SB Nation Houston: All Posts by Andy Hutchins

Orange crushed again: Florida lacrosse falls to Syracuse in NCAA Tournament for second straight year

2013-05-18T20:28:04Z

Florida's nascent lacrosse powerhouse came to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse with revenge for last year's NCAA Tournament loss on their minds. After Syracuse's 13-9 win over the Gators, the wonderful women who built this program will leave it this evening without that revenge, and with a bitter taste in their mouths after one of the sweetest possible beginnings for a brand-new program.

Florida never had the upper hand in this game, which was played on the road by virtue of NCAA Tournament seeding that gave the Gators the No. 5 national seed despite wins over the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 seeds. And Florida looked out of sorts, on offense and in the midfield, especially, in their first trip to the Carrier Dome — the Gators fell in a 2-0 hole, battled back to lead 3-2 and 4-3, but never led in the second half.

13 turnovers also squandered precious possessions to a Syracuse team that leaned on Kayla Treanor (three goals, one assist) and Alyssa Murray (two goals, one assist) to make plays on offense and get the Orange out in front. All seven of the goals Treanor and Murray had a hand in came in Syracuse's first 10 goals, and stuck Florida with a 10-6 hole with just under 14 minutes to play.

The Gators couldn't muster any easy offense on the day, much less consistent good shots, and fought hard just to keep the Orange from running all the way away, scoring three goals in the game's final eight minutes and cutting Syracuse's lead to three goals with 1:48 to go. But Syracuse won its 12th draw control of the day on the faceoff immediately after that goal, and added another goal of its own to essentially end the Florida comeback attempt.

Florida's loss wasn't the same as their collapse against Syracuse last year, when the Orange rallied from a five-goal deficit in the final seven minutes of play and prevailed in an overtime with controversial calls aplenty to deny the Gators their first trip to the NCAA Tournament final, but this one may hurt more: For Florida's 13 seniors, 12 of whom who have been with the program since its inaugural season in 2010, this was the last chance to handle unfinished business, and take a team from its start to the stars.

For those players, like Kitty Cullen (two goals and an assist), Brittany Dashiell (four draw controls), and Mikey Meagher (12 saves on 29 shots), this will hurt for a long, long time, and perhaps forever. This is true of the end of any athlete's career that never featured a trip all the way to the top, but it's far more painful when those athletes get as close as Florida's did, and, frankly, seems like the wrong ending for this precocious, audacious team, which shocked the world of college lacrosse repeatedly en route to this moment.

In time, the sharpness of this pain will fade; the wound will close, and scab, and it'll only really hurt if these players pick at it. But, right now, perhaps their greatest tribute is the truth of how far they've come.

Four years ago, Florida making the NCAA Tournament was unthinkable. Three years ago, it was shocking. Two years ago, taking the No. 1 overall seed was incredible. Now, it's stunning that the Gators are going home.

These Gators didn't get to the mountaintop. But there's a base camp now. And when Florida does get to the peak of this sport, it will be sweeter because of this struggle.

Chomping at Bits: Florida still leading NCAA Baton Rouge Regional

2013-05-18T14:30:02Z

Chomping at Bits comes stocked with the best Florida Gators links and news we can find. Got a link we should check out? Email us at AlligatorArmy@gmail.com, subject line CAB, or find us on Twitter at @AlligatorArmy or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AlligatorArmy.

T.J. Vogel leading Gators in Baton Rouge: What Vogel, Tyler McCumber, and Eric Banks are doing right now is really, really special. (GatorZone)

Florida moves on in NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament: A sweep win avenging their worst loss of the season? Just another day for these Gators. (GatorZone)

Softball cruises to win over Hampton: Florida plays USF at 1 p.m. today. (GatorZone)

Baseball drops second game of series at Georgia: Another offensive brownout doomed the Gators. (GatorZone)

Brendan Donovan leaves for Cleveland: On one hand, it hurts to lose a guy who was an important cog in Florida's recruiting machine; on the other, the last two guys to hold his job have moved on for Ohio State and the NFL, so there's an obvious appeal to having the position. (Chris Pokorny, Dawgs By Nature)

Florida part of many non-conference showdowns: And this year's bunch seems to be very, very good. (Andy Glockner, One And One | SI.com)

