Florida Gators Bait & Bits: Women’s Basketball Upsets Dayton, NCAA Tournament Notes, WS&D at NCAA Championships, Gymnastics at SEC Championships, and Tennis

Mar 23, 2014; University Park, PA, USA; Florida Gators players celebrate after defeating the Dayton Flyers 83-69 following a women’s NCAA Tournament First Round game. Mandatory Credit: ©Matthew O’Haren-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to Bait & Bits, a series on Hail Florida Hail that will feature one “bait” about an opposing school and some bits about the Gators. 

Bait

Orlando, FL. The Gators had a pretty great weekend in Orlando. Not only did Florida win their first round game against Albany and beat Pitt to advance to their fourth straight Sweet 16, but former Gator Matt Every won his first PGA Tour event at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The event took place at Bay Hill Club and Lodge about 15 minutes from the Amway Center where the basketball team took care of business. Every, who attended UF from 2002-2006, finished 13-under par and earned $1,116,000 and a guaranteed spot in his first ever Masters.

Bits

Men’s Basketball News and Notes.

• Four-seed UCLA’s win over 12-seed Stephen F. Austin means the Bruins and Gators will play once again in the NCAA Tournament. You might remember they played in the 2006 national championship game, 2007 Final Four, and the 2011 Second Round. Florida is 3-0 against UCLA in the tournament.
• Stephen F. Austin’s loss, coupled with Kentucky beating Wichita State means Florida now has the nation’s longest winning streak at 28 games.
• With the win over Pitt Saturday, Casey Prather, Scottie Wilbekin, Will Yeguete, and Patric Young became the winningest senior class in UF-history with 118 wins.
• Saturday’s win also moved Billy Donovan into sole possession of second place on the SEC all-time win’s list with 449 wins. He’s still a little ways off from the record-holder, Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp, who had 876 wins.
• Florida is the only school that can claim advancing to the Sweet 16 the past four years.
• Tip-off for the Sweet 16 matchup between (1) Florida and (4) UCLA will be at 9:45 pm (or 30 minutes after the previous game ends) Thursday.

Women’s Basketball Upsets Dayton. Women’s basketball in the NCAA Tournament rarely has upsets. The 11-seed Florida Gators disproved that theory by beating the six-seed Dayton Flyers convincingly, 83-69 to advance to the Second Round. Five Gators scored in double figures with Cassie Peoples leading the way with 21 points. This if Florida’s second time advancing to the Second Round in the past three years. They will face the three-seed Penn State Nittany Lions Tuesday at 7 pm on PSU’s home floor. (GatorZone)

Women’s Swimming & Diving Finishes 6th at NCAA Championships. Four the 14th straight year, Gregg Troy’s women’s swimming & diving teams at Florida finished in the top-10. It wasn’t the result they were hoping for, but it certainly is nothing to be ashamed of. Over the three day meet, the Gators totaled 15 All-American swims and broke six school records. (GatorZone)

Gymnastics Finishes 2nd at SEC Championships. Bridget Sloan and Kytra Hunter did their part towards winning the SEC Championship with Sloan winning her second straight at the SECs and ninth overall all-around title with a 39.70 and Hunter winning the balance beam (9.925) and floor exercise (9.95) to come away with SEC event titles. Florida (197.70) finished second behind the only team to beat them this season, Alabama (197.875). The day before competitions, the SEC handed out hardware for their yearly awards. Florida was shut out.

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Women’s Tennis Loses to Alabama. It was a tough weekend for all Florida sports against Alabama. The softball team lost their first series of the season, the gymnastics team got beat out for the SEC title, and now the fifth-ranked women’s tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision to the No. 8 Crimson Tide. Florida is now 13-4 and 5-2 in the SEC this season. (GatorZone)

Men’s Tennis Shuts Out Alabama. Well, at least we got them in one sport. And we certainly dominated. The 16th-ranked men’s tennis team won 4-0 against Alabama with their second straight SEC sweep. The Gators improved to 9-6 and 4-2 in conference play this season. (GatorZone)