TWO BITS: Dwyer’s Daniels, Macklin’s transfer

By Adam Silverstein
January 12, 2010

1 » Dwyer High School head coach Jack Daniels has been pretty busy over the last few weeks – not just coaching his team but also helping to manage the commitments of some of his students such as five-star Florida Gators safety Matt Elam. “It was one of a kind,” Daniels said when speaking of Elam’s recruitment. “It’s never been like that before and will probably never be like that again. He was so highly recruited and he flip-flopped back and forth – there were so many things that played into it.” Why did Elam finally decide on Florida? “The bottom line was the relationship he had with Coach Meyer,” Daniels indicated. Worst of all, Daniels’ relationship with the Florida State Seminoles has soured a bit and he is being “vilified on Seminoles message boards” for “steering his star player to the Gators, according to the Palm Beach Post. “Whatever I say, it’s probably not going to be believed because I’m a Gator,” he concluded.

2 » Though it was a big story preseason, Gators junior transfer center Vernon Macklin’s steady play and post presence has gone somewhat unnoticed this season. Rich Radford of The Virginian-Pilot has completed a nice profile of Macklin that includes some interesting tidbits about his transfer from the Georgetown Hoyas. The first thing head coach Billy Donovan told him? “Look, I’m not going to call you ‘The Big Ticket,’” Donovan said. “There’s one Big ticket in basketball, and that’s Kevin Garnett and he plays for the Boston Celtics. So what do you want me to call you?” Macklin’s straight-forward reply? “Vernon.” Donovan continued. “A lot of guys transfer and think they can leave the baggage behind. But in reality, that baggage follows you. The thing I like about Vernon is that he came clean that a lot of it was his fault, that the effort wasn’t there when he was at Georgetown.”

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