Taurean Green played the game of his young Gator career as he recorded 23 pts, 5 assists, 4 boards and 3 steals while also managing to control the tempo of the game to the Gators' favor. He could've had at least another 3-4 assists if it weren't for some missed layups inside by the big men. I'm sure he's going to be up and down this year but he is already much more of a true point guard than Anthony Roberson ever was. In addition, both Corey Brewer and Al Horford overcame sluggish starts to finish with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
A special note of congratulations should also go to Horford and the rest of Florida's frontline (Joakim Noah, Chris Richard, and Adrian Moss) for their collective efforts on All-American candidate Eric Williams. Furthermore, Billy Donovan played nine guys last night and I'd expect to see the bench minutes increase as the year goes on and some of the freshmen become more comfortable in their roles. This is going to be a very deep team capable of throwing alot of different lineups on the floor as the season progresses. As for tonight's final, I'm worried about how a team this young will handle the Syracuse 2-3 zone. If Florida is to win then they'll need a big game on the perimeter from uber-bama Lee Humphrey. Win or lose it's going to be tough for me to get too upset a night after knocking off the #18 team in the country.
Finally, in my excitement over last night's game I failed to mention the single best thing about this Florida team...the Corey Brewer face. Corey Brewer is not an attractive young man, not by a longshot. He's the kind of kid whose mother had to tie a ribeye around his neck just to get the dog to play with him. Just unfortunate, as my girlfriend would say. What's not unfortunate are the crazy faces he makes. Vitas noticed it in a picture form the SEC Tournament last year where Brewer looked like he was sucking on a tabasco soaked lemon during a postgame celebration. The bottom line is this: When Corey Brewer is on the floor you're going to get a minimum of 13 points, 3 steals and two crazy faces. In fact here's one
:As for the sport that normally dominates my weekends, college football is quickly coming to a close. It seems like just last week that I was listening to my drunk girlfriend bitch about the two TV setup in my living room. Sadly, it's not early September but, rather, mid-November and the bowl season will be upon us before too long. Not before a healthy heaping of rivalry games in the next two weeks, though.
The Gators have the week off to prepare for the annual showdown with Liver Spot Bowden and the Noles. Which reminds me...did you hear that Florida State "recovered" their missing National Championship trophies? As it turns out, two graduates of Florida were responsible for the heist and ended up turning the trophies into authorities earlier this week. Here's hoping that these two fine young gentlemen get themsleves a judge who graduated from law school at UF and not FSU. Oh wait, that's impossible because FSU doesn't have a law school. At least they have a good medical...nevermind, umm, well their Circus is definitely one of the best around.
Anyway, back to tommorow's games. Their are a number of interesting games between tradtional rivals and even a USC-Fresno matchup to add some spice to the late afternoon. Fresno may not be a natural rival to USC but they are bunch of bitter, valley residing hicks who would love nothing more than to ruin the season of all those hollywood pretty boys down in LA. As for the rest of the games that I'm interested in, I'll break them down as quickly and succintly as possible beginning now:
Michigan-OSU: Great rivalry. It's too bad that nobody ever tells the Michigan fans that they're supposed to do things like "stand during games" and "cheer for the home team". As a result, the overall feel of these games is never quite what it should be when this game is in the Big House. Still a great rivalry that always involves a ton of talent. Prediction: Buckeyes by 10.
Alabama-Auburn: The Iron Bowl, or as I like to call it, The Clash of inbreeders and rednecks that really, truly hate each other. Alot of rivalries claim to be about hating the other team and fall short, this is not one of them. Most (if not all) of these fans would rather have a son-in-law named LaDarius before they'd cheer for the opposing team. Prediction: Auburn by 6.
Penn State-Michigan State: Battle for the Land Grant Trophy...are you kidding me? What a joke. This isn't even as big a rivalry as Mel-Hi and Palm Bay. Let's just not even pretend like these two schools are bitter rivals in any way, shape or form, alright? Prediction: Penn State wins and Joe Pa kisses Derrick Williams on the mouth.
Cal-Stanford: The Big Game. Who named this thing the Big Game anyway? Who, outside of the Bay area, even cares that this game is taking place this weekend? Nobody, thats who. I don't know jack about these teams (and care even less) but my good friend Mike Coffey is the Strength coach at Stanford, so I'll pretend to be interested for at least an eighth of the game (a quarter is far too long). What do you want from me? It's not like you'll be watching. Prediction: I watch exaclty zero second half minutes and Cal wins by 13.
Va. Tech-UVA: Winner gets a "Virginia is for Lovers" T-shirt. Loser has to give the opposing coach a sponge bath. Prediction: Frank Beamer's creepy plastic neck will be shining brightly on Saturday evening.
Oregon-Oregon State: The Civil War, or as I like to call it "The Battle for the Bong". Do the cops even bother searching people on the way in to this game? Seriously, you'd be eliminating half the crowd before kickoff. They'll be more patchouli at this game than people who can correctly identify the neccessary elements of a screen pass. Prediction: Lots of points for Oregon and a contact high for all those in attendance.
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