Down two with 2.6 seconds left on the clock in overtime and N.C. State Wolfpack guard Farnold Degand on the line ready to shoot his second free throw, the Florida Gators‘ hopes of winning a big out-of-conference game on the road looked dashed. Instead, Degand missed his shot, Florida junior forward Chandler Parsons grabbed the rebound, took two dribbles and threw up a 75-foot buzzer-beating, game-winning three-pointer to give the Gators (11-3) a much-needed 62-61 overtime victory in Raleigh, NC, at the RBC Center.

“It feels like a fantasy,” Parsons said while trying to gain perspective shortly after the game. “I’m waiting for someone to pinch me to wake me up. I’d by lying to you if I said I thought it was going to go in. It was pure luck. But I’m happy I was able to help my team and I was happy we were able to get out of here with the win. North Carolina State is a good team and they are going to have a great season. To be able to pull this out in front of their fans, with that crowd, it’s huge for us.”

One of Florida’s most consistent players this season, Parsons’ remarkable trey was his first made field goal of the game. The entire Gators squad struggled from beyond the arc yet again, shooting a combined 2-of-23 from three before Parsons’ final attempt. UF missed its first 13 three-point attempts and even rimmed out another that would have won the game in regulation.

Florida was within three numerous times at the end of overtime, but N.C. State (10-4) head coach Sidney Lowe directed his team to foul sophomore point guard Erving Walker before he could hoist up a three, limiting his ability to tie the game or take the lead. The Wolfpack missed four free throws in the final 38 seconds of overtime, allowing the Gators to stay in the game even with their poor shooting down the stretch.

Redshirt junior center Vernon Macklin led Florida with 14 points while Walker posted 13 of his own. Junior forward Alex Tyus added 11 points in the contest, his fifth-straight game with double-figure points. Tyus also led the Gators with seven rebounds, while Parsons and freshman guard Kenny Boynton each contributed six boards. For N.C. State, star F Tracy Smith scored 21 points and G Javier Gonzalez added 13 of his own, eight of which were in overtime.

Florida hopes to continue their lucky streak when they open Southeastern Conference play on Saturday, Jan. 9 at noon in Nashville, TN, against the Vanderbilt Commodores. The game will air live on ESPN.

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Women’s basketball (8-6) also took home a road win Sunday, toppling the Alabama Crimson Tide 59-53 in both teams’ conference opener. Senior G Lonnika Thompson and sophomore C Azania Stewart led the Gators with 12 points each.

1 » In news that should be no surprise to anyone, Florida Gators junior cornerback Joe Haden has declared himself eligible for the 2010 NFL Draft. UF’s cornerback of the decade (as named by OGGOA), Haden grades out as a consensus first-round pick who is likely to be taken as one of the top 15 players overall and perhaps even in the top 10. Among others, Haden held top collegiate wide receivers A.J. Green (Georgia), Julio Jones (Alabama) and Mardy Gilyard (Cincinnati) in check this season. “This was a tough decision, and I spent a lot of time with my family talking about it,” Haden said. “I’m so proud that I had the chance to be a Gator. It’s been one of the best experiences of my life. Coach [Urban] Meyer and Coach [Vance] Bedford have helped me in so many ways. I’ll always be thankful to them for everything, and I know I’ll never forget the fans in Gator Nation.” Though one Haden is leaving Gainesville, FL, another has just arrived – literally. Four-star defensive back commit Jordan Haden, Joe’s brother, has moved into his dorm for the spring semester and will try to follow his brother’s lead. Joe Haden was the first true freshman to ever start at CB for Florida and started all 40 games of his career.

2 » Sophomore running back Jeff Demps, who dislocated his elbow during the 2010 Sugar Bowl against the Cincinnati Bearcats, should only be out 5-6 weeks according to Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel. This limited time out of action would allow Demps to participate in UF track & field, something he normally does in the offseason.

Location: RBC Center – Raleigh, NC [Capacity: 19,722]
Time: 3:00 p.m. (EST)

TV: FSN/SUN
Online: GatorVision
XM: 199

Odds: EVEN, O/U “OFF”

KEEP AN EYE ON…
- Players scoring in double-figures…four Gators starters and one bench player are all averaging double-digit points. Freshman guard Kenny Boynton averages 14.2 ppg while junior forwards Alex Tyus and Chandler Parsons, redshrit junior center Vernon Macklin and sophomore point guard Erving Walker all average 11.9-10.3 ppg.
- Tyus…who is averaging 16.8 points and 8.5 rebounds over the last four games.
- Assists…Boynton and Walker have 109 assists to just 49 turnovers this season.
- N.C. State forward Tracy Smith…who leads his team in scoring and rebounding with averages of 17.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
- Three-point line…in Florida’s 10 wins, the Gators are holding teams to 24.5 percent shooting and 4.2 makes from behind the arc; in their three losses, the opposition is shooting 39.5 percent from three (5.7 makes per game).

STREAKS:
- Florida trails the all-time series against N.C. State 6-3; however, the Gators have won the last two meetings including a 68-66 victory last year in Gainesville, FL.
- Under head coach Billy Donovan, Florida is 16-9 against the ACC, 3-0 in last three.
- The Gators are 5-0 this season when nabbing double-digit steals.
- Florida is 29-5 in the month of January since 2005 and has not dropped its first game of the New Year since 2005. The Gators went 7-2 in January 2009.

