MBB Game 9: FSU 57 UF 55 Preview and Game Thread
by TrueCubbie on Dec 7, 2008 5:17 PM EST
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PrintFlorida Gators at Florida St. Seminoles, Dec 7, 2008 6:00 PM EST
Offense
Defense
Date
Opponent
Result
Site
Pace
Eff.
eFG%
TO%
OR%
FTR
Eff.
eFG%
TO%
OR%
FTR
Sat Nov 15
Jacksonville (s) (sr)
W, 59-57
A
69
85.6
52.4
26.1
18.8
73.2
82.7
36.0
16.0
33.3
26.5
Tue Nov 18
La Salle (s) (sr)
W, 65-61
A
71
92.0
45.8
25.5
26.9
58.3
86.3
40.0
19.8
31.5
30.0
Thu Nov 20
Stetson (s) (sr)
W, 79-77
H
73
108.3
45.5
23.3
46.1
60.7
105.6
53.1
19.2
33.3
20.0
Sat Nov 22
Coastal Carolina (s) (sr)
W, 82-70
H
71
116.0
56.7
21.2
32.8
50.0
99.0
51.8
31.1
37.5
30.9
Mon Nov 24
Western Illinois (s) (sr)
W, 67-55
H
62
108.6
48.0
19.4
36.5
44.0
89.1
40.9
21.1
21.0
47.7
Fri Nov 28
Cincinnati (s) (sr)
W, 58-47
N
64
90.7
42.0
28.1
43.2
50.0
73.5
36.1
29.7
40.5
31.5
Sat Nov 29
California (s) (sr)
W, 80-77
N
78
102.7
55.2
23.1
25.6
70.8
98.8
44.1
16.7
20.8
54.2
Wed Dec 3
Northwestern (s) (sr)
L, 73-59
A
69
86.0
47.1
30.6
33.9
37.3
106.4
49.1
18.9
42.9
55.4
Sun Dec 7
Florida (s) (sr)
W, 57-55
H
64
88.8
37.3
21.8
38.9
51.0
85.7
43.1
24.9
31.3
33.3
N.B. The Noles played a great second half to beat the Gators for the 3rd straight game...look inside for our preview and the discussion during the game.
We shot horribly, didn't have a horrible turnover night, really craches the glass, and got to the line. On defense, we were balanced. Changed shots, didn't foul too much, forced a good bit of turnovers, and rebounded fairly well.
FSU now moves to 35th Nationally in defense, 179th in offense.
Preview
Had enough of the Gators recently? Yup me too. But, they're on the schedule again.
Tonight the Noles take on the ranked team from the swamp and look to rebound from a tough loss at Northwestern.
Before we get into the match up, let's take a look at the "state of the nation"...
For many of us, watching the Noles get run around the court at Welsh Ryan arena on Wednesday night was a surprise. We knew this team has talent, athleticism and was going through growing pains. I don't think any of expected us to see the poorly executing, timid, confused team that fell apart on national television.
So where do things stand so far this season and how do we compare to our ACC friends? I will refer to the Pomeroy Rankings, which I find to be an excellent method to evaluate teams. It has been true to form with all of the teams we have faced this year.
Overall Conf
W-L W-L Pomeroy/Rnk AdjO/Rnk AdjD/Rnk SOS/Rnk NCSOS/Rnk
North Carolina 8-0 0-0 .9955/1 125.9/2 78.8/7 .7568/34 .7568/45
Duke 8-1 0-0 .9803/6 115.4/25 82.2/13 .6718/68 .6718/86
Clemson 8-0 0-0 .9764/9 120.8/7 87.4/32 .5839/132 .5839/142
Miami FL 5-2 0-0 .9653/18 119.4/10 89.4/45 .8460/9 .8460/19
Wake Forest 8-0 0-0 .9442/32 106.4/80 83.2/17 .2009/326 .2009/325
Maryland 5-2 0-0 .9243/41 108.7/63 87.4/33 .7762/26 .7762/39
Georgia Tech 5-1 0-0 .8974/49 107.2/72 88.8/42 .3083/286 .3083/291
Boston College 6-2 0-0 .8874/54 113.3/36 94.7/95 .6708/70 .6708/88
Virginia Tech 4-3 0-0 .8016/77 110.2/55 97.6/145 .5709/138 .5709/145
Florida St. 7-1 0-0 .7899/81 100.5/161 89.6/50 .6505/90 .6505/103
North Carolina St. 4-1 0-0 .7191/100 106.3/82 97.9/148 .1610/337 .1610/338
Virginia 3-3 0-0 .6315/119 104.9/94 100.1/178 .6328/95 .6328/110
Yup...that's us. Third from the bottom. We currently have the worst offense in the ACC and the 7th best defense. We do however, play one of the more difficult schedules in the conference.
