ESCAPE?

It's 7:22 a.m. and Patriack is here at my feet and Junior is out somewhere.

And now an estended rant about the SEC Tournament Final Four:

USA Today's headline for yesterday's SEC Tournamaent quarterfinal game between UF and LSU read "Florida Escapes LSU." Escapes? are they kidding? Who edits this drivel? The Gators won by SIXTEEN POINTS , 81-65, over the SEC Season Champion and 15th ranked team in the nation. Sixteen points is not an "escape" fellows, it's a rout, in this case. This will be the third year in a row in the finals for the defending champs.

The game was close , tho, until the last 8 minutes. The Tigers led 41-38 at the break with only a +33 Lead Advantage--that's how close the first half was. And at eight minutes to go, the game was all tied up, 56-56. Then the Gators took off. LSu's highest LA was +56; the Gators ended up with a +133 at the final buzzer.

The Gators are 26-6 now. They had a slight edge in rebounds, and outscored the Tigers 42-36 in the paint. The Gators, with the best shooting percentage IN THE NATION, shot at 54% to the Tigers 44%. THE TIGERS HAD 5 MORE TURNOVERS THAT THE GATORS, BUT POINTS OFF TURNOVERS MAY HAVE PROVED TO BE LSU'S DEATH KNELL. Quiet down , boy. Gators held a 23-11 advantage in that category.

So the finals today against South Carolina who defeated Kentucky (big deal) for their finals berth. All props to USC, they swept their series with us this year, and lost a lot of close games. But come on: they could become Champs tomorrow, with a 6-10 regular season record, 8th out of 12 in the League. That's stupid. I think the tourney should be invitation only, by some set of standards, like the NCAA, not open to every team in the conference. But that's just my opinion.

If the Gamecocks win tommorrow, having beaten nobody of note in the conference except us, We will consider LSU to be the Conference Champs. We would say the same thing of any team that lucked their way to the finals...

The Gators will have their hands full today, hope they can get the job done...

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