basketball

Of the six losses suffered by last year's Orange Park boys basketball team, three of them came at the hands of the Mandarin Mustangs. Not only did those losses knock the Raiders from the unbeaten ranks and keep them from winning their district championship, but the third one, in the district title game, forced them onto the road for the playoffs, where they lost in the first round.

Tuesday night, the Raiders proved that 2007 won't be a rerun as they defeated the Mustangs, 60-48, to remain undefeated at 8-0.

Clarence Tillman gets fouled on his way to the basket.

Hip, hip, hooray! The Gators did it again. Another SEC championship. 
Let us continue to BELIEVE in the team's ability to take the national championship.

    Judging by the long hours our online guy Jonathan Bennett is putting in, MyClaySun.com seems to have taken off. (One short note: All because his picture occasionally pops up next to a "Pet of the Week" headline does not mean we've put him up for adoption at the animal shelter -- although, as you can see by his shaggy red mane and puppy dog eyes, he wouldn't last a day there.)
    However, while Jonathan is working the pet angle and Joe Wilhem is prowling the Clay County nights with gentlemen in skirts (ok, kilts, whatever), few things have been going on in sports, which is partly my fault. So let's see if we can rectify that.

Wow! It's great to be a Florida Gator right now, but I can really do without them coming back from insane point deficits.

I was glad to see that the Gator men's basketball game wasn't blacked out on Sunshine Network last night, so I could watch the special phenomenon that is the Gator basketball team. 

They played like they were still drunk from the elation of beating Kentucky on the hallowed court in the Rupp Arena. Passes rolling out of bounds, three after three clanging off the rim and Alabama sinking everything they threw up at the net didn't bode well for the Gators early on.