If it makes you feel any better, the ACC is by far the best conference in the country.
Ranking of conferences by average rating of the teams
1 Atlantic Coast Conference .9244 17 Big West Conference .4030
2 Big Ten Conference .9127 18 Big Sky Conference .3864
3 Big East Conference .9100 19 America East Conference .3460
4 Big 12 Conference .8972 20 Sun Belt Conference .3396
5 Pac 10 Conference .8753 21 Ohio Valley Conference .3259
6 Southeastern Conference .8368 22 Atlantic Sun Conference .3061
7 Mountain West Conference .7960 23 Summit League .2752
8 Missouri Valley Conference .6595 24 Southern Conference .2729
9 Conference USA .6386 25 Southland Conference .2636
10 Atlantic 10 Conference .6182 26 Big South Conference .2490
11 West Coast Conference .5989 27 Ivy League .2237
12 Western Athletic Conference .5588 28 Patriot League .2160
13 Mid American Conference .5308 29 Northeast Conference .1918
14 Horizon League .4942 30 Independents .1049
15 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference .4809 31 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference .0873
16 Colonial Athletic Association .4496 32 Southwestern Athletic Conference .0735
Here our stats so far this year. Remember we're only 8 games in and we're a young team, but there are some numbers that stand out (Red is bad, Green is good).
Raw Tempo: 69.4 poss/40 min National Rank=117
Adj Tempo: 71.6 poss/40 min National Rank=64
Offense Defense
Raw Efficiency : 98.9 (195) 92.5 ( 74)
Adj Efficiency : 100.5 (161) 89.6 ( 50)
Effective FG% : 49.0 (166) 43.9 ( 53)
Turnover Pct. : 24.7 (296) 21.4 (165)
Off. Rebound% : 33.4 (171) 33.0 (163)
Free Throw Rate: 40.7 ( 5) 36.2 (159)
3-Point FG% : 34.6 (145) 31.7 (108)
2-Point FG% : 47.6 (173) 41.6 ( 39)
Free Throw Pct.: 73.9 ( 52) 67.1 (144)
Block Pct. : 4.5 ( 11) 17.4 ( 12)
Steal Pct. : 10.3 (200) 11.9 ( 72)
3PA/FGA : 32.1 (195) 39.0 (311)
A/FGM : 51.7 (215) 52.3 (132)
These numbers epitomize a Leonard Hamilton coached team. Aggressive defense but lack luster offense. Great we get to the line a lot but we don't shoot particularly well and we turn the ball over and over and over again. I have mentioned this many times before in previous posts so I won't continue to beat a dead horse, but we can't turn the ball over the way we do now if we hope to compete the rest of the year. We are one of the worst teams in the country in terms of turn over percentage.
After the Northwestern loss, Hamilton said: "It was a great teaching tool. Pointing out a lot of mistakes we made, a lot of careless errors — offensively and defensively — that can very easily be eliminated with a higher level of focus and concentration." Couldn't agree more. How are we going to change that coach?
Tonight we take on a ranked Gator team that is looking for revenge after losing the last two to the Seminoles. Since their last home game, the Noles have traveled 6,394 miles and haven't played at home since November 24th. Maybe that's why we looked so tired against Northwestern? (I hate that excuse)
So what do the Gators do well. They run. They put up points and they force turnovers.
