GAINESVILLE, Fla. – If you watched any of Tennessee's loss to Alabama on Saturday in the SEC Tournament, you saw the black right eye of Vols forward John Fulkerson as he watched from the bench area.
The shiner was courtesy of an elbow from Gators forward Omar Payne in Florida's loss to the Vols on Friday. Fulkerson is sidelined indefinitely with a concussion and facial fracture.
Payne, regardless of his frustration level during a game in which the Gators didn't particularly play well, should have never thrown the elbow. He did something Saturday that he needed to: apologize.
Soon after Payne's apology started to spread on social media, Fulkerson shared his thoughts over the unfortunate incident. Gators coach
Mike White also reached out to Fulkerson to check on him. A popular member of the Vols, Fulkerson had 14 points and seven rebounds against Florida in the regular-season finale and eight points on Friday.
Considering the ugliness of Friday's incident, both players responded with class on Saturday. It was an unfortunate incident and one that Payne hopefully learns from, and one that Fulkerson hopefully recovers from in time to play in the NCAA Tournament.
JOAKIM'S JOURNEY
In his retirement announcement on social media, 13-year NBA veteran
Joakim Noah posted that "it was a hell of a ride." That it was, one that started at UF when Noah helped the Gators win back-to-back national titles in 2006 and '07.
Noah wants to officially retire as a member of the Chicago Bulls, where he spent the majority of his career and was named 2014 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. The Bulls plan to make that happen but don't have a date set with the coronavirus pandemic preventing that type of celebration for now.
Billy Donovan, Noah's coach at Florida, lavished praise on Noah when word of his retirement arrived in the Windy City. Chicago drafted Noah ninth overall in the 2007 NBA Draft.
"I actually was very surprised that he fell to where he did [in the draft],'' Donovan told the
Chicago Sun-Times this week. "He would've been probably a higher pick his sophomore year. I always said this, if you put four guys in the lane and threw the ball up against the backboard, and it was one-on-four, Joakim's coming down with the rebound.
"You can talk about he's not a great jump [shooter], but you're not going to get a harder-playing, more competitive, better teammate and more of a sacrifice guy than he is. He lays it on the line for his teammates every night. Joakim's a guy that has it. I don't know how to describe it all, but he's an unbelievable winner.''
PROSPECT WATCH
The MLB amateur draft is four months away and based on current projections, center fielder
Jud Fabian will likely be the first UF player selected. Fabian has intriguing tools and is the type of young player professional teams covet to develop in their minor-league system.
In his latest stock-watch report for ESPN+, MLB insider
Kiley McDaniel wrote about the buzz surrounding Fabian.
Fabian has 65-grade raw power and is a solid average defender in center field, but has 20- or 30-grade pitch recognition right now, giving him real trouble with off-speed pitches. It's been better than this in the past, but scouts have now tossed him into the [former Vanderbilt outfielder] Jeren Kendall big-tools-can't-really-hit bucket until he proves otherwise, but he would still go in the back half of the first round.
REMEMBERING ADKINS
The Gators football family lost a member this week when
Robert "Bulldog" Adkins passed away. Adkins had battled cancer in recent years.
Adkins joined the Gators in 1973 and played on the junior varsity team as a freshman. He moved up to varsity in 1974 and as a rising sophomore, had 27 tackles at defensive end.
An all-state selection at Orlando Edgewater High, Adkins suffered a knee injury that cost him the 1975 season and essentially derailed what started as a promising career. Roberts finished at UF in 1977 and was retired in Orlando at the time of his death. He often returned to UF for football alumni events and remained a diehard Gators fan.
Robert Maurice Adkins was 66.
His daughter,
Shayma White, posted a heartfelt tribute on Facebook.
"Since your initial diagnosis in 2015, you LIVED. You traveled the country, fished, learned Spanish, danced, visited Buddhist temples, created art, and so much more. You gave everything your all. I have learned a lot from you, including forgiveness and the way you were intentional about being present for those important to you. You endured grueling chemo, radiation, pain, and suffering throughout the past 5.5 years, but you did it so that you could maximize your time with your loved ones. Thank you for that."
Condolences to the Adkins family.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"You could write a book on all the sacrifices that have been made by the players to get to do this. But you know, I will say, this is what guys, that's what we love to do. Now, was it easy? No, it was extremely difficult. But is it worth all of that, those sacrifices you have to make and those challenges? Absolutely it is, because we're getting to do what we love to do, which is go play football." -- Gators coach
Dan Mullen on dealing with the coronavirus pandemic for the past year
TWEET OF WEEK
The UF soccer team paid tribute to head coach
Becky Burleigh and assistants
Vic Campbell and
Alan Kirkup with a mural on Gainesville's 34th Street Wall. Burleigh is stepping down after 26 seasons as Florida's only women's soccer coach after the season. She coached her final home game on Thursday night.
EXTRA, EXTRA
Gators volleyball coach
Mary Wise, whose team swept Missouri on Saturday afternoon,
builds her perfect Gators volleyball player for NCAA.com ... Former Gators defensive back
Janoris Jenkins was cut loose by New Orleans this week to save salary cap space. The 32-year-old Jenkins remained a productive player in 2020 and
speculation has bubbled that perhaps Jenkins could reunite with Urban Meyer, who recruited him to Florida ... The Jets made a big move to keep ex-Gators safety
Marcus Maye off the open market when NFL free agency starts Monday by
placing a franchise tag on Maye ...
In his latest mock draft for ESPN+, veteran draft analyst
Todd McShay has the Eagles taking Gators tight end
Kyle Pitts with the No. 6 overall pick. That would be a homecoming for Pitts, who grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia ... Gators baseball coach
Kevin O'Sullivan won the 557th game of his career with Tuesday night's victory over Georgia State, passing
Dave Fuller to become UF's all-time wins leader. Where does O'Sullivan stack up among active Southeastern Conference coaches during their time at their current school? He was the fifth-winningest active SEC coach at the start of the season behind
Mike Bianco (Ole Miss, 767 wins),
Tim Corbin (Vanderbilt, 753 wins),
Dave Van Horn (Arkansas, 700 wins) and LSU's
Paul Mainieri (603 wins) ... Ex-Gators running back
Trey Burton is
playing big role in the lives of his kids as he plays in the NFL.