Florida target Brandone Francis ready to commit: And the Gators likely lead. (Jeff Borzello, Eye on College Basketball | CBS Sports)

Local sports anchor goes up against Hannah Rogers: It goes poorly for the anchor. (Zach Aldridge, WCJB)

Paco Rodriguez faces Justin Upton: It goes very poorly for Paco. ()

More of Tim Tebow's imagined CFL future: I like the CFL, but this is very funny. (Jon Bois, SB Nation)

The history of video coordinators for the Miami Heat: This is a sweet little look at how Erik Spoelstra got to where he is. (Tom Haberstroh, Heat Index Blog | ESPN)

Your Gators moment of zen: Okay, so Patric Young posted a Vine earlier this week "detailing" his diet.

Then Florida golfer Katie Mitchell came back with this wonderful response.

The comments are yours.

Weekend Preview: Softball, women's tennis, lacrosse, men's golf look to advance in NCAA play

2013-05-17T22:11:27Z

The Weekend Review runs down Florida's sporting successes and failures in the non-football, non-men's basketball, non-track sports on crowded fall and spring weekends. If you have a club sport or other note to include in the Weekend Review, hit @AlligatorArmy.

Softball begins NCAA Tournament

As it enters the 2013 NCAA Tournament, Florida's softball team is in almost the exact same position its 2012 predecessor was. There are a couple of major differences, though: First, it seems unfathomable that this team is going to blow up off the fiel like last year's did, and second, these Gators might just win it all.

Florida had the No. 5 national seed in 2012, but a better finish to their 2013 campaign, which featured a sweep of the SEC's regular season and tournament titles, earned the Gators the No. 2 national seed this year. And the 2013 iteration of the Gainesville Regional is stocked with less talent than in 2012, when Florida Gulf Coast and USF both took wins from Florida to knock the Gators out of postseason play.

This year, Florida begins with MEAC champion Hampton, a 34-24 squad that went 16-2 in conference play and 18-22 outside it, and should make short work of the Pirates: The Gators have a 21-2 record against fellow MEAC teams Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M all-time. USF and Georgia Southern make up the other half of the Gainesville Regional's bracket, and it's a good bet that we'll see the Gators take on the Sara Nevins-led Bulls for the third time this season on Saturday: USF defeated Georgia Southern 1-0 Friday afternoon. Florida took wins from USF in Tampa and Gainesville earlier this year, and has the rare battery of hitters that can make things happen against Nevins.

NCAA Tournament play is double-elimination, and Florida will have to win no fewer than three games to advance, but the Gators can reduce their weekend to little more than a series-like string of games by beating Hampton tonight (the game started at 6 p.m.), as the winner of that game plays USF at 1 p.m. on Saturday, and the winner of that 1 p.m. Saturday game doesn't play again until 1 p.m. on Sunday.

GatorVision has live, free streams of all of the games from the Gainesville Regional this weekend. For tons more on Florida softball, and on ticket and other information about the Gainesville Regional, head to GatorZone.

Women's tennis moves on to Elite Eight

Florida's women's tennis team is just three wins away from three national championships in a row. The Gators already have three wins in the 2013 NCAA Tournament, after making quick work of Duke this morning in Illinois.

Florida swept the Blue Devils, 4-0, and had only to win three matches and five sets to do it: Duke's five-player teamwas forced to forfeit on No. 3 doubles, helping Florida win a quick doubles point thanks to the team of Lauren Embree and Sofie Oyen, and No. 6 singles, giving the Gators a 2-0 lead before singles play commenced.

With that lead in hand, Florida calmly went on to avenge a 4-0 loss to Duke in Durham earlier this season, with Olivia Janowicz and Brianna Morgan weeping No. 5 and No. 4 singles matches, respectively. The whole match took a little over two hours, very quick for a Sweet Sixteen match, and Florida should be fresh for the grueling stretch run before it over the next four days.

That's because Florida, which will play California on Sunday in an Elite Eight matchup, must win matches on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to earn the national championship, thanks to the NCAA Tournament's format, which allows for team play to spill from one weekend into the next week before individual play begins next Wednesday and ends next weekend.

Of course, the well-conditioned Gators are the No. 1 seed in this tournament and its two-time defending champions for a reason: Since 2010, when their current string of three straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament final began, they have lost just 11 games in nine matches in the Elite Eight or later, with 10 of those losses coming to either possible Final Four foe Stanford or the Duke team they dispatched today.

