Be prepared to hear that again this week.

Everything came together tonight in the O’Connell Center as the untested UF basketball team dominated every aspect of the game against the hated rival, Florida State.

This was the most fun basketball game I have been to in a while. The student section was rocking, and a few groups of garnet-clad fans held their heads low as chants of “UF rejects!” and “Same as Football!” rained down on them. They announced at halftime that we had just beat FSU in swimming and diving and the crowd roared. 

 Everyone played extremely well. Alex Tyus was a rebounding machine. His ability to knock down medium range jump shots adds a great dimension to our offense. Dan Werner connected often from 3-point land, and on more than one occasion brought down the house from deep.

Erving Walker and Kenny Boynton dribbled out of multiple perilous situations as the Seminoles went to a desperation full-court press towards the end of the game. Vernon Macklin looked like the post player UF has so desperately needed, especially against FSU’s gang of big men. Ray Shipman showed confidence on fast breaks and also played the Lee Humphrey role by nailing an important three from the corner.

The first half was all about Gator press. It wreaked havoc on the Seminoles offense. There were multiple steals, travels and even the pinnacle of a successful press, the dreaded 10-second call. The Gators fed off the amped crowd and made athletic plays and scored easy baskets. Seemingly, everything was going right.

However, despite a 20 point UF half-time lead, the ‘Noles roared back in the early stages of the second half, drawing the deficit to only 5 points. It took a few Billy Donovan timeouts, but the mighty and young Gators shrugged off some poor shooting and obnoxious FSU fans and ran the lead back to 20 points. That is where it would stay until the final buzzer sounded.

During the FSU scoring run, suddenly the ball became a hot-potato in the hands of the Gators. Erving Walker slipped and threw the ball away. Shipman passed the ball to the scorer’s table. Walker capped off the horrible string with an out of control drive to the hoop, causing Billy D to call a timeout and make some key substitutions. The only other negative I saw in an overwhelmingly positive game was Macklin’s foul troubles. In a game with limited fouls to begin with, Macklin racked up four fouls in the second half. Mark my words, Vernon’s foul troubles will come back to bite them somewhere down the road.

Interestingly, possibly due to the “big game” aspect, there was no Erik Murphy or Nimrod Tishman on the court. I guess these guys need some more court time against the Stetsons of the world.

Before we go making Final Four reservations, keep in mind this was only game #1 of UF’s murderous fall three-game stretch. Next for the Gators is a trip to Atlantic City for the semifinals of the Legends Classic against number 2 ranked Michigan State. The Spartans are 4-0 and had a tough victory over Gonzaga already. G Kalin Lucas’ name comes up frequently in talk of potential player of the year honors. The game is on Friday (11/27/09) at 8 pm ET.