This week's “Blog Bits” offer not just basketball leftovers, but some thoughts relative to Super Bowl Sunday and other random rumblings that make Harry Fodder (rhymes with “Potter,” get it?) very much a work in progress.
* OK, so he has nothing to do with Super Bowl XLVI, but Tim Tebow is always welcome at GatorZone.com (along the “clicks” he generates). Anybody see the UF-turned-Denver Bronco icon's newest ad? Well, you can officially throw him into the mix along with Jim Palmer and David Beckham as legendary Jockey underwear hockers/heartthrobs, except for one thing: Tebow has decline to pose in just his skivvies. Instead, he's shirtless, in low-rider jeans and throwing a football with the backdrop of the Colorado countryside. With wild horses, no less. The Jockeys are barely showing on his waist line, by the way. Very clever. Very Tebow.
* Senior point guard Erving Walker had another solid game Saturday in No. 12 Florida's 73-65 defeat of 25th-ranked Vanderbilt. He might have been just 3-for-11 from the floor, but Walker scored 11 points, had five assists and made all four of his free throws. Those 11 points gave him 1,620 for his career. If he scores five Tuesday night in UF's big showdown against No. 1-ranked Kentucky at Rupp Arena, Walker will pass Dwayne Schintzius (1987-90) as the No. 5 all-time scorer in Florida history -- and he'll do it on ESPN. “It's pretty amazing what he's done at his size,” said Gators coach Billy Donovan, who is particularly pleased with the way the 5-foot-8, 177-pounder from New York City has refined his game to be more a distributor after three years of probably thinking about scoring too much. Halfway through the Southeastern Conference season, Walker leads the league in assists at 5.1 per game and UF has won seven straight conference games “As a coach, all you want from your guys is to buy into what you're trying to get them to do, not only for themselves, but also for your team,” Donovan said. “I think Erving has bought into that ever since we started the season. I just think it's been somewhat of an adjustment for him, but he continues to work at it and get better at it.”
* Gators Super Bowl trivia: Heading into the big game between New England and the New York Giants, 12 UF alums had won Super Bowl rings and only eight as starters (we list them below). But who is the one former Gator great who won two Super Bowls while starting -- and starring -- for two teams? Answer below, also.
* A little lost in Saturday's game: Mike Rosario's quality minutes off the bench. He scored 10 points, all in the first half, going 4-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-4 from 3-point range). Just as key, Rosario had some really defensive possessions, plus two assists and a couple rebounds, one on the offensive end for a stickback, as he did a nice job crashing the glass on teammates' shots. The junior transfer from Rutgers clearly is "getting" it.
* Florida needed something of a late push Thursday night to hold off South Carolina at the O'Dome. That would be the same Gamecocks squad that returned home and got annihilated by Kentucky 86-52 Saturday night. Wildcats coach John Calipari tweeted Sunday that his team would practice in the morning in preparation for Florida and have the rest of the day off. @UKCoachCalipari also sent a shout-out to incredible freshman Anthony Davis, who set the league's rookie record for blocked shots (116) Saturday, passing a pretty good precedent-setter. “Congrats to @AntDavis23 for breaking the single-season SEC Freshman block record. Anything you break a @SHAQ record, you've done something."
* Saw “The Descendants” the other night. Terrific movie. George Clooney was great. Still only seen three of the Academy Award best-picture nominees. It's tougher now, since Oscar went from five to 10 in that category a few years ago. “War Horse” was pretty good. “The Help” was outstanding.
* Yes, I know the previous item had nothing to do with the Gators. But it's my blog. Thank your for indulging me.
* Best tweet I got during the games last week came from @brucefloyd, who wasn't crazy about my description of UF's missed free throws against the Gamecocks, as the Gators "bonked" six of their first 11. "@GatorZoneChris You need a new catch phrase. Might I suggest "Zoinks!" or "Bing Bongs!" You might suggest, @brucefloyd, but I might likely will decline. Thanks for the input, though.
