Florida women's basketball to host Florida State tonight

Ordinarily, coaches often schedule a few easy opponents early in the year to ease into the regular season, but Florida women's basketball coach Amanda Butler has a different philosophy.

Why wait? If you want to know how good you really are, start with the best opponents you can find.

The Gators will get a strong indication tonight of just where they stand when they host No. 15 Florida State at 7 p.m.

"There's no way that you're ever as a coach going to feel 100 percent ready for your first really, really big challenge,'' Butler said. "You're always going to feel like gosh if we had one more day to prepare, or if this circumstance was different or that circumstance was different. But the only way that you find out how ready you are or not is to go out and play the ball game. And we play in the best conference in the country. We've got to play those teams 16 times this year, and ultimately that's what our non-conference season is about, preparing for that. So it makes the most sense to me to go our and challenge yourselves. Maybe we're not ready this early for that big of a challenge, but I think our kids feel pretty good about where we are and they understand how we have to play right now with what we know about ourselves to give it their best effort. There's no sense delaying it. Let's figure out if we're that good right now, or if we're still a few weeks away from that.''

Gator freshman guard Nimrod Tishman cleared to play

Nimrod Tishman, the Florida freshman guard from Tel Aviv, Israel, has been cleared by the NCAA and is eligible to compete for the Gators this season. 

Previously, Tishman had only been cleared to practice while he awaited a final decision by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Florida coach Billy Donovan said previously that he had no reason to believe that Tishman wouldn't be declared eligible to play, but that because he was such a late addition to the team, and because the process of clearing students from overseas is so complicated, it was taking longer to obtain NCAA clearance.

The 6-foot-5, 182 pound Tishman has been practicing with the team since fall drills began two weeks ago.

The Gators open the exhibition season Nov. 2 against St. Leo, and will begin regular season play on Nov. 15 against Stetson.

Former Gator Errict Rhett gives motivational speech to women's basketball team

The Florida women's basketball team capped off Monday's practice with an inspirational pep talk from former All-American football player Errict Rhett (1990-93).

“I talked to the team about trusting and believing in themselves,” Rhett said.  “I told them that if  they trust in their coaches and trust in their teammates, they can collectively accomplish anything they want. I told them to challenge themselves in practice every day to get better. This is a wonderful group of players that is very coachable and together they can do great things.”

Gator men's basketball picked to finish fifth in league; Kentucky is the favorite

It appears outside expectations aren't very high for the Florida men's basketball team this season.

The Gators have been picked to finish next to last in the SEC East by a panel of 25 SEC and national media members.

Kentucky, led by new first-year coach John Calipari, was picked to win the East, followed by Tennessee, Vanderbilt, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. In the West, Mississippi State was picked to win the division, followed by Ole Miss, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas and Auburn. 

Kentucky is also favored to win the SEC championship.

Florida coach Billy Donovan knows the Gators have a lot to prove this season, coming off back-to-back NIT appearances and without starting guard Nick Calathes.

“I think that there are a lot of people who have a lot of questions about who this team is and what they can become and to me, that’s exciting and challenging,'' Donovan said. "I think our guys are working toward that. There are things that I’m seeing that as a team makes me feel like we are moving in the right direction.”

Florida men's and women's basketball teams available for autographs today

The Florida men's and women's basketball teams will sign posters today during the Verizon Wireless FanFest prior to the football game against Arkansas.

The men will sign posters for fans outside of Gate 2 at the O’Connell Center at 12:30 p.m.. The women will sign at 2 p.m.

The University Athletic Association will provide posters promoting the upcoming 2009-10 season for fans to get signed. Due to NCAA compliance issues, only posters are available to sign because players cannot sign outside items.  Fans will have a one-hour window from 12:30-1:30 p.m. to get autographs from head coach Billy Donovan and all of the Gator men's players, then from 2-3 p.m. to get autographs from head coach Amanda Butler and all of the Gator women's players.

