Gator (Photo credit: Mamboman1)

Black Friday hoops action, Gator Nation.

A big scare in our last Gator basketball game when Kenny Boynton went down with an apparent ankle injury, but fortunately for him it was not as serious as first believed. He did miss his FIRST practice ever in a Gator jersey the following day. Pretty impressive considering the amount he has played in his four years as a Gator. I’m currently watching the first half of the game on ESPN3 and he does not appear to be suffering any ill effects, but the big surprise is Scottie Wilbiken who has lit up UCF for 3 treys so far and 11 points before half.

This is a big retribution game for us as UCF marked one of our six losses two years ago for a senior-driven team that came within 4 minutes of the Final Four. UCF is led by Isiah Sykes and Keith Clanton at 17 points each. They have been competitive all season against their opponents. We share common games with Savannah State and Middle Tennessee. MTSU gave us our most difficult game this year so far and actually beat UCF by 6 points. Both teams won their respective games against Savannah State. UCF is very physical, but are a streaky offensive team. If our defense shows up like it has—especially in this first half—we should fare well against them.

This starts a string of very competitive games for us against Marquette, at FSU and at Arizona who is currently ranked #10. This team is starting very well and should progress nicely with a very deep bench and what is surprisingly some of the best defense our Gators have played in awhile. If you miss this game, check out the replay on ESPN3. ‘Nuff said.

Go Gators!

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