Eric discusses UF three point shooting potential for next season

I like Eric's assessments. In general, I wasn't concerned about our three point shooting due to losing Mann and Locke. I'm just happy about all the talent we gained.

 

It is nice to gain talent, but chemistry is also important and we have yet to see great chemistry the last few seasons.

 

Early practice reports are good regarding chemistry. There's reason to be hopeful. Plus, it's not like the team is being handed over to a bunch of kids straight out of high school.

 

Yep, and chemistry can happen pretty quickly if you have the right group of players.

 

Dean Smith said that the statistic (outside of which team gets the most points, obviously) he paid most attention to was shooting percentage. That usually was the key to wins, and he always recruited great shooters. BD did too, and always made a point of having at least 3 guys that could make 3-point shots on the court at all times. Right at the end of his Gator stint, BD suddenly found himself without enough good shooters.

I love good defense but we still gotta shoot well if we want real success. We'll have to wait and see.

 

I think we did see it last year before KJ went down, and also during Chiozza's senior year. Last year, we were a possession or two away from the Sweet 16 and maybe more. That's not too bad.

 

With chemistry comes consistency. We haven't had that. It is what it is. Yes, there were games where we were were good, but then the next we weren't. I'm waiting for that chemistry where everyone knows their role and we play consistent.

 

Chemistry is good, but you also need talent, IQ, skill and athleticism. I'm not suggesting you don't know this... I'm just speaking out loud. I can see why you'd say our chemistry was off. I'm not 100% sure what is was, but it could have been that. I saw a lack of aggressiveness... especially in transition offense. A lot of times, I was frustrated watching players walk up the ball after a rebound, or fail to use the outlet pass effectively. Could be coaching... could be personnel. Whatever it was, I think we were on to something last year before KJ's collapse. Hopefully, our newly constructed team of veterans has the desire to push the ball. I feel like they will.

 

I’ll add a surprise name to the list of players who may step up and fill a scoring/shooting role:

Niels Lane.

yup, I said it. Niels Lane.

 

It’s unlikely unless Mike White changes his coaching style. There are seven players vying for playing time at the one through three positions. The only one of the seven that Lane likely is ahead of right now is Elijah Kennedy. I would love to see Mike White play balls to the wall on both offense and defense and give a reasonable amount of playing time to at least six of these guys. Billy Donovan did it in 2000, and it resulted in the Gators going to the national title game. However, I will be surprised if Mike White will do the same.

 

I think he may be better positioned than you think.
We will find out.

 

Well, as you and I have previously discussed, we don’t know how mid- and low-major transfers will handle playing high-major ball. However, if Reeves is as good as advertised, one would think that Lane will be behind Appleby, Jones and Reeves. Also, 2 of the mid-majors were defensive players of the year and scored a lot of points. I am rooting for the kid, but I am not getting my hopes up.

 

i believe we lost that year. during our national title runs, billy shrank the bench. the 05-06 squad only had 7 players average more than 10 minutes per game. the 06-07 team only had 8 players average more than 10 minutes per game.

 

I was talking about 2000, when Billy had a really deep team. In 2005-2006, Billy only had 9 scholarship players. They all played some significant minutes in at least one game, although Huertas rode the bench. Moss had a critically important 1st half against UCLA in the title game, but his playing time was limited because he was playing behind Noah, Horford and Richard. Huertas was playing behind Brewer, Humphrey and Hodge. All of those guys got enough playing time during the regular season to establish themselves and develop as players.

 

yeh, true. the following year, billy seemed to shrink the bench more. the only freshman that got real playing time was the controversial dan werner, and we all recall how this board treated him.

i agree it was fun watching the 2000 team run n gun with multiple bodies, but is that style still alive? billy stopped using it years ago, and the recent champions tend to have short benches as well.

 

just to follow up on my last post, jon mitchell was the perfect small forward to follow in corey brewer's steps. billy barely played him. jon transferred and went on to have a very good college career. we can poke holes in any coaches approach. unfortunately none of us are at practice when playing time is earned.

 

I had the personal experience of dealing with a Mike White type coach when I was in college.

 

And there it is!! Finally. Now your feelings toward CMW make way more sense.

