Florida Gators
Mercedes-Benz Day Three
Embedded With the Gators: The morning after
Friday, March 23, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Women's Golf, Chris Harry
PHOENIX -- Not sure when Florida's coaches and players shut it down last night (or rather early this morning), but GatorZone colleague Scott Carter and myself were walking the downtown streets like zombies looking for a cab around 1:30 a.m.
Felt like 4:30 a.m., which it was for us EST folks, but it's back to work -- and today will be busy following UF's 68-58 upset of third-seeded Marquette in the NCAA West Region last night.
The seventh-seeded Gators (26-10) now face fourth-seeded Louisville (29-9) in Saturday's regional final at 4:30 EST, with the winner punching a ticket to the Final Four in New Orleans.
Before the Billy Donovan-Rick Pitino angle is dissected to death this afternoon, the team will have breakfast, then meet and get some more background on the Cardinals, who stunned No. 1 seed Michigan State last night.
The team will bus to USAirways Arena for media sessions -- I'll use local time here -- that will run from 1:50 to 2-2:45 p.m., followed by a 90-minute practice that will be closed to the media.
Note: GatorZone, of course, will be there for some more “embedded” coverage.
This is one of those "quick turn-aroundes," as Donovan likes to say. So the players will be fed a lot of information, but in phases as not to totally overwhelming them. Some meetings, some film sessions, maybe a couple walk-thrus in a small hotel dining (see previous blog), but they will know about the Cardinals come tipoff.
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