Not a good night for Coach Golden, but he is a young, sharp guy …. emphasis on young. We will see him make mistakes, and tonite there were a few. There is no denying he was out-coached by Dusty, but I do think Todd has a super high ceiling. He WILL learn on the job… and that is ok. As for the team… I also think it has a pretty decent ceiling this season. I think it has more pieces than we are featuring, but that will materialize as the team gels. I do think the biggest issue is a lack of defensive toughness… which is a problem I didn’t anticipate. And all this said… this is a truly good fau team. We will be ok.
We played really well at times and but the stretches of awful killed us. Really, when you have a guy dominate the game like Colin did, you shouldn't lose. Back to the bubble for now.
Interesting the contrast between this team and last year's team. A bunch of transfers on both, but last years team was crazy good on defense to start the year, but couldn't keep it up, and the O never made up the difference. Now we have a team that plays pretty mediocre defense outside of CC blocking shots, but probably a little more advanced offensively. Will be interesting to see if our team defense improves noticeably. If not, it is going to be a long season in the SEC.
Our guys shot like crap. We also can't afford goose eggs from our PF position. If Felder is going to start, he needs to assert himself. Obviously it's CC's post, but 0pts/4rbs isn't gonna get it done. This should have been a game where he can take advantage of their four-guard lineup. I realize that can got the other way too, but dude needs to wake up.
I’d like to see us got more guys involved in the offense. There are several good pieces on the floor at any time, but so far… we are not fully taking advantage. Colin is carrying us. That great, but he isn’t gonna get 30ppg in the sec. The offense will need to be more diverse.
Uh, this team is no different than the previous years; bad shooting and sketchy defense. Apparently, a coaching switch hasn't changed much.
While I agree it is too early to make that a conclusion, it is worth keeping an eye on. I also understand what aka is saying, but I hate the idea that the UF head coach is learning on the job. In a sense, every coach does every day, but it is a bit concerning to see him get outcoached tonight. Here's to hoping we see steady improvements in coaching and cohesiveness.
Golden needs to figure out what lineup can make stops. I'd like to see Golden play Felder more minutes. He's the only true 4 right now as Fudge is more of a 3-4. Lane wasn't good tonight but he hasn't been playing and imo he needs more minutes. He's too good defensively not to play more. Even Jones plays better defense. Right now, Golden seems to be playing the scorers the most, but Richard and Reeves aren't the best defensively right now. Fudge is okay but think he'll improve. This is an unacceptable loss, but hopefully tonight was a wake-up call to reevaluate his lineup decisions. We'll see if anything changes, but the Gators are in for a long season if Golden doesn't figure it out. I was very hopeful for this team, but tonight was a huge step back. Better win the next game.
I remember saying Fudge wasn’t a 4. Some felt he could play the 4. I see him as 3 and only a 4 if we are in major foul trouble.
Very long season for sure. I expected a team that was much tougher defensively, physically, and mindset wise.
You've determined this after 3 games as a way to compare one guy's less than stellar tenure at UF with another who's coaching his first year at UF?
Love CC, but it can’t just be the Caselton show. Others have to get involved. Been disappointed with Reeves and Felder so far.
Too soon to say, because each of the teams we played had a different style. FAU was definitely the most talented of the three. I will say that the offense makes the attempt to get the ball into Colin's hands early, which is the right thing to do. Several players have been disappointing in all three games, but I'm not going to call them out so early in a young season. Really, the missed bunnies on offense and not closing out on the 3-balls on defense cost us the game. I shudder to say it, but those are "correctable."
Ah well, baseball will be up and running shortly. Nothing suffers like Gator fans, basketball fans especially. I do not doubt that Golden is going to be a step up from White. It is just whether his step up is "Mus-take to Mullen" or will it be "Mus-take to Napier"? THAT is the 64k question. I am excited for the future, regardless of the fits and starts of today.
Lots of new pieces, a new coaching staff and a new o and d philosophy… there are going to be speed bumps. The owls got hit behind the arc.. it happens. My bigger concern is our guys seemed to play lackadaisically…. Like they thought they could just our athlete the other team. Bad passes, bad shot selection, not taking care of the ball after a rebound.. sloppy play. That can be fixed. We rely on CC too much… but some of that is on CC several times he chose to go 1vs3 in the paint and lost the ball when he should have felt the double/triple team and kicked the ball out. Sometimes he makes it workout … but if we are going to play inside/out basketball he has to be willing to kick it out when he feels the double. I’m not worried… it’s a building year for everyone in the program. It’s a long term project. Golden was hired for the long haul.. much like Napier.. to build a program.
Why? They are playing together for the first time. There's only so much a coach can accomplish with intra-squad scrimmages. It's why these pre-conference games are played.
Can’t expect a coach to come in, install a new system with new coaches to him and thrive from day one. Only fools would expect that. We will be fine. He hasn’t even started recruiting his own guys yet on the roster. And I think he is going to mold these guys into winners. Long season. By conference time I think we will be extremely competitive and a team people don’t want to play.
