All Time Florida Basketball Starting Five

gatorgrad'02

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Disagree with both of you. Napier didn't Florida. Florida's putrid shooting beat Florida.

No doubt the team played terrible, particularly in the second half, but Scottie was a large part of that putrid shotting. He shot 2-9 in the game including 0-3 from 3. Scottie also had three turnovers to only one assist, and only one rebound. Though he did manage two steals. He didn't even manage to reach the free throw line a single time.

Meanwhile Napier hit 2-3 from 3 and was 4-4 from the line with 6 assists to only 2 turnovers, 3 rebounds, 4 steals, and didn't commit a single personal foul. He dominated Scottie by every measure.
 

stephenPE

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If you will recall, Prather suffered a thigh or groin a month or so before the tournament and it made him a lot less explosive. It hurt our scoring and Wilbekin needed to take up the slack. He practically put the team on his back in the tournament. He had some outstanding games shooting. I'm not sure he was hurt for the UConn game, but I do think at minimum he was fatigued from trying to so much on both ends of the floor.
You had to love Scotty. He was a damn lock down defender at 17 on the team. Remember he came out of HS a year early. Amazing kid. I think Billy saw a lot of Billy in him.
 

MidwestChomp

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Who was the great small forward that lead us in scoring all year. He disappeared in the final game...........great kid all year and sort of came out of nowhere to be a star.

Prather. Took him 4 years, but he had a great senior year. He never complained or wanted to transfer. He stuck with it. It paid off for him.
 

BMF

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Let's go ahead and add Eugene "The Dunkin' Machine" McDowell to the list.... :D
 

Yankeetown

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Thinking back about all those great Gators makes this the most pure-fun thread in a while.

We've touched on pretty much all the super-supers that come to my mind. Saw all of them except Neal Walk, he was before my time but his numbers and NBA career are eloquent. Glad that Taurean Green and Dan Cross have been mentioned, both of those guys were just super team leaders and great in the clutch.

Was DFS mentioned? He's a contender.

Haslem showed up a couple of times in posts as a PF, but he played out of position at center his entire Gator career per my recollection. There's "great" in terms of skills, and there's "great" in terms of determination and effort. Nobody nudges ahead of UD on the later.

I always loved Livingston Chatman's game. I think he'd be on the list, if he hadn't had such bad knees.

Thanks for the memories.
 

78

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Let's go ahead and add Eugene "The Dunkin' Machine" McDowell to the list.... :D

I was assigned to cover a few of those PK Yonge-Cross City matchups featuring McDowell and Randall Leath. I gotta tell you, those games had the gym overflowing with people. It was a big deal for high school. McDowell played Shaq to Leath's Jabbar. Ironically, both kids ended up at UF.

McDowell always had a smile on his face when you talked to him. It was sad to read of his passing at a very young age.
 

78

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No doubt the team played terrible, particularly in the second half, but Scottie was a large part of that putrid shotting. He shot 2-9 in the game including 0-3 from 3. Scottie also had three turnovers to only one assist, and only one rebound. Though he did manage two steals. He didn't even manage to reach the free throw line a single time.

Meanwhile Napier hit 2-3 from 3 and was 4-4 from the line with 6 assists to only 2 turnovers, 3 rebounds, 4 steals, and didn't commit a single personal foul. He dominated Scottie by every measure.

Wilbekin wasn't right for that game. I don't know if it was an injury or fatigue or a combination of the two, but he wasn't right. And with him off and Prather slowed from leg injuries, we couldn't just expect Frazier to carry us through. We had no go-to guy. We threw up bricks all night.
 

cover2

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I always loved Livingston Chatman's game. I think he'd be on the list, if he hadn't had such bad knees.
Agreed. He was always a favorite of mine. Saw him in the state tourney his senior year at Kathleen. I always thought he was one of if not the best player that year, but they lost to Shakey Rodriguez and Miami Senior, who had Cesar Portillo and Jose Ramos, who went to UF and didn't pan out. Senior also had Doug Edwards, who went on to F$U and another player who wound up at UK.

Chatman had a good inside game. He wasn't tremendously tall, but he had a big butt and knew how to use it to his advantage both offensively and defensively. I always hated when his career ended due to the knee problems.

That state tourney, 1986 I believe, had a lot of talent on display. Mike Polite from Daytona and David White from St. Pete along with the other guys previously mentioned. I don't know why, but seems like the guys we got in that cycle either didn't pan out or, in Chatman's case, had a career cut short by injury. Polite, White, and Edwards all wound up at F$U.
 

Jbossgator8

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To think that Scottie W was a 2 STAR recruit according to some "experts". Billy D really coached him up and made him a 5 Star for sure!
 

