FOUR BITS: Tebow, Tishman, Shepard, tennis

By Adam Silverstein
March 11, 2010

1 » For all of the flack that former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow has received about his mechanics and throwing motion, perhaps forcing a player to tinker with something that they have used to reach a high level of success is not the best thing to do. (Who would have thunk it?) Bruce Feldman of ESPN breaks down an instance where adjustments like these did an injustice rather than facilitated an improvement, focusing on the story of Steve and Chris Walsh of the Miami Hurricanes.

Additional note: ESPN NFL Draft talking heads Mel Kiper, Jr. and Todd McShay have both upgraded their projections, agreeing that Tebow will likely be a second-round pick in the upcoming event. However, both made sure to state that picking him that early is indeed “a reach” by any team that does so.

Three more BITS on Tishman, LSU’s Sheppard and women’s tennis after the jump!

2 » Freshman point guard Rod Tishman joined the Florida basketball team out of nowhere, with head coach Billy Donovan plucking him out of Israel. Though he is one of the best pure shooters on the Gators, Tishman has barely seen the court his first season in Gainesville, FL, due to his poor defense. Tishman, who is reasonably frustrated at this development, plans to return to Florida next season to continue his development. “It’s hard,” Tishman told The Gainesville Sun. “I try to do my best every practice. It’s very hard because I never had a situation to sit on the bench. This is basketball, you never know what can happen and you need to raise yourself up. I feel like I’ve improved. I feel like I’m a better defender in practice. And yeah, I know that’s what I need to improve on most and I think I improved.”

3 » Russell Shepard of the LSU Tigers and his father are fans of Tebow. Such fans, in fact, that the grief Tebow has received about not resembling a prototypical pro-style quarterback helped Shepard make the decision to convert to wide receiver with the Tigers. “Three or four months ago, Tebow was being labeled as arguably the best college football player ever, but the NFL doesn’t care at all. It truly doesn’t matter there,” Shepard told ESPN. “I’ve been playing this game for a long time and want to have a successful career at the next level, and the receiver position and special teams is the best route for me to do that. […] Playing quarterback in college, you can get away with being an athlete sort of like what Florida did with Tebow. My father loved Tebow, but was amazed by how four months ago he was the best player ever and now he has such a low grade as a quarterback that some teams are saying they wouldn’t even draft him as a quarterback. He just said, ‘Son, I believe you made the best decision of your life, just looking at the whole Tebow thing.’”

4 » No. 5 Gators women’s tennis (12-2) defeated the No. 4 North Carolina Tar Heels (13-2) 6-1 Wednesday at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. Florida has now won 76-straight matches at home and 88 consecutive regular-season games. The No. 6 doubles pair of senior Marrit Boonstra and freshman Allie Will took their match 9-8 (2), while No. 11 Will and No. 15 Lauren Embree each won their respective singles competitions 6-2, 6-4.

4 Comments

  1. On Campus says:

    Good story about Coach Meyer “not” correcting Tebow’s throwing motion

    http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?id=4985289

  2. Nothing written by Jemele Hill can be considered “good.”

  3. 305gator says:

    couldn’t agree more on that adam

  4. 305gator – Congratulations! You are OGGOA’s 3,000th commenter. E-mail your name, address and other details to adam@205.132.151.20 to claim your prize ($34.95 value)!

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