Florida plays Cal at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. Live stats and free streams will be available all weekend at FightingIllini.com, the athletics website of the University of Illinois.

Lacrosse faces Syracuse in NCAA Tournament rematch

There's unfinished business remaining for Florida's women's lacrosse team in the three games that stand between it and the program's first national title, and the Gators will have to go through old foe Syracuse in a tough matchup on Saturday to make it back to the Final Four where the Orange defeated them in 2012.

Florida's No. 5 national seed, given despite the Gators' wins over No. 2 Northwestern, No. 3 North Carolina, and No. 4 Syracuse during the regular season, earned the Gators a trip up to the Carrier Dome to play the Orange it beat by a 14-10 count in Miami this March. We already detailed how this Syracuse team is likely to be different without Michelle Tumolo, out for the season with an ACL tear, but Florida's road test merits some more examination.

Syracuse has just a 10-10 record in the NCAA Tournament, but was largely playing road games at higher-seeded teams until the arrival of head coach Gary Gait in 2008. Since then, Syracuse has hosted five NCAA Tournament games, and won them all, including a thrilling comeback against North Carolina in 2012.

Florida has far less NCAA Tournament history, with a 4-2 record since its first appearance in 2012, but hasn't had to play a road NCAA Tournament game yet, with the Gators hosting Stanford and Duke in 2011, Albany and Penn State in 2012, and Denver last Sunday. So this trip to Syracuse and the cavernous Carrier Dome is profoundly strange for the Gators, and saddles a team that defeated its foe at a neutral site in the regular season with a disadvantage in NCAA Tournament play.

That's not to say that Florida shouldn't be able to handle Syracuse on the field on Saturday: The Gators, whose 2 p.m. tilt will be televised by Sun Sports and broadcasted on ESPN 850, led by two or more goals for all but 5:47 of that first matchup in Miami, and the weather was unseasonably cold for South Florida, nullifying some of the advantage of a neutral-site home-state game. And that was with Tumolo, whose four goals and five points led Syracuse in both categories.

If Florida can lasso 100-point scorer Alyssa Murray and leading goal-scorer Kayla Treanor, it should have enough firepower from Kitty Cullen, Shannon Gilroy, Ashley Bruns, Brittany Dashiell, and/or someone else to make a second straight Final Four.

Men's golf going low while aiming high at NCAA Regionals

Florida's men's golf program has spent its spring muddling through despite a wealth of talent. At the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional over the last two days, that talent has been on full display.

Florida shot a 2-under 286 in Thursday's first round to take a 10-shot lead on No. 2-ranked Alabama, then followed it up with a 4-over 292 on a tougher Friday that ceded just two shots to the Crimson Tide. T.J. Vogel has been the Gators' leader, is the only player in the field to card two under-par rounds, and leads all players at 3-under — but his one-shot lead is over teammate Tyler McCumber, and McCumber is alone in second, and one shot ahead of Florida's Eric Banks and Alabama's Scott Strohmeyer.

The performance of that top three has done a ton to help Florida, which has also seen J.D. Tomlinson struggle to a 77 on Thursday and a 78 on Friday and counted a 74 from Tommy Mou in the first round before eight bogeys and three double bogeys on Friday contributed to his second-round 82.

The Gators tee off on Saturday morning, and live stats will be available via Golfstat. There is no stream or radio broadcast, but, c'mon, it's golf.

Baseball finishing regular season

Florida's baseball team assured itself of a winning regular season with a win over Georgia on Thursday night. With one win in the next two games, the Gators will also lock in a .500 record in the SEC in a rebuilding year.

Florida's 4-2 win over the Bulldogs in Athens on Thursday night was notable for reasons other than boosting the Gators' record to 29-25 and 14-14 in the SEC: Jonathon Crawford worked 6.2 innings and allowed just one earned run (Georgia's other run was unearned because of a Cody Dent error, of all things), freshmen Harrison Bader and Brady Roberson combined for Florida's three RBI on the night, and Florida's bullpen allowed one hit in 2.1 innings of sterling work.

