There is a lot to like about Golden, and I think he has all those intangibles to be really successful. Then again, I’m the same guy who “hired” Coach White… so I can hear the grumbling from here. Anyway- I knew very little of Golden prior to him being hired, knew virtually nothing of his San Fran team, nor his background/philosophy. And while we’ve all heard about his analytical prowess, Golden described himself as a defensive coach. To me, that would imply some sort of defensive identity, creativity and coaching strategy. But we have been entirely one-dimensional. We have played the exact same defense … regardless of situation, opponent or score. Perhaps I need to hit up @Efawcett7 … and learn what made Todd a “defensive coach”, and if we are seeing him coach his ability/style, or is handcuffed by personnel?
Hey, to be fair, we pressed on like 2 possessions, got a turnover and didn’t go back to it . I’m not upset we lost, UCONN is a really good team and we had a large roster turnover and a new coach. But the reason I like games like this is because it shows your holes clearly. We are not athletic enough outside of one or two guys. We are not strong enough on the inside. And we are “Mike White esque” in our insistence on playing straight up man. I’ve carped on that long before tonight, but it keeps repeating itself. I would also say JJ was the better interior option tonight, or at a minimum we should have tried playing them both more. thr frustrsting thing about tonight was that they had 5 more shot attempts than us, but we had 19 moore FTs, so we actually had more scoring chances. Given that, you should never lose by 20, at home. Doesn’t matter who you are playing. But CC took 2 shots outside of 6 feet and went 4-14. Bonham went 0-7. WR was 0-2. So combined our three best players went 4-23. Not gonna have a good showing against a top 5 team when that happens.
San Francisco was successful defensively under Golden last season but they did it playing man defense 100% of the time and generally sticking to the same principals, which when it's working--seems great. Of course when Florida hasn't been great defensively, not having a different look seems to be a detriment. San Francisco did use a number of different ball screen coverages, whereas Florida has only had one they have used (and UConn was excellent in picking it a part) so I am waiting to see some different strategies used there
Will be interesting to see the players he targets and commit to UF with the year to recruit. Different philosophy for hiring to gamble they a young coach will be the next Billy Donovan, as opposed to paying up for top P5 coach
Not sure why Anthony Grant would not have been a better choice coming from Dayton. Much more HCing experience and 2020 Coach of the Year in college basketball. Knows UF. Why don’t we want anyone from the Billy tree?
believe it or not… I don’t think Grant would have left Dayton for Florida. Regardless, I wasn’t intending to question the hire. I actually think Todd has a very high ceiling. But as I posted earlier on the season- he will be a guy who “learns on the job”. That’s sometimes a tough equation at Florida… but I think it’s ok for basketball, given you have a high upside coach. Anyway, I was more genuinely interested in his defensive pedigree… as we’ve seen very little.
Whatever the defense, I think the way to get out of our “Mike White-esqe” teams, will ultimately come down to recruiting better and more physically imposing players, and mostly focusing on HS kids with a sprinkle of transfers.. Our best teams had a physical presence..
that’s a really hard equation…. Top level hs kids (which you need on SEC) typically expect to play, yet usually aren’t physical players as freshmen/sophomores. And the really skilled ones, don’t stick around longer than that. And if you recruit those kids, but don’t play em…. Portal. It’s tough to rely on hs talent, and still be create a mature/physical team. The landscape has changed, and quite frankly… it sucks.
Well, I think the Huskies average 82 pts and we "held" them to 75. I wish I could say it's one thing or another thing, but agree about the defense, esp. in the way it looks. We get burned a bunch. They were actually trying to fight over screens tonight, but that has been a problem and they get lost on switches.
tbat would be fantastic, but it was rare than… and probably unheard of now … to have a kid like Prather wait and develop over 4 years; or a senior star-center like Young. Heck, a kid like Wilbekin would likely transfer bc not starting his first two seasons.
