Basketball- Season Preview

(Erving Walker drives in the 2nd round of the 2011 NCAA Basketball Tournament vs. UCLA)

Going into the 2011-2012 Gators college basketball season (which starts tomorrow), Florida has some losses, but also some gains. Some losses include losing SF Chandler Parsons, PF Alex Tyus and Center Vernon Macklin. Parsons ended the season last year with 11.3 PPG, 7.8 RPG and 3.8 APG. Parsons was also the same guy who made 2 buzzer beater game winners in 2009-10, including a 75 footer vs. NC State. Parsons will now play for the Houston Rockets in the NBA after being drafted by them 38th overall. Macklin also moves on to the NBA and will be playing for the Detroit Pistons and Tyus is now playing for Maccabi Ashdod. The Gators enter the season with 8 returns, 2 freshmen and 1 transfer. The returns include Erving Walker, Kenny Boynton, Casey Prather, Patric Young, Will Yeguete, Scottie Wilbekin, Cody Larson and Erik Murphy. The 2 new freshmen are pure shooter Bradley Beal and Walter Pitchford. The Gators also add Rutgers transfer Mike Rosario. The Gators may have 4, even 5 guards on the court at 1 time- with not many forwards and centers to work with. The Gators play an exhibition tomorrow vs. Catholic University and start the regular season off vs. Jackson State. The Gators then play 3rd ranked Ohio State and 5th ranked Syracuse on December 2nd. It's gonna be hard to predict if the Gators will do as good as last season, when they went 28-9 and lost in the Elite 8.