But these Gators really just needed a win to avoid the potential disaster of a sweep at the hands of a cellar-dwelling Georgia team that has a dismal 5-20 SEC record, one that would have forced them to win two games at the SEC Tournament to guarantee a winning record. With that possibility eliminated, Florida can tinker with its rotation and lineup this weekend, rest bullpen arms, and prepare for the SEC Tournament, which has a higher risk-reward proposition than two more games against a bad Georgia team.

Florida football recruiting: 2014 LB Christian Miller decommits from Gators, reopens recruitment

2013-05-17T16:57:50Z

2014 linebacker Christian Miller, a top-100 recruit according to both 247Sports and Rivals, has decommitted from Florida, 247Sports' J.C. Shurburtt reports.

Four-star @armyallamerican Christian Miller re-opens his recruitment after being committed to the #Gators
— JC Shurburtt (@jcshurburtt) May 17, 2013

Shurburtt also added that Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee are still in the mix for Miller, who committed to Florida in February. Shurburtt also has a quote from Miller here, but that's a paywalled thread.

As I wrote back in February, Miller's commitment was a strong start in an effort to continue adding top-level talent to Will Muschamp's Florida defense. At 6'4" and 200 pounds, he had the size to play outside linebacker, and the speed to be a playmaker, but also had a frame that might have allowed him to add the bulk necessary to be a successful player at Muschamp's BUCK position.

I don't think Florida is ultimately out of the race for Miller. The quote and the three-month pledge — Miller committed on February 17, and has decommitted on May 17, which is amusing — suggest mostly that he committed too early in the process to be fully comfortable with his choice, which is understandable. But the timing is puzzling: Florida linebackers coach Jeff Choate just visited Miller on Thursday.

Miller's decommitment also brings to mind another Muschamp saying: "Unfortunately, some people make reservations, not commitments." Few of the players who have decommitted from Florida under Muschamp have eventually ended up in Florida's class, as Caleb Brantley and Demarcus Robinson, both special cases, are the only two names that come to mind.

Hot Reads: Tim Davis knocks Nick Saban as "devil himself," Florida-Miami series may die, Chris Leak's role

2013-05-15T22:16:14Z

When, in the course of Internet events, things get so hectic as to require a single post about Florida football stand in for what could've been several posts split up, I'm gonna call that post Hot Reads.

Tim Davis refers to Nick Saban "the devil himself," compares him to Will Muschamp

You know how I know it's basically summer? The only news items coming out of college football programs are stuff that can get blown out of proportion and arrests. Tim Davis talking to the Space Coast Gator Club (321, represent, I guess?) and using a familiar term to refer to Nick Saban, as 247Sports' Luke Stampini reported on Tuesday, definitely provided the former on Wednesday.

"Will and I go back to the Miami Dolphins," Davis said. "I've always wanted to work with Will. Will's got a plan. Will coached under the devil himself for seven years. I only did three. He did seven. And his DNA is not any different than Nick."

Later, Davis brought up Saban again, laughingly referencing the head coach he worked for with the Miami Dolphins for two years and for another year at Alabama.

"[Muschamp's] like the other guy, only he's got a personality," he said. "He'll smile at you. He'll talk to you. You understand? That's what he's all about. That's Will. I'm proud to work for him."

That this somehow managed to overshadow the fact that Davis also said "We're going to win one here with Will," in which "one" means "national championship," is as much evidence as you need to understand why it's the circus that surrounds sports that is so much fun for so many. It's also possible that Davis has a point.

Davis worked under Saban for three years as the Miami Dolphins' offensive line coach from 2005 to 2007. Saban flailed as much as he ever has as a head coach there, strugging to put a winning team on the field and treating most of the people he interacted with poorly, even once reportedly practically ignoring a convulsing player after two-a-days. The portrait of Saban's Miami days is of a man raging against a machine he could not, for once, control.

Saban has reportedly mellowed since then — though not entirely, because he was still calling agents "pimps" in 2010 and still making whiny arguments in his lobbying for Alabama last fall. But Davis knew and worked for Saban, and, more importantly, did so when he was likely at his Sabanest.

