Chomping at the bit for Florida Athletics
The Florida Gators were ranked number 3 in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 40 Division I Preseason Poll.
Florida finished last season 52-16, falling in the College World Series.
All SEC programs received votes in the ranking, with LSU leading the way at #2.
Florida had eight players drafted in the 2016 MLB draft, but returns a solid core, including most of their lineup.
Florida begins the season February 17th against William & Mary.
FINAL: FLORIDA 94, LITTLE ROCK 71
| 1st | 2nd | OT | FINAL | |
| LITTLE ROCK | 27 | 44 | X | 71 |
| FLORIDA | 56 | 38 | X | 94 |
GAINESVILLE, FL- The Florida Gators were eager to see their new home. Florida has played neutral site and road games for the first eleven games this season. Head coach Mike White prohibited players from “catching a peek” of the new digs, as the team finally saw the results on Tuesday. On Wednesday though, Florida had to play their first true home game of the year. The Gators faced the Little Rock Trojans. Last year, Little Rock knocked Purdue out of the NCAA tournament as a 12 seed.
Florida came out extremely well, as they raced to a 9-0 lead before Little Rock was forced to call a timeout. The timeout didn’t help. Florida hit 21 of their first 28 shots in the new building. At halftime Florida was shooting almost 70%, including 56% from behind the three-point arc. Florida coasted easily in the second half as eleven players saw action.
Florida was led by Devin Robinson with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Robinson shot 7-11 from the field and 4-5 from three-point land. Keyvaughn Allen added 19 points on 70% shooting. Canyon Barry scored 15 points off the bench, and Florida fans finally got to see Barry’s under-handed free throws, as he sank all four of his attempts. Kevarrius Hayes (12) and Kasey Hill (11) also scored double-digits for the Gators.
Florida was once again playing without center John Egbunu, who has an injured hamstring. Hayes got the start at the five position, while Schuyler Rimmer saw meaningful action as well.
Little Rock was led by forward Lis Shoshi with 19 points and 4 rebounds, while Andre Jones (14) and Oliver Black (11) added double-digit points.
Florida will face Arkansas in Fayetteville on 12/29 to begin SEC play.
ATTENDANCE: 10,665
RECORDS:
Team Stats:
| LITTLE ROCK | FLORIDA | |
| FG % | 50 | 60 |
| 3-PT % | 31 | 52 |
| FT % | 73 | 77 |
| Offensive Rebounds | 8 | 10 |
| Total Rebounds | 24 | 33 |
| Assists | 11 | 20 |
| Steals | 3 | 8 |
| Blocks | 2 | 3 |
| Turnovers | 13 | 13 |
What’s Next:
FLORIDA GATORS at ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS
DECEMBER 29, 2016 at 9:00 PM
SEC NETWORK
The Philadelphia Phillies have made a trade with the Boston Red Sox that includes a prospect that excelled with the Florida Gators.
The Red Sox acquired Phillies prospect Josh Tobias for veteran pitcher Clay Buchholz.
Tobias is a 2015 UF graduate who was drafted by the Phillies in the 10th round. Tobias hit .291 with 9 home runs and 69 RBI’s in multiple Single-A stops in 2016.
Tobias finished his four year career at Florida with a .301 average and 11 home runs. In 2015, Tobias led the Gators with a .355 batting average.
Tobias was moved from third base to second base after becoming a professional and is expected to move to Double-A ball this season.
Clay Buchholz went 8-10 for Boston last season with a 4.78 ERA and 93 strikeouts in 139.1 innings.
(Stats from this article were found on MILB.com and MLB.com)
FINAL: FLORIDA 87, CHARLOTTE 46
| 1st | 2nd | OT | FINAL | |
| UNC-CHARLOTTE | 22 | 24 | X | 46 |
| FLORIDA | 48 | 39 | X | 87 |
SUNRISE, FL- The Florida Gators have finally completed their eleven game road/neutral site schedule to open the season. The new Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center will host Florida basketball on Wednesday night. Saturday evening though, the Gators had to play UNC-Charlotte in the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, Florida. The 49ers were no match for Florida. Florida raced out to a 12-3 lead, and extended the lead as the game wore on. Florida led 48-22 at halftime, and was able to use eleven players. Center John Egbunu was unable to play after sustaining a hamstring injury in practice on Tuesday.