What's amazing is how well we (usually do) against teams we should beat and how bad we do against teams that don't seem THAT much better. Some of ur margin of victory and margin on losses are insane this year.
Saw 1 game last year in the tournament for SFU but that's all I knew of Golden. It was a baffling hire the day after they lost in the tournament with more experienced and well known coaches available, but I started to be excited by some of the transfers and returning players. I couldn't be more unimpressed so far this season of Golden's coaching. This team has enough talent to not be embarrassed on their home court, regardless of the team they're playing, not to lose to FAU and not lose to WV by 30. I see absolutely no cohesion on the court. No one moves without the ball. Defense is attrocious and his lineups are baffling. Why is Felder playing 7 minutes. If you love Fudge so much than play him at the 3 with Felder in the line-up. Felder is your only true 4 and barely plays. Where is Lane. Someone who can actually guard on ball and makes things happen when given minutes. Golden seems to play three guys at once who basically all do the same thing. Right now this team is headed for the bottom of the SEC, which is unacceptable imo. Perhaps the issue is terrible roster mgmt by having too many guys playing the same position. While Mike White frustrated me at times offensively, never was his teams this poorly coached. At least White was always willing to change things up, something I've yet to see from Golden. Also, perhaps a coach or two needs to be brought in to help with defense. In fact, I thought Golden was an offensive coach, but haven't been overly impressed offensively either. Unfortunately the staff isn't cutting it so far this year. Obviously, Golden is our guy, but we need to see real improvements from this team. Right now, no one is excited to watch us play and anytime we play a good team, you can basically stop watching at half-time. Maybe it's time Golden wakes up and starts putting guys like Felder and Lane in mixing up the line-ups. I don't believe for 1 second this will happen but I'd love to be proven wrong. Maybe Golden needs to bring in all his guys to be effective, but it's a very frustrating time to be a Gator basketball fan so far this season. I really hope Golden can turn it around, but this has been a very poor start.
Castleton can dominate lesser players from most mid-majors and get the looks he wants, but can get lost against players that match him well, or as with UCONN are actually physically imposing over him. It seems to me Castleton sometimes tries to just brute force his way to the basket (sometimes frustrating to watch against double teams) and needs to get better at recognizing the outlet, something he was horrible at last year and I thought Golden would be all over correcting (I.e bringing a “real” offense with him). A lot of bad/forced shots with zero touch to them. While it’s true WVU and UCONN seemed to have personnel advantages, Golden needs to do ALOT better to find ways to adapt or the SEC schedule will be brutal. Right now it seems almost as Castleton goes so goes the team…against WVU and UCONN that was…. not good.
We do have a senior-center star in Castleton, and a several who have been around the program a few years. Plus a lot of the transfers in CBB are 4th and 5th year players. Immaturity isn’t our problem. But yes it will be difficult to get a group to stick for 4 years, but that isn’t just our problem it’s CBB-wide. But in theory the NIL actually helps keep “not quite NBA prospect” guys like Castleton and Young in school as juniors and seniors, whether they transfer is a separate matter.
i agree. I was responding more to the ability/inability to build a mature/physical roster with mostly hs talent. The good ones typically leave early. And those not immediately good enough to play… likely opt to play elsewhere.
I actually don't think our defense was bad last night. Not good, but not bad either. Sure, there were mistakes and breakdowns, but that happens. It was more that UConn was just really, really good. If they got a slight opening, they buried it. The real difference in the game, however, was their defense dictating to our offense.
All I can add to the discussion is that there are too many new pieces, including the coaches, to gel. Maybe he wants this defense to get pat first before he tries other concepts. But I would also say we are sort of in the "offense affects the defense" mode. And UConn was WAY good on defense. Too much desperation on offense.
I like the idea of sprinkling in a player or two from the portal, but I think we should be building from the HS level. IMO.
Maybe NIL can help with retention? I just question the transfer portal team makeup as a long term strategy rather than a short term quick fix.
