Location: Mizzou Arena – Columbia, Missouri [Capacity: 15,061]
Time: 9:00 p.m. EST

TV: SEC Network (Matt Stewart, Darrin Horn)
Streaming Video: WatchESPN.com | Mobile Video: Watch ESPN app

SiriusXM: 119/191 | Radio: Gator Radio Network [Affiliates]

Live Updates: @OnlyGators on Twitter

Odds: Florida -7

APPROACHING 500

Likely the last game Florida will be favored in this season, the Gators have a chance to get back in the winning column while providing Donovan with his all-important 500th victory on Tuesday night. Donovan, 49, who will be coaching in his 703rd game, has an opportunity to become the second-youngest coach to 500 wins, only behind the legendary Bobby Knight.

Asked on Monday to look back on his career and achievements – including two national championships and four appearances in the Final Four – Donovan deflected the praise (as usual) and gave a lot of credit to those that have been with him along the way.

Continue Reading » Gameday: Florida Gators at Missouri Tigers – Billy Donovan goes for win No. 500 with lacking team

Winning a league title, earning an important series victory, maintaining a long winning streak and remaining undefeated, Florida Gators athletic programs accomplished plenty over the last weekend. Let’s take a look at all of it in the Weekend Wrap.

Thrice is nice

Florida men’s swimming captured a third-straight Southeastern Conference Championship over the weekend, using three individual event titles won in Auburn, Alabama, to catapult the program to its 36th SEC Championship.

UF (1,314.5) edged Georgia (1,134.5) and Auburn (1,084.0) for the crown with freshman Caeleb Dressel (100-yard butterfly); sophomore Mitch D’Arrigo (500-yard freestyle); and the foursome of senior Dan Wallace, junior Pawel Werner, redshirt sophomore Nicholas Alexiou and D’Arrigo (800-yard freestyle relay) bringing home individual SEC titles. The relay team set a league and school record with a time of 6:12.85.

The Gators’ women finished third but also picked up four individual titles via junior Natalie Hinds (100-yard freestyle), freshman Amelia Maughan (200-yard freestyle), redshirt freshman Theresa Michalak (200-yard individual medley) and junior Jessica Thielmann (1,650-yard freestyle). Hinds set a program mark with a time of 47.26 seconds.

In total, Florida over the weekend added automatic qualifications for 25 events in the forthcoming 2015 NCAA Championships.

Continue Reading » Weekend Wrap: Gators swimming wins SEC title, Florida baseball bests Miami, softball undefeated

For the sixth-straight year, OnlyGators.com concludes our coverage of the nine former Florida Gators participating in the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine (National Invitational Camp) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event, which is held over a week from Feb. 17-23, consists of more than 300 players being put through a series of drills, tests and interviews while more than 600 NFL personnel in attendance (including coaching staffs, executives, player personnel and medical staffs) look on and evaluate each of them. It amounts to a major job interview for these athletes to participate in ahead of the start of the 2015 NFL Draft on April 30.

Running back Matt Jones (Group: 6 | Camp: RB25), linebacker Neiron Ball (Group: 9 | Camp: LB03), defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. (Group: 7 | Camp: DL20) and defensive tackle Leon Orr (Group: 8, Camp: DL36) were all scheduled to complete the combine workout over the weekend

Continue Reading » Florida Gators at 2015 NFL Combine: Weekend

The Florida Gators were embarrassed by the LSU Tigers on Jan. 20 when LSU ended Florida’s 20-game home winning streak against Southeastern Conference opponents that dated back two years. If Florida was looking for revenge Saturday, it didn’t show that to be the case as the Tigers ran past the Gators 70-63 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

LSU (19-8, 8-6 SEC) swept Florida (13-14, 6-8 SEC) over two regular-season games for the first time since 1991, the last occasion the two SEC rivals squared off in a home-and-home series. The Gators also lost consecutive games to the Tigers for the first time since 2008-09.

