2022 NCAA Tournament Outlook

I understand, but fans want to see a product that they feel, in this case, our university is capable of producing. Add huge dollars to coaches and now NIL into the equation and the heat is turned up as it should be. No different than any other "professional" team.

 

You've been out of touch since 2011, apparently. That's fine, but let me share something. The NCAA Tournament has only gotten better with each expansion.

 

Can you advance from the Guranteed Rate Bowl to the national championship? Could the Gators who were in prestigious New Year’s Six bowls during most of Mullen's tenure advance to the national championship? No.

You can't make any serious comparisons between the NCAABB tournament and College football's boring sham of a playoff system.

 

Right now we are competing with Miss State for what I believe will be the 7th and final SEC team that attains a bid
(Auburn, Kentucky, LSU, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas).


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Exactly! If you are in an airport and the tourney is on you will look to see who is playing and you will watch it til they call your flight. The Super Leaf Blower Bowl, not so much.

 

The attitude that what we currently are is what we’re supposed to be…

 

Who said that? We all want to be better. What many of us are saying is that you can’t just go around chasing coaches. Even the best ones don’t win every year, and all good programs go through droughts. We haven’t been conference championship winners in quite some time, but overall we’re still a relevant team with tournament success. I mean… what do you think will happen immediately if we get rid of Coach White? Top 5 recruiting class? SEC Championships? I don’t want some buffoon like Bruce Pearl. I don’t want my coach taking his shirt off and dancing in the arena like Arkansas’ coach. I don’t want a cheater like Will Wade. Give me Mike White any day.

 

IMO the NCAA tournament is the most exciting and BEST sporting event in the United Sates. Supersedes the Super-Bowl, NCAA Football Playoffs, MLB World Series, NASCAR, What have you.
Just my opinion of course.

Some folks may say the "Corn Hole" competition but for me, nothing beats tournament competition and I LOVE the underdogs / small schools (Cinderellas) that make a run.

 

Good and necessary win against Georgia, but unfortunately all the bubble teams the Gators are competing with won last night. SMU and Seton Hall pulled upsets over ranked teams which elevates their resume. Davidson, Notre Dame, Wake, Miami all won. Making it tougher road....at least MSU lost...

 

Its going to be a grind!

 

Interesting, reading the board, the different posters and their relative positions about what is "acceptable" success at UF regarding basketball.

Historically speaking, outside of Neal Walk, Norm Sloan, The Lawrence Brothers and that amazing first NCAA Final Four appearance, their was very limited success. The "Alley" while if you are a Gator, you may have fond memories of it - But it was a dump....lol. Heck, I'm from the Panhandle and ole PJC in Pensacola had a better facility back then.

And along came BILLY the KID! No need to recite his accomplishments.

I think it's fair to say, and I think even they would agree, Tampa and 33 may hold the Gators to the highest standard, of prominent posters on this board whom critique the team.

So, for those whom respond, what is YOUR STANDARD for success??

Is it FAIR to hold CMW to a Billy D standard?
Was it fair to hold Gene Barstow to the same standard as John Wooden? Or the new guy at Duke that takes over for "K"?

I posted a while back that on average Billy D had UF at a threshold of playing in a Regional Final or beyond (Final Four) about once every 2.5 years. Ain't exactly a John Wooden standard but for the Gator Nation, an absolute FEAST at the basketball table.

I have posted NUMEROUS times that CMW's track seems to be around 19-12 / tourney bound and a first round win, second round elimination.

Not quite the Billy D Standard / or close to it.

Tampa is talking up the Wyoming coach. MOST posters (including me) have suggested its time to move on from CMW.

BUT DAMMIT I like our coach (don't flip me off Tampa / 33 - lol)

I can't help it. And despite ALL of this years teams inadequacies I love these guys!! They fight, they scratch and they claw.

I can't tell you folks how cool I think CC is - Tall, Lanky, Physical, a Shot Blocker, a lane owner, with moxie and attitude. We haven't had a big quite like him lately (IMO) kind of what I consider a "Classic" Big in the post. (And YES that could be a legit criticism of Coach). I like all the players.

We don't discuss this on the board much but as a season goes along, its pretty easy to bond with a team on there journey through a season.

And so it is with me, this year, with this group.

We are on what...... a five game winning streak, are at 16-8 and 6-5 in conference.

YES YES Armageddon awaits in the form of KY x 2, Auburn, TAMU and so forth.

May not even make the tourney this year but, COME - ON
This team was on the BRINK and yet, CMW has somehow, ONCE AGAIN, called in the reserves, held the line and there IS HOPE.

Deserves a little acknowledgement. Thank you for the FIGHT GATORS!

 

My guess is that the players care and that is enough for me.

 

Nice post. Agree with most of it accept the expectations of a Billy Donovan level program. It's an interesting dichotomy actually. Some say we shouldn't expect that kind of success because it was unique and elite which in and of itself acknowledges that we were an elite program for almost 2 decades.

I'd say reasonable fans realize Billy was special and that can't easily be replaced but expectations of what we should be is somewhere in between what we are right now and where Billy had us. We are actually closer to it than many here believe but we have not been in contention for SEC regular season or tournament titles at all let alone enough. Billy was talent strapped when he took over but played a frenzied version of basketball that was entertaining and promising. White is short in all of those categories mentioned.

