Credit where credit is due. Great win without our best player. Guys figured out how to shoot the ball when they needed to. Important win for our tournament hopes since Miss St might be a team we fight on the bubble.
Does anybody know if winning this game without CC counts more for our resume? Or is it just a good win against a potential tourney team. In other words does winning w/o CC make it an even better win with the NET and our resume? “Wes Chandler was Percy Harvin before Percy Harvin was born.”
The espn viewers now have seen the Gators win two big games. All good from where I am sitting. Duruji, a senior, if nothing else, is the most athletic/active player in the nation. When he finishes his drives and hits a number of threes like tonight and steals/rebounds the ball, he is an All American. Helped lead the comeback and his teammates responded. I have to give CMW and his staff kudos for the better play we are seeing! The pundits know that the Gators are getting better. If we continue to shoot the ball better and get better at not throwing the ball away, we can get there! Let’s grind Gators!
Duruji is at his best when attacking. I can live with the occasional charge, like that one late, because it means he's still in attack mode. If he keeps trying to get to the rim, he'll get his chances. And if he makes his free throws like tonight, he could be our top scorer. Kind of like Keyontae. When he finally realized that he was unstoppable if a crease opened and he went hard to the hole, he became our best player. And when they started to give him a little more space outside in order to cut off his drives, he started making his 3s. Duruji isn't as strong as KJ, but he's more athletic. Go hard, man!
I don’t think the committee/computers factor in who played and who didn’t when deciding who is in and who is out. They mainly look at wins/losses, quadrant wins, SOS, and a few other variables.
Great to see Duruji, Reeves and Appleby hit big 3s down the stretch. Nobody on this team is going to carry the whole load from outside. We have to have multiple options step up.
You are correct about the committee. The computers, on the other hand, only participate as an act of show. They are not concerned with the selection of participants in basketball tournaments. They are too busy planning the destruction and enslavement of all humans. I'm being careful of what words I use here because I know they are tracki.... delete delete delete... PLEASE IGNORE. I RECANT PREVIOUS STATEMENT. I AM FOOLISH HUMAN. CONTINUE EXPRESSING YOUR THOUGHTS, HUMANS.
I would remind everyone that, in addition to CC being out MSU SHOT THE LIGHTS OUT! They were near 60% for 3/4 of the game. It did not seem like UF could break out of that 6 - 10 point deficit and then big Dru and Jit stepped up! And the Apple!!
Yeah, the announcer was saying how that one MSU dude was 0-for-10 on 3s in SEC play, but he couldn't miss last night.
The “Apple”, when he is flying out of control and slings passes right to the opponent, it, Drives. Me. Crazy! He is quick and a pretty good shooter/scorer, but I feel sure coach asks him to think and focus when he passes, but when he turns it over it seems the other team usually scores with a three, which to me can wreck any momentum on keeping a lead or gaining to catch-up. Last night he only had two of these and had double figures, so maybe this improvement! LOL
As well as our bigs stepped up, McKissic deserves some credit as the leading rebounder for the Gators.
Seems to me the guys played like they were not under as much pressure last night. They played more freely and let the game come to them. I didn't see the hesitance or fear of screwing up last night that they seem to have played with in the past. Last night was a very good step in the right direction!
He's a strong guy and rebounds exceptionally well for a guard. Jitoboh is going to get us 10 rebounds Saturday.
