Alligator Army Notebook: April 21

by mlmintampa on Apr 21, 2008 1:17 AM EDT in Quick Hits

The Celtics crushed the Hawks Sunday night 104-81, but it wasn't Al Horford's fault. Horford led all scorers with 20 points (7-10 FG, 6-7 FT) and 10 rebounds. When reached for comment, the leading NBA Rookie of the Year candidate, Kevin Durant said, "What is this playoffs you speak of? I thought the season was over. I'm too busy looking at houses in Oklahoma."
Gator Softball is moving like a tremendous machine. UF (52-2, 21-1) swept Kentucky this weekend, winning the Sunday finale 8-0. In 10 IP this weekend, junior Stacey Nelson (33-2) allowed only two hits and zero runs. She has a .71 ERA this season.
On the other side of the fence is Gator Baseball, who is mirroring the late season collapse of teams like the 2002 Expos, 2003 Royals, and 2006 Marlins. The Majors are not like college, but with their third straight SEC series loss, UF (25-15, 10-8) is looking more like the rebuilding team that was expected of them this season. Sunday's 3-2 loss in 10 at Kentucky is not particularly damaging, but the Gators need to get something going. The SEC East leading Georgia Bulldogs are coming into Hogtown this weekend, and UF cannot lose 2 of 3 again.
One of Tampa's best college prospects, Plant junior QB Aaron Murray will announce his college intentions Thursday. Florida is a likely pick, with Georgia and UCLA also in the mix.
UF Women's Golf won their eighth SEC Championship and placed three players in the top 10. The No. 5 ranked Gators finished +10 for the three rounds and were 17 strokes clear of second place.
Men's and Women's Tennis were not as lucky as both lost in the SEC finals. The women lost 4-3 to Georgia. On the men's side, UF lost 4-1 to Ole Miss. However, both have a very good chance to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. As a former tennis writer, I ask that you jump on their bandwagon. College tennis, with six matches happening at once, is compelling stuff.
Finally, one year ago this weekend The Sporting Orange was launched, which led to this little website. Since then, we've been linked by AOL, Deadspin, Yahoo, everyone for our Girls of The SEC video, and two of the best newspapers in America; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Washington Post. But, I am most proud when I see our sitemeter climb with visitors each day, when I get emails from readers about who should be UF's running back, and when strangers tell me at football games that they read Alligator Army every day. It is so fantastic knowing that a portion of the population doesn't think I'm a jackass. On behalf of Hanson and Timmy C, thank you so much for reading. I'm amazed every day that what was a conversation among friends (and annoyed the hell out of our girlfriends) is now a year old. We kick off our second year the same way we kicked off our first year; with Tim Tebow screaming about his big nuts.