Florida Gators News: Baseball preseason poll, Rashada update, more
Believe it or not, baseball season is around the corner. The Florida Gators will play their first game on February 17 against Charleston Southern and there are once again high hopes for Kevin O’Sullivan and his squad.
D1Baseball released their preseason rankings and the Florida Gators come in at number seven in the country for 2023. The Gators are hoping for a more consistent season in 2023 after their 2022 year did result in hosting Regionals but not a trip to Super Regionals.
SEVEN OF THE TOP 10 😤 pic.twitter.com/2tXDloA522
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) January 17, 2023
Jaden Rashada: This is the end, we think
After the false alarm last week regarding the letter of intent status of Jaden Rashada, it appears that his time with Florida is coming to an end. Rashada did not enroll at UF by Friday’s deadline for the Spring semester and the quotes his father gave indicated that there would be difficulties going forward.
News is now once against breaking that Rashada has filed for his release, this time by 247 Sports. The story indicates that a source close to Rashada claims that Rashada is officially filing paperwork with the NCAA to request his release from his letter of intent.
Billy Napier could play hardball and not grant the release, but normally in these situations it is best for both parties to move on.
Florida is already in the process of courting Walker Howard from LSU to come to Gainesville.
Per a source close to his recruitment, on Tuesday afternoon, Pittsburg (Calif.) quarterback Jaden Rashada officially filed a request for a release from his national letter-of-intent with Florida https://t.co/k8lCSWUdMV pic.twitter.com/3QrrjNjBCr
— Brandon Huffman (@BrandonHuffman) January 18, 2023
Basketball Bracketology
Following a string of big SEC victories, the Florida Gators are back in the conversation for an NCAA tournament bid in men’s basketball. According to ESPN’s Joe Linardi’s Bracketology projections, the Gators are now the 7th team out from the Big Dance.
Just ahead of Florida and considered the 4th team out is tonight’s opponent Texas A&M.
These projections will continue to move up and down as the Gators do and are of course not official, though Linardi tends to be fairly close year-after-year.