will likely not play in the bowl game.   Even Jermaine Cunningham, who faced battery charges after a late-night incident in a restaurant, has been cleared of charges, and would play in the bowl game, one would think, unless the team imposes some sort of in-house suspension.  I don’t see that happening, given Cunningham’s effectiveness this year.   My early prediction for the bowl game is 45-28 Florida.

     Back in the friendly confines of the O’Dome the Gators hoops squad looked much more like a Donovan-coached bunch Wednesday night, winning handily 89-64 over visiting Charleston Southern.   Unlike Saturday in Jacksonville, which proved to be the team’s worst shooting performance of the season by far, the Gators started the game on an 18-0 run and were never threatened for the remainder of the evening.

It was a completely different looking team last night, and although there were still the freshman mistakes (mainly turnovers), it looked like some of the coaching is taking effect.    The defensive intensity was obvious, and there was much more of a structure to the offense, with some of the old familiar plays working fairly well.

I still have some real concerns with our team’s lack of speed, and although we were the bigger team last night, we will be smaller than many of the conference teams we face in the upcoming months.    Point guard play will be the other deciding factor this year.  Jai Lucas is playing with good energy but turns the ball over too much, and seems to try to create on his own more often than running the play called from the bench.    Nick Calathes is a decent but not phenomenal ball-handler, who hopefully will improve that and his crossover and first step.

Marreese Speights looked more confident last night than on Saturday, but still needs to be more physical inside and work on his shot-blocking.   Walter Hodge looked pretty darn good last night, showing some flashes of what we saw last year when he was a dangerous bench player for the National Title squad.

I’ve now had my first chance to watch in depth this year’s team and I am wondering which way this season will go.   Not only are they young, but they are small and seem slow from what I’ve seen.  Disciplined offense can be coached, not size or speed though.  They had to depend on Dan Werner to pull out a squeaker on Saturday against Georgia Southern.   Werner?  Georgia Southern?   Now I know why Billy D. thought about heading to the pros.  This team may never reach the heights we have become used to in title town.   Time will tell, but for this year in particular I don’t see more than a handful of conference wins.   Hopefully the recruiting trail will be fruitful.

“Super-Frosh” Nick Calathes appears to be finding a comfort level quickly in his first Gator campaign.  After being benched during a home loss to FSU for poor shot selection, he has responded just as Coach Billy Donovan had hoped, stringing together solid play since, including nearly achieving a triple-double last night as the Gators crushed FAMU 91-52 in front of the home crowd.    Looks like the point guard position is in great hands, so to speak for the next couple of years.    This season will be a true test of Donovan’s coaching ability, with so much youth on the squad, albeit highly touted youth.