Florida Spurns ClayNation Guaranteed Win; Loses in Athens To Terrance Woodbury
Monday, February 16, 2009
In case you missed it thanks to an alcohol-themed President's Day weekend crossbred with Valentine's Day, the Gators went up to Athens and found a way to lose to Georgia. I still have no idea how this happened. None.
I'll put it this way, on Saturday I woke up and the first thing I did was check the lines. My unhealthy appreciation with gambling lines even though I don't gamble has become an intriguing quirk. I always care what the market thinks. Always.
When I saw that Florida was only a ten-point favorite over Georgia, I called my friend Junaid and told him it's rare I'd be comfortable betting my house on a game, but this was one of them. "There's no way that Georgia covers that spread," I said.
Fortunately I'm not a gambler.
About halfway through Vandy-Tennessee, I saw that Georgia had jumped out to an early 10 point lead. By the time Tennessee finished putting away Vandy, we came to realize that for some reason (why in the world?) Georgia-Florida was on ABC in HD. Really, ABC selected this game? I have no idea how this happened. Not least because I don't remember the last time an SEC basketball game was on ABC.
Regardless, I sat in stunned silence as Georgia hung on to win. In the process putting up 88 points on the Gators. Now I'm in the unenviable position of announcing that my prediction that Florida was the favorite to win the SEC East is no longer valid. Still in the running because they have the easiest remaining schedule, yes? Favored? Nope. Especially not because that's Florida's third SEC East loss. Tennessee and Kentucky only have one East loss and they've both got wins over the Gators.
Is Terrance Woodbury the most enigmatic player in the SEC? The guy has no conscience. He takes the same no dribble, immediate pull-up shots, whether he's on fire or can't hit the broad side of a building. Whether it's a 4 on 1 fast-break or the shot clock is winding down and he has to heave the ball at the rim. Against Florida he was 7-10 from three and perfect from the free-throw line. He scored 32. His previous best game from three all season? 5-8 against Missouri. His average three-point percentage--31% on the season. Just to throw further salt in the wounds, in the first 9 SEC games of the season Woodbury had 13 made threes. And it took him 48 attempts to get there. Unbelievable.
How about some more Woodbury stats? His middle name? De'Sean. Of course. His nickname? "Woodshop." God, I wish I could make this stuff up. What are Woodshop's five favorite movies? Well, three of them, again, not making this up, are Friday the 13th I, II, and III. Check out the excellent Georgia bios here.
Is there a decent chance Woodshop went off on the Gators because he spent Friday night watching the newest Friday the 13th remake and was particularly relaxed? Probably so.
Anyway, I wasn't the only person shocked that my guaranteed win collapsed so quickly. Here are representative emails from both sides.
Michael L. writes:
Guaranteed win my ass.
(I needed this.)
- Michael, UGA, class of '02.
J.E. Brown writes:
C'lay,
I'm definitely blaming your 'run down' of the SEC East for our loss to UGA. Not sure if this will help me get over it better. Georgia definitely did the Madden thing where they played unspeakably well for a while (i.e., couldn't miss a shot), so you must have instilled these powers on them. Labels: georgia beats florida claynation guarantee to the wayside
Posted by Clay Travis at 10:09 AM
 
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