Location: Rupp Arena – Lexington, KY [Capacity: 23,500]
Time: 7:00 p.m. (ET)

TV: ESPN/ESPNHD
SiriusXM: 91
Online Video: ESPN3.com
Live Updates: @OnlyGators

Odds: Florida +9; O/U 142.5

HISTORY and STREAKS

» Kentucky leads the all-time series against Florida 90-33, and the Gators are just 13-20 against the Wildcats since Donovan took over the team.
» Florida is 0-7 against Kentucky all-time when the Wildcats are ranked No. 1 in the country; however, all seven of those games were played before Donovan was coach with UK’s most recent victory in such a matchup coming in 1996. Since then the Gators are 2-0 against top-ranked opponents (both wins under Donovan), defeating Duke in 2000 and Ohio State in 2007 (for the national title).
» Kentucky is 65-2 all-time at home as the No. 1 ranked team in the AP poll.
» Calipari is one of three coaches (Frank McGuire) to lead three different schools to No. 1 rankings; he has accomplished that feat in five total seasons.
» UF’s seven-game winning streak is their longest since 2009-10 (eight games) and lengthiest in-conference streak since 2006-07 (13 games). UK, on the other hand, has a 16-game winning streak including a number of blowout victories.
» All five of Florida’s normal starters are averaging double figures in scoring.
» The Gators have made 10+ three-pointers in 16 of 23 games this year, a season-high mark under Donovan.
» Florida has made a three in 674 consecutive games dating back to Jan. 1992.
» UF has posted a positive assist-to-turnover margin in 16-of-19 victories but has put forth a negative ratio in that category in all four of their losses.
» The Gators are 284-37 since 1988-89 when holding opponents under 70 points.
» Florida is one victory away from winning 20+ games for the 14th consecutive season, which is currently the longest active streak in the SEC and fifth-longest nationally.
» Kentucky holds a 48-game home winning streak at Rupp Arena, the longest such home winning streak in the nation.
» The Wildcats lead the SEC in rebounding margin (+7.8 per game).
» Kentucky has more wins (2,075) than any other NCAA team – ever.
» The Wildcats also have five players averaging double figures.
» Kentucky is 68-1 under Calipari when holding an opponent to 67 points or fewer.
» The Wildcats’ defense has been outstanding recently as UK has held their last four opponents to an average of 47.5 points per game.
» Florida is ranked No. 9 in scoring offense (80.1 points), No. 8 in scoring margin (14.1 points), No. 1 in three-pointers (10.5 per game), No. 12 in field goal percentage from three (40.2 percent), No. 16 in assists (16.3 per game) and No. 5 in assist/turnover ratio (1.48) nationally as of Feb. 5. The Gators are also 189th (out of 338 teams) in free throw shooting (68.4 percent).
» Kentucky is ranked No. 19 in scoring offense (78.2 points), No. 9 in scoring defense (57.5 points), No. 2 in scoring margin (20.5 points), No. 14 in field goal percentage (48.6 percent), No. 1 in field goal percentage defense (35.8 percent), No. 9 in rebound margin (+7.8) and No. 1 in blocked shots (9.4 per game) nationally as of Feb. 5. The Wildcats are No. 10 in fouling, committing 15.2 per game and No. 225 (out of 338 teams) in three-pointers (5.5 per game).

LAST TIME OUT
Click to expand and read the remainder of the Florida-Kentucky gameday preview.

DIFFICULTIES IN TAKING ON A NO. 1 TEAM KENTUCKY

After Tuesday’s game is over, Florida will have faced all three teams currently ranked in the top three of both the USA Today/ESPN and Associated Press Top 25 Polls in road games. The Gators are hoping to come away with their first victory in such an environment and will attempt to do that by looking at the Wildcats not as the No. 1 team in the land but rather just another SEC opponent.

“We never really look at it as where a team is ranked or not ranked getting prepared for them. You always look at the team because rankings and things like that are going to change throughout the course of the year,” Donovan said. “Whether they’re ranked No. 1 or No. 5, clearly they’re one of the best teams in the country. There’s no doubt about that. It’s just more getting ready for how we got to defend, what we have to do on offense and what we got to do to prepare for them.”

