The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page C003

3 Final MAGENTA BLACK 3C THE PALM BEACH POST REAL NEWS STARTS HERE TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2012 AUBURN AT NO. 12 FLORIDA, 7 P.M., ESPNU Auburn in sight; tournament seeds not far away out the year very strong, then we won't. "It's pretty simple there, so I just try to get those guys to focus on what's in front of them right now." The next task is today's home game against un-ranked Auburn. The Gators have beaten Auburn in 13 of the past 14 meetings, and the Tigers (14-12, 4-8) have Donovan Gators went up 2 spots to No. 12 mean the difference between opening the tournament in Nashville versus doing so in the opposite corner of the country in Portland, Ore.

The Gators' ranking in the AP poll and USA Today coaches' poll (No. 11) would put them in contention for a top-three seed, but they are No. 18 in RPI. ESPN's Joe Lunardi projected Florida as a No. 4 seed opening the NCAA Tournament in Albuquerque, N.M., and CBS analyst Jerry Palm placed the Gators as a No.

7 seed in Omaha, Neb. If Florida gets a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament, the nearest first-round site would be Nashville, followed by Greensboro, NC, and Louisville, Ky. jasonlieserpbpost.com clinching a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament, which would give them a first-round bye. Kentucky is first in the conference at 12-0, followed by Florida at 9-3 and Vanderbilt at 8-4. The only team that could supplant the Gators as a top-four seed is Tennessee, which is 6-6, but swept the season series with Florida.

After today, the Gators play at Georgia, at Vanderbilt and home against Kentucky before the conference tournament in New Orleans on March 8 or 9. As for the NCAA Tournament, Florida needs a strong finish to earn a top-four seed and a shot at preferential travel. Top-four seeds are given geographical consideration when possible, which could By JASON LIESER Palm Beach Post Staff Writer GAINESVILLE With four games remaining in the regular season, No. 12 Florida is playing for one of the top two spots in the SEC Tournament and a high seed in the NCAA Tournament. But coach Billy Donovan's biggest concern Monday was getting his Gators (21-6, 9-3 SEC) through an afternoon practice.

"I don't really talk to them about the seeding," Donovan said. "I've always been a big believer that you take care of what's in front of you right now. Our guys understand if we continue to win, continue to play well, we'll get a better seed. If we don't play well and we don't close not won in Gainesville since 1996. Since losing to Tennessee two weeks ago, Florida won road games at Alabama and Arkansas and jumped from No.

14 to No. 12 in the Associated Press poll. The Gators also put themselves near ACC rebukes ref for ejections USA TodayESPN Top 25 poll The top 25 teams in the USA Today-ESPN men's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 19, points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking: The AP Top 25 women's poll The top 25 teams in the The Associated Press' women's college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb. 19, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking: The AP Top 25 men's poll The top 25 teams in The Associated Press' college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, records through Feb.

19, total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking: TEAM RECORD PTS TEAM RECORD PTS PRV 1 3 4 2 6 Kentucky (63) Syracuse (2) Missouri Kansas Duke Michigan St. North Carolina 27-0 24- 1 25- 2 24-3 24-3 23-4 22- 4 23- 3 24- 1 20- 7 21- 5 23-1 21-5 19-6 21-6 19- 7 20- 7 20-7 1. Baylor (40) 2. Stanford 3. Notre Dame 4.

UConn 5. Miami 6. Maryland 7. Duke 8. Ohio St.

9. Delaware 10. Tennessee 11. Penn St. 12.

Green Bay 13. Kentucky 14. Texas 15. Georgetown 16. Louisville 17.

Georgia Tech 18. Georgia TEAM RECORD PTS PVS 1. Kentucky (31) 26-1 775 1 2. Syracuse 27-1 744 2 3. Missouri 25-2 713 3 4.

Duke 23-4 662 4 5. Kansas 22-5 644 5 6. Michigan St. 22-5 613 8 7. North Carolina 23-4 592 7 8.

Georgetown 20-5 539 9 9. Ohio St. 22-5 504 6 10. Marquette 22-5 485 13 11. Florida 21-6 454 12 12.

Murray St. 26-1 416 14 13. Michigan 20-7 377 19 14. Baylor 22-5 3 74 10 15. Wisconsin 20-7 292 17 16.

Florida St. 19-7 290 21 17. Louisville 21-6 277 18 18. Notre Dame 19-8 223 25 19. Wichita St.

24-4 183 NR 20. UNLV 22-6 174 11 21. New Mexico 22-4 142 NR 22. Temple 21-5 114 NR 23. Saint Mary's 23-5 101 16 24.