Offense Defense
Raw Efficiency : 114.5 ( 22) 95.2 (105)
Adj Efficiency : 115.2 ( 27) 94.8 ( 97)
Effective FG% : 55.2 ( 30) 54.1 (308)
Turnover Pct. : 18.9 ( 70) 27.2 ( 15)
Off. Rebound% : 34.8 (130) 32.6 (156)
Free Throw Rate: 22.3 (218) 29.3 ( 51)
3-Point FG% : 35.7 (112) 37.5 (264)
2-Point FG% : 56.2 ( 17) 52.8 (306)
Free Throw Pct.: 70.5 (120) 58.3 ( 10)
Block Pct. : 5.8 ( 50) 7.7 (199)
Steal Pct. : 9.3 (134) 16.3 ( 1)
3PA/FGA : 37.6 ( 77) 36.9 (275)
A/FGM : 63.9 ( 36) 62.1 (302)
I am most worried about the Gators' hustle on defense. They force you into careless mistakes and keep the ball out of your hands. What do we do poorly...handle the ball. If Northwestern can pressure us, I look for the Gators to do the same and do it better. However, they don't defend shots particularly well and their over aggressiveness in the passing lanes and getting out to run, opens up easy shots for their opponents.
Tonight's starters for the Gators:
F #21 Dan Werner 6'8 230 Jr 11.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg
C #23 Alex Tyus 6'8 220 So 13.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg
G #11 Erving Walker 5'8 161 Fr 9.4 ppg, 3.1 apg
G #15 Walter Hodge 6'0 170 Sr 6.6 ppg, 2.3 apg
G #33 Nick Calathes 6'6 194 So 16.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg
Notice anything? We're bigger, especially up front.
F #31 Chris Singleton 6'9 220 Fr 9.9 ppg, 7.9 rpg
F #42 Ryan Reid 6'8 235 Jr 8.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg
C #32 Solomon Alabi 7'1 241 RS Fr 7.5 ppg, 1.8 bpg
G #2 Jordan DeMercy 6'7 208 So 3.7 ppg, 2.4 rpg
G #23 Toney Douglas 6'2 205 Sr 19.0 ppg, 2.3 spg
Even if we go to a smaller line up to match up with their guards, Loucks is 6'5.
So you might be saying Florida's numbers look good but who have they played...
| Offense | Defense | |||||||||||||
| Date | Opponent | Result | Site | Pace | Eff. | eFG% | TO% | OR% | FTR | Eff. | eFG% | TO% | OR% | FTR |
| Fri Nov 14 | Toledo (s) (sr) | W, 80-58 | H | 71 | 112.8 | 59.8 | 21.1 | 30.2 | 52.9 | 81.8 | 49.0 | 33.8 | 26.2 | 37.5 |
| Sun Nov 16 | Bradley (s) (sr) | W, 81-58 | H | 70 | 116.3 | 52.3 | 20.1 | 41.5 | 29.2 | 83.3 | 52.0 | 33.0 | 29.0 | 22.4 |
| Thu Nov 20 | Southern Utah (s) (sr) | W, 64-50 | H | 65 | 99.1 | 47.0 | 21.7 | 32.8 | 54.0 | 77.4 | 48.0 | 31.0 | 29.3 | 10.2 |
| Mon Nov 24 | Syracuse (s) (sr) | L, 89-83 | N | 76 | 108.9 | 52.8 | 14.4 | 32.9 | 18.3 | 116.8 | 58.3 | 21.0 | 40.3 | 53.3 |
| Tue Nov 25 | Washington (s) (sr) | W, 86-84 | N | 67 | 129.2 | 61.1 | 15.0 | 38.1 | 22.2 | 126.2 | 65.2 | 18.0 | 45.1 | 33.9 |
| Sun Nov 30 | Missouri Kansas City (s) (sr) | W, 86-65 | h | 80 | 107.9 | 60.7 | 27.6 | 29.1 | 24.6 | 81.5 | 48.4 | 26.3 | 29.9 | 12.5 |
| Tue Dec 2 | Florida A&M (s) (sr) | W, 73-58 | H | 58 | 126.2 | 51.8 | 10.4 | 36.9 | 30.4 | 100.3 | 57.0 | 27.7 | 29.8 | 34.9 |
Yup...some early season nice tune ups...but Syracuse and Washington. I wouldn't consider them gentle warm ups. Granted, we have taken on the likes of Cincinnati and Cal and defeated both, but I'm not sure if either of those teams will develop into what was hoped. Both were young teams and we were able to take advantage of getting to the free throw line.