There's been enough Internet yapping and misunderstanding of how these remarks got reported to muddy the waters here, too: Yes, Davis said something that was perfect for a message board, but he was talking to boosters, where it's his responsibility to fire up the base, and it wasn't a message board poster who reported this, but Stampini, who works for 247. (That 247Sports doesn't have Stampini's name in the byline of its story, despite crowing about its popularity, does not escape my notice; surely, it has nothing to do with a recruiting service or its reporter not wanting a name visibly attached to a story that became a headache for the coaching staff that provides vital information to that service, right? Update: I've been told that there's no byline because it's a collaborative effort between Stampini and Thomas Goldkamp, so there goes one conspiracy theory.)

Davis is a gregarious coach, and he says interesting things — Muschamp does, too. Florida seems to have a few of these guys on staff. If every appearance before boosters by every college football coach in the country is now fair game to be reported — and, frankly, given the prevalence of Twitter-capable smartphones, coaches should definitely assume that they are — I'd imagine those coaches will start clamming up on what they say to fans, even the ones that pay $50 a head to feel a little closer to their favorite teams, very shortly. And that would be a shame, because even though it's on Davis and every other person to communicate things effectively, there should be a reasonable assumption that remarks that are made won't be twisted by people looking for an angle.

Davis might have to apologize for the joking comparison, like James Franklin did for his "Nicky Satan" comment, but he accomplished his purpose by throwing red meat to Florida fans: Comparing Saban to the devil, saying Muschamp has the same DNA, and then noting Muschamp's more approachable personailty is painting his current boss in a better light than a guy few don't have a dim view of, but also indicates that Muschamp, like Saban, has the potential to one day be so inarguably massively successful that other people are cursing his name.

And as for Mark May, who said something stupid and beneath even his usual low standards for reason about Davis on ESPN's College Football Live on Wednesday afternoon, I liked this take a lot:

Mark May just called #Florida OL coach Tim Davis a "Classless, backstabbing coward" on CFB Live for his "Devil Himself" crack at Nick Saban.
— Bryan Holt (@Bryan_Holt) May 15, 2013

Mark May has clearly A - Never attended a coach speaking tour. And B - Never met Tim Davis. The latter, he admitted.
— Bryan Holt (@Bryan_Holt) May 15, 2013

For the record: "I don't know [name]" is always the best way to start a sentence that ends with "[name] is a CLASSLESS COWARD." Sheesh.
— Bryan Holt (@Bryan_Holt) May 15, 2013

The Florida-Miami series is probably ending

ESPN's Andrea Adelson wrote today on Miami athletic director Blake James saying during the ACC's spring meetings that there are no current plans to renew the rivalry between Miami and Florida beyond this September's meeting in South Florida. You're shocked, right?

Florida fans have understood that the Gators' trip to see Miami this fall might be the last one in the long-standing rivalry series for quite some time, but Florida fans have been well-conditioned to hang on Jeremy Foley's every word and understand his process, especially the part that brings fans to The Swamp seven times a year. Florida fans also know how hard Florida's schedule is even in years that don't feature two games against in-state teams that love nothing more than to beat up on their Sunshine State brothers, and remember the 2002 beatdown and 2003 collapse against Miami much better than they do the Florida Flop and the games between the two teams back when there was an annual series.

There will be a large number of Florida fans who will bemoan this series ending when the week of the game arrives, and I'll be in that number, but I'm also absolutely certain that no more than about five percent of Gator Nation thinks that Miami is Florida's greatest rival. And I'll bet the same is true about Miami fans' opinions of Florida. Florida and Miami have played enough games, and enough good and memorable games, for this rivalry to get mourned, but it is simply not particularly sensible for either team (and especially Florida, which already has one non-conference home-and-home with Florida State etched in stone) to risk national title chances on a big-time non-conference series with another good team, much less an in-state team that has zero chance of coming out flat for a game like this.

Wistfulness about the fate of a good rivalry against a storied program isn't exactly productive, but it does, at least, serve a purpose. Shock about the inevitable ending of something that didn't make a lot of sense in the first place does not.

Chris Leak will help defense, not offense

The news that Chris Leak will return to Gainesville as a quality control coach with the Gators this fall heartened me as much as it did you, I promise: I love Chris Leak, and think he has a very smart football mind, and I think it's a great sign that Will Muschamp embraces the history and tradition of Florida football. Muschamp's local roots have been played up since he was hired, but the contrast between his clear comfort with being the head coach of the Florida Gators and the frustrations of Urban Meyer when it came to criticisms lobbed by Shane Matthews gets clearer and clearer with each new figure from Florida's past that Muschamp embraces.