Indiana 20-7 81 20 25. San Diego St. 20-6 76 15 Others receiving votes: Virginia 73, PRV 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 6 10 12 17 14 9 16 20 15 19 24 23 11 18 13 22 1,000 945 919 885 845 781 756 709 655 582 574 562 540 486 459 321 285 266 245 208 191 176 147 82 75 Post Staff and Wire Reports RALEIGH, N.C. The ACC publicly reprimanded official Karl Hess for failing to follow procedure when ejecting two former North Carolina State stars from the stands during a weekend game. In a statement Monday night, the league said it had conducted a "thorough review" of the events leading up to Hess' ejections of former Wolfpack stars Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta from seats behind the scorer's table during the second half of Saturday's loss to Florida State.

After Hess gestured to have Gugliotta and Corchiani removed, they were approached by an officer from the Raleigh Police Department. Corchiani tweeted roughly 40 minutes after the game that Hess "didn't like (the) fact Googs and I told him he was having a bad day, inconsistent, and telling the truth." NC. State will honor the 1989 team which featured Corchiani and Gugliotta before tonight's game against rival North Carolina. No. 13 Baylor 77, Texas 72: Quincy Acy had 22 points and 16 rebounds to power the visiting Bears (23-5, 10-5 Big 12) past the Longhorns (17-11, 7-8).

Palm Beach State 88, Brevard College 75: Daryl Traynham had 13 points and seven assists to lead the host Panthers (24-4) past the Titans (18-9). North Florida 75, Mercer 66: Parker Smith scored a school-record 46 points to lift the host Ospreys (15-15, 9-8 Atlantic Sun) over the Bears (20-9, 12-4). Smith made 11 three-pointers, also a school mark. Florida 83, South Carolina State 82: Amin Stevens' layup with one second left lifted the visiting Rattlers (8-19, 6-7 Mid-Eastern) over the Bulldogs (5-22, 0-13). Savannah State 67, Bethune-Cookman 44: Adrien Coleman scored 11 points for the visiting Wildcats (13-15, 9-4 Mid-Eastern), who fell to the Tigers (18-10, 11-2).

Women No. 3 Notre Dame 68, No. 16 Louisville 52: Skylar Diggins scored 21 points to lead the visiting Irish (26-2, 13-1) past the Cardinals (19-8, 8-6) and closer to a Big East title. No. 11 Penn State 84, No.

8 Ohio State 66: Nikki Greene had 25 points and 15 rebounds to help the host Lions (22-4, 11-3) beat the Buckeyes (23-4, 10-4), clinching at least a share of their first Big Ten title since 2004. 26- 1 27- 1 25- 2 22- 5 23- 4 22- 5 23- 4 22-5 20-5 22-5 20- 7 21- 6 22- 5 26- 1 19- 7 20- 7 21- 6 22- 4 24- 4 19- 8 22-6 21-5 20- 7 20-6 20-6 1,623 1,559 1,498 1,377 1,359 1,317 1,261 1,139 1,085 1,013 869 860 859 765 620 615 495 469 467 457 325 281 246 176 153 10 13 12 11 7 14 15 19 20 18 22 24 17 16 21 8. Ohio St. 9. Georgetown 10.

Marquette 11. Michigan 12. Florida 13. Baylor 14. Murray St.

15. Florida St. 16. Wisconsin 17. Louisville 18.

New Mexico 19. Wichita St. 20. Notre Dame 21. UNLV 22.

Temple 23. Indiana 24. San Diego St. 25. Virginia 19.

St. Bonaventure 25-2 18- 8 20-7 19- 8 20- 6 18-8 24-4 20. St. John's 21. DePaul 22.

Purdue 23. Nebraska 24. Rutgers 25. Gonzaga Creighton 51, California 21, Gonzaga 13, Saint Louis 11, Harvard 10, Mississippi St. 10, Drexel 9, Vanderbilt 9, Kansas St.

8, Middle Tennessee 6, Long Beach St. 3, Virginia Commonwealth 2, Weber St. 2, Iowa St. 1, Nevada 1. Others receiving votes: West Virginia 65, South Carolina 54, Arkansas 29, Princeton 28, UTEP 24, Fresno St.

23, Vanderbilt 16, BYU 15, California 14, Middle Tennessee 13, North Carolina 10, Oklahoma 9, Florida Gulf Coast 6. Others receiving votes: Creighton 76, Gonzaga 47, BYU 29, Saint Louis 25, Drexel 13, Harvard 12, Vanderbilt 12, California 11, Saint Mary's (Cal) 7, Long Beach St. 4, VCU 1. Seagram's) TONIC CLUB SELTZER SODA I IM R. WATER I ALE WATER I CAFFEINE FREE FREE 1857 i CAFFEINE FSEE CAFFEINE FREE SINCE 1857 SINCE CAFFEINE FREE SINCE 1857 'SINCE 18 5 7 I I To call it "golf heaven" wouldn't be a stretch.

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