Florida was led by Canyon Barry with 16 points off the bench. Devin Robinson added 15 points and 9 rebounds in only 20 minutes of action. Forward Keith Stone also scored in double figures with 10 points. Florida easily outrebounded the much smaller 49ers, whose tallest player is only 6’7, even without Egbunu.
Charlotte was paced by junior Austin Ajukwa, who tallied 12 points off the bench.
Florida will face Arkansas-Little Rock in the first game at the revamped Exactech Arena on Wednesday.
ATTENDANCE:
RECORDS:
Team Stats:
| CHARLOTTE | FLORIDA | |
| FG % | 28 | 50 |
| 3-PT % | 25 | 29 |
| FT % | 67 | 77 |
| Offensive Rebounds | 6 | 14 |
| Total Rebounds | 23 | 44 |
| Assists | 7 | 17 |
| Steals | 7 | 13 |
| Blocks | 0 | 4 |
| Turnovers | 20 | 13 |
What’s Next:
FLORIDA GATORS vs. LITTLE ROCK TROJANS
DECEMBER 21, 2016 at 7:00 PM
EXACTECH ARENA
Florida center John Egbunu is out for the Gators Orange Bowl Classic matchup with UNC-Charlotte. Egbunu has been nursing a hamstring injury since Tuesday’s practice.
6’9 F/C Keyvarrius Hayes will take the five spot in the lineup for Egbunu. Freshman Gorjok Gak is also expected to see some playing time. Walk-on Schuyler Rimmer is also a candidate to see some time tonight. Rimmer has played just nine minutes this season.
Florida faces the 49ers today at 4:00 PM from Sunrise, FL.
PANAMA CITY, FL- The Florida Gators women’s basketball team suffered a huge blow Sunday afternoon. It was announced by the school that leading scorer Eleanna Christinaki has quit the team.
Christinaki, who is from Athens, Greece and is a member of the Greek national team, was averaging 17.6 points and 4.7 rebounds as a sophomore.
“Eleanna Christinaki has quit on her team,” head coach Amanda Butler said after Florida defeated North Carolina A&T.
The university said that Christinaki and freshman Delicia Washington had committed a “violation of team culture” that led to a first half suspension for both players.
FINAL: FLORIDA 67, NORTH CAROLINA A&T 38
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | OT | FINAL | |
| NC A&T | 8 | 12 | 16 | 2 | X | 38 |
| FLORIDA | 11 | 12 | 21 | 23 | X | 67 |
PANAMA CITY, FL- The Florida Gators fought through three tough quarters against North Carolina A&T, before a fourth quarter rout led the Gators to their seventh win of the season. Florida only led by eight points heading into the fourth quarter, but Florida’s defense tightened up, allowing only two points on 1-14 shooting, including 0-9 from the beyond the three-point arc.
The Gators were led by Brooke Copeland with 13 points and 4 rebounds. The junior from Cleveland, TN shot 3-6 from three-point land. Florida also got 10 points from freshman Delicia Washington off the bench. Ronni Williams added 9 points and 10 rebounds , while Haley Lorenzen chipped in 8 points and a career high 10 rebounds. Florida outrebounded the Aggies by a 54-38 margin.
NC A&T was led by guard Dana Brown who scored 16 points, but also turned the ball over seven times.
Florida improves to 7-3 on the season, while the Aggies fall to 1-7. The game was played at the Billy Harrison Field House on the Gulf Coast State campus in Panama City.
TEAM STATS:
| NC A&T | FLORIDA | |
| FG % | 23 | 41 |
| 3-PT % | 21 | 19 |
| FT % | 33 | 73 |
| Offensive Rebounds | 14 | 14 |
| Total Rebounds | 38 | 54 |
| Assists | 9 | 13 |
| Steals | 10 | 11 |
| Blocks | 0 | 5 |
| Turnovers | 19 | 20 |
WHAT’S NEXT:
#16 FLORIDA vs INDIANA
DECEMBER 20, 2016 at 7:45 PM
WARDEN ARENA
(FLORIDA SUNSHINE TOURNAMENT)
At 7:05 PM the bat signal for Florida football went off. Head coach Jim McElwain sent the simple tweet: Chomp Chomp!
Wyoming Seminary Upper School defensive tackle Kyree Campbell committed to Florida. Campbell is listed at 6’4 320 LB.