His mentality has obviously been passed on to Florida’s players. “We don’t really view it as playing a No. 1 team. It’s just Kentucky,” freshman guard Bradley Beal said. “It’s a league game, so we’re just coming in with the mentality that we’re going to play our game and focus in on what we need to do.” Junior G Kenny Boynton added, “It’s just a ranking at the end of the day. We’re just going to go in there to compete and win.”

DON’T GIVE DAVIS ANY EXTRA OPPORTUNITIES

Instead the Gators will focus on players like forward Anthony Davis, who broke Shaquille O’Neal’s freshman blocks record and still has more than a handful of regular season games left to play. Donovan wants to make sure Florida does not make costly mistakes in the interior to give Kentucky additional possessions and momentum at home.

“He’s great at it, and it does it a lot of different ways,” he said of Davis’s blocking prowess. “You got to be smart when you’re attacking the basket. When he has got a free run and he’s got no body on him, it’s a lot easier blocking shots when you got a free run or a free jump to go up there.

“It can’t be a situation where we’re not going to go to the basket or not post up because he’s there. You just got to make good, wise choices because when he does block shots, it certainly ignites them on the fast break and they’re a terrific transition fast breaking team.”

LET CALIPARI SLEEP ON THE SHOOTERS

In the SEC teleconference on Monday, Wildcats head coach John Calipari said the two Gators who worry him the most are not the two that have seen the most court time for Florida but rather a pair of players who are brand new starters this season.

“With [Erik] Murphy now they can spread the floor out. A year ago, you could predict that four or five would be close to the rim and you had a chance to guard them in the post,” Calipari said about the junior forward’s effectiveness. “Right now with Murphy being able to shoot that three the way he does, it makes it even more difficult to zone in on their big guys.”

There is one other player he is keeping his eye on – Beal – but not because of his ability to get the ball in the hoop. “He’s a skilled player who can beat you on the bounce, can make shots, terrific free throw shooter, good passer. I’ll tell you what he’s been doing. He’s been rebounding – especially offensively,” he said. “He goes and gets balls. Let’s just say you stop him and you’re feeling good, all of sudden he goes and grabs an offensive rebound and sticks it in and kind of breaks your rhythm.”

More than anything else, Calipari believes it is up to Kentucky to play within themselves to extend the team’s home winning streak to 49 games. He thinks the Wildcats are playing well but can undoubtedly get better as long as they stay humble.

“We’re really young and so there’s an easy transition from swagger to arrogance and that’s where you get beat,” he said. “We’re a good team. We’re not a great team, but we’re a good team. What we’d like to be by the end of the year is as good as our team was last year as a team.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on the schedule the rest of the way: “Our last eight games are extremely difficult because five of our last eight are on the road against really good teams. You’re going to play all 16 regardless. I think sometimes where they fall, how they fall does have an impact.”

» Donovan on sophomore center Patric Young’s recent struggles: “He is as good of a team player as I’ve coached. He’s about all the right things. The biggest thing for him is mentally pushing through. [...] With him being out as long as he has, you’re starting to see a carryover conditioning wise. He’s got to push himself through. There’s been moments in the last two games where he’s had those great minute or two bursts of athleticism, speed and quickness, and then he’s had some times where he’s kind of disappeared a little bit.”

» Donovan on his budding friendly rivalry with Calipari: “I’ve got great respect for John. John and I have a very good relationship. I’ve known John for a long, long time. Well before I ever got to Florida and well before I ever was at Kentucky as an assistant coach, Kentucky basketball-wise in this league has been kind of a measuring stick and they’ve set the bar for a long, long time going all the way back to Adolph Rupp. Kentucky in our league certainly brings a lot of national exposure. What you’ve seen in our league over the last 20 years is different coaches come in and elevate their program.

“At a school like Kentucky that has had the number of SEC Championships, conference tournament championships, national championships, there have been commitments made. [...] You’re seeing more of a commitment by a lot of schools to raise the bar, so to speak. Because Kentucky’s tradition as so rich and for so long, I don’t know if in a lot of ways people really understood how to do that, so to speak. I give Jeremy [Foley] a lot of credit in this. He had a vision for this program and for Florida and what could happen here. It’s not only recruiting and coaching, you got to have presidents, administrators and everybody on board to try and build something.”

» Beal on going to Kentucky: “Just playing in that environment is what I’m looking forward to most.”

