At the beginning of the season, I would have pegged “He Ain’t Worth Missing” by Toby Keith as the song for the 2009-10 Florida basketball team, a tune freshman guard Kenny Boynton surely sang to the squad upon his arrival in Gainesville to ease the players’ pain over Nick Calathes’ departure for an exotic mistress (Greece).
After watching UF dismantle LSU 72-58 on Saturday for its first Southeastern Conference win, I’ve got a new, equally annoying song that fits the bill.
If the Gators can make it through conference play and earn an NCAA Tournament berth, it’ll be because center Vernon Macklin keeps up the level of play he set against the Tigers this weekend.
For this reason, I submit English R&B singer Mark Morrison’s oddly catchy 1996 hit “Return of the Mack.”
Outside of the title, most of the song is totally irrelevant to Macklin except for the lines “So I’m back up in the game, running things to keep my swing, letting all the people know, that I’m back to run the show.”
The Mack held things down against LSU with 14 points — more than he scored in his first two SEC games combined. He tied a season-high with eight rebounds, but most importantly, he played 28 minutes and collected zero fouls.
In the previous two games, Macklin was on the court for just 33 total minutes and racked up nine fouls.
The Gators already have a depth problem, and they can’t afford to have their biggest threat in the paint dropping out of games early for picking up weak fouls.
Macklin was physical against the Tigers, but he did it in a smarter way.
He did a better job of getting in position, which led to more rebounds, less fouls and more room to be aggressive on the offensive end.
“We’ve had him in foul trouble the first two games, and when we have him down there, he’s a load,” forward Chandler Parsons said. “When we get him the ball in the post, he’s really hard to guard. We definitely need him on the court.”
Parsons also called Macklin “one of the most unselfish big guys I’ve ever played with in my life.” For that reason, he may never go off for 25 points in a game, but the Gators don’t need him to.
Macklin just has to stay on the court, make a few of his silky-smooth hook shots and play defense.
“He’s a big, strong presence for us,” guard Erving Walker said. “He can battle with all those big guys when he’s able to play aggressive and not get fouls. I think he’s as good as (Kentucky forward DeMarcus) Cousins and all those guys, so we need to keep him on the floor. That makes everyone’s job easier because we can be more aggressive on the press knowing he’s back there.”
Macklin has a ripple effect just by staying out of foul trouble, and the immediate future looks good for a few confidence-boosters.
He’ll be the tallest player on the court against the Gators’ next two opponents, Arkansas and South Carolina, who are the SEC’s worst teams in terms of rebounding margin.
If he relapses into his freely fouling ways against those teams, I might have to change that song suggestion to “Thunder Road.”
