Florida sophomore Erik Murphy summed it up best.
“He’s got the biggest balls in the country,” he said after watching teammate Erving Walker’s latest heroics, which included a 3-pointer with 1:14 left in the game that helped send the Gators to the Sweet 16.
For a diminutive guy, Walker certainly played a big role in Florida’s 73-65 win over UCLA on Saturday.
Walker is listed generously at 5-foot-8 in the Florida media guide, and the New Yorker claims that’s legit.
“I’m 5-foot-8,” he said with a straight face.
But none of his teammates were buying it.
“I’ll give him 5-8 today, but he’s probably 5-6,” senior big man Vernon Macklin (6-10) said.
“He’s tiny,” added 6-foot-9 senior Chandler Parsons. “Maybe 5-5 or 5-6.”
Whatever the case, on a court loaded with all kinds of size and length — including behemoth 6-foot-10, 330-or-so-pound UCLA big man Josh Smith — it was the smallest guy who wound up getting the Gators past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament for the first time since the second of back-to-back national titles in 2007.
Walker has hit big-time shots all year. He hit a 35-footer with one second left in overtime against Georgia and drove the length of the court and made a lefty layup with 14 seconds remaining to beat Tennessee.
“He’s fearless,” Parsons said. “He has no regard whether he’s made or missed his last 10. He wants the ball in his hands with the game on the line.”
His first game-winner came way back when he was 7 in a 9-and-under CYO game. His team was down two and he buried a 3 at the buzzer.
Florida coach Billy Donovan recruited him on a recommendation from longtime Christ the King (N.Y.) coach Jack Oliva, who also coached guards Khalid Reeves (Arizona) and Derrick Phelps (North Carolina).
Donovan headed north to take a look.
“I told him to call me when he had another Reeves or Phelps,” Donovan said. “You called me on a 5-5 guard. Are you kidding me?”
But Walker’s toughness and ability to take over with the game on the line was ultimately what sold Donovan to take him. It’s also what’s allowed Walker to excel and keep a hold on the starting point guard spot for the past two seasons.
“I’m not scared. I’ve never been afraid,” Walker said Saturday. “I’m not afraid to fail.”
Walker finished with 21 points, scored nine of his team’s final 11 points and also made all four of his free throws in the final 32.8 seconds in a game that has put Florida back.
They’ll never be another group like the one that hung two banners in Gainesville, the one that had Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey.
Parsons, former teammate Nick Calathes and Alex Tyus were the cornerstone of the recruiting class that entered the following season with high expectations.
For the first two seasons, it was a pair of NIT appearances. Donovan was frustrated, more with their approach than anything else. Calathes left after his sophomore year for a hefty contract overseas, and the Gators program was on the downswing.
“Where those guys were at, they had no shot of ever going to the NCAA tournament,” Donovan said. “That’s how bad it was.”
“That was rock bottom,” Donovan continued. “After their sophomore year, they were really, really humbled.”
Then they started to buy into the team concept and got back to the NCAA tournament last season.
But it was one and done to The Jimmer and BYU.
“We got a taste last year,” Parsons said. “But we want more. We won the conference championship, and now we’re in the Sweet 16. It feels great, but we don’t feel like we’re done.”
“This helps put Florida back where it belongs,” Walker said.