With that said. I welcome any win streak especially since that has been one of my gripes, a completely inconsistent product that usually takes 1 step forward 1 step back. It's refreshing to see them fight and we should enjoy it while it lasts. Credit where credit is due.

 

With 7 more conference games left in the regular season, this is where the rubber meets the road. Hold on tight because this is the stretch where we see what the team is made of and if White can silence his critics.

 

The fact they let UGA back in the game last night due to some incredible sloppy play via turnovers or bad shots. Duruji had 5 TO's last night, Fleming taking contested 3's early in the shot clock, any 3 point shot from McKissic and Appleby airballs.

Last night was the easiest game left on Florida's schedule and it was 3 point lead with less than 2 minutes to go. If they can't easily beat UGA at home, than how can anyone feel confident about any game going forward. Think at Vandy is a toss up, at UGA won't be easy and level of difficulty only goes up from there. Just not sure if Florida can get 3 more SEC victories unless they play a full 40 minute game, something we haven't seen since November.

 

No clue as to Kennedy. I don't think that the offense has changed much other than the adjustments you would expect without a center. Mike White does not appear to be interested in much screening away from the ball. He wants his players to go one-on-one and score or draw a 2nd defender so the guy with the ball can find an open man. This type of offense can work reasonably well. You just need to find a Luka Doncic or James Harden to run it.

 

It’s unrealistic to think we can remain at the top for so long when very few have done it. A lot of programs with great tradition have not returned to glory regardless of multiple coaching changes.

Indiana
UCLA
UNC (as of late)
Arizona
Michigan
Georgetown
UCONN
UMASS
Arkansas (on the way up but the Nolan Richardson years are ancient history)

I could go on and on. Unfortunately, in college hoops even the good programs need to exercise patience. Our time is coming.

 

I am old enough to remember gators hoops mid 90s to present day. I remember parts of the 94 final four, but that's about it. Billy D is the first coach I remember watching every game he coached. So he's really the only guy I can compare White to off memory.

I remember my dad buying a huge Hitachi big screen TV the year UF made the final four. It was really the first time my family was investing in the basketball experience. We had been all on board for football and baseball, but I didn't show interest in basketball until the mid 90s.

The teams under Donovan were fun to watch and always seemed to be up tempo. They had that run in 00, but then we didnt make it out of the opening weekend for a stretch. Not to mention losing to some teams we had no business losing to. Temple, Creighton, Manhattan, Michigan state is a good program but they killed us one year when we were a 2 seed, and also Villanova on year. So 5 straight years of not making it past the 2nd round. So in Billy's first 7 years
1 no tourney
2 no tourney
3 sweet 16
4 final four
5 second round 21pt loss to lower seed
6 first round loss to 12 seed
7 second round 22pt loss to lower seed
8 first round loss to 12 seed (by 15pts)
9 second round loss ( 4 vs 5)
10 we know the rest of the story, guy has his name on the court for good reason.

I get really frustrated watching UF basketball when we slow the tempo down, after we built a lead playing fast and loose. I get frustrated when we routinely go on 10 min scoring droughts. I still find it hard to be overly critical when comparing white to the greatest to ever do it at UF. White has not had the highs like Donovan has his first 7 seasons, but he also has not had the lows either. He's missed the tourney once, had one nice run elite 8, had a COVID cancelation and TBD this year.

Let's also not forget White led us through the Keyontae tragedy last year. I don't know if tragedy is the right word for it, but in the moment and months following, it sure felt like one. Best player on the team, best player in the conference. After all that, still made the tournament and won a game. I really believe with KJ that team last year was Whites best chance at making it back to a regional final. If that happens this year is a different story completely, huge "if" I know.

One last point, the conference is better than it ever was during Donovans tenure. Bama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU are all better programs the last 4 years. UK and UT are about the same for both eras as best I can remember.

 

The first thing that I look for is good coaching. It was apparent that Billy could coach 'em up from the Gators' first game with Billy as coach. And, he only got better. Whether it was the Larry Shyatt influence or something else, Billy's defense caught up with his offense as elite, and boy could he develop his players. Beginning in 1998-1999, once Billy had 6 or so of his recruits in the program, the team took off. Over the next 17 seasons, 7 Elite Eights, 4 Final Fours, 3 national title games and 2 national titles. These results occurred besides numerous injuries and other negative happenstances.

Although folks might disagree with me, I have only seen mediocre coaching from Mike White, and it hasn't changed in 7 years. If Mike looked like he could coach, it would be easier to give him a pass for the last couple of years as the result of the injuries to KJ and CC, but I cannot do that. Maybe, Stricky Stricklin can. In addition to having to watch a disjointed and chaotic offense, I find it hard to swallow that there are so many successful former Gators out there who could have, but did not succeed at UF under the Mike White regime.

 

The biggest issue with White has always been the “sloppy” play on offense, it almost got us yet again against UGA. That Appleby no look pass to… nobody in particular… was one of the worst things I’ve seen in that game situation. He redeemed himself by finally knocking in a 3, but there is a certain lack of discipline to the offense.

I’m sure other mediocre teams probably have similar issues (that’s how teams get to be mediocre to bad in the first place!). But the contrast from the prior system is especially striking because guys would immediately get a talking-to after bonehead plays. I hope White covers this at least in the film room, because he doesn’t seem to address it at all in-game. But obviously even if he “talks” about it, it doesn’t see to get through to the players in terms of what happens in games. Just seems like a loss of focus...