Read OGGOA’s Florida Gators vs. N.C. State Wolfpack preview after the jump!
Continue Reading » Gameday: Florida Gators vs. N.C. State Wolfpack

1 » Redshirt freshman wide receiver Andre Debose was supposed to play a big role in the Florida Gators offense this past season. However, after injuring his hamstring while running the track and undergoing season-ending surgery, Debose received his medical redshirt and has been rehabbing ever since. According to Jeremy Fowler of the Orlando Sentinel, Debose is running in the pool and his rehab is coming along quite well. “I’m happy with my results so far,” he said. “They’ve been positive.”

2 » Fowler also spoke with Nicki Meyer, head coach Urban Meyer’s 19-year-old daughter, about her father’s health and future. Nicki spoke in-depth about the Christmas conversation her father had about stepping down as well as what the family hopes to accomplish with his time off. “I just want my dad to be healthy,” Nicki said. “I want his heart to be OK. I want his anxiety level to go low. I want him to enjoy [coaching] again like he used to. The fact that he’s going to pull himself together again, that means so much to me. He needs to learn not to put everything on himself all the time. It’s a loss, he would take it as himself. He’d say, ‘That’s my fault.’ If a player gets in trouble, he thinks, ‘That’s my fault.’ We don’t want him to completely close the door on coaching, because that’s what he loves. We know he’s good at it, obviously. He’s so young. If he can come back and get healthy and start coaching again, we want him to do it. We want him to stay healthy. He needs to be around football, and we know that.”

3 » Now that the 2009 season is over, Meyer will be meeting with his coaching staff to work on a few issues before taking his official leave of absence for (at least) the summer. Among the issues will be replacing defensive coordinator Charlie Strong (probably cornerbacks coach Vance Bedford, too) and finishing up recruiting before National Signing Day in a month’s time. “I’m going to do everything I can to keep this train going in the right direction,” Meyer said. “That will all be discussed in the next few days.”

4 » Catching up on a story that OGGOA purposely skipped over during the week, Tennessee Volunteers senior forward Tyler Smith, junior center Brian Williams, junior point guard Melvin Goins and sophomore guard Cameron Tatum are all facing misdemeanor drug, gun and alcohol charges after being stopped on Friday by Knoxville, TN, police for speeding. Head coach Bruce Pearl has suspended all four players indefinitely and has said that dismissal is an option depending on what information is revealed about the incident. “This is tough,” Pearl said. “This is so hard because we’ve worked so hard to try to do the right things.”

Each week following a Florida Gators game, ONLY GATORS Get Out Alive grades the team position-by-position based on each unit’s performance. This week, we look at how the Gators fared against the Cincinnati Bearcats in the final game of their season, the 2010 Sugar Bowl at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, LA.

QUARTERBACKS: A+
When the best player in school history plays the best game of his career in the final game of his career, it is tough not to give him an “A+” grade. And that is exactly what senior quarterback Tim Tebow has earned – not just for his outstanding performance Friday evening but for his career in the Orange and Blue. Pick your poison: was it the Lowe’s Senior CLASS award he was given before the game, the Sugar Bowl record 12 consecutive completions, the career-long 80-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Riley Cooper, the Sugar Bowl and BCS bowl game record 533 yards of total offense, the Sugar Bowl/BCS record 482 passing yards, the 31 completions which set a new Sugar Bowl record, the Sugar Bowl high four touchdowns or the 88.6 completion percentage that set a BCS record? The answer, of course, is “all of the above.”

RUNNING BACKS: A-
Tebow was once again the leading ball carrier for the Gators with 14 touches for 51 yards and a touchdown, but both redshirt junior Emmanuel Moody and redshirt sophomore Chris Rainey came up big throughout the game. Moody rushed eight times for only 14 yards but scored two touchdowns on the ground (he also had four receptions for 19 yards) while Rainey caught four passes for 71 yards and ran four times for 27 yards and a touchdown. Freshman Mike Gillislee cleaned up at the end of the fourth quarter and took a ball 52 yards for a final line of five carries for 78 yards. Sophomore Jeff Demps, the true starter, left the game after he dislocated his elbow on his third rush of the game. Though the attempts and yards were not there, three rushing touchdowns brought this unit up a half-grade.

Read the rest of Florida’s grades from the Sugar Bowl after the jump…
Continue Reading » Grading the Florida vs. Cincinnati game

The Florida Gators may have lost their prize commitment of the 2010 cycle in five-star safety Matt Elam (West Palm Beach, FL), but the Orange and Blue gained declarations from two of the top players in the country on Saturday during the 2010 Under Armour All-American Game. Four-star wide receiver Chris Dunkley (Pahokee, FL) and four-star defensive tackle Dominique Easley (Staten Island, NY) both put on Gators hats to the delight of Gator Nation.

Though Dunkley had long been considered a Florida lean and possible silent commitment, he had been toying with the idea of committing to the Alabama Crimson Tide and was slightly taken aback by the announcements from Gators head coach Urban Meyer this week. Instead, he said that he was a mama’s boy, wanted to stay in-state and loved the program. “I was real, real, real happy and revealed to make my decision to play for the University of Florida,” Dunkley said after the game. “There was a moment [I wavered],” Dunkley said. “I know [Meyer]‘s working to take care of himself. I’ve got to do what’s right for me.”

“I’ve built a relationship with almost everybody on the team,” Dunkley told ESPN. So it’s like me going, basically, back to a home away from home. All the teammates are like my brothers, so everything feels comfortable there. I have been waiting to get this off of my chest for a long time. I fit in perfect. [Freshman WR Andre] Debose and I both do. I have gotten to know him well and we talk all the time. I talk to John Brantley all the time, too. Like I said, it’s like I’ve been on the team for a while. I am going in to compete. All the coaches at Florida know that. All of the players know that.”