We have our work cut out for us tonight and I look forward to see how Hamilton gets his team to respond to the huge let down against Northwestern. (To the Northwestern fans who may be reading this...you guys played a great game and deserved to win considering the way both teams played, but talent wise...we should have run you out of the gym.)
Florida is currently scoring 79 points per game and only giving up 66. We, on the other hand are scoring 68 and giving up 64. In our last game, we allowed Northwestern to dictate the pace of the game...will we allow the Gators to get out and run in this one or can we finally play a game the way we want to? I worry about that in that we don't have a clear cut effective offense as of yet and our only legit consistent scorer is Douglas.
Hamilton should push the ball inside tonight. There is no reason not to take advantage of our size. Alabi has been amazing when he is given the ball and provided some space. Singleton is solid and is getting some good looks around the basket. Let's let them work inside to allow Douglas to get his looks outside. We haven't effective run an inside out game yet. Dish the ball. Move without the basketball and play intelligent basketball.
I think our athleticism matches up well with Florida. But, once again we'll end up wth too many turnovers and watch the Gators run away with it at the end. I would love to be surprised, but I don't think we're their yet.
Your thoughts? Enjoy the game...it's on Fox Sports Network tonight.
Go Noles!
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Comments
This is simply the best preview you'll find anywhere.
More in-depth analysis than anyone else is giving and yet still easy to read for the casual basketball fan,
I worry about the rather huge disparity in our offensive and defensive numbers.
That mileage number— mapquest or google?
We could be the best shooting team in the nation, but if we only get a shot off on 70% of possessions…
As you stated above
it will be very interesting to watch how we are able to handle the pressure of a more athletic basketball team. You know they watched what Northwestern did to us with that zone and i would be very surprised if Billy Donovan didnt have them running something similar. I see us getting the ball inside but i worry about our ability to do it effectively. It’s one thing to just play inside out, but our positioning will be key. We need to force double teams and move the ball off of it.
I hope the home court will actually be an advantage tonight.
Great analysis!
I wouldn't be surprised if they drop into a match up zone or even that 1-3-1 that NU ran...
if you pressure our ball handlers, we don’t move well enough with out the ball yet to get into position to give the a safe out…meaning we won’t get the ball inside either…
good point
i guess i shouldnt have been so quick to say we’d get the ball inside, but i’m assuming Hamilton has done a little hw and has these guys prepared with a gameplan. i was more worried about doing it effectively. let’s see if and where Florida presses us. i want to see our press breaker against a more athletic team
Does anyone know
Great Game 'Cats. Harris in in my prayers
by floundringaround on Dec 7, 2008 5:41 PM EST reply actions
whoops didnt finish that last post
is the game is televised in tallahassee? i didnt get tickets
Great Game 'Cats. Harris in in my prayers
by floundringaround on Dec 7, 2008 5:42 PM EST reply actions
"that can very easily be eliminated with a higher level of focus and concentration."
Who does this sound like?
I never sleep cuz sleep is the cousin of death.
and more agressiveness and emotion
we need “superhuman” effort.
I never sleep cuz sleep is the cousin of death.
It got pretty excited after a nasty stuff by... Gibson?
Gibson to the line.
Overall the crowd is like it usually is, pretty quiet, you can hear the side conversations. More empty seats than full ones in the first 10 rows.
ehhhhh
way too much standing on offense against this zone, very little off ball movement on offense. not gonna cut it. Alabi needs to make himself ‘bigger’ in the lane and we need to look to him early. you are right in that they are now sitting in the 2-3 and floating into that 1-3-1 occassionally.
Great press break
loucks must have read our comments. looks more poised and confident with the ball in hands early
Am I the only one that feels like when we're on offense
we look like I would look playing basketball with 4 buddies?
Alabi needs to make himself a bigger presence on offense...
