FOUR BITS: March, UF in NFL, Harvey, ’07 recruits

1 » The month of February is half over and Florida Gators basketball fans are concerned about where their team will be playing in the end of March. Will it earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons or join some other traditional college basketball powerhouses in the NIT? While ESPN‘s Joe Lunardi has left the Gators out of his most recent bracketology, Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated believes Florida still has a legitimate shot. Davis lists the Gators as a 12-seed and predicts an upset over 5-seed Wake Forest. “Despite recent struggles, Florida looks like a team capable of making the tournament — and staging a first-round upset,” Davis writes.

2 » With the 2010 NFL Draft coming up and plenty of Florida players in contention for top picks, The Houston Chronicle’s Lance Zierlein looked at how former Gators have fared in the league since 2001. The results are less spectacular than Florida fans would hope, though the team has certainly had its share of impact players.

3 » One former Gators star on the verge of a bleak NFL career is Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Derrick Harvey. Though he has struggled thus far in Jacksonville and only compiled two sacks in 2009, Harvey is a favorite of new Jaguars assistant coach Joe Cullen. “Our pick was going to be Derrick Harvey if he was available,” Cullen recounted about the 2007 draft to The Florida Times-Union. “We did a lot of research on him, put him through a great one-on-one workout after Florida’s pro day. The qualities we saw in Derrick are still there. He’s explosive, strong. He’s going to be a powerful rusher. With more repetition and work, that can come out of him.”

4 » Looking back at college football recruiting classes from 2007, SI’s Andy Staples reaffirms that the Gators had the best class in the nation. “This class provided the raw materials for a championship,” Staples writes. “It’s interesting to note that this class could produce as many as four 2010 first-round draft picks.”