** This thread discusses the Content article: Gators Barely Beat Georgia Southern To Advance In Phony Legends Tournament **

I think the crab people are on Notre Dame's football schedule. Weis would probably lose to them.

All is not completely lost, don't forget we beat Ga Southern by only 10 combined the last two years, and won by 20 despite our horrid shooting. In sort of a bizarro world twist, I think we are going to really benefit in the games that are pretty loosely called since we have a lot of bodies to bang with and wear people out. Those have always been the games the 3 shooting finesse Billy teams in the past would lose. I really think the key is Shipman. Boyton has shown the skills to be a scorer, and Irving can be decent PG. Shipman becoming a scoring threat and giving us 3 guards who can score would be a big difference.

I like the optimism. Georgia Southern is not nearly the pushover that Stetson is, but that first half on Wednesday night was frightful.

Ship will find his role, I believe. The test will come on Tuesday against FSU, where I think we'll get some more definitive answers on the outlook of this season.

I was probably most excited to see Shipman this year. Walker I had a good feeling would be a strong player, but Shipman seemed to work out some "tentative-ness" (see what happens when you let an engineer loose on a keyboard, instead of a calculator?) in his game as last year went on, and the year 2 leap under Billy D (and probably every college basketball coach) has been covered extensively.

Anyway, ESPN360 didn't pick up the Ga Southern game, so I wasn't able to watch it. I did like how Shipman attacked the rim in the first game, and think his athleticism, with Walker and Boynton's quickness, could be an exciting way to build this team. Macklin had some good, quick outlet passes as well, so we could really grow into a fun team to watch- and a team that could go on some big runs. And the one thing we know, definitively, that Parsons can do is score on dunks/layups/tip-ins.

The 3-point percentages are a little troubling, but it's also been 2 games. Adam Allen would have been a big help in that regard. It's not that I want a team that will lead the league in 3's made, but we need much better percentages. We will see how this develops in the upcoming games, we just need to hit enough of them to keep defenses honest, so that our guards with their quickness and athleticism can get in the paint. (Did I just say that about a Billy Donovan team?)

Tyus is a good fit for this style, as well, because he can run the floor and pass well, but also because he has a pretty sweet jumper.

Don't look now, but I'm talking myself into our team. I remember thinking at times the last 2 years that some of our guys just didn't like playing basketball any more. Hopefully I don't think that with this squad, I think they could be really fun to watch.