Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Florida Men’s Basketball Wearing Bull’s Eye

The Back Nine comes at you after a long short trip to South Florida and a pretty impressive weekend for the Gators.

10. Let’s start with basketball and the two major things that went through my mind Saturday night – 1. Why does a restaurant with dozens of TVs not have basketball on any of them? And, 2. Are the Gators going to do what they did in 2007 and lose at LSU? Yeah, I was there in the second of the back-to-back years and Florida had a bad day in Red Stick, losing to a bad team. That was a concern Saturday when LSU closed the first half on a 22-2 run. But the Gators came through with another awesome second half and won … again … by double digits … again. Look, there aren’t going to be any easy games when you are ranked No. 2 in the nation and fighting for a No. 1 seed because you are wearing a bull’s eye that was not expected to be there in December.

11. My buddy Chris Harry made a good point that to be the sixth man of the year in the SEC, you have to start fewer than six games. Thomas Haugh has started three. But that’s not even the point. The Gators lost Alex Condon what feels like a month ago and the other bigs have really stepped up. That includes, of course, Rueben Chinyelu’s incredible 19 and 13 performance Saturday night. “His best game as a Gator, for sure,” Todd Golden said.

12. I’m still sticking with my over/under of 11.5 for the number of SEC teams that get into the tournament and I’m betting the under. Right now, 12 or 13 is the number (14 was never realistic), but Arkansas and Oklahoma are those two teams and are coming off big wins. The funny thing is that one team inside the bubble that is still shaky plays three bubble teams in the last two weeks of the season. Texas plays at Arky, at home against Oklahoma and at Georgia and everyone there needs some good wins to close it out.

13. Which brings me to another point, that this week is No Peek Week. GameDay is coming here and Miami is coming here and Texas A&M is coming here. But those things don’t start until Friday night. Florida has to play a Georgia team Tuesday night that badly needs a big win. And we know how Gator baseball struggled in the midweek games a season ago. It’s going to be a huge weekend. Let it come to you when it’s ready. No peeking.

14. Not struggling would be the Gator baseball team, which has scored in double figures in six straight games. This team might be that good (7-0, .357 batting average, .166 opponents’ average) or the teams the Gators have played are not that good. Either way, we know we are going to find out a lot going forward in this ridiculous league.

15. Also not struggling would be softball, which is 18-1 and finished off a sweep of the Sun Devil Invitational in Tempe, Ariz., with a 24-3 win against Iowa State. Yes, they run-ruled the Cyclones nearly three times.

16. I mean, it’s the same deal as baseball in that the Gators have been dominant, but we have to wait another week-and-a-half to see the reality when SEC play begins. Still, the ladies have seven players hitting .387 or better and have out-homered (doh!) their opponents 34-3. That is still impressive even if you were playing the Washington Generals version of a softball team.

17. Gymnastics certainly did have a bad weekend with a big loss at Oklahoma and injuries to Sloane Blakely and Anya Pilgrim. It’s time to regroup with Missouri coming to town Friday. My gosh, it’s going to be a big weekend. But don’t we say that about 10 times a year?

18. What a great time we had visiting in Vero Beach with my oldest daughter, Jenny, and her mom, who just had hip replacement surgery. This getting old isn’t for everybody. Me included. But it’s better than the alternative. Anyway, we had a great night at Mulligan’s on the beach (once we got the Gator game on multiple TVs and to be fair, we were the only ones who cared). At least one song from this playlist came on:

• “The Rest of Me” by Michael Kiwanuka.
• “Breaker” by Deerhunter.
•  And for an oldie, “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode.

WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.