The news that Leak will be a defensive quality control coach is more interesting, though. Leak can't work with players as a quality control coach, so he wouldn't have been able to revamp Jeff Driskel's mechanics or demonstrate how Brent Pease's plays should be run had he been working on the offensive side of the ball — but as a defensive coach, Leak can help shore up Muschamp's knowledge about the best offense to use against his defense.

Florida runs what amounts to a 3-4 defense with man coverage principles that is devoted to limiting big plays down the field and predicated on discipline and keeping the ball in front of defenders. That defense will bend far more often than it breaks, but it can be nibbled at by a similarly disciplined offense with an effective short passing game and run-pass options. This is how Texas A&M beat Alabama in 2012, how A&M taxed Florida in 2012, how Louisville aerated Florida in the Sugar Bowl, and so on.

Leak, you'll recall, ran a spread offense in almost the same vein in 2005 and 2006, and ran it very, very well, despite being first, second, and third a passer. Teddy Bridgewater is better than Leak — Tebow forgive me for my blasphemy — but Leak could probably have picked apart Florida's defense on that night, too, and Leak can certainly help show Muschamp, D.J. Durkin, and Travaris Robinson some of the ways in which an offense will attack Florida.

It never hurts to have more quality control coaches, and for Leak, who is switching streams from strong radio work for Sirius/XM to coaching, this is an ideal entry-level position, as good quality control coaches tend to rise swiftly through the ranks. And it's not as if the possibility that danced in Florida fans' heads on Monday — that Leak would join Florida's staff, be groomed as an offensive coordinator, and someday replace the upwardly mobile Pease — is totally off the table if he spends a season working with defensive coaches. Triggering an offense as well as Leak did at Florida leaves a bedrock of understanding that doesn't ever really erode.

Chomping at Bits: Chris Chiozza, the newest Gator

2013-05-15T16:23:50Z

More on Chris Chiozza's commitment: Quotes from his high school coach in the former, and from his AAU coach in the latter. (John Martin, The Commercial Appeal | Drew Laing, Gator Hoops Recruiting)

Another Gators great returning to Gainesville: I assume this will also be a quality control position.

#Gators coach Will Muschamp said at Jax Gator Club speaking stop that former UF LB Mike Peterson will be working with team in fall.
— ESPN GatorNation (@ESPNFlorida) May 14, 2013

Single-game tickets on sale: I expect they will be on sale for quite some time. (GatorZone)

Baseball still has NCAA Tournament in sights: Taking care of business against Georgia should facilitate that. (Scott Carter, GatorZone)

Your Gators moment of zen, Pt. 1: Kinda want this hat.

@alligatorarmy Chris Chiozza Committing twitter.com/Byegosh/status…
— Bye Gosh (@Byegosh) May 15, 2013

Your Gators moment of zen, Pt. 2: I like this kid.

Chris Chiozza on doubts about his height: "The shorter they classify me as, the better I look (when I'm) dunking."
— John Martin (@JohnMartinCA) May 15, 2013

The comments are yours.

Florida basketball recruiting: 2014 PG Chris Chiozza commits to Gators

2013-05-15T00:17:15Z

Florida's basketball program received its first commitment for the class of 2014 on Tuesday night when (Memphis) White Station point guard Chris Chiozza announced his commitment to the Gators at his high school.

And now is the time to analyze what it all means.

First and foremost, Chiozza, one of the players who has done the most to boost his stock this spring, will probably move into the top 50 of most recruiting rankings in the near future, and is a big get for the Gators: He is a Memphis player with a Memphis offer, and those players have tended to stick with the hometown Tigers since the days of John Calipari. His commitment goes down as another impressive pull for Billy Donovan, who has been one of college basketball's best recruiters for the entirety of his Florida tenure — and that's without considering how well Chiozza appears to fit Florida's system.

Sure, Chiozza is listed variously at 5'9", 5'10", and 5'11", and all three of those heights might be a little generous. But Florida has had success with smart waterbugs at point guard from Jason Williams to Teddy Dupay to Brett Nelson to Taurean Green to Erving Walker, and Chiozza's quickness and persistence on defense makes him a player more in the Peyton Siva or Russ Smith mold than a Walker-style player.

