I guess ... at least for me... it’s surprising only in one spot, PG. I figured App would start... for a few reasons. First, I think he is pretty damn good. Second, year-over-year cohesion at the pg spot would seem a benefit, given the roster overhaul. Third, I figured Jones would play more off the ball. Anyway- this is really interesting, and in a lot of ways, exciting to have a player like Tyree coming off the bench. It’s been awhile since I’ve looked forward to an exhibition game like I do this one. So much to see and learn. Pregame Stuff: UF vs Embry-Riddle exhibition (Monday, 7 pm) - Florida Gators
Wonder if at some point we'll ever experiment with pairing Castleton and Felder in the front line. Provides some serious rim protection, at least.
This is Myreon Jones at the point, correct? If yes, it gives a little more length in the backcourt. If Appleby is the better option, he will start. I'm looking forward to Reeves and to see how ready he is to compete in conference play.
If looked at individually, I do think App is the better pg. But Jones needs to be on the floor, as he is easily the teams best shooter, and shooting may be a weakness some nights. So why not put Jones at the 2? I really think White loves Mckissic and what he brings with his defense, physicality and leadership. Ao I think App is coming off the bench not bc we have a better pg, but because White sees the combination of Jones/Mckissic as being better. I’m not sure this carries all season, as I think App is our best ball handler. But we will see....
Every projected starter is a senior or grad transfer. Old teams have been doing well in the tournament.
There's team depth, if not that in the front court. The guard rotation will be fun to watch and so let's hope CMW can pull the right strings.
Interesting to see Jones at the point. He brings more size and better shooting than Appleby, but I suspect Appleby is quicker and better in the open court. Maybe Jones will be a Taurean Green-type PG, a good distributor that can score. Sounds like Duruji legitimately won the position and wasn't just handed it. I liked his play last year but I hope he limits his 3-point attempts. Plenty of better shooters in the lineup.
I see that Castleton is listed as 231 pounds... same as last year. I wanted him to be a little heavier. Jitoboh is listed as 290 pounds. Last year he was listed as 285, which is laughable. He hadda be way over 300.
Wonder if the finishing lineup is different than the starting...Of course we won't see that this game.
When those two are on the floor together, I'm pretty sure Jones will be the pg . . . though I certainly could be wrong. We will find out a lot tonight. I think Jones will slide to the two when he and App play together.
I agree that the combination of Felder/Castleton would be Florida's best front-court combination for both rebounding and defense. Perhaps the duo of Catleton/Duruji is better for offense along with the backcourt of Myreon Jones, Brandon McKissic and Phlandrous Flemming. However, because of the lack of proven front-court depth, I believe that CJ Felder will be the first interior player off the bench. I am not sure if Florida wants an undersized Duriji at the center position against the opponents of the SEC. Perhaps because of his versatility to play two positions, Felder will back-up both the PF and center positions and should play some significant minutes here. Jitoboh is the other bench player that could play some minutes at the five, too.
I think it’ll be something more than an experiment… I think we are sure to see those two together on the floor quite a bit. I think felder and Duruji will split time at the 4, and Castleton will basically anchor the center for 30+ minutes per game.
Because of all of the talented wings on this team, Florida should come in waves in the back-court. The second unit should provide great energy off the bench. ==================================================== Projected 2021-22 Florida Basketball team: PG: 6'3" 175 Myreon Jones (15.3 ppg, Penn St transfer)/ 6'1 170 Tyree Appleby (11.3 ppg, 3.3 A, 3.1 rpg) SG: 6'3" 185 Brandon McKissic (17.2 ppg, Missouri-KC) 6'6 182 Kowacie Reeves // 6'3 185 Elijiah Kennedy SF: 6'5" 205 Phlandrous Fleming, Jr (20.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg, Charleston Southern) 6'5 206 Niels Lane PF: 6'7 220 Anthony Duruji (6.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg) 6'7 231 CJ Felder (9.7 ppg/ 5.6 rpg, Boston College transfer) 6'9 172 Tuongthach Gatkek (10.0 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.2 blk) C: 6'11 231 Colin Castleton (12.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg) 6'7 231 CJ Felder (9.7 ppg/ 5.6 rpg, Boston College transfer) 6'11 290 Jason Jitoboh ==================================================== I am not sure how accurate some of these weights are compared to some other sites. . For instance, I was hoping that Castleton would add a little bit of more weight and be around 240ish. It's interesting that both Felder and Castleton weigh the same at 231. Also, both Appleby & Duruji increased their weights from last year: TA - 163 to 170 and AD - 205 - 209. It's still unclear what weight is Jitoboh: 305 or 290.
This is actually the lineup I would have expected based on the eye test. I think I said that in a post here before. Duruji/Felder might be interchangeable, but yeah… I think Tyree might be outclassed by the transfers. Just shows how good of a job the coaching staff did in the off-season working the portal.
Maybe- though I wouldnt be surprised if we see similar to last year, in which the beat lineup (imo) paired App and Tre. I think App and Jones will eventually start together, and it will be Mckissic as a 6th man. Either way... I like how the team looks on paper. Tonite is a first eye test.
Well they are the starting back court. I would be really shocked if they used Jones as the pg. he will be heavily used on off ball screens to get him open shots.
At 379 total assists, Appleby is only 120+ assists from the 500 Assist benchmark. In a 30-G regular season schedule, that would come out to roughly 4 assists/G to reach that total. At his previous two years at Cleveland, Appleby had assist totals of 135 and 162. In the 2020 shortened season (25 games including postseason) at Florida, Appleby had 82 assists. ============================================== This 500A-benchmark was also reached/approached by these former Florida greats: 5. Eddie Shannon - 493 A 4. Ronnie Montgomery - 503 A 3. Kasey Hill - 530 A 2. Erving Walker - 547 A 1. Chris Chiozza - 571 A ============================================== It remains to be seen on whether Appleby comes off the bench and gets enough playing time to reach that threshold or not. On this Florida team, Appleby may be the best passer of all the players but he does make more turnovers (287 career turnovers, yikes!) than all of the others Assist Totals of the newcomers: Brandon McKassic: 251 (48, 61, 83, 59) Phlandrous Flemming: 222 (60, 121, 41) Myreon Jones: 140 career assists (15, 74, 51) Tyree Appleby: 379 (135, 162, 82) At 121 assists, Flemming is the only other player than Appleby that has reached the 120+ season assist total! Finally, the one advantage that Jones has at point guard over all the others is that he makes significantly less turnovers than the others which is a great quality to have in winning basketball games. Perhaps this was the metric that Coach White has also used in forming his starting line-ups this season. McKassic seems to be 2nd best in the Assist/TO category behind Jones (see below): Jones' Assist:TO ratio has been (3.5 to 1.5) and (2.0 to 1.2) compared to Appleby's (3.3A to 2.9TO), (5.6 to 3.4) McKassic's (3.3A to 3.0TO), (3.0 to 1.8) Flemming's (2.3A to 2.7TO), (3.8 to 3.3)
You know at some point this season Castleton is getting into foul trouble, or worse, fouling out early. Assuming Jitoboh is still limited on time, Felder and Duruji better be ready. I'm interested to see if Castleton sits more than normal tonight to force the team to adjust.
