Graphic: Scott MacCord/UAA Communications
Careers of Noah and Horford at Different Stages, More Tidbits
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 | Scott Carter
Former Gators standout and 2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah has not found success in New York.
Both players left their original teams following the 2015-16 season to sign free-agent contracts elsewhere, with Horford going from Atlanta to Boston, and Noah from Chicago to New York.
As Horford prepares to play in his fifth All-Star Game next month for the East-leading Celtics, Noah's career has stalled at a crossroad. Noah's time with the Knicks is on the verge of ending according to reports that surfaced Monday.
After multiple incidents with coach Jeff Hornacek, what's next for Joakim Noah? https://t.co/M33y9DRSoV pic.twitter.com/VS5yInG5ZU
— USA TODAY NBA (@usatodaynba) January 29, 2018
Noah's two seasons in New York have been rather forgettable for one of the most popular athletes to ever step foot on the UF campus. He played in 46 games a year ago before knee surgery cost him the rest of the season. He was suspended for the first 20 games of this season after NBA tests reportedly discovered traces of an illegal substance from an over-the-counter supplement in his blood.
Noah's latest issue is a conflict with New York head coach Jeff Hornacek. The two apparently don't see eye to eye on Noah's role on the team, which manifested itself in a recent heated exchange between the two at practice according to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter post above).
The Knicks reportedly want to move Noah, and Amick mentions perhaps shipping him to Minnesota to rejoin his old Bulls coach, Tom Thibodeau. The NBA trade deadline is Feb. 8.
Noah is owed more than $37 million over the next two seasons, so finding a taker might be difficult for a player who has appeared in only seven games and played 41 minutes this season. I don't know if it's even a remote possibility financially, but it would be interesting to see if Billy Donovan, in his third season as head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder, could revive Noah's career.
Billy D worked magic on Noah at UF and they created moments together that will stand forever in Gators lore.
KERR RETURNS
If you were among the sellout crowd at Exactech Arena on Friday night for the UF gymnastics team's win over No. 1-ranked Oklahoma, perhaps you noticed the familiar face on the visiting team.
She certainly waved to a lot of people in the crowd who yelled her way.
Yes, that was former Gators gymnast Ashley Kerr, who served as a member of the Gators' staff for several years until taking a position as assistant volunteer coach with the Sooners.
"I can't thank the University of Florida enough for all the experiences I've had and the people I've worked with,'' Kerr said when she joined the defending national champion Sooners. "I am grateful for this opportunity with OU to continue to grow professionally and add whatever value I can to an already accomplished team and athletic department."
Kerr spent more than a decade associated with the Gators gymnastics team as a student-athlete, manager and assistant to the head coach.
Kerr congratulated Gators head coach Jenny Rowland and the gymnasts she knows so well following their win over Oklahoma by the narrowest of margins, and then left her old home for her new one.
GATORS IN PIPELINE
Two years ago A.J. Puk, Alex Faedo and Dane Dunning were in the Gators' starting rotation.
They are now among MLB.com's top 100 prospects in the game. Puk is rated the highest as the No. 32 overall prospect in the minors, Faedo is No. 59, and Dunning is 92nd.
Puk (A's) and Dunning (White Sox) completed their first full professional seasons in 2017 as Faedo starred for the Gators on the way to winning the College World Series Most Outstanding Player award. A first-round pick of the Tigers, Faedo was shut down after Florida's season and is invited to Detroit's big-league camp.
We picked our No. 1 prospect. Who you got?#Angels' Shohei Ohtani#Braves' Ronald Acuna#BlueJays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr.#WhiteSox's Eloy Jimenez
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) January 28, 2018
Complete 2018 #Top100Prospects list:https://t.co/TuTZgd5PTS
FRIENDLY REMINDER
The game was out of reach on Saturday when Baylor's Tyson Jolly reached out and grabbed Gators freshman Deaundrae Ballard as Ballard drove to the basket for what would have been an easy dunk.
The hard foul drew oohs and aahs from the crowd and earned Jolly a technical with the Gators up 78-58 with only 57 seconds remaining. An otherwise inconsequential play in Florida's 81-60 victory, Gators guard Jalen Hudson's reaction was different than what you normally see.
He immediately went over and put his arm around Jolly and took a couple of steps with him, which might cause a problem with a lot of opposing players who just got a technical foul. Not this time.
Hudson was no stranger.
"That's like a really close friend of mine. I was like, 'Come on man, you can't be grabbing my teammate and stuff like that or we're going to have problems.' That's my homey.'' Hudson said. "I just had to grab him up real quick to let him know we don't do that. He's a real good guy though."
Hudson and Jolly, a redshirt freshman from Oklahoma City, were teammates on an Athletes In Action team that went on a competitive tour of the Czech Republic and Poland last summer.
MR. SMALL
Jack Card was not the most gifted player for the Gators of the mid-1960s, but pound for pound, he may have been the toughest.
George Solomon , a UF graduate who went on to become a longtime sports editor of The Washington Post, wrote this about Card in December 1966 for the Fort Lauderdale News as the Gators prepared to play Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl:
There are two things bound to happen in the Orange Bowl game: Jack Card will get knocked down. Jack Card will get up.
Card was a fan favorite because he was David going against Goliath, a 5-foot-6, 160-pound undersized linebacker who never backed down from bigger offensive linemen or running backs coming at him full speed.
Card passed away this month at the age of 74 according to the latest National Football Foundation newsletter.
EXTRA, EXTRA
Gators head coach Dan Mullen and new Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther were teammates at Division III Ursinus College. Mullen spoke to Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle about Guenther, who recently joined new Raiders coach Jon Gruden's staff … Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel are part of a new book from the National Football Foundation titled "Lessons from Legends: 12 Hall of Fame Coaches on Leadership, Life, and Leaving a Legacy." The book is available by clicking here and features a Q&A with 12 prominent coaches, including Spurrier … A memorial service for Opal Graves, the widow of former UF head coach/athletic director Ray Graves, is scheduled March 16 at 2 p.m. in Tampa at The Chapel at Lake Magdalene Methodist Church. Opal Graves passed away at 96 years old on Nov. 28.
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