O&B Notebook: Lindaman's Power Surge, McConnell's Ranking, Tebow's TV Show, More Gators Tidbits
Tuesday, March 26, 2019 | General, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Kendyl Lindaman finished school at the University of Minnesota in December and packed her bags. The two-time Big Ten Conference Player of the Year sought a new challenge and found one with the Gators softball team.
Utilizing the sport's new transfer rule, Lindaman enrolled at UF in January and began preparing for her junior season. In two seasons at Minnesota, Lindaman blasted 40 home runs and rewrote the school's record book with her booming bat.
Her departure made news in the Twin Cities and a columnist from The Minneapolis Star-Tribune even made a stop last month at UF to write about Lindaman and her new surroundings.
"She's one of a kind,'' former Minnesota teammate MaKeena Partain told Star-Tribune last season. "Literally, I've never seen someone smash a ball as hard as her."
Kendyl Lindaman was all smiles before and after Florida faced her former team, Minnesota, last week at home. Lindaman's two run homer accounted for all the scoring in UF's 2-0 win. (Photo: Alana Healy/UAA Communications)
The home runs didn't follow her south at the start. Lindaman's first home run with the Gators came in her 10th game. She then hit only one over the next 15 games.
However, Long-Ball Lindaman has arrived.
Over the past eight games, Lindaman has eight home runs, including homers in four consecutive games entering Wednesday night's home against Bethune-Cookman. In fact, Lindaman's last six hits have been homers, highlighted by a pair of two-homer games in back-to-back wins against Mercer last weekend.
UF coach Tim Walton was never concerned whether Lindaman had lost her power stroke. The Gators, after an 18-0 start, are 9-6 in their last 15 games. In those six losses, they managed five runs, so the lineup struggled from top to bottom.
Lindaman has recovered from offseason knee surgery and found her groove based on recent results. She is batting .381 and leads the team with 10 homers and 34 RBI.
"Kendyl came in and hadn't played softball in about six months,'' Walton said Tuesday. "I think she is now finally getting settled in, getting comfortable with her body, getting healthier, getting more flexible, and getting better. You see the home runs. The power is there. She has always hit home runs."
McCONNELL ON RISE
Gators shortstop Brady McConnell is putting together a nice season. McConnell was hitting .362 with three homers and 18 RBI going into Tuesday night's game against Florida State in Jacksonville. Brady McConnell
Others have noticed.
In its rankings of the top 20 college shortstops available in the 2019 MLB amateur draft, Baseball America has McConnell at No. 7. McConnell is a draft-eligible sophomore because he will be 21 at the time of June's draft.
Here is the magazine's note on McConnell:
McConnell came to Florida as the highest ranked position player in the 2017 draft class not to sign. His freshman year was derailed by injuries, but healthy now the draft-eligible sophomore has started strong at the plate and has been the kind of dynamic player he was expected to be.
McConnell played in only nine games as a freshman due to a lingering hand injury. He has been a steady presence at the top of Florida's lineup in 2019 and reeled off a career-high 15-game hitting streak. His defense remains a work in progress -- he leads the team with seven errors -- but McConnell has shown drastic improvement from a season ago.
Two Southeastern Conference shortstops check in above McConnell on the list: Auburn's Will Holland (No. 4) and Texas A&M's Braden Shewmake.
MARCH ODDNESS
Unless you have paid close attention to the NCAA Women's Tournament, you might have missed an interesting second-round game on Sunday night between Clemson and Mississippi State. In reality, Bulldogs 6-foot-7 center Teaira McCowan made sure the Tigers never had a chance in MSU's 85-61 victory.
McCowan scored a game-high 30 points and added 11 rebounds and six blocks in front of a packed house at Humphrey Coliseum. I haven't asked him, but my guess is that Gators Athletic Director Scott Stricklin at least glanced at the contest on social media if he had a chance while traveling home from Iowa.
Stricklin hired Bulldogs head coach Vic Schaefer during his stint as Mississippi State's AD, and in his first major coaching move at Florida, ended Amanda Butler's tenure as head of the UF women's basketball program. In her first season at Clemson, Butler led the Tigers to their first NCAA Tournament win since 2001, a first-round win over South Dakota in which former Gators guard Simone Westbrook led the Tigers with 27 points.
Still, they had no chance against the Bulldogs and McCowan.
Teaira McCowan of @HailStateWBK is the first SEC player since Kentucky's Victoria Dunlap with 30 points and 10 rebounds in an NCAA tournament game. Dunlap had 31 and 13 against Okahoma in the 2010 Elite 8. Mississippi State beat Clemson 85-61 to reach the Sweet 16.
"It didn't really feel like a chess match,'' Butler said afterward. "You get a pretty easy checkmate when you have a queen like her on the back line."
Schaefer has built Mississippi State's program into a Final Four contender year in and year out. Butler took over a downtrodden Clemson program and quickly produced results, earning Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year honors during a 20-13 season.
LEWIS LEAPS TOWARD UF
Incoming Gators freshman Scottie Lewis figures to play a key role for the UF men's basketball team next season. Colleague Chris Harry, in his story to cap the Gators' 2018-19 season, writes about how Lewis factors into the plans.
If you were anywhere on social media or a TV on Monday night, perhaps you saw Lewis perform some dynamic dunks at the McDonald's All-American Game's dunk contest in suburban Atlanta.
If not, enjoy this one that had Gators fans -- and others -- buzzing.
-- Forme Gators standout Mike Miller, who just finished his first season as an assistant at Memphis under former NBA star Penny Hardaway, could be an ideal fit at UNLV writes Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
-- Tim Tebow talks baseball and his new TV show "Million Dollar Mile" with Amanda Borges of Yahoo Sports:
Chatted with @TimTebow to get his thoughts on making baseball more exciting, paying minor league players more $$, and this season with @SyracuseMets.
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