* Florida sophomore forward Will Yeguete was his quietly spectacular self in the win over Vanderbilt. He scored five points (and actually went 3-for-4 from the free-throw line despite shooting just 30 percent for the season) grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and came up with three steals, but his overall action and disruption at the top of the press was instrumental in gumming up the Commodores' ability to get into their halfcourt offense. His length, hustle, energy and intelligence make the UF press work. “I like it when the game gets chaotic,” Yeguete beamed afterward. So does Donovan, who definitely likes it better than Yeguete -- and respects the heck out of what the French forward by way of Melbourne is doing for his team. “From a stamina standpoint, it's really, really difficult,” Donovan said of playing the top of the press. “He's taking the ball out of bounds on made baskets and he's on the front of the press, so he really has 94 feet to cover.”
* Freshman swingman Bradley Beal will be the first to tell you he should be shooting better than 74.2 percent from the free-throw line. Actually, he'll be the second. Donovan is the first. In fact, afte Beal went 6-for-9 against South Carolina, Donovan said he'd been saying in practice he was think of changing Beal's number from 23 to 12, "because he makes one out of two every time he goes to the line." Not exactly accurate on the numbers, but funny. Beal got the message, apparently. He was 4-for-4 against Vanderbilt.
* With the victory over Vandy, the Gators have won 19 straight at home. That's five off the school record of 24. For perspective sake, it's also 29 off the home winning streak of 48 in a row the Gators will face at Rupp Arena.
* Oh, and Kentucky officials Sunday announced that general managers or scouts from 26 of the NBA's 30 teams will be in the house Tuesday night.
* You probably read about the fallout in the Big Ten over players signed by new Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, luring them away during the recruiting process despite verbal commitments to other programs. A couple conference coaches, starting with Wisconsin's Bret Bielema, took very public stabs at the former UF coach. Meyer, in response, basically said, “Get used to it.” Last week, Donovan was asked about the uproar and said basketball coaches have a “gentleman's agreement” not to recruit prospects that have announced a public commitment. Most, he said, honor that agreement. “I will not recruit anyone who is committed,” Donovan said. “Never. Ever. Ever.” A few years ago, Al Horford committed to Michigan, only to have a change of heart. His prep coach called UF to see if the Gators were still interested, but Donovan said he would not recruit Horford unless he called the Michigan staff and told them up front that he was re-opening his recruitment. That's what Horford did. “I've always been amazed in football that a guy verbally commits and he's still taking official visits to other places,” Donovan said. “That makes no sense to me. He shouldn't commit to anyone if he's not really sure. It just seems that's what goes on.” Yeah, it does.
* Trivia answer: Wilber Marshall started for both the '85 Chicago Bears in their 46-10 beating of the Patriots and '91 Washington Redskins in the 37-24 defeat of the Buffalo Bills. ... The other 11 Gators who win Super Bowl rings (* = starters): PK *Don Chandler (Green Bay, SB I, II); OG Burton Lawless and RB Larry Brinson (Dallas, XII); RB *Emmitt Smith (Dallas, XXVII, XXVIII, XXX); LB Godfrey Myles (Dallas, XXVII, XXVIII); DE *Kevin Carter (St. Louis Rams, XXXIV); C *Jeff Mitchell (Baltimore, XXXV); OT *Kenyatta Walker (Tampa Bay, XXXVII); OT *Max Starks (Pittsburgh XL, XLIII); WR Dallas Baker (Pittsburgh, XL); DE *Bobby McCray (New Orleans, XLIV).
* Finally, a very personal note. I watch a lot of great basketball covering the Gators, but I couldn't let this week go by without saying how much I'll cherish the decade-plus of watching my daughter, Molly, whose career as a point guard came to an end in Class 8A district play last week at Tampa Plant High. Could not be prouder of how she competed and put forth everything she had over the years.