OnlyGators.com breaks down Saturday’s action with nine quick-hitters:

It was over when: Florida cut its deficit to six with less than seven minutes to play, but LSU immediately responded with a 9-0 run, capped by a three from Jalyn Patterson, to take a 63-47 lead that was simply insurmountable for the Gators.

Significant stretch: The Tigers built on their first half-ending 9-0 run, extending it to a 17-2 stretch to regain their massive lead and eventually jump ahead by a game-high 16 points early in the second half.

Continue Reading » Fastbreak: LSU dismantles Florida, again, 70-63

Location: Pete Maravich Assembly Center – Baton Rouge, Louisiana [Capacity: 13,215]
Time: 1:00 p.m. EST

TV: CBS (Ian Eagle, Clark Kellogg)
Streaming Video: CBSSports.com | Mobile Video: CBS Sports app

SiriusXM: 119/191 | Radio: Gator Radio Network [Affiliates]

Live Updates: @OnlyGators on Twitter

Odds: Florida +4

Continue Reading » Gameday: Florida Gators at LSU Tigers

For the sixth-straight year, OnlyGators.com continues our coverage of the nine former Florida Gators participating in the 2015 NFL Scouting Combine (National Invitational Camp) at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The event, which is held over a week from Feb. 17-23, consists of more than 300 players being put through a series of drills, tests and interviews while more than 600 NFL personnel in attendance (including coaching staffs, executives, player personnel and medical staffs) look on and evaluate each of them. It amounts to a major job interview for these athletes to participate in ahead of the start of the 2015 NFL Draft on April 30.

Linebacker Neiron Ball (Group: 9 | Camp: LB03), defensive end Dante Fowler Jr. (Group: 7 | Camp: DL20) and defensive tackle Leon Orr (Group: 8, Camp: DL36) arrived Thursday but began participating Friday when they got measured, completed medical exams, met with the media and continued the interview process they began the previous day.

Running back Matt Jones (Group: 6 | Camp: RB25) continued interviewing with teams, took the Wonderlic and other psychological tests, and performed on the bench press.

Guard Trenton Brown (Group: 1 | Camp: OL104), punter Kyle Christy (Group: 1 | Camp: PK03), center Max Garcia (Group: 1 | Camp: OL20) and tackles Chaz Green (Group: 2 | Camp: OL25) and D.J. Humphries* (Group: 2 | Camp: OL31) all completed the combine workout.

Players remain on a standardized schedule throughout the week (see below).

Continue Reading » Florida Gators at 2015 NFL Combine: Friday

The Florida Gators were not penalized by the NCAA on Friday for an incident that occurred on Jan. 23, 2014, when former wide receivers coach Joker Phillips violated a recruiting rule with a “bump.”

A “bump” in college recruiting is when a coach converses with a high school recruit outside of the allowable time periods at a “chance encounter,” whether the interaction was intended by the coach or not. The NCAA and Phillips agreed that he and a recruiting prospect “engaged in a conversation which exceeded a casual greeting” on the athlete’s high school campus that included recruiting conversation and the athlete “entering his social media contact information into the assistant football coach’s phone.”

The NCAA concluded that an unnamed Florida assistant (Phillips) “visited a prospect off-campus before NCAA rules allow for recruiting contact” that gave the Gators a recruiting advantage and “exceed[ed] the boundaries of permissible recruiting and are a serious issue for the membership.”

Continue Reading » NCAA chooses not to penalize Florida Gators for impermissible recruiting contact violation

Florida Gators (13-13, 6-7 SEC) basketball may not be winning much in 2014-15 but that has not stopped Nike from including the program in its latest special uniform release that “fuse progressive, premium materials with school heritage.”

Florida will be one of six men’s programs to don new Hyper Elite Disruption uniforms, joining Kentucky, Duke, Syracuse, Arizona and Oregon; the UConn and Baylor women will also wear the uniforms.

Continue Reading » Florida Gators to wear special Nike Hyper Elite uniforms vs. Tennessee