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Hear that crackling? Could it be Walter Hodge breaking out of his shell? |
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Written by Ryan Collins
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Wednesday, 10 December 2008 |
Another barnburner tonight in the O'Connell center, as Florida hosted the 2-6 Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast University. In fact, the most exciting moment by far was watching short, Irish, freshman sensation Kyle McClanahan trot off the bench and nail a ridiculous bank-shot three with 6 seconds remaining in the game. Most of the crowd apparently thought it more fitting to hit the bars in honor of the last regular day of school, as the upper half of the O'dome was a sea of empty, blue chairs. With about two minutes left in the first half, UF led by a single point. They only led by seven at half. A large run in the opening minutes of the second half propelled the Gators into cruise-mode. Did I mention this team fell out of the rankings two days ago?
Alright, I will forfeit my nomination for Playa Hater of the Year and review some of the positive aspects. As the title implied, Walter Hodge had a season-high 19 points (previous was 17 points in game #2 of the season against Bradley) and 3 steals. I can not emphasize it enough, Walter has to step up for this team to have any hope of breaking .500 in the conference schedule this year. A telling statistic: Walter had zero(0) points against Syracuse University.
Alexander Tyus, a player desperately needing to shed his "little boy" status, took another step towards becoming a grown man with 19 points also, as well as 8 boards. Tyus will be interesting to watch this year, sort of like throwing a child into the deep end of a pool. I hope he swims his way to an NCAA berth this year. However, Chandler Parsons and a few of the freshman will really need to help him out in the paint in order for Alexander to avoid drowning. Probably the largest aspect taken for granted during the reign of the '04's was the rotation of big men and teamwork that developed.
As for the Freshies, Erving Walker(G) played 25 minutes and racked up 13 points, and Kenny Kadji(F) put in 20 minutes and had six points and six rebounds. Keep it up boys.
Next up for the Gators: A "neutral-court" game against the UCF Golden Knights(4-3) in Jacksonville on December 20th. The Knights have lost to Morehead St., Valpraiso and Ole Miss. Projection: Gators 82 - Golden Knights 56.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 January 2009 )
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