Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Tough week for all the Florida teams, who with the exception of Miami, went on the road to play. And while that worked better for some teams (UF) other teams come closer to having their bubbles popped (USF, FSU).

USF: lost to St. Johns, Lousiville

Whatever coach Robert McCullum is telling his team at halftime he should probably reserve for his pregame speech because twice this week the Bulls have played “terrible” in the first half but then come out like gang busters in the second. McCullum on his teams first half performance. “We came out for some strange reason as if we wanted to go up and down with Louisville. That was not part of our game plan - that obviously was a mistake.”

Up Next: Syracuse (Wed, 7:00), DePaul (Sat, 7:00)

UF: beat Georgia, #20 Kentucky

Jay Bilas said it best, the only team that can beat the Gators until the Final Four is the Gators. When Billy Donovan has his team playing its best ball there are probably only 3 three teams in the country that could beat Florida (Kansas, UNC and Texas A&M). Despite a poor performance by the Gators they escaped Lexington with a victory this weekend.

Up Next: Alabama (Wed, 8:00), Vanderbilt (Sun, 1:00)

FSU: lost to Clemson, BC

Bad news for FSU, they lose to BC in the last 8 seconds despite leading most of the game. Worse news for FSU, they may be without leading scorer Al Thornton for awhile, who hurt his back during the game.

Up Next: Georgia Tech (Tues, 8:00), Virginia (Sat, 1:00)

Miami: lost to BC, beat NC State

Look at it this way Hurricane fans, by the transitive property your team is better than the Tarheels because Miami beat NC State who beat UNC. With a little less than a month to go before the ACC Tournament in Tampa (March 8-11) Miami is one of the few teams with zero chance of winning the conference.

Up Next: at Wake (Sat, 1:00)