Internet

Local man gives UF fans home

Darshak Patel was bored, looking for Gators sports news online and unhappy with what he was finding, so he took two of his greatest loves -- computer science and all things Gators -- and brought them together with a site of his own.

Two years ago, Patel created mygatorworld.com while he was studying computer science at Florida. He graduated in May, and during the winter, as the Gators basketball team rose to No. 1 in the rankings, he decided Billy Donovan's team needed more than just a page and created a site devoted to Gainesville's other loyal fans, rowdyreptiles.net.

"I've always been one of those who camped out for days before home games," said Patel, 23, who works as an IT developer for Tampa's One Net Enterprises. "The basketball following is slowly growing in Gainesville, and I've gotten a lot of good feedback since I started the site."

For the novice Gators fan, the site offers detailed explanations of chants, however simple they might seem -- to wit, "Let's go, Gators. Clap clap clap clap clap." There are more complicated ones, of course. Should an opposing coach misbehave or complain about officiating, the chant goes like this: "Good coach (point at Billy D), bad coach (point at visiting coach)."

Patel, naturally, has Florida winning it all in his NCAA pool ("I always do"), and he drove to Friday's game thrilled at the prospect of seeing his old team in the city he calls home.

"My boss is cool enough to let me cut out early sometimes, so I even got to see some of the weeknight games this season," said Patel, whose guestbook includes praise from Gators as far away as Germany.

Even as Patel got to the St. Pete Times Forum, his site ticked down the minutes until tipoff, with a promise that digital photos would be online by this morning. Not only does he offer a lively forum for Gators discussions (the latest thread Friday, inevitably, was Football Practice Pics), but he also has a links page to send trash-talking Gators to similar sites for their rivals. Anticipating a second-round showdown Sunday, he already had links to Michigan State bravado at msuhoops.net and spartantailgate.com.

SURVEY SAYS: ESPN's collective NCAA bracket, chosen by popular vote, picked one first-round upset, and missed on that one. The only lower-seeded team chosen was ninth-seeded N.C. State, which lost (barely) to eighth-seeded California. As for the Sweet 16, the popular vote had two teams not seeded in the top four, and both come from the South Region: 61 percent chose sixth-seeded Maryland to upset No. 3 Xavier, and 66 percent like No. 5 Connecticut over fourth-seeded Stanford.

As for the overall champion, Kentucky runs away with it. Fans say the Wildcats will play Oklahoma in the final, and 89 percent say Kentucky will win.

NCAA TID-BYTES: For fans really interested in NCAA coverage online, yahoo.com is offering a platinum package that includes streaming audio and video for $17. ... NCAAsports.com has a poll for fans to vote for an all-time "high-performance play," with a bracket-style showdown that includes Michael Jordan's winner for North Carolina against Georgetown in 1982 and N.C. State's miracle alley-oop to upset Houston in 1983. ... Lycos.com offers its annual spin on bracket-picking, choosing the team in each game that generates more Internet searches. Its choice has Florida beating Notre Dame in the championship, with Kentucky and California losing in the Final Four. Duke, last year's most-searched team, has fallen to No. 4.

-- If you have a question or comment about the Internet or a site to suggest, e-mail staff writer Greg Auman at auman@sptimes.com .

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