» Beal on if he’s thought about turning pro after the season: “I’m not really sure about that. I really haven’t thought about it at all. I’ve just been focusing on the season one game at a time and focusing on the team right now.”

The Florida Gators reentered the top 10 for the first time since Dec. 26, 2011, falling in at No. 7 and No. 8 in the respective polls on the heels of consecutive victories at home against South Carolina (74-66) on Thursday evening and then-No. 25 Vanderbilt (73-65) on Saturday afternoon. Florida is one of three Southeastern Conference teams listed in both rankings.

Gators guard Bradley Beal picked up SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the second-straight week and fifth time this season on Monday after averaging 16.5 points, nine rebounds and two assists in consecutive wins for Florida over South Carolina and Vanderbilt. He notched a double-double on Thursday and followed it up with an impressive second half performance on Saturday.

Click to expand and view the complete top 25 polls.

IMPROVING ON THE OFFENSIVE GLASS

The Gators’ offensive rebounding since the Southeastern Conference slate began has left much to be desired. Donovan was particularly bothered with the fact that junior guard Kenny Boynton (four) had more offensive boards than both freshman G Bradley Beal (two) and junior forward Erik Murphy (two) heading into Saturday’s game.

“Brad and Erik have got to get better at making that concerted effort, every time a shot is taken, at going to the glass,” he explained. Beal grabbed five offensive rebounds Thursday, and Murphy added two more, putting a smile on Donovan’s face.

“What won the game for us tonight is that we really did a good job getting to the offensive glass … and the fact that we got to the free throw line 32 times,” he said.

Florida shot poorly from the charity stripe in the first half but hit seven of their last eight attempts to finish 71.9 percent (23-of-32). The Gators’ free throw shooting has improved immensely since the beginning of the season, so much so that Donovan even feels comfortable giving one player a hard time when he starts off inconsistent in that area.

“I told Brad Beal, ‘I’m going to change your number to No. 12 for 1-for-2.’ He goes to the free throw line and is 1-for-2 the entire time,” Donovan joked.

VIDEO: CHARGE DRILL IN PRACTICE

The following video, courtesy of UF, shows Donovan’s charge drill during practice. This should help provide fans with some idea why players like redshirt junior G Mike Rosario have improved in this facet of the game throughout the season.

Watch the video and read post-game quotes…after the break!

NOTES AND QUOTES

» Donovan on Florida losing its 17-point advantage in the game: “It deflated our team in a lot of ways. I didn’t think from a maturity standpoint we handled that very well. [...] We didn’t get affected by it because South Carolina wasn’t making shots. The same shots that we knocked down the first 12-14 minutes of the game were the same shots we could not buy. Our focus went from playing defense and rebounding defensively to making shots.”

» Beal on his highlight dunk late in the second half: “I just wanted to finish at the rim strong. [Damontre] Harris was blocking shots all night, so I just wanted to go up strong and make a play.”

» Donovan on UF’s next two opponents being tough ones: “Clearly [we’re] playing right now coming up what many consider the two best teams in the league in Vanderbilt and Kentucky, and you’re having to do it after a Thursday game with a one-day prep where they’ve obviously had some time to get ready to play the game [last] playing on Tuesday.”

» Boynton on playing three games in six days: “We’re ready. We’re not a young team overall. All the sophomores, they’ve been through this process. We don’t have any excuses. We just got to take every game on at a time.”

Looking to begin a stretch of three games in six days on a high note, the No. 11/12 Florida Gators (18-4, 6-1 SEC) used a game-high 24 points by junior guard Kenny Boynton and a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds from freshman G Bradley Beal to top the South Carolina Gamecocks (9-12, 1-6 SEC) 74-66 on Thursday night at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL.

Boynton and Beal were two of three Gators to score in double figures Friday as senior point guard Erving Walker chipped in 14 points with seven assists, four boards, two steals and just three turnovers in the winning effort.

As has been tradition recently, Florida got off to their usual hot start and used a 14-2 run as well as a 12-1 rebounding advantage to take a 17-point lead with 9:55 left in the first half. South Carolina responded with a quick 6-0 scoring stretch to cut their deficit to 11, but UF regained their half-high lead with five minutes left until the break.

The Gamecocks, however, were the aggressors at the end of the half, outscoring the Gators 9-1 over the final 3:54 as UF fell silent from the field. Florida still headed into the locker rooms with a nine-point lead as well as a 23-11 advantage on the glass.

