Morning briefing

Gators on the outs with coach

It seems as if it wasn’t too long ago that Florida basketball Coach Billy Donovan was trying to keep players in Gators uniforms -- Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer, etc.

Now he’s banning players from wearing Florida duds after his team failed to make the NCAA tournament.

“In some respects, the confetti is still falling around them,” Donovan told reporters, referring to the Gators’ consecutive NCAA titles.

While the Gators’ NCAA tournament winning streak will remain alive at 12 games, settling for an NIT (Not Ideal Tournament) bid wasn’t pleasant. So Donovan has not allowed his players to wear Florida gear and banished them from the team’s $11.8-million practice facility.

“We don’t deserve to be in the penthouse,” guard Jai Lucas told the Florida Times-Union. “We haven’t done anything to be in the penthouse.”

Nor will you this season. The NIT elevator reaches only the 66th floor, not the penthouse.

Trivia time

Ohio State also had to settle for the NIT this season. When was the last time the teams that played for the NCAA title missed the tournament the following season?

Real (Betis) knucklehead

A fan of Real Betis, a Spanish soccer team, pegged Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Armando Ribeiro in the head with a plastic bottle full of liquid during a match Saturday.

The fan, identified only as CPR -- yes, CPR -- was showing remorse on Tuesday, at least through his attorney.

“My client is deeply sorry,” Alvaro Pimentel told members of the Spanish media. “He didn’t want to injure Armando.”

So, what, he just thought Armando looked thirsty?

It is worth noting that Ribeiro, who needed stitches to close a gash, kept the bottle out of the goal.

Titan-ic chore

The odds of Cal State Fullerton winning the NCAA basketball tournament are 1,500 to 1, according to Bodoglife.com.

Meanwhile, across the ocean, the odds that Ralph Nader will become president are 500 to 1 and the odds Elvis is still alive are 1,000 to 1, according to William Hill, a United Kingdom book.

He said, she said

The carping between Connecticut women’s basketball Coach Geno Auriemma and Pat Summitt, his Tennessee counterpart, has reached the point where you wonder if ESPN planned it just to spice up its coverage.

Last week, ESPN reported that it had provided a studio tour to Huskies player Maya Moore in 2005. Tennessee had already dropped UConn from its regular-season schedule, a move believed to be connected to the recruitment of Moore.

The flames got a dose of hot air in recent days.

Auriemma told the Hartford Courant that Summitt, “should just come out and say she’s not playing us because she hates my guts.”

Summitt countered on an ESPN show, saying, “I think Geno knows why, but I’m not going to be the one to talk about it. If he wants to talk about it, he can do so.”

The teams can face each other only in the NCAA title game. Can’t wait for that pre-game handshake.

Going West

West Virginia guard Jonnie West, the son of former Lakers star Jerry West, is getting his feet wet at his dad’s alma mater this season, averaging 1.0 points a game.

Jerry could have used that point in the 1959 NCAA title game -- California 71, West Virginia 70.

Trivia answer

1980, when Michigan State and Indiana State both missed the tournament. Seems losing a couple guys named Johnson and Bird set those programs back.

And finally

Georgia basketball Coach Dennis Felton was still struggling to regain his voice after pushing the 17-16 Bulldogs to the NCAA tournament, as assistant Pete Herrmann told media members, “He has no voice, not even a little growl.”

No worries, his Bulldogs seem to still have plenty of bite.

--

chris.foster@latimes.com