He needs to get open, put the defensive player on his hip and want the ball. Too often he stands hoping het gets the ball rather than moving to get it. He’s a big guy. He needs to be more aggressive. Plus, someone needs to teach him some post moves…how about a pump fake, up and under? Anything?
yeah i noticed that early on
he avoids the contact it seems like. he’ll drift away from the defender instead of actually “posting up”.
I'm taking UF in the second half if it is anything less than them favored by 3.5...
Billy D’s adjustments > LH’s adjustments.
it will be interesting
florida shot terribly from 3 (14) and at the line (33). their percentage on the floor was much better as they were able to get more easy baskets-layups.
hopefully we are able to keep the turnovers down in the 2nd
If we lose to a team that was an extra point away from losing to Cal Poly....
I’ll be on antidepressants for the next year or so.
Still catching up...
but my first half thoughts:
We still don’t know how to break a zone.
We don’t know how to penetrate.
We have no post game.
I’m encouraged by our rebounding 20 to 16.
We will shoot better in the second half…can’t keep up 26%.
can't say for certain yet
we havent had that many opportunities yet. douglas is starting to push the ball which bodes well for us
UF Playing man defense now
which I don’t understand. We’re not shooting great. Little movement on offense and its getting late in the game. Why not save your guys legs for the end?
keep feeding that ball into the post
we also seem to have more movement late in the game now all of a sudden
Lets see what Hamilton can come up wth during the time out...have to score out of the break
Many studies have shown that an offensive team’s efficiency can be demonstrated on how successful they are out of a time out
3 in a row against the Gators...
We played our game…we stopped them from running, we out rebounded them and we improved our turnovers…much needed win
Stats
Starters PTS REB AST PF
R. Reid 13 6 0 2
S. Alabi 11 7 0 3
J. DeMercy 9 5 2 1
C. Singleton 8 10 0 2
T. Douglas 2 1 4 3
Bench PTS REB AST PF
L. Loucks 6 2 1 0
U. Echefu 4 3 0 2
D. Dulkys 3 1 0 1
X. Gibson 1 0 0 1
B. Hoff 0 0 0 0
D. Kitchen 0 0 0 0
P. Jordan 0 0 0 0
Team Stats
Points 57
Field Goals 16-51, 31%
Free Throws 19-26, 73%
3-Pointers 6-19, 31%
Off. Rebounds 15
Def. Rebounds 20
Total Rebounds 35
Assists 7
Blocks 3
Fouls 15
Steals 5
Turnovers 7
The boards dominance was key
So was FT shooting.
Have to say when we went down 4 late in the game that I thought this game was lost.
UF Team Stats
Starters PTS REB AST PF
R. Reid 13 6 0 2
S. Alabi 11 7 0 3
J. DeMercy 9 5 2 1
C. Singleton 8 10 0 2
T. Douglas 2 1 4 3
Bench PTS REB AST PF
L. Loucks 6 2 1 0
U. Echefu 4 3 0 2
D. Dulkys 3 1 0 1
X. Gibson 1 0 0 1
B. Hoff 0 0 0 0
D. Kitchen 0 0 0 0
P. Jordan 0 0 0 0
- Starters = Stat alert
Mouse over player for more stats.
Team Stats
Points 57
Field Goals 16-51, 31%
Free Throws 19-26, 73%
3-Pointers 6-19, 31%
Off. Rebounds 15
Def. Rebounds 20
Total Rebounds 35
Assists 7
Blocks 3
Fouls 15
Steals 5
Turnovers 7
Ooops...Try again...
Points 55
Field Goals 21-50, 41%
Free Throws 11-17, 64%
3-Pointers 4-18, 22%
Off. Rebounds 5
Def. Rebounds 23
Total Rebounds 28
Assists 6
Blocks 7
Fouls 20
Steals 2
Turnovers 9
Would a good comparison to Hamilton be Mickey Andrews?
Scheme predicated on our man beating their man and winning individual matchups.
Or am I reading way to much into this?
I never sleep cuz sleep is the cousin of death.
We won
But that was a tough game to watch. We have got to find a better way to break the press. Demercy played a real good game, and reid played well down the stretch.
Thanks to everyone who contributed tonight...