After giving up a basket to start the second half, the Gators used a 6-0 run including consecutive jumpers by Walker to leap back ahead 12 points. Trading baskets the rest of the way, the Gamecocks got within six with 4:08 to play, but a highlight dunk by Beal appeared to push the momentum back in UF’s favor.

That would not wind up being the case for Florida, which gave up back-to-back three-pointers to South Carolina G Bruce Ellington and forward Anthony Gill, decreasing their advantage to five points with 2:51 remaining in the contest.

The Gators began consistently hitting their free throws late in the contest, but Gamecocks G Brenton Williams hit a transition three from the corner to put USC down five again with 50.1 seconds left.

It would be too little too late for South Carolina, which sent Florida to the line four times in the last minute and saw the Gators hit seven-of-eight free throws to close out the team’s 12th consecutive victory in the O’Dome.

The Gators have now won six-straight games since falling to Tennessee in their SEC opener with victories of eight points or more in all but one contest.

Click to expand and read the rest of the Florida-USC game story.

For a young kid growing up in certain areas of Shelby, NC, dreams of playing college football – let alone someday in the NFL – can seem entirely impossible.

Throw in the fact that his brother was sentenced in 2003 to life in prison without parole on first-degree murder charges stemming from a drug deal gone wrong in 2001 and many expected Brandon Spikes to go down with the ship.

“There was a lot of negative people who said, you won’t do this, you won’t do that because he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that,” Spikes told USA Today in 2008 about his neighborhood growing up. “You won’t ever get a scholarship, you won’t go to Florida and play as well as you did. My whole career has been about proving people wrong.”

He started on that path during his time in Gainesville, FL with the Florida Gators. Spikes went from five-star recruit and the No. 13 prospect in the nation to a player who looked like he might be underwhelming after the Gators’ defense struggled mightily in 2007.

Months after the season ended, Spikes sat down with then-Florida head coach Urban Meyer, shed some tears, and told him he had no choice but to succeed going forward.

“I let him know this is my life. Without this, I don’t know where I would be. Football has been everything. It was my way out; it was my way here,” he said. “I just told him this is what I do. I wake up in the morning and I breathe, and this is the first thing on my mind.”

Spikes became the defense’s leader that season, the parallel to quarterback Tim Tebow and what he did for the Gators’ offense.

His hit on running back Knowshaun Moreno at the start the 2008 Florida-Georgia game is one of the most famous tackles in school history, and it fueled a 49-10 victory that helped propel the Gators to another win in the 2008 SEC Championship over Alabama and eventually to the 2009 BCS Championship.

Spikes promised when leaving for college that he would make his mother proud. His second national title in three years undoubtedly put a smile on her face, but his decision to stay a fourth year and graduate rather than leave early for the NFL likely made that smile grow exponentially wider.

There was something else he said to his mother, a promise he told the Boston Herald that he made to her when he was a child. Spikes said one day he would play professional football and support their family, reiterating that promise after his brother was incarcerated because his sibling had made a similar pact with the family.

“The promises he made to my mom – he was going to get us out of our situation and he didn’t,” Spikes said in a story published by the Herald on Thursday. “He fell off the road. I couldn’t do that to her. She’s everything.”

So when Spikes came across as a dirty player during his senior season after being caught eye-gouging during a game, he stood up and increased his coach-mandated suspension from a half-game to a full game.

“I accept responsibility for my actions and I accept the consequences of my actions. I would like to apologize to my team and the coaching staff and Washun Ealey. Football is a very physical and emotional game, but there is no excuse for my actions.”

When draft analysts said Spikes was too slow to be picked high in the 2010 NFL Draft, he ignored them, kept his head down, continued working hard and wound up being selected with the No. 62 overall pick in the second round by the New England Patriots.

When he made what he called a stupid decision and was caught having sex with a girl on an Internet stream before his rookie season, he stayed out of the spotlight and concentrated on becoming a better football player.

When he was suspended four games by the NFL for allegedly violating the league’s banned substances policy, he explained that it was due to a particular ingredient in his ADHD medication but still issued an apology:

“I’ve been contacted by the NFL and informed that I will be suspended four games for the detection of an illegal substance in a drug test. The substance was a medication that I should have gotten clarification on before taking. It was not a performance enhancer or an illegal drug. The integrity of the game is very important to me. I understand the league’s ruling and apologize to my teammates, the fans and the Patriots organization for this mistake.”

