BIRMINGHAM, Ala — The Florida Gators, the reigning National Champions, will start former five-star recruit Boogie Fland at point guard, coach Todd Golden said Wednesday at SEC Media Day ahead of the 2025-26 season.

The decision clears up uncertainty about the way Golden will use both Fland, who spent last season at Arkansas, and fellow transfer Xaivian Lee, an all-Ivy League point guard at Princeton in each of the last two seasons, as the Gators attempt to win back-to-back national titles for the second time in school history.

Despite Golden’s announcement, Lee will remain a key contributor and handle point guard duties when Fland is off the floor for a Florida squad ranked third in the Associated Press preseason top-25 poll.

“[Fland] is going to start at the point for us, but Xavian will be a second-side playmaker and then he’ll play point when [Fland] is out of the game,” Golden said. “And I think they’re both going to have really good seasons. They’ve really kind of come into their own over the last couple weeks. I feel like they’re getting really comfortable with the way we play, and obviously we throw to our big guys a lot and let them be the playmakers and the hubs in the middle of the floor.”

Last season, Golden relied on Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard and Alijah Martin – who were all drafted by NBA teams – to win the national title. Both Lee (5.5 APG last season) and Fland (5.1 APG last season) are both capable ballhandlers for a team with national title aspirations.

According to their teammates, however, Florida’s practices have featured both players as point guards, which has not adversely impacted the flow of the offense.

“Both of them can play point pretty easily,” said Florida star Alex Condon. “If I’m inbounding, I’ll pass it to either one of them. They can both bring the ball up the court super easily, and they’re really good facilitators. So yeah, I think it’s basically the same thing when they’re bringing the ball up the court.”

Fland got off to a spectacular start during his freshmen season with the Razorbacks, averaging 15.1 points, 5.7 assists and 3.4 rebounds over the first 18 games before suffering a hand injury against Florida in mid-January that forced him to miss the second half of the regular season and SEC conference tournament play. He managed to return during the NCAA tournament in a reserve role, playing an average of 17.7 minutes against Kansas State, St. John’s and Texas Tech before the Razorbacks were eliminated.

Fland considered turning pro before withdrawing from NBA draft consideration in mid-May. He officially transferred to Florida a week later.

Lee averaged 16.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists last season at Princeton, while shooting over 36% from 3-point range. He announced his move to the Gators in mid-April.

The University of Kansas was fined $25,000 by the Big 12 after it found head football coach Lance Leipold made “an inaccurate statement” about a pocket knife that was found on its sideline during a recent game.

Leipold said a pocket knife “was thrown and hit one of our staff members” during the Jayhawks’ 42-17 loss to Texas Tech on Saturday. Texas Tech officials confirmed a pocket knife was found on the Jayhawks’ sideline and were investigating game-day video. The Big 12 did not clarify which part of Leipold’s statement was inaccurate.

However, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that Texas Tech’s review, which was sent to the Big 12, said the “best possible video available to us” showed a Kansas “student athlete” pick up the knife and immediately hand it to a Kansas staff member.

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“We believe this video makes it clear where the pocket knife originated, which will disprove all claims that it may have been thrown from the stands, and certainly makes it clear that it did not hit any member of KU’s staff on the sideline. There also did not appear to be any reaction by anyone on KU’s sideline of it being thrown on to the field prior to it being picked up,” the review reportedly said.

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said Leipold’s comments “questioned the integrity and professionalism of both the Conference and a member institution.”

“I appreciate the Big 12 Conference’s thorough review of events that took place during our game last Saturday at Texas Tech. I accept their findings and ultimate ruling,” Leipold said in a statement. “I had an emotional reaction in the aftermath of the game and acknowledge that I need to be better. We are excited to move forward and finish our season strong.”

Texas Tech was also fined $25,000 for fans throwing items on the field, for which the team was penalized twice. The school had a longstanding tradition of throwing tortillas on the field, but officials voted 15-1 to ban the act before the season.

Texas Tech fans throw tortillas prior to a Big 12 Conference football game, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock. (Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

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“After a formal review, Texas Tech did not take sufficient steps to prevent and deter the repeated throwing of objects onto the field and team bench areas,” Yormark said in his statement.

“I mean, it’s supposed to be for safety and things like that, and it’s a culture that’s been accepted to a point, and it hasn’t changed. And eventually, somebody’s going to be seriously hurt, unfortunately,” Leipold said after the game.

Leipold was animated in his postgame handshake with Red Raiders head coach Joey McGuire, calling the actions “bulls—.”

“Coach, I can’t do anything about that. You want me to do something f—ing about it?” McGuire asked.

Head coach Joey McGuire of the Texas Tech Red Raiders and Head Coach Lance Leipold of the Kansas Jayhawks talk at midfield after the game at Jones AT&T Stadium on Oct. 11, 2025 in Lubbock, Texas.   (John E. Moore III/Getty Images)

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The Red Raiders are ranked seventh in the AP poll and have a date at Arizona State this weekend to improve to 7-0.

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Bruce Pearl’s retirement last month was a surprise to his Auburn team and even his son Steven, who succeeded his father as the Tigers’ new head coach.

But Pearl’s announcement was not a shock to everyone.

Steven Pearl said he didn’t officially know about his father’s decision until the day before the Tigers’ first practice. Bruce Pearl, however, had told Auburn athletic director John Cohen years ago that he had been thinking about retirement.

“Three years ago, [my father] told him, like, ‘Listen, I don’t know how much longer I’m going to do this,'” Steven said Wednesday at SEC media day. “So [Cohen] has been actively, in his mind, being prepared for this for three years now and going through all the different options of, ‘Do I bring in an outside coaching staff? Do I bring in a big-name guy or watch this grow? Does the staff grow as a unit and stay together and not go chasing other assistant jobs, not go chasing other coaching jobs?’ And he ultimately felt like the staff had earned the right and the opportunity to continue to move this thing forward.”

Bruce Pearl’s retirement followed months of speculation that he would leave coaching to pursue Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat that had been vacated by Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn football coach who is now running for governor of the state.

Steven said the past three weeks have been, as expected, a frenzy. But he also said his time with his father — he played for his father at Tennessee and spent more than a decade as his assistant — helped prepare him for the role at Auburn, which is ranked 20th in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll.

“As far as when it hit me, it didn’t hit me until I showed up at the gym and [my father] was filming his goodbye video and [Cohen] pulled me aside and he was like, ‘Hey, you’re the guy,'” Steven said. “So then I was like, ‘All right, here we go. Let’s go.’ It all happened really fast, but I’m ready because I spent 38 years watching [my father] do this.”

Steven said the continuity of the staff and the stability of his team has eased his transition. His staff has a combined 40 years of coaching experience at Auburn under Bruce, who is now an ambassador for the university. Every player decided to stay despite having a 30-day window to enter the portal and transfer, according to NCAA rules on coaching changes.

Tahaad Pettiford, a star for a Tigers team that reached the Final Four for the second time in team history last season, said the players found out about Bruce Pearl’s decision when they all received a text message to return to the gym the day of the announcement.

Pettiford said he never once considered transferring after Steven was announced as head coach. But Pettiford is also the only remaining player on the roster who played for Auburn in the team’s loss to Florida in the Final Four.

“It’s definitely something new for me coming into this with 10 new guys,” he said. “It’s definitely different from being the youngest guy on the team last year to being one of the older guys on this year’s team.

“I’m just trying to give them the stuff that I learned last year and trying to pass that down to the new guys, especially some of the freshmen, and trying to give them the blueprint of what we did last year and how we were successful.”