There were some improvements tonight
1.) Less turnovers
2.) Our defense showed up for the entire game
3.) Reid and Demercy continue to develop
4.) Free throw shooting continues to save us
5.) Our defense will get us far in the season and surprise a few teams
My questions and concerns:
1.) Learn to beat a zone, zone press/match up and the full court press
2.) Get Alabi pissed off or something…he’s huge and needs to play bigger
3.) Lets run an offense that doesn’t involve passing the ball around the top and watch the forwards run back and forth across the baseline
We beat a good team tonight. I think they’re slightly over-rated, but they’re good and have a great defense. They typically score a lot of points and will be a tournament team this year. This is a win we should be excited about.
What does everyone else think?
If we can somehow in 7 ACC games, this is the type of win that could get us tourney bound.
My questions:
1. Will our defense be ranked in the top 40 come tomorrow?
2. Did we intentionally play at a slower pace tonight, and if so, did both guards slow the pace well?
3. Is there something obvious UF should have: stuck with, or gone to, that they failed to do?
4. GO NOLES!!
1.) I hope so and they deserve to be a top 40 team…they held florida to their lowest point total of the year by far. They average 80 points per game. They shot 39% from the floor and 22% from three. We forced 16 turnovers and 8 steals and slowed this team down.
2.) The press kills our pace and we were trying to get into some sort of offense. Florida moves well on defense, so we weren’t taking that many shots early in the possession.
3.) They were playing a 2-3 zone that morphed into a 1-3-1 match up zone that was giving us fits in the beginning. It helped that we were shooting terribly. In the second half they went to a straight man and we were able to get the ball inside. Pressuring our guards slows everything down and makes us timid. However, Demercy had a great game on both ends of the floor. Douglas did all he could with the injury. Loucks was a different player in this game. We exploited the fact that they don’t rebound well, probably related to their size.
We did everything we needed to limit their strengths. We defended shots well, limiting their shooting percentage (something they do well.) We played great defense and slowed their fast break game. We rebounded. And finally, we limited our turnovers…or at least we had less than them for once. They have won their games with turnovers and pace. We didn’t allow them to do any of that.
Go Noles!
Actually, tonight was extremely encouraging
We won despite Douglas’ poor scoring night.
We can learn how to beat the press
It’s not like we shot lights out or anything.
We definitely can D it up.
- note an offense that involves umm.. picks and umm.. drives would also help
Or "sets"?
I really like when we win games for something other than hot-streak shooting. To me, this shows that we are performing well in areas that are more consistent (defense), rather than getting lucky in an area of high variance.
I never played organized basketball, so my knowledge is limited to say the least, but...
I think it is possible that they may be only working on fundementals and have not been able to establish consistancy in sets yet.
I will concede that LH does not have a great offensive scheme, but he is not the only coach on staff, so I would think they practice more than stand around and wait for the playmaker to do something. Ham is often not the coach talking during timeouts.
I know figure-heads and recruiters have gotten a bad rap around FSU lately, but if Ham can surround himself with other coaches to make himself, and the team, more successful, I am all for it. The players that we have been getting they last couple of year are a huge improvement over what we had when LH came in. I think he deserves a chance to develope them and see how far they can take us. I am not 100% sold on him because we haven’t seen post-season results yet, but I think he has earned another year or two of continued improvement.
I agree with most of what you said, but I wanted to highlight this...
I know figure-heads and recruiters have gotten a bad rap around FSU lately, but if Ham can surround himself with other coaches to make himself, and the team, more successful, I am all for it.
If he can get this team to 6-10 in the ACC, I will argue for him to get another year for sure.
Good win
I also think the gates are overrated, but we won the game without td playing good offensively at all. We played great d also.
Was working and couldn't see all of this game
But what a great win! I saw the last few minutes and, straight up, we hit the shots down the stretch and the Gators didn’t (except for that crazy reverse lay-in). I love that. Think this could be another year where we kick butt at home and struggle on the road. Although winning out in Vegas is proof that we can take a road game if need be. If we stay good on turnovers and fouls (which were hurting us early this year), we can make a run at the Dance.
8-8 gets us in if...
We don’t have any other losses other than the Pitt game in the next two weeks. That game against West KY on Dec 28 also looms big.
Last year, it was the two bad losses early in the season that sank us.
