Tom: Let’s get this out of the way off the bat: Florida is a football school. The school’s small sports are always threats to make a run at a national title, though.
With the semester underway and the spring season about to rev up for Gators athletics, you have to wonder: Which Florida team has the best chance to bring a national title back to Gainesville this year?
There are plenty of contenders on campus, but to me, the answer is simple: The Gators baseball team stands the best chance of sitting atop its sport by season’s end.
John: True, that is a “simple” answer Tommy Boy.
I know this is a free, student-run newspaper and it’s my first time in The Rally, but at least give the people an inkling as to why the UF baseball team will be able to duplicate last year’s College World Series run. I’d say it’s the Gators’ returning pitching rotation, Mike Zunino’s bat and a Baseball America preseason No. 1 ranking for the second consecutive year, and that’s just for starters.
But here I am getting ahead of myself, giving you hints for what surely will be a feeble argument and forgetting the growing powerhouse program that is almost guaranteed to be the first team to bring a national championship to Gainesville in 2012.
In just its third year in existence, the Florida women’s lacrosse team has already become a national contender alongside perennial favorites like Maryland and Northwestern. Just last season, the Gators shocked the collegiate lacrosse landscape when they beat the 2011 NCAA champion Wildcats at home to win their first American Lacrosse Conference title.
UF returns 11 of 12 starters — all sophomores and juniors — from an Elite Eight team that went 16-4 overall and 5-0 in ALC play.
Though the Gators are still a young team, they’ve had no problems learning how to win quickly.
Tom: What is this, the final rap battle scene from “8 Mile”?
“This guy’s no [expletive] MC, I know everything he’s got to say against me.”
Look Boothe, while I admire your preemptive strike to shoot down my argument, you’ve only scratched the surface as to why Kevin O’Sullivan and his boys have the best chance to snag an NCAA title.
Yes, the Gators return their weekend rotation of Hudson Randall, Brian Johnson and Karsten Whitson, but they also add a formidable midweek starter in freshman Johnny Magliozzi. According to scouting reports, Magliozzi has a monster curveball, a fastball that hits in the 90s and a kneebuckling changeup. Oh, and he’s not afraid to get in the face of opposing batters when he rings them up. He’s a real-life Kenny Powers, really.
Mix that in with the versatile Johnson, Whitson and the most-feared redhead since the “Child’s Play” movies, and you’re looking at the best college rotation. And at this level, pitching wins titles.
John: One ... two ... yep, that’s three pop culture references in one retort. I would say I’m impressed, Tom, but you beat me to it and already humble-bragged on Twitter.
“@Tomas_Verde: Rallying w/ @JJBoothe for tomorrow’s paper. Just worked in 8 Mile, Eastbound and Down and Child’s Play references within words of each other”
While you’re busy pining for retweets, I’m trying to give the readers substance.
Though both certainly return a wealth of talent, Florida lacrosse has something UF baseball doesn’t — the best offensive player in the game.
Gators attacker Kitty Cullen spent her All-American sophomore campaign leading the nation in scoring during the regular season with 77 goals and had a hat trick in 16 of the Gators’ 20 games.
When she wasn’t peppering opponents on one of her four six-goal games, Cullen was challenging the NCAA record books.
She owns the second-fastest goal to start a game in NCAA history, needing just eight seconds to score last April against Penn State.
In many ways, Cullen’s offensive jump following a 31-goal freshman season mirrors her team’s inaugural 2010 season, in which the Gators finished 10-8.
Who knows if it’s the top-notch facilities or training in the Florida heat, but the sudden improvements UF saw with Cullen and the rest of its team aren’t seen very often in any sport.
Tom: Pining for retweets? If anything, I was just teasing our loyal readers for what to look forward to today — and trying to give you a much-needed bump in followers.
While Cullen is a force to be reckoned with, the baseball team also happens to tout one of the best offensive players in the game in Zunino. You remember him, right Boothe? After all, you did mention the reigning Southeastern Conference Player of the Year earlier.
Zunino led Florida in a multitude of offensive categories: total bases (178), hits (98), runs (75), doubles (23), home runs (19), slugging percentage (.674) and on-base percentage (.442) — all as a sophomore.
Zunino’s back to not only wreak havoc on opposing pitchers, but to handle Florida’s loaded pitching staff, too. His defense and ability to help call games with Sully are vital, but his offensive contributions can’t be overlooked. Oh, and Zunino has protection throughout the batting order in the form of Johnson, Nolan Fontana, Austin Maddox and Preston Tucker.
That lineup should have you scared to death, scared to look and shook, because there’s no such thing as halfway crooks — and this team stands the best chance to go all the way.
John: Aside from Cullen, the Gators also have an arsenal of offensive weapons. Juniors Ashley Bruns and Brittany Dashiell are both known, potent scorers, but Florida still has a few surprises left to spring on its opponents this season.
Coach Amanda O’Leary has become arguably the best recruiter in women’s lacrosse, with three straight top-five classes. Florida’s current crop of juniors was part of O’Leary’s No. 1 rated class, according to Inside Lacrosse, and this year’s third-ranked haul is no slouch either, with four of the seven freshmen ranked in the top 20.
By the end of this season these players will be doing more than just contributing, they’ll be helping the Gators lift their first national championship trophy.
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org and John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
