Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Here are five things to watch for in tonight's Florida-Marquette matchup in the Sweet 16 (10:17 p.m. ET on TBS) in Phoenix, Ariz.

Who wins the 3-point line? Florida was terrible from long range in its victory over Virginia (4-for-23) but rebounded with a 10-f0r-28 performance against Norfolk State. The Gators, who average a nation-leading 10 3-pointers per game, have been streaky from long range all season. Marquette's 3-point defense in the NCAA tournament has been pretty good. BYU and Murray State combined to go just 11-for-40 (27.5 percent) from 3-point range. Teams are shooting just 31.8 percent from 3-point range against the Golden Eagles this season.

Stopping Crowder: Marquette forward Jae Crowder was the Big East Player of the Year, and the 6-foot-6 senior has been nearly unstoppable in his last 10 games. Crowder is averaging 21.4 points and 10.7 rebounds and has posted seven double-doubles in that span. He also is averaging 3.1 steals and 2.5 assists and is shooting 51.7 percent from the field in those 10 games. This is a game where not having 6-7 forward Will Yeguete will hurt the Gators, but 6-6 sophomore Casey Prather did a good job against Virginia's Mike Scott. He'll be called upon again to help stop Crowder.

A small advantage: Florida doesn't have a size advantage over many teams, but the Gators are a bit bigger than the Golden Eagles in the frontcourt. Center Patric Young (6-9) and forward Erik Murphy (6-10) have a 2-4 inch height advantage over Crowder and 6-7 forward Jamil Wilson. Will that make a difference, though? Marquette is a solid rebounding team, but the difference could be Bradley Beal. The 6-3 freshman guard is UF's leading rebounder (6.7 per game) and is averaging 8.4 rebounds per game in March.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Florida baseball team is now facing its first bit of adversity in an otherwise carefree season.

Starting center fielder Tyler Thompson is out for the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ACL in his right knee during last Friday's Southeastern Conference opener against Vanderbilt. The injury will require surgery and a school spokesman said the medical staff will make a decision on the date in in several weeks.

It's the second time the 6-foot-1, 190-pound Thompson has torn the ACL in that knee. It happened in high school, and Thompson had surgery during the fall of 1998 but was able to play in 44 games in the 2009 season.

"I feel terrible," Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan told reporters after Friday's game. "He worked awfully hard to put himself in a great position."

Thompson had started 14 of UF's first 18 games in center field and was hitting .319 with two home runs and nine RBI. Senior left fielder Daniel Pigott takes over the job in center field. Freshman Justin Shafer, who had started seven games in left and right field before Thompson's injury, becomes the new left fielder.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida offensive coordinator Brent Pease is pleased with the progress of the quarterbacks and receivers so far this spring.

But it's the improvement along the offensive line that has him really encouraged.

It's a unit that struggled last season. It had trouble creating holes between the tackles, couldn't handle the Southeastern Conference's better fronts, and got physically pushed around way too often. Then there was head coach Will Muschamp calling the group soft by saying it needed to get tougher mentally and physically.

Through five practices, however, Pease likes what he has seen from the group.

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Cassidy Hubbarth and Doug Gottlieb discuss the most impressive team so far in the NCAA Tournament -- Florida.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When Florida lost Will Yeguete to a broken foot in late February, Billy Donovan knew his team was going to have to undergo a makeover.

Guards Bradley Beal, Casey Prather and Scottie Wilbekin would have to spend time at power forward to make up for the loss of the Gators’ best rebounder and post defender. UF wouldn’t be as big inside or rebound as well as when the 6-foot-7 Yeguete was on the floor, but using a four-guard lineup would put more 3-point shooters on the floor and allow the Gators to play more in transition.

But reshaping his team’s identity wasn’t going to be that simple. There was so much else for Donovan to consider:

" How would center Patric Young handle playing without his best friend and roommate?

" How do you defend while using the four-guard lineup, especially against a team that has a powerful front court, like Kentucky with Anthony Davis and Terrence Jones?

" How do you avoid becoming predictable offensively when there are four guards and forward Erik Murphy – who at 6-10 is UF’s best 3-point shooter (43.1 percent) – on the floor?

" And, perhaps most importantly, how do the players respond mentally to the challenge of having to do it all during the final weeks of the regular season and into the post-season?

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A nagging ankle injury and trouble with pass protection are things that kept running back Mike Gillislee from being a bigger part of Florida's offense in the past several seasons.

Both are better now, he said, and aren't going to hold him back from being the Gators' feature back in 2012.

"This is my last chance," the 5-foot-11, 203-pound senior said. "[It's] the opportunity I’ve been waiting on to take advantage, being No. 1 on the depth chart so far, just getting better every day."

Gillislee previously was lower on the depth chart because he was playing behind Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey. They were speed backs and the Gators used a perimeter running game. Gillislee is a power back, and he did produce when he did get on the field -- 920 yards on 145 carries (6.3 per carry) -- but it came mostly in mop-up action or an occasional drive in the middle of a game.

Despite it costing him just three games through three seasons, a nagging right ankle injury kept him from being 100 percent. More of a detriment, however, were his struggles in pass protection. He had no trouble with his pre-snap reads. What happened after the snap was the problem.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Lost in Florida’s impressive blowout victories over Virginia and Norfolk State is the improved play of guards Kenny Boynton and Erving Walker.

The two still aren’t shooting well from 3-point range -- a combined 3-for-17 -- but they have been much more under control in terms of shot selection and not driving into the lane without a plan and getting caught without anywhere to go with the ball.

Walker has been particularly effective. He has five assists and four turnovers in the two games, but he has been smart with the basketball in the lane. He hasn’t tried to drive and shoot over much bigger players -- like he did against Kentucky’s Anthony Davis.

He’s playing his smartest basketball of the season, and it’s coming at the perfect time, with the Gators (25-10) heading into Thursday’s Sweet 16 matchup with Marquette (27-7). Even though this is Walker’s third season as a starter, it’s the first in which he hasn't had an experienced frontcourt, and that makes a difference, UF coach Billy Donovan said.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Bradley Beal had a problem.

It was there at the beginning of the season, but it wasn’t yet much of an issue for the freshman guard or the Florida basketball team. But as the season wore on, it became evident that Beal’s problem was significant enough that it could potentially impact how deep the Gators would advance in the NCAA tournament.

So a week or so before the Southeastern Conference tournament, UF coach Billy Donovan sat down with Beal for a chat he hoped would fix the problem. He was pretty blunt a bout it, too: You’re being too nice, Donovan said. Quit deferring to your older teammates all the time and play the way you’re capable of playing.

“I said, ‘Start stepping up and start to be more aggressive. Start doing things out there that are going to impact the outcome of the game,’ ” Donovan said. “Our team realizes that when he does those things it helps us tremendously, and I just needed to keep pushing him toward that.

“I think Brad, being a freshman, needs a push a lot of times because he never wants to step over bounds or out of bounds and put our team chemistry ever in jeopardy, but sometimes he needs that push to let him know it’s OK.”

Since that speech, the 6-foot-3 Beal has been Florida’s best player -- and it’s coming at the most critical time. In five games in March, Beal is leading the team in scoring (13.4 ppg), rebounding (8.4 rpg), assists (18), steals (seven), and minutes played per game (34.6). Senior point guard Erving Walker also has 18 assists, but he has nine turnovers -- one more than Beal.

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