And when he learned seven games into his second season that a knee injury would force him to miss the majority of the year, Spikes worked hard in rehab and returned in Week 17, earning back his starting role with the team.

Three weeks later he led New England in tackles in the AFC Championship, a game in which he also grabbed an interception in the fourth quarter.

The Herald also spoke this week with Spikes’s mother, Sherry Allen, who not only took care of her son during his time in Shelby but even wound up moving to Gainesville while he was in college after being laid off from her old job as a factory worker.

“I feel like I’m living in a dream,” she told the paper.

A true football player at heart, her son has “I love this game” tattooed above his left wrist and stands not only as a favorite of Gator Nation but also of his teammates (past and present), Patriots fans and New England’s owner.

“Do you know how lucky we are to have Brandon Spikes on the team?,” owner Robert Kraft exclaimed two weeks ago. “He’s the man. He’s the man. He told me we were going to win that game and when he made that interception that was so cool. He told me he was going to do it for Myra [Kraft’s deceased wife]. I love having this man on our team.”

On Sunday, Allen’s dream comes true and Spikes’s hard work will be realized when he steps on the field as the starting inside linebacker for the Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

Photo Credit: CBS Boston

The Florida Gators rose a few spots to No. 11 and No. 12 in the respective polls on the heels of consecutive victories one the road at Ole Miss and at home against a ranked Mississippi State team. Florida is one of three/four Southeastern Conference teams listed in both rankings.

The Gators also earned a league award for the first time in weeks with freshman guard Bradley Beal picking up SEC Freshman of the Week honors after shooting 62.5 percent and averaging 14 points, three rebounds and 2.5 assists in a pair of games on Thursday and Saturday. Beal scored a game-high 19 points and hit three of his four attempts from beyond the arc to lead Florida past MSU on Saturday.

Click to expand and view the complete top 25 polls.

1 » While the Florida Gators wait to figure out which scholarship quarterback to bring in as part of their 2012 recruiting class, the team has offered a preferred walk-on role to three-star Jacob Guy (Dade City, FL). According to the Tampa Bay Times, Guy has scholarship offers from Massachusetts, Ohio and Western Michigan and is also being considered by Memphis and Miami (OH). He is unlikely to make a decision before National Signing Day on Feb. 1, probably in order to see how the situations shake out at all of his potential destinations.

2 » Former Florida golfer Gary Koch will be inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 2012 class on March 19-20 in Tampa, FL. He is one of 14 athletes to be included in the ceremony and will be inducted alongside names like Charlie Ward, Alonzo Mourning and George Smith. A four-time All-SEC first team member, three-time All-American, two-time SEC Champion (1973-74) and NCAA Champion with the Gators, Koch won six PGA Tour events but never finished better than tied for fourth at a Major Championship (The Open Championship, 1988). He also spent time on the other tours and has worked for both ESPN and NBC Sports as a sportscaster.

Click to expand and read four more BITS in this post.

1 » Florida Gators head basketball coach Billy Donovan continues to insist he is not too worried about sophomore center Patric Young’s ankle, noting Monday that team doctors have determined he is not in jeopardy of aggravating or worsening the injury though he will “deal with periodically some discomfort and he’s going to have to work his way through that.” “He’s fine right now,” Donovan said. “I don’t expect him to miss practice. He’s not complaining of anything. It could flare up. Patric’s never really I think ever had a sprained ankle. He’s never really dealt with this before so it’s all new to him.” Young himself said that doctors have told him the tendinitis has to do with the lining of his joints and that he does not have any tears or sprains. “It was just from overuse or something like that. It’s just a nagging thing, like a lot of pain whenever I try to just move or walk, lateral movements really affect it,” he said. “I still can’t really jump too well off my right foot and not too well off of two feet. When it comes time for the game, I’m normally ready and it doesn’t really bother me. After a certain level, I have to pass the threshold of pain and then I don’t feel it anymore.” It is unknown whether or not Donovan intends to start Young for the first time in three games on Thursday at Ole Miss.

