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Not officially associated with the University of Florida Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida

VOLUME 111 ISSUE 121 MONDAY, MARCH 20, 2017

Gators playing elite defenseUF held Virginia to 39 points on Saturday, pg 13

UF administrator hosts feast for St. Patty’s DayHe invited the whole community to stop by, pg. 8

Satchel’s to resume hosting live music Months after a fi re, the restaurant is getting back into its

groove, pg. 5

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MEN’S BASKETBALL: FLORIDA 65, VIRGINIA 39

By Ian CohenSports Writer

Twenty minutes after the game

ended, Kasey Hill sat in front of

his locker, still wearing orange and

blue.

He had changed out of his Flor-

ida jersey with the NCAA patch

on the right shoulder — the one

he hadn’t worn since 2014 — and

swapped it for one emblazoned

with two words: “New York.”

It was a nod to the place where

the Gators will play next: Madison

Square Garden, home of the New

York Knicks.

“This is defi nitely a great place to be right now,” Hill said with a

smile.

It’s a place only Hill has been:

the Sweet 16.

That’s why even after his team

embarrassed Virginia on Satur-

day, winning in a 65-39 blowout

to advance to the next round of

the NCAA Tournament, and even

after his teammates bounced and

danced and sang with excitement

afterwards, Hill was relaxed and

subdued.

His teammate, junior Devin

Robinson, came swaggering

through the locker room door,

high-fi ving teammates while shout-ing and smiling.

“I was like, ‘Bro, you gotta calm

down,’” Hill said. “He’s very hap-

py. D’s never been here before.”

Hill, a senior point guard, is the

last remaining holdover from for-

mer Florida coach Billy Donovan’s

tenure, when NCAA Tournament

appearances were expected and an

early-round exit was an anomaly.

But with its win on Saturday,

Florida hopes to reestablish itself as

a perennial postseason contender.

“It’s great,” Robinson said. “It’s

real good to turn this program

around and get back to winning.”

No. 4 seed UF (26-8) will face

No. 8 seed Wisconsin (27-9) in the

Sweet 16 on Friday in New York

City.

And the Gators got there with-

out much trouble.After defeating East Tennes-

see State by 15 points in the fi rst round on Thursday, Florida earned a 26-point win over Virginia on Sat-urday, UF’s largest margin of vic-

‘Anything can happen’: UF advances to Sweet 16

LOCAL

By Molly VosslerAlligator Staff Writer

After disappearing from an Ocala home

a week ago, a 2-foot-long cobra has popped

up on Twitter.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conserva-

tion Commission has not stopped searching

for the multicolored suphan cobra since it

escaped its enclosure at 905 NE Fifth St. at

about 9 p.m. March 13.

The nameless snake is owned by Brian

Purdy, who is licensed to handle venomous

reptiles. Purdy’s 15-year-old son, Mason,

said the snake escaped when his dad was

not home, under the watch of an appren-

tice who is not yet licensed to handle such

dangerous creatures.

Mason said he was the only other per-

son at home when the snake disappeared.

“I was in the other room when I heard

it happen — I heard it drop,” he said. “I

didn’t know what got out, but I heard him

say, ‘Oh gosh.’”

But on social media, using a parody

Twitter account @OcalaCobra, the miss-

ing serpent has convinced 3,298 followers

to tune into its snarky remarks to reporters

and general Twitter users.

“I’m free for the fi rst time in my life & I just found this iPhone, so why not tweet?”

its Twitter bio reads.

Mason, a freshman at Vanguard High

School, said his family turned the house

upside down looking for the cobra. He said

FWC offi cers brought a search dog to his house in an effort to fi nd the snake.

Although many of Mason’s neigh-

bors have been extremely understanding

throughout the search process, he said oth-

ers have panicked.

Search continues for Ocala cobra following escape HE SPOKE ABOUT INCIDENTS AT

A BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MEETING FRIDAY.

By Romy EllenbogenAlligator Staff Writer

UF President Kent Fuchs will hold a

town hall meeting today at 6 p.m. in Emer-

son Hall to gauge students’ opinions about

racially charged incidents on campus.

At a Board of Trustees meeting Friday,

Fuchs spoke of the challenges of defend-

ing free speech while denouncing acts of

hate on campus. He spent about 10 min-

utes discussing recent racially charged inci-

dents on campus, such as a noose found in

a Weimer Hall classroom and a man with a

swastika on his sleeve on Turlington Plaza.

Most recently, anti-Muslim graffi ti was found in McCarty Hall B on Thursday, he

said.

The graffi ti, which a graduate student found in a bathroom stall, said things like,

“Muslims kill gays,” UF spokesperson Ja-

nine Sikes said. It was removed, and Uni-

versity Police Chief Linda Stump-Kurnick

was notifi ed of the incident. Fuchs told the board and other top ad-

ministrators that determining how to re-

spond to these incidents was diffi cult. He pointed to emails he sent to students after

these events and columns he’s written for

the Alligator.

“We’re wrestling with that, about what

we should do,” he said. “We don’t want

cameras everywhere on campus, we don’t

want patrol offi cers on every corner. These are truly rare incidents. Collectively, we

feel them.”

Lyrissa Lidsky, a professor at UF’s Levin

College of Law and a First Amendment ex-

pert, said as a Jewish woman she under-

stands the hurt felt when racially charged

Fuchs to discuss hate on campus during town hall

Charles Hatcher / Alligator Staff

The Gators’ bench cheers during No. 4 seed Florida’s 65-39 win against No. 5 seed Virginia in the

NCAA Tournament Round of 32 on Saturday in Orlando.SEE HOOPS, PAGE 14

SEE COBRA, PAGE 4 SEE TOWN HALL, PAGE 4