Looking back and looking ahead, the Gators have put themselves in a position of having to do something NOW, if they want to get to the NCAAT in March. The SEC is pretty darned good this season. Our next 2 games are against good teams at neutral sites. Ohio Bobcats are 4-4, but they're a good midmajor and lost by just 4 at Michigan. We should be favored in that one but it will be competitive. It's a MUST WIN, in my view. Then we have a 7-2 Oklahoma at a neutral site. They handled us easily last season. Since I don't see us going on a tear in the SEC slate, the OU game is almost a MUST WIN. Outside of that, we have a road game at 8-1 Kansas State tucked into the middle of the SEC schedule. Win the next two, and we go into the SEC at 8-4. Go 9-9 in conference, we have 17 wins. Win at KSU, 18 wins. Win an SECT game, 19 wins. That MIGHT get us into the NCAAT. We have a lot of work to do. On the positive side, I don't think we're anywhere near our ceiling yet. The team has talent and is making incremental progress. If we continue to make progress, we might hold serve at home in the SEC and win a few on the road.
Yea we’ve already dug ourselves quite the hole Selection Sunday wise. Plenty of time to dig out of it, but team needs to improve and do it quickly. 2-0 would set us up for a chance to get back in the conversation. And starting out at Auburn is really rough, but also another chance for a confidence booster.
Yup, tough road to go. Have to understand our identity. CC needs to go for 20-10 each night or at least get lots of opportunities.
if anybody we play has good strong Center and power forwards, we don’t need CC shooting threes. An added: if he can