 

This is interesting Tim. This might just be semantics, but I don't think that my feelings towards Mike White have been affected by my prior basketball experiences, but my opinion of him as a coach certainly has been affected by my experience as a college basketball player and by my experiences playing and sometimes coaching other teams. At Binghamton U, I was a 2nd-stringer through my junior year, after which I quit the team along with 3 other players, one of whom was a starter and 2 of whom were 2nd-stringers. The coach was quite upset when we quit and couldn't understand why we did it. We all went and played on a team in the Binghamton City League that could have kicked the crap out of Binghamton U. That league consisted of a lot of former NYS college basketball players and several other players who also were playing for the Binghamton Flyers which was a team in the Eastern Professional Basketball League. Back then, the the EPBL was a feeder to the NBA. It later became the Continental Basketball Association. The team I played on had 4 former Binghamton U starters, 3 of whom had been awarded player of the year honors for Binghamton U. I averaged 29 ppg for the team, which was 2nd behind the EPBL player that we had on the team. Back at Binghamton U, we used to run 5 offensive plays, one of which was called by the coach each time we had the ball on offense. Talk about micromanaging. Also, even though the 2nd-string would win close to half of the scrimmages against the starters in practice, we never knew when or if we would get into the actual games. We played a game on the road against a team from Pennsylvania in my junior year, when I sat on the bench for the first 14 minutes of the first half. With about 6 minutes left in the half, one of our guards got fouled on a drive to the basket and was injured on the play. I went in to shoot the 2 free throws and played the final 6 minutes of the half. I had 11 points at the half. I didn't play in the second half. At that point, I knew that I was quitting the team after my junior year.

I also played summer ball in the Catskill Mountains throughout college and law school until I permanently moved out of the area in 1977. At times, I also coached our summer ball team which was made up mostly of guys from the Catskills who went on to play college hoops. We were comprised of guys who played for schools such as Binghamton, Vermont, Buffalo State, St. Peters, Cheney State, Lane College, Harvard, UNLV, and Panhandle State, among others. We were really good, although we could never beat a resort known as Kutsher's, which constantly fielded extraordinarily good teams. We played one night against a hotel called Klein's Hillside, whose most famous summer player from long before my time was a guy named George Mikan. The team we played against had a guard from LIU named Larry Newbold who was later on drafted in the 7th round of the NBA draft and a 6'10" center from Tulsa named Dana Lewis who would go on to become the 12th pick in the NBA draft. We beat that team, and I was not embarrassed by Newbold, although he outplayed me. The more interesting aspect of the game (which I was also coaching) is that I started at center a kid from Binghamton U who was nicknamed "The Tree." The Tree was about 6'3" and was incredibly strong and physical. The Tree outplayed Lewis in that game. Although I have little doubt that our summer team would have crushed Binghamton U, at Binghamton U, The Tree rarely got off the bench.

Subsequently, I went on to play for really good city league teams in D.C., Gainesville and Tampa. Binghamton U was the 6th best team that I played for, and the one team for which I didn't play a lot. The Gainesville team that I played for was the only other team for which I wasn't a regular starter, and that team had a ton of talent led by former UNC player, Dave Chadwick. Even then, I played about half of each game and had one 30+ point game.

So what's the point of all of this babble? It's that I have learned a lot about playing and coaching basketball. I have learned about how important team camaraderie is. I've learned that you should play your bench and you should make sure that everyone has a role on the team. The players are busting their asses in practice and will almost never hurt you if they are in the playing rotation. They deserve to play. They don't need to be on the floor in the last 5 minutes of a tight game. You also learn a lot about other coaches that you watch coach. Now Mike White is nowhere near as bad a coach as the guy I played for, but I see similar attributes, which are essentially that he micromanages and he coaches with fear rather than aggressiveness. Play your players. Don't pull a kid out of the game after 40 seconds if he makes a mistake. Move the ball around among all 5 players. At this level, they can all play. Go up tempo on both ends of the floor. That will allow the players to give it 100% for short periods of time and will force you to play your bench. The players will love you for it and everyone will come together as a team. Mike White has a deep team at the 3 small man positions this coming season. Let's hope that he has a rotation that gives plenty of floor time to 6 guys at those 3 spots. Let's hope that the ball is flying around among them and among the big men. Let's hope that Jitoboh gets enough playing time to develop his game. If the coach can't bring himself to do these things, then it should be time for him to move on. I will be rooting for him to succeed.