Great Tickets Remain for Senior Night March 1st vs. SEC West Champion Alabama
Friday, February 25, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Plenty of great seats remain for the Gators' Senior Day regular season home finale against SEC West Champion Alabama on Tuesday, March 1, at 7 p.m. in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.
Both No. 1 seeds for the 2011 SEC Tournament March 10-13 in Atlanta, the No. 13 Gators (22-5, 11-2) and Crimson Tide (19-8, 11-2) will collide in a battle of SEC division-leading teams. The game also marks the return of Alabama head coach Anthony Grant, who was an associate head coach for Florida head coach Billy Donovan from 2002-2006, and an assistant coach under Donovan in Gainesville from 1996-2001. Tuesday's contest marks Grant's first game back in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center since departing to be a collegiate head coach.
Before the game against the Crimson Tide, the Orange and Blue will honor its three seniors: center Vernon Macklin (Portsmouth, Va.), forward Chandler Parsons (Casselberry, Fla.) and forward Alex Tyus (St. Louis, Mo.). The trio helped the Gators clinch the No. 1 seed in the East Thursday with a win over Georgia, and will look to conclude their 2010-11 home season with a 14-3 record. Parsons currently ranks first among active SEC players in rebounds (779), third in points (1,330) and assists (296) and fourth in steals (121). Going into his last home game, Tyus is only the fifth Gator ever under Donovan to record 500 career field goals, joining some of the best players of the Donovan era: Udonis Haslem (633), Matt Bonner (580), David Lee (543) and Anthony Roberson (514). This season, Macklin is averaging career highs in points (11.3 ppg) and rebounds (6.0 rpg).
A victory over Alabama will be no easy task, as the Crimson Tide have won 14 of its last 16 games, with only five teams having scored over 60 points during that stretch. The team from Tuscaloosa owns the best record through 13 games by an Alabama squad since the 1986-87 SEC Championship team, while its 11 SEC wins are its most since winning 12 league games in 2004-05. Led by reigning SEC Player of the Week Tony Mitchell, Tide opponents are converting on just 37.2 percent of their field goals (fourth in NCAA), and have yet to outscore Alabama in the paint this year.