Chiozza is also a pass-first point guard with significant skills as a scorer, which is Donovan's ideal for the position: Walker was always a square peg of sorts as a scoring floor general, and Florida's offense has never run better than when Green or the similarly pass-happy Scottie Wilbekin have been at the controls. Chiozza also fits in perfectly to Florida's future plans: If Kasey Hill, perhaps the prototypical pass-first point guard for Donovan's system, leaps to the NBA after his freshman season, then Chiozza has the chopse to slide in as a freshman starter; if not, he can be an exceptional backup at the position.

And then there's what Chiozza's commitment signals to the rest of the 2014 class: It's already suspected that having Chiozza in the fold will aid with fellow Memphis prospect Leron Black, and Chiozza and Black would make a foundation on par with any in 2014 save North Carolina's tremendous twosome of Joel Berry and Justin Jackson.

Florida will need to take a big class in 2014 by virtue of its four-man graduating class alone, and will have room at every position except for shooting guard (where Michael Frazier II, Eli Carter, and Dillon Graham present a bit of a logjam). If Black joins Chiozza, it's an indication that Florida — which has to prepare for an incredible worst-case scenario in which the four departing seniors (Casey Prather, Wilbekin, Will Yeguete, and Patric Young) are joined by four early entrants to the 2014 NBA Draft (Hill, Chris Walker, Dorian Finney-Smith, and Damontre Harris) — is ready to reload with another class, and has its core. The message will be clear: Florida is determined not to be down, and can give any elite player a chance to play college basketball on an elite level.

Whether Florida's pitch will be persuasive enough to follow up its excellent two-person 2013 class of Hill and Walker will remain to be seen, of course, but with three straight Elite Eights, a slew of alumni having NBA success from Joakim Noah to Bradley Beal, and a renovation of the aging O'Connell Center into a gleaming basketball facility in sight, that pitch is as persuasive as it has ever been.

And with the still-in-his-40s Donovan's 2013-14 Gators poised to possibly improve on the Elite Eights of its predecessors, adding a third ring to his hand — which would elevate him to second among active coaches, behind only Mike Krzyzewski, who won his third title at 54 — that pitch might get even better.

Chiozza, likely to be a four-year player because of his stature, knows he's hitching his star to a program that has built its foundation faster than nearly any other powerhouse in college basketball history. He might be instrumental in pouring a few more pillars.

Andrew Wiggins makes best choice for Florida, picks Kansas over Florida State and Kentucky

2013-05-14T17:27:36Z

I promise this is not entirely a gloating post, but Andrew Wiggins committing to Kansas is everything I would have hoped for had I thought he had a chance in the world of committing to a school other than Florida State or Kansas today. I've already written up what Wiggins' commitment to Kansas means to college basketball for the mothership, but, obviously, I had to cut out the bits about what Wiggins would've meant to Florida State and Kentucky from that piece.

Fortunately for y'all, they're still fun for us to read, so here they are:

What Andrew Wiggins would mean to Florida State

Wiggins has the potential to deliver a national championship to any of the four schools he picks. But he will improve Florida State more than any other program, and has the chance to change the trajectory of that program more than any other.

Florida State has been squarely within the range between decent and very good under Leonard Hamilton, with 2011's Sweet Sixteen berth and 2012's ACC Tournament title punctuating the only four-year string of NCAA Tournament appearances in school history. Florida State fell back to earth in 2012-13, losing in the first round of the NIT, but Hamilton has made the Seminoles respectable as a basketball program, something no coach had previously done for more than one or two years.

Of course, that still means that Florida State's tradition is practically light years behind the tradition of the other three blue-bloods Wiggins is considering. The extent of FSU's previous basketball history? Florida State made it to the national championship game in 1972, losing to UCLA, made the Sweet Sixteen in 1992 and 1993, and made the Elite Eight in 1993. In the span between Florida State Sweet Sixteen appearances from 1993 to 2011, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Kansas have each won national titles, with North Carolina claiming three, Kentucky two, and Kansas one; Kansas and Kentucky each played for one more.

Wiggins would instantly become the most talented player in Florida State history, and has already been viewed as a savior from the second people realized both of his parents having attended Florida State meant that Wiggins would seriously consider coming to Tallahassee. (Florida State having fellow top-30 recruit Xavier Rathan-Mayes in the fold has also helped: he's one of Wiggins' high school teammates and best friends.)

