If you’d given me a HALF-DOZEN

“PRE-TIPOFF CHOICES"---

to “predict” Florida’s hero

against BYU---I would

NOT have mentioned Alex Tyus…

Irving Walker?… Chandler Parsons?…

Kenny Boynton?… Vernon Macklin?…

even Patric Young or Scottie Wilbikin…

WOW, was I WRONG!…

Tyus played “the GAME OF HIS LIFE”…

He was “Alexander the Great”…

When the Gators needed Tyus MOST,

the 6-8 senior from St. Louis

was TALLER than his town's GATEWAY ARCH…

Alex had 17 rebounds… made 8 of 9 field goal tries…

19 points… Tyus even hit his ONLY

3-point attempt…

TWICE in the closing

minutes, he went

HARD for rebounds and was

CALLED for BOGUS FOULS…

Tyus overcame even THAT…

In the past four months, I have

said a lot of “negative things” about

Alex Tyus… This is NOT an apology---

my BLASTS were justified…

Tyus was too often guilty of

"poor decision-making”…

Or “fumbling away a basketball

beneath a hoop“…

Alex has ALWAYS been

“extremely athletic”---his DUNKS can

register "5.0" on the Richter Scale…

But Tyus had “TOO MANY DRAWBACKS”…

Then---Thursday night---when the Gators

needed him to be “outstanding”---the

kid from Missouri was ---YES!---BETTER

than the “ballyhooed” Jimmer Fredette of

Brigham Young… I don’t know if Tyus

will be REALLY GOOD when the Gators play

Butler in the ELITE EIGHT---

But here is what I DO KNOW---

without “Alexander the Great”---

Florida’s team would

now be back in Gainesville---and

NOT NEARLY SO HAPPY...

I’m Hubert Mizell, and that’s

what I think.