2 » Gators redshirt freshman defensive tackle Leon Orr, who received a written arrest on Jan. 10 and was given a notice to appear in court for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, has agreed to deferred prosecution with the State Attorney’s Office, according to Florida Today. As a result of the agreement, Orr will pay $50 in court costs and either an additional $150 fine or perform 12.5 hours of community service. Orr was the fifth player to be charged with possession of marijuana since head coach Will Muschamp took over in Jan. 2011. “At the end of the day a mistake was made, and I’ve learned from it,” he tweeted on Jan. 19. Orr played in all 13 games in 2011, registering 10 tackles, a sack and a pass defense.

3 » There is not much to talk about in regards to Atlanta Hawks forward/center Al Horford now that he is out at least until the end of April with a torn labrum. However, ESPN’s Marc Stein dropped an interesting note about Horford in his Friday column, explaining that he is “a likely down-the-road top contender to succeed” Los Angeles Lakers’ point guard Derek Fisher as president of the players’ union two years from now when the latter’s contract expires. Known for his personable yet serious character, Horford is already heavily involved with the league serving as one of the NBA’s biggest international ambassadors. A shift into a role like this would seem natural to many who know him, and Horford himself even tweeted “Maybe…” when a fan asked if he was up for the gig on Jan. 22.

Click to expand and read three more BITS in this post.

Though commissioner Mike Slive received approval from the SEC’s coaches to adjust the schedule and make the deal, the league has found and continued to do its best to work out kinks in the scheduling ever since.

During No. 13/14 Florida Gators head coach Billy Donovan‘s press conference on Monday, he spoke at length (nearly nine full minutes) about one major flaw in the schedule – teams being forced to play late games on Thursday and early games on Saturday. This type of scheduling, he argues, provides the players with little (if any) time to rest and the coaches with even less time to put a solid game plan in place.

Florida is set to face Ole Miss Thursday at 7 p.m. on the road before turning around and returning home to take on No. 16/18 Mississippi State on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Donovan’s complete thoughts on the issue and how he believes it makes the SEC schedule unbalanced for some of the teams in the league is available…after the break.

“This all started about three years ago in spring meetings. All the coaches in the league meetings really felt like the opportunity to have this contract with ESPN was a great thing. Our league was pretty much a Tuesday-Wednesday-Saturday league for a long, long time. The team that played on Tuesday was generally a Super Tuesday game on ESPN and then maybe some different regional networks or national TV on the weekends. Pretty much it was a three-day league. The commissioner let us all understand that in order to do this with ESPN, there’s going to have to be some consideration taken into playing on Tuesdays, playing on Thursdays, playing on Saturdays. The only two days that are probably somewhat off-limits to our league [are] Monday and Friday. Pretty much every other day we’re going to play. Since I’ve been in the league, this is the first time we’ve never ever ever had a Wednesday game. We don’t play one game on Wednesdays, that mid-week, which is really surprising. It’s also good because you’re playing on TV.

“When all this started to talk, the biggest thing that everybody talked about is how do we really expose and pump up the SEC and basketball. One was the contract with ESPN. And how do we get more teams into the NCAA Tournament? Everybody was all on the same page that we all have different battles that we’re dealing with in terms of scheduling outside of conference, trying to get those home-and-home, those neutral site games. Everybody’s dealing with different set of elements to try and create those kinds of games. We all felt like there was some give-and-take with that. My problem with it is, if you want to get more teams into the NCAA Tournament and you want to do more with your non-conference schedule, our league should not put teams at a disadvantage competitively. There are teams in our league that are put at a disadvantage competitively. I don’t think that’s right to he players or to the teams that are playing. I think we all agree that we need to play Thursday, Saturday and Tuesday. We’ve done it, but I think everybody needs to do it. The league needs to understand what those competitive disadvantages potentially are.

“Just using it as an example: Alabama’s got to play a 9 p.m. game on Thursday night then they’ve got to play a noon game on Saturday. That should never happen. Not the Thursday-Saturday, we’re OK with that. But there’s got to be some level of consideration taken into these guys just played at 9 [p.m.]. They got to go to school on Friday, then they got to leave Friday and they got to play at noon. Pretty much have to wake up, eat and play the game. Give them an opportunity and play the game at 6-7-8 [p.m.]. If you’re trying to get more teams into the NCAA Tournament, don’t put the teams inside your league in a competitive disadvantage. That’s my only problem with it, where teams are at a competitive disadvantage.

