2/23 Orange Blue News
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In order to make sure Florida Gators-related news stories don't fall through the cracks, once or twice a week Orange & Blue News will keep you up-to-date with the latest goings on in the world of University of Florida athletics.
Gators defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd revealed in a pair of interviews this week that he was abused as a child. In conversations with The Philadelphia Inquirer and ESPN, Floyd explained that he found out that the man he grew up with knowing as his father was actually not his biological dad. When he learned that fact, he immediately moved out of the house because he was being abused with anything and everything that could be found around the house."I've pretty much been beaten with everything you can think of, at a young age," he told the Inquirer. "On punishment for nothing. I remember I got beat for not getting in the shower fast enough." Floyd spent the rest of his childhood moving from home to home, which is one reason why he values finally having a (adopted) family he can call his own at this point in his life. NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah said this week that every NFL front office person he has spoken with thus far at the NFL Combine has Floyd in the top five overall.
Asked Thursday what can be done in order to get junior center Patric Young more touches in the post, head basketball coach Billy Donovan explained that it was a combination of players looking for the big man and Young giving the extra effort needed to stay out of foul trouble and in the game. "When he gets fouls, that kind of forces him maybe not to play as many minutes. When he gets fouled, he's got to go to the free throw line and make free throws," Donovan said. Young missed the front end of a pair of one-and-ones on Tuesday at Missouri and was ineffective offensively overall throughout the game. It certainly did not help that UF took 33-of-54 shot attempts from beyond the arc; however, 23 of those were misses and Young still only wound up with three boards in the game. "I would just like to see him, from my perspective, rebound better," Donovan said. "I think there's been six games this year where he's had double-figure rebounds. He [can] get double-figure rebounds in a lot of games just by running the floor, by him offensive rebounding, by him posting up and catching it when he needs to. And then he's going to have to work from there."
The No. 5 Gators softball team dropped its first game of the season on Friday after winning 15-straight to start the 2013 campaign. Florida fell 4-3 to Missouri in 12 innings despite holding a 3-2 lead in the top of the 11th. Junior right-handed pitcher Hannah Rogers gave up two runs (one earned) despite striking out nine while on the mound. The Gators face Georgia Tech on Saturday and have the opportunity to finish the week with an impressive 4-1 record.
On Friday, Golden State Warriors power forward David Lee registered the fifth 20-20 game of his career by scoring 25 points on 10-of-20 shooting and grabbing a career-high 22 rebounds in his team's 107-101 overtime victory against San Antonio. Lee's 20-20 game registered as his league-leading 35th double-double of the season. He also has the most 20-10 games in the NBA this season with 20 already just days after the All-Star break. Lee was in Houston, TX as an All-Star reserve for the second time in his career and looks to have found a perfect home in Golden State.
Receiving a text message from a friend on Friday, Buffalo Bills wide receiver David Nelson immediately took to Twitter to see if the message he received was true. When he logged on, he read a tweet from Yahoo! Sports reporter Jason Cole who wrote that the Bills are not expected to tender Nelson, a restricted free agent coming off a torn ACL that forced him to miss the entire 2012 season. Nelson, retweeting Cole's message, said that was news to him. "If that is true, I definitely do get all my information from Twitter," he deadpanned (paraphrased). At this point in time, Nelson has not heard from Buffalo about bringing him back in the fold. However, he has been productive enough during his time in the league that even if the Bills do not bring him back, all Nelson truly needs is a tryout with another team in order to earn a roster spot. His size and sure hands made him a favorite target of quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick and should keep him in the league for quite some time as long as he can stay healthy.
Swimming has long been one of the most successful athletic programs at Florida but the men's team has been in an SEC Championship-winning drought that has lasted 20 years. However, the Gators men's team (1038.0 points) leads the field (Auburn -823.5) by 214.5 points entering the final day of competition on Saturday and may very well be able to bring home its first league title since 1993. Florida men's swimming has 33 SEC Championships in its long history, the most in the league by a good margin. Auburn, which has won 16-in-a-row, has owned the pool in recent memory but the tide may very well be turning in 2013. UF women's swimming, which has not won a team title since 2009, was hanging out in second-place but has since fallen to third behind Georgia (1058.0) and Texas A&M (985.0). Florida (842.4) is 205.5 points behind UGA, a margin that will be difficult to overcome in the final day of competition.