2009-10 Florida College Basketball Predictions

Written November 13, 2009 by Jordan Haimowitz

The Gators enter the 2009 season with a lot of promise. They return four starters, Guard Erving Walker, Forward Dan Werner and Chandler Parsons who is expected to have a brilliant season, and also coming back is Center Alex Tyus who showed drastic improvement last season. They have several talented freshman coming in and they will have every opportunity to excel under coach Billy Donovan. The key departures Florida will have to overcome are Guards Walter Hodge and all-conference Point Guard Nick Calathes who signed a lucrative contract to play in Greece. Below I list the two key players that will need to perform well if UF plans on having success and making the NCAA Tournament. The most recent college basketball betting lines show the Gators at 80-1 odds to win the national championship this year.

Guard Erving Walker:

Last season Walker averaged 10 points, 1.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game playing aside star Nick Calathes. This season he will carry more weight on his shoulders, the 5′8 sophomore will be counted on to raise that scoring average a minimum of 5 points per game as the lose of Calathes and Hodge takes away 26 points per game combined.

Forward Chandler Parsons:

This kid has the potential to be a top 20 draft pick in the NBA if he gets it all together. Parsons, now a Junior, averaged 9 points 6 rebounds and 2 assists per game last season, he also averaged a steal per game. His awful 56% from the free throw line must improve. However, the biggest improvement he must make is his consistency and maturity. So often we saw him go into hiding in big spots and shrug his shoulders when he didn’t play well. This season he won’t have Calathes or Hodge to lean on if things get sloppy, he’ll need to grow up and take the reigns as this teams leader. That is something I believe he can do.

With the exception of Kentucky and Tennessee, the East division of the SEC is not particularly strong. Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt are marginal teams at best while no team in the West division is ranked. Head Coach Billy Donovan is one of the best in the business, he’ll have his team ready to go. You can get a $20 free play that you can use to bet NCAA basketball when you open a new account with Sportsbook.com this season.

I predict Florida to be much better this season then many people may think. Erving Walker is a scoring machine and without Calathes this season he will have every opportunity to boost that 10 points per game average to anywhere between 15-18 per. Chandlers Parsons as listed above will be this teams leader. At 6′6 194 Lbs he has an NBA build. Alex Tyus has improved year by year and watch out for big 6-11 F/C Kenny Kadji. He has shown a ton of progress this off season and a lot of people on that coaching staff expect big things from him. Many people will have the Gators no better then an NIT team. I disagree, look for Florida to make the NCAA tournament as one of the last mid majors and If I am a #5 or #6 seed headed into the tourny and I see Florida as my first round opponent, I would feel very uneasy as their fast pace style should give teams fits.

Final Prediction: Gators get knocked out of the 2nd round in the NCAA tournament.

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