Campbell was originally signed with North Carolina in the 2016 recruiting cycle, but failed to obtain enough credits and spent the semester completing the prep work.
In 2016 Campbell was a three star recruit and the #41 defensive tackle.
Florida needed to find a defensive tackle after Fred Hansard recently decommitted, and head coach Jim McElwain deserves credit for this find.
Campbell was also considering Penn State, Temple, and Pitt.
Florida seemed to enter this season set up at the quarterback position for the first time in a long time. Jim McElwain announced Luke Del Rio as the starter during fall camp. Last year, we all heard many reports saying that Del Rio was the best QB on the team and would have beat out Will Grier had he been eligible. Unfortunately, it took only a few weeks before fans realized Del Rio was not going to be the savior of Florida football.
Del Rio suffered an injury in the third quarter of the North Texas game, but before he got hurt he went 14-25 for 186 yards with an interception. Florida’s offense, led by Del Rio, was unable to even score enough to allow Florida to play their back ups.
(Florida led 19-0 at the time of the injury).
For a point of reference: Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky, and UTEP all scored 45 or more points against the Mean Green. Florida fans prayed for Del Rio when learning he was hurt, and threw their support to the graduate transfer, Austin Appleby. For one half in Knoxville, fans appeared to be rewarded, but then it all fell apart.
Florida’s second half play calling against Tennessee was clearly a sign that the Gators got comfortable and eased their foot off the gas. Since the first half of the Tennessee game, the Florida offense has not looked alive; the offense has been hiding.
Just look at Florida’s offensive rankings:
Rank 115/128 in Total Offense
Rank 84/128 in Passing Offense
Rank 89/128 in Passing Efficiency
Though this wasn’t completely Luke Del Rio’s fault, as Austin Appleby also played during a large portion of the season, Appleby wasn’t supposed to be our savior. Appleby didn’t outperform Grier last season. For goodness sake, he lost his starting job at Purdue!
Here’s Luke Del Rio’s, (hopefully), final stat line at Florida:
114/201
1358 yards
8 TD,
8 INT
57 % completion percentage
With this background, I would like to address the recent tweet made by Luke Del Rio, which has since been deleted, and appeared to call out Florida fans for their criticism of the team. His tweet stated:
Luke-It seems you don’t know what it means to be a true fan. Fan is short for fanatic, which is defined as a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal.”
It appears that you don’t know where UF’s fans came from, don’t know our story, or just don’t care. I’ll bet you never spent the last little bit of your paycheck to attend a game and sit in the very last row of the stadium, only to be disappointed to see your heroes flounder.
To call out a fan base for being “fair weathered fans” is reprehensible from a man who left two different universities because he didn’t have the opportunity to play. The only honorable thing you did in those situations was walk on and not use up a scholarship.
You had the benefit of being an NFL coach’s son. In fact, you were lucky enough to be the kid out there on the field before games, throwing the football with and learning, first-hand, from legends. I’m not trying to blame/shame you for the privilege you knew while growing up, but what a waste it seemed to be! Maybe you should grow up, stop acting entitled, get off Twitter for a while and try to understand and reverse the issues behind the failures of every quarterback at Florida since Tim Tebow.
Many Florida fans feel they have been duped, and in hindsight, if we had just looked closely at the writing on the wall, we might have seen this coming.
It’s true-we are FANatics for Florida athletics!
The way I see things, it will never be OK for an athlete, on any level, to complain about fans expressing their opinions. As long as we’re willing to spend our hard-earned money, and our valuable time, supporting and cheering on OUR team, we should also be afforded the right to let our team know how we feel when things aren’t going well, and athletes should be grateful that we even care!
(All statistics in this article came from NCAA.com)
Florida head coach Jim McElwain announced on Thursday that sophomore running back Jordan Cronkrite has been granted his release to transfer.
Cronkrite fell behind fellow sophomore Jordan Scarlett and JUCO transfer Mark Thompson. Cronkrite had even seen freshman LaMical Perine jump him on Florida’s depth chart.
Cronkrite hopes to find a new school soon and enroll in the spring semester.
“We wish Jordan nothing but the best and will do everything we can to support and assist him and help him get what he wants,” said Florida head coach Jim McElwain.
ChompTalk.com 