“I got a lot of confidence in Mike Slive and [Mark] Whitworth, who does the scheduling. All these guys are great guys, and this is all new so they’re all trying to figure it out. It’s like the same thing with Alabama football a year ago. Alabama wins the national championship in football and all of a sudden they have to play six-straight games against teams that have basically two weeks off that are laying in the weeds getting ready to prepare for them. I don’t know if it was an oversight or what but that’s not going to happen anymore.

“There’s probably some things that are going on right now inside of our league with the whole contract being somewhat new that I think our league will figure out as time goes on. I got confidence they will. If we’re going to talk about trying to get more teams in the league [in the NCAA Tournament], don’t put teams in a situation where one team has got a huge advantage. I heard the argument, ‘It’s like that in the NCAA Tournament. You got to play Thursday-Saturday or Friday-Sunday.’ That’s great, but you know what? So does the other team you’re playing against. That’s where we’ve got to try and figure out a better way to make it work. Our schedule is what it is. We’ve done this now for a few years. There’s no excuses for us. We got to go out and play games. The schedule is set, this is the hand we’re dealing with and we got to do the best job we can preparing and getting ready to play.”

“There’s got to be some level of balance there. The league needs to look at those situations where maybe there’s a clear, distinct advantage. An advantage sometimes is if a team is playing a late night game on a Thursday night, there should be some rule put in that you’re not going to play Saturday until after 4-5 pm. I’m using Alabama [as an example] because it just recently happened. We’re in a very similar situation this weekend playing a 1:30 p.m. game on the road. We’re all under the understanding there is going to be some level of sacrifice that we all have to make inside of our schedule to do that, but I think it really needs to be leveled out across the board and be fair for everyone.”

“There needs to be some level of balance when you’ve got a new contract, which is great for the league. The commissioner has done a great job being on the selection committee. He’s done a great job bringing this ESPN package together. He’s done a great job promoting basketball inside of our league. I think all of those things have been great. Either everybody’s got to go Thursday-Saturday-Tuesday or it’s got to be a rotating thing every other year, but everybody should be under those same elements. There should not be a huge discrepancy in those kinds of games, in my opinion, where you have teams playing three or four times a year Thursday-Saturday-Tuesday. That just shouldn’t happen, in my opinion.”

“The biggest thing is, like I said earlier, it is what it is. We have no excuses. This is when we need to play. This is when the games are playing. We need to figure out and find out a way to get ourselves prepared to play at ole miss and get ourselves prepared to play on Saturday against ole miss. That’s the hand. I’ve never believed in making excuses.

“In the spring meetings, when we talk about what’s best for the entire league, I’m speaking about not in terms of just Florida, I’m talking about every school in our league. What is best for everybody? How does everybody benefit, how is there balance in all of this stuff? That’s all I’m saying. I don’t think there should be a competitive disadvantage. I don’t know if there is or is not a competitive disadvantage, but I do know when you’ve got to play a Thursday game, to get your guys back preparation-wise, it should be a little bit later in the day on Saturday. That’s just my opinion. That’s something I think our league will look at.

“Like I said before, it’s like the Alabama situation a year ago. I’m sure they probably never even recognized that or realized that. That was probably unfair to Alabama’s football team being ranked No. 1 in the country going into the season and winning a national championship and now they’ve got a bull’s-eye on their back and they’ve got six teams they’re playing against, half their schedule has two weeks off. That’s a heck of a bind to put them in. that was unfair to them, and they just won a national championship. I guarantee that’s not going to happen anymore. This is something that our league will look at and get it corrected. I don’t necessarily think there’s favoritism being played. I just don’t know if it’s an oversight or what it is, but it’s something we need to address.”

“We talked a little bit about what was best for our league [at the spring meetings]. A couple years ago when Commissioner Slive brought the whole ESPN contract to us that we needed to agree to play on Tuesdays and Thursday and Saturdays, maybe a Sunday game and Wednesday games. We all agreed that this was best for the league. When we talked about going to one division and not having an east and a west, everybody felt like this was best for our league. I’ve been in the league for a long time. I get [it]; you want what’s best. [...] That’s what it’s always been about. The league is bigger than, per se, one institution. That’s what makes this league great in my opinion. Everybody’s had to make a level of sacrifice.”