 

Florida guard Nimrod Tishman still awaiting eligibility clearance

Freshman guard Nimrod Tishman will be able to participate with the team when the Gators officially begin practice on Friday, but he has not yet been declared eligible to play by the NCAA Clearinghouse.

Florida coach Billy Donovan said Tishman, who is from Tel Aviv, Israel, was such a late addition to the team, and because the process of clearing students from overseas is so complicated, it has taken longer to obtain NCAA clearance. Donovan said nothing so far in the correspondence between Florida and the NCAA has led him to believe that Tishman will not eventually be cleared to play, and that he expects that decision to be handed down before the regular season begins.

"There's a series of checklists the NCAA has to go through to make sure he's cleared and eligible to play,'' Donovan said. "He's cleared to practice, but if we were to play tomorrow, he would not be cleared to play.So I think it's a process that our school has to go through, and when that process gets done, it's probably really more in the NCAA 's hands. . . On the preliminary phone calls they have made to this point and time, there's nothing that has come back to us right now that has created concern or alarm that he would be declared ineligible to play.

Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan to be honored by John R. Wooden Award Committee

Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan will be honored with the John R. Wooden "Legends of Coaching Award'' next spring. Donovan will be recognized, along with the men’s and women’s 2010 Wooden Award winners and the Wooden Award All-American teams, at the Los Angeles Athletic Club in April of 2010.

The “Legends of Coaching Award” was adopted by the Wooden Award Committee in 1999 and recognizes the achievement of coaches who exemplify coach Wooden’s high standards of coaching success and personal integrity.

Gator men's basketball team to sign autographs on Saturday

The Florida men’s basketball team will sign posters for fans outside of the O'Connell Center Gate 2 Saturday afternoon.

The players will begin the autograph session at 12:30 p.m. as part of Verizon Wireless FanFest prior to the football game with Tennessee.

Posters promoting the upcoming 2009-10 season will be made available to fans for signing. There will be a  one-hour window from 12:30-1:30 p.m. to get autographs from head coach Billy Donovan and all of the Gator players.

The Gators return nine players off of last year’s squad that went 25-11. ,Practice officially begins on Oct. 16, while the Gators’ open exhibition play on Nov. 2 against Saint Leo. The regular season begins on Nov. 15 against Stetson.

Tickets go on sale Saturday for SEC-Big East Invitational

Tickets for the third annual SEC/BIG EAST Invitational, which will include the Gators in one of two games at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, will go on sale Saturday, Sept. 12, at 10 a.m.

The two-night men’s college basketball tournament takes place in two cities with a doubleheader Tuesday, Dec. 9, in New York City followed by a doubleheader Wednesday, Dec. 10, in Tampa.

The schedule at the St. Pete Times Forum will feature DePaul vs. Mississippi State at 6:30 p.m., and Syracuse vs. Florida at 9 p.m. The games will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN respectively.

Gators gain a point guard, lose a big man

Israeli point guard Nimrod Tishman is in class today at the University of Florida and will be eligible to play this season.

The 6-foot-6 freshman will add much-needed depth to a Gators' backcourt that was depleted by the early departure of former guard Nick Calathes. Tishman averaged 18 points per game in the Under-18 European Championships.

He will joing 5-foot-8 Erving Walker as the Gators' only scholarship guards on the 2009-10 roster. 

Meanwhile, sophomore Eloy Vargas has asked for and been granted his release from the team.

Vargas, a 6-foot-10 forward/center planned on visiting Kentucky last week and his departure isn't surprising. Florida coach Billy Donovan said at a booster function last week that Vargas most likely wouldn't be with the team much longer.

Vargas played just nine games last season due to ankle problems stemming from off-season surgery.

Donovan is well-known for being a coach that doesn't place restrictions on where a player transfers, having said many times that life is short and he wants kids that leave to be happy. And if that means at another SEC school, he has no problem with that. Former guard David Huertas transferred to Ole Miss following Florida's first national championship season.

So if Kentucky and Vargas are a fit, Donovan won't try to block him from joining the Wildcats.