There was really only one way to go, but there wasn’t much to not like about the effort, defense, ball movement and bench play. We will need Jones to find his shot. I really hope we play more of Kennedy and Kowacie, especially the former.
He didn’t start Appleby, so there’s that. Ball movement was better. Even if Appleby shot without passing the first two times he touched the ball. The inside fiest mentality was good, and it paid off. Intensity was much better until about 15 minutes left, and then defense and shot selection regressed, but by then it was a 25 point lead. what we still haven’t seen is what will happen if someone competently plays us five out again. That will be the real test. Glad to get a comfortable win, but that’s going to show whether we can close to get back to where we were.
yeah - this game doesn't tell much, but i was looking at attitude and effort. I was also looking to see how we used our bench. I was happy with both.
yep I should have mentioned bench minutes, was a lot better today. But it was also clear in some of those minutes why those guys have had their time shaved. Maybe more floor time will help.
I've been lobbying for Kennedy and Kowacie. I thought the former played really well, and Kowaice was certainly adequate. He had a couple looks that he missed, and you can see from his reaction . . .he was annoyed. I think he needs minutes and will slow down.
One other thing out of tonight, and I say this every year and it falls on deaf ears from the staff. But a perfect night to let them practice some zone. Even if it was just a few possessions they would have had some tape to study and make some corrections If we can’t stop the five out again p it’s going to be a necessity, and he never works it into blowouts like this.
I dont disagree. . . but i suspect he wanted to keep the intensity that comes with man-2-man, especially considering the flat tuesday performance And I am sure rebounding concerns will be a big reason why we see little zone this year.
I agree with these two freshmen. Kennedy has good ball handling skills. He and Kowacie took it to the hoop. As these two start finishing these and hit a couple of threes in a row, they will make this team better. Kowacie looks like he has grown taller since we have signed him. Both of these two freshmen, if they stay for a couple of years, will become good SEC players.
Need to play like this against good to great competition. Good bounce back. Hopefully Texas southern plays well the rest of the season so it doesn’t turn out to be a brutal loss on the resume.
I thought we played some zone in the first half. It wasn't for long, but I thought we went zone at least once.
As Mark Wise said. . . its more about who you beat than who beat you. Certainly, bad losses hurt. . . but Florida has a ton of big games ahead that could more than erase.
We did play some 2-3 zone against Texas Southern but it was shredded so quickly that it was hard to see.
Both you and Oragator are correct. We need to start working zone D into the mix. When nothing was working against Texas Southern -- and I still find it hard to believe I just said that -- we should have gone zone for a few possessions if only to get TSU out of their rhythm and maybe eliminate a few uncontested layups. But aka is also correct in that the staff rightly wanted us last night to get back to the level of intensity we had early in the season. Zone is sometimes needed. Even in Billy's early seasons at UF, when we went full court press and man-to-man all game, when he sensed the opponent starting to tire in the last 7 minutes, he liked to drop back into a 3-2 zone and watch them start clanking their shots. That's how we knocked off #1 Duke in the Sweet 16.
white is not a big 2-3 guy. But he has often and effectively used a 1-3-1. I was surprised he didn’t throw it out there Tuesday, just to switch something or maybe light a spark. I suspect he knew that performance was way beyond scheme- his guys just weren’t ready to play. And yes, a large part of that is on him.
My comments, due to his o-fer on threes last night and not finishing at the rim after his good moves. It is just a matter of time till he gets his shots to fall. A very good pickup. Definitely, a key reserve this year.
Right now, Kennedy is clearly ahead of Reeves. But Reeves's ceiling is a LOT higher. I expect we'll start seeing that come mid-February.