The pattern the last couple of years is to get the 8 or 9 seed in the tournament, win the play-in game and then having to beat a dominant NC or Duke (Again!) to make the big dance. We need to take care of business.
It is doable, but not probable.
As for WKU… they re 282nd in forcing turnovers, and that bodes really well for us. We’re the better team.
Pitt is essentially a better coached, more athletic, more veteran version of the Noles.
We own the getters in basketball.
Good news I downloaded Safari 3 and I can make paragraphs now if I ever get if I ever write something else.
Thoughts
First i will say, this was a huge win for us after falling to a very slow well coached NU team. I love that we were able to rebound from the loss and execute when we needed to. home court obviously helped a ton..
1.) it’s obvious that the strength of this time is on the defensive side of the ball, which i will say isnt necessarily a bad thing. you can’t teach athleticism but you can teach a team to run a motion offense. i’m still trying to figure out Hamilton’s approach because we don’t do anything to confuse any teams, as we run a man defense for 95% of the game. but this plays to our athletes and allows them to play aggressively, stepping into passing lanes and a lot of times creates turnovers. leads to my next point..
2.) point 1 is very key because this is a team that needs to push the ball whenever possible. creating turnovers on the defensive side of the ball ultimately needs to more fast break points and that should be a strength of this team. we have big guys who can def run the floor. anyone see reid take it the length of the floor by himself?
3.) last night we did a much better job of eliminating turnovers, both forced and unforced. many of noted that ball handling outside of douglas last game was an issue. loucks and demercy stepped it up tonight and had a much better game
4.)we still show an inability to recogize the scheme a defense is running and execute an offense to counter it. we do NOT know how to beat a zone whether it be 2-3 or 1-3-1 which florida ran both of last night. when we are forced to run our half court offense, its evident that we look a little confused. but i think this will improve as the year goes on. still looking for the drive and kick…
5.) it wasn’t until florida started playing man defense that we started to look inside. part of this stems from alabi’s lack of presence in the post. he has got to get “bigger” as i said early on, meaning find the defender post up and get wide. he seems to avoid contact and drift away from the defenders looking to sneak behind. we did much better of this when they dropped into man specifically reid.
Overall great win. if we can keep playing defense like we did last night we will certainly surprise some teams. look out duke
Good post, Ren11
1. Definitely. See updated table in original post. 35th nationally in defense. 179th in offense.
2. We are currently 90th in pace, which is top 3rd. I like the idea, I’m just not sure we can/ will do it.
3. 21.8% turnovers is still atrocious; but it is OUR 3rd best effort of the year!
4. Do you think this will come as these guys get more experienced, or will LH stunt them? I wish I knew if there was something he could do to speed this process.
5. I hope Alibi finds it. Reid is maybe my fave player to watch on this team, he is underrated.
4. Is there a foreign born center that isn’t considered at least somewhat soft? I’m not sure why this happens, but they rarely seem to be bangers even when they’ve played their whole career state side.
one more thing
i know people are probably wondering why we fouled at the end. personally, i think it was the right call just at the wrong time. we should have wait till under 5 seconds to foul. clemson hit a buzzer beater 3 last year to send it to OT and then we subsequently lost. we just fouled a little too early this time
The foul under 5 seconds is the right call,
and I feel that most basketball people now understand this. We just didn’t do it in the best way as you’ve pointed out.
sorry i meant to write "debating" not "wondering"
i just know this is always a topic of convo at the end of close games
It's the right call if you have a team that has shown an ability to execute in the final seconds.
Under Leonard Hamilton, I remember situations where we lost games because we physically could not inbound a ball.
I still have little faith.
We no longer have a 5'10'' point guard trying to inbound.
Will always love Galloway for his shot against UNC, but dadgummit man, wear some inserts in your shoes or something.
we have inbounded better as Uncensored mentioned
and fouling with less than 5 seconds takes away the necessity for any second passes other than the initial inbound. and we are a pretty good free throw shooting team. as long as we have a timeout to spare its 100% the right call in my eyes
whoever is coaching that in practice deserves a raise....
they were saying that Echefu was shooting at around 50% when he got here. and now he’s in the 80s and leading the team.
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