NavetG8r

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Scottie's legs were cramping in the F4 game. Fatigue played heavily into it I'm sure. Dude was a baller. I never thought he got a fair shake out of the NBA. I felt they held his performance in that game too heavily against him. But that's just my opinion, and you know what they say about those...
 

stephenPE

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Agreed. He was always a favorite of mine. Saw him in the state tourney his senior year at Kathleen. I always thought he was one of if not the best player that year, but they lost to Shakey Rodriguez and Miami Senior, who had Cesar Portillo and Jose Ramos, who went to UF and didn't pan out. Senior also had Doug Edwards, who went on to F$U and another player who wound up at UK.

Chatman had a good inside game. He wasn't tremendously tall, but he had a big butt and knew how to use it to his advantage both offensively and defensively. I always hated when his career ended due to the knee problems.
I remember him going up for the NY preseason tourney and being impressive. That Miami Sr team was loaded. Their boys didnt make it here, I heard Ramos and Sloan went at it. I wish Edwards had come here. As for Livingston, when the old UT coach showed up to finish Sloans tenure he was like the opposite of Galen Hall taking over for Pell. It was awful. Livingstons knees were bad and the moron tried to run him to death. What was his name?
 

-THE DUDE-

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You had to love Scotty. He was a damn lock down defender at 17 on the team. Remember he came out of HS a year early. Amazing kid. I think Billy saw a lot of Billy in him.
Scottie was great but he had so many moments early in his career where things were going wrong and he'd try to take over and immediately make everything worse...much worse. His senior year he turned it around and seemed to have the magic touch when things went wrong...until that FF game but agree he looked hurt
 

t-gator

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Scottie was having cramps that game.
 

MJMGator

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I remember him going up for the NY preseason tourney and being impressive. That Miami Sr team was loaded. Their boys didnt make it here, I heard Ramos and Sloan went at it. I wish Edwards had come here. As for Livingston, when the old UT coach showed up to finish Sloans tenure he was like the opposite of Galen Hall taking over for Pell. It was awful. Livingstons knees were bad and the moron tried to run him to death. What was his name?
Don Devoe. Worst coach ever.
 

Jbossgator8

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Don't forget Udonis Haslem had 27 points in the National Championship game in 2000. He was a BEAST!!
 

gardnerwebbgator

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No love for Dimitri Hill, Dwayne Schintzius, or Dwayne Davis?

Andrew Moten was overlooked as well on those teams that had Vernon.
 

InstiGATOR1

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Gee,

1. The 2014 team won 30 YES 30 games in a row. That is probably much harder than winning 6 games in the post season, but maybe not harder than winning 6 straight in the post season two years in a row.. Wilbekin was the leader of that team. I am in the school that values both the regular season and the NCAA tourney and so I think the 2014 team deserves much credit.

2. Wilbekin did not play well in the national semifinal game, still I think the place UF lost that game was letting Daniel's go off for 20 points and 10 defensive rebounds at the 4. I can not blame that on a PG shooting poorly. Napier was pretty well defended too and again t

3. On Dwayne Schintzius, he improved in scoring and rebounding every year at UF before his aborted 11 game season under Devoe. And even in that season his scoring went up. Sadly many loved the smiling, happy friendly LOOKING Magic Johnson and many do not like the more dour unfriendly LOOKING LaBron James. Schintzius unfortunately was much closer in demeaner to James than Johnson. (I do know I called Johnson the best ever on the GOAT thread and I believe I come to that conclusion independent of how they appear on the court, but I know that is a factor you have to fight against in evaluation.)
 

stephenPE

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No love for Dimitri Hill, Dwayne Schintzius, or Dwayne Davis?

Andrew Moten was overlooked as well on those teams that had Vernon.
They rank way up there. Andrew was probably pound for pound the best player we ever had. Quick like Kasey but better offensive skills. Dwayne Davis was a quiet dunkiing machine. Schintzus had fantastic skills but was not all that fired up about playing basketball. And Udonis was a gator great for certain
 

cover2

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No love for Dimitri Hill, Dwayne Schintzius, or Dwayne Davis?

Andrew Moten was overlooked as well on those teams that had Vernon.

They rank way up there. Andrew was probably pound for pound the best player we ever had. Quick like Kasey but better offensive skills. Dwayne Davis was a quiet dunkiing machine. Schintzus had fantastic skills but was not all that fired up about playing basketball. And Udonis was a gator great for certain
A little something on Andrew Moten, who was from my hometown. We had all watched him play at Shanks HS and it was exciting for a guy from Quincy to go to UF. When he came home for the summer after his freshman year, I played against him in the summer league they held at the old black HS (Carter-Paramore). I was 25 and could still play pretty well, but Moten was other-worldly. He had several steals that turned into break away dunks and I swear I don't think he shot any closer than 5 feet beyond where the 3pt. arc would have been (CP's gym didn't have one!). We held him to 63! He was something else. He's actually coaching at West Gadsden HS (used to be old Greensboro HS) and has been pretty successful. I always thought his career at UF would have been even better if Maxwell wouldn't have had an influence on him.
 

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