| 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!