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The Back Nine comes at you after running into a couple of old friends this weekend and reliving the times at P.J. O’Reilly’s. The ones we could repeat.
10. I am going to start out with the thing that warmed my heart the most this weekend and that was J.C. Deacon’s team winning the SEC Championship at Sea Island. That was the 266th conference crown for the Gators and one of the most intense. I watched it all because I am a golf nerd, but mostly because I am a big fan of J.C. Deacon and Dudley Hart. All the guys deserve credit for bringing that title home (I’ll even add a pat on the back for senior AD Mike Spiegler) and I was so impressed with the way these guys not only played, but the way he carried himself. Let’s go win another Natty!
11. OK, but it was almost as big for baseball to win that series against Arkansas. Jake Clemente keeps getting it down in relief and Florida is now 19th in RPI. We believe it is going to take four more wins in SEC play to make sure the Gators get into the tournament, but it feels like this team has the momentum going in the right direction as they get ready for a weekend series in Columbia, S.C.
12. Anybody who is expecting the same postseason from Florida baseball that happened last year is whistling past the graveyard. Yikes, that is a hackneyed expression. I’m just saying that this is a team that is different from last year’s, because there isn’t a Jac Caglianone to pitch around. That said, just get in and send Liam Peterson to the mound with Clemente on the back end and you can win. It’s just a matter of how many can you win with the other starters on the mound. At least it is getting verrrrrryy interesting as Artie Johnson used to say on Laugh-In. Geez, Dooley, how old are you?
13. Really tough loss for softball Sunday on a bad hop walk-off loss at LSU. Big game tonight at 7 on the SEC Network. Florida is still second in the nation in RPI and Oklahoma is coming to town next week to finish off the regular season. Then it’s the SEC Tournament in Athens. Ga., where the league may well have eight of the top 10 in RPI. That’s a lot of hosting coming up.
14. OK, I have been asked numerous times about Shedeur Sanders’ slide down the NFL Draft ladder. It can be a slippery slope, especially when you are a borderline talent (which I think he was all season) and you walk into interviews with NFL teams acting like you have already won a Super Bowl. We know where he gets the cockiness from, but I also think there are teams that stayed away from Lil’ Sanders early because of the threat of Big Sanders sliding into the head coaching job.
15. Florida had seven players drafted and only Chimere Dike went before the fifth round. Conversely, 24 of the players picked in the first two rounds played against the Gators last season. Do the math. I am very happy to see Graham Mertz selected by the Texans. Suck a good dude, I think this is an example that just getting drafted is a big deal. As bad as quarterback play is in the King, he might stick around.
16. Big congrats to Mandee O’Leary and the Florida lacrosse team for winning the Big 12 with a perfect record. As far as I know, this is the first Big 12 trophy to be presented to a Gator team. I guess technically Florida has won its 267th conference championship, huh? Now, it’s on to Boulder, Colo., for the conference tournament Thursday against UC-Davis. You can throw out the record when these two Big 12 rivals face off. JK.
17. Does winning truly breed winning? All I know is that since Florida won the basketball title, a lot of good things have been happening for the Gators. And Todd Golden and his wife, Megan, were at the baseball game Sunday. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.
18. It was such a great weekend with so much going on, including the annual Stop Children’s Cancer Gala on Saturday evening. I don’t think they had this playlist:
- “Myth” by Beach House
- In honor of their headlining experience at Coachella (my daughter, Jenny, said they killed it), “Basket Case” by Green Day.
- And for an old one, because I have been getting a ton of these songs on my Facebook feed (and for good reason), “Teacher” By Jethro Tull.
WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
