GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we preview the Florida Gators basketball team with Eric Fawcett, plus we talk about the latest around the football team during the bye week.
Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre ask Fawcett about his thoughts on the Gators secret scrimmage and get his thoughts on this team heading into the season.
Andrew and Nick also talk about what the Gators are doing during the bye week, plus the latest injury news around the team.
TRANSCRIPT:
Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre and our man Eric. Eric, we’re going to talk basketball today. Gators had a little secret scrimmage on Saturday against South Florida, and here in about, we’re taping this on a Tuesday, so in one week they’ll play a preseason game. Are you ready?
Eric:                          Yeah. I’m so ready. I think when you’ve got so much excitement around the team, I just wish the season, I wish we were already a few games in. Like you mentioned, there was that secret scrimmage against South Florida, who’s actually going to be a really good team this year. Anyone in the Tampa area listening to this that wants to take in some good games that aren’t Florida, South Florida’s going to be a really good team. From the sounds of it, Florida handled them really easily.
It was said that Kerry Blackshear hit six out of seven of his three-point attempts. From your 6’11” center, that’s pretty deadly. Ques Glover got in a ton of minutes. That’s someone that maybe some people would have been surprised by. Andrew Nembhard just afterwards speaking about the team said that he loved the group, that he was having tons of fun. It was a scrimmage, but USF is going to be a team that’s in the NCAA tournament hunt, could definitely be in the mix for an at large bid, and Florida handled them easily. Very, very excited. Of course, that means I’m back on the podcast with you guys, so all is well.
Nick:                         I had someone tell me that Kerry Blackshear might be, and this was high praise, because I think there’s some good three-point shooters, one of the top two or three three-point shooters in terms of accuracy on the team, early on in practice. I’m thinking, there’s some guys that can shoot the ball on this team, and you’re talking about, like you said, a 6’11” center adding into that mix. That’s dangerous.
Eric:                          Yeah. What you might have heard was they’ve been doing shooting drills at the end of the practice. Shooting competitions, I should say. Apparently, Kerry Blackshear has just been wiping the floor with everyone. Also, like you said, Noah Locke is on this team. He’s an excellent shooter. Tre Mann, he’s an excellent shooter. Ques Glover was a guy that shot 48% in high school last year. So, there’s a ton of really good shooters.
Kerry Blackshear shot a good percentage last year from three, but he didn’t take that many attempts, and for that reason I was a little bit hesitant to say that I thought he was going to be a really good three-point shooter, just because he only took around two a game. I mean, in college basketball nowadays if you’re even an average three-point shooter, even if you’re a big man, your attempts are usually quite high. So, I was a little bit skeptical, but to hear what he’s done in practice, to see what he did in the scrimmage, I definitely think that’s going to be a big element of his game.
So, Florida is going to be just probably shooting the lights out. I mean, I forget the exact number. I think they were around 13 for 25 from the three-point line as a team against USF. That number is probably not entirely accurate. I’m probably remembering it wrong, but it’s something in that range. It was a lethal three-point shooting attack from this Florida team, and I think that’s going to be what we can expect.
Nick:                         If we’re talking practice,...