He would give Florida State the most talented player in the ACC in 2013-14, and set up major matchups with Duke (and fellow top-five recruit Jabari Parker) and North Carolina (James Michael McAdoo) over the course of the season. Florida State might just wrest some of the Sunshine State's basketball spotlight from Florida, despite Billy Donovan's team being as loaded as it's ever been, and will certainly have a spotlight trained on Hamilton, whose rep as a defensive guru is about as secure as his point guards' grasp of running offense is troubling.

Nowhere will Wiggins have to carry a team more than at Florida State, but nowhere would the credit for doing amazing things with that team mean more to a fan base: the threshold for becoming a legend at Florida State is low, and Wiggins has to beat out Dave Cowens and Sam Cassell to become the best Seminole ever. Florida State is the best low-risk, high-reward play for Wiggins, where his worst-case scenario is being Kevin Durant-at-Texas 2.0 and his best-case scenario is doing something unthinkable.

Tomahawk Nation is already up and drinking, and, for once, that has nothing to do with Jimbo Fisher's play-calling. That might be the best indication that Wiggins has already started changing the culture: one player can sometimes be enough to make a football school into a basketball school, at least temporarily.

What Andrew Wiggins would mean to Kentucky

No team in the running for Wiggins needs him less than Kentucky. John Calipari already has the best class in the history of recruiting; adding the best recruit in history would seem unfair.

Wiggins would join an unimaginably loaded 2013-14 roster at Kentucky if he opts to join Big Blue Nation, one that could conceivably have about half of the 2014 NBA Draft's top 10 if Wiggins, Julius Randle, Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, and Willie Cauley-Stein all leave after this year. Draft Express has Wiggins, Randle, and the Harrison twins in its 2014 top 10, and Cauley-Stein at No. 14. And this is all before a bunch of future NBA players practice together against each other for a whole year, steel sharpening steel: many thought Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was NBA material, but few assumed he'd be the No. 2 pick until he teamed with Anthony Davis to win a national title, and John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins assuredly helped each other out by teaming up.

This, the idea that teaming up with the Justice League makes you no less of a superhero, is the allure of Kentucky that strikes me as the most tempting, beyond all of the many other things that come with being a superstar at the most fanatical basketball school in the country. In one of the first tweets he sent after "The Decision," LeBron James paraphrased a Rick Ross bar: "So I JFK / joined forces with the kings, and we ate all day!"

Wiggins only has to spend a year waiting to be eligible for the NBA Draft because of a stupid NBA age limit, but if he's killing time, why not do so where it will be the most fun? Wiggins would have to do less at Kentucky than anywhere else, splitting minutes and duties with blue-chip brothers, and, even if he has a terrible season for some unforeseen reason, he's not going to get passed up by any of his Big Blue brethren.

But while Wiggins would make Kentucky an overwhelming favorite to win the 2014 NCAA Tournament, he'd also firm up the lineup for the Traveling Wilburys of college basketball in an era when supergroups have to live with 24/7 scrutiny on Twitter. Scouts would probably rather see Kentucky practice than Kentucky play games against minor foes, and both Kentucky's quest to go undefeated and the exhausting media coverage of it would commence with the opening tip of Midnight Madness. Before he even plays a minute, you would be sick of Andrew Wiggins, who has done almost everything in his power to this point to not overdose on or overwhelm himself with attention.

Kentucky presents the easiest road to the attention, glory, access to the NBA, and coaching that improves players (Calipari is perhaps the best recruiter ever, but is also a great coach) that I think most elite basketball players want. Wiggins is, undoubtedly, not like most elite basketball players — and yet, if he picks Kentucky, would be confirming that there is no better place for an elite player to go.

That would be a testament to just how much John Calipari has rigged college basketball in Kentucky's favor, how great it is to be a Kentucky fan, and how unfair it seems to be a fan of any other team.

In sum: Florida State missed on a program-changing player, and probably the only No. 1 prospect it will ever have this good a shot at, and Kentucky missed on adding the best player available to what still remains the best class in college basketball. Meanwhile, Florida fans still get to see Wiggins in that December 10 game against Kansas at home, and get to laugh at Florida State fans and breathe a sigh of relief about Kentucky.

This has already been a damn good day for Florida basketball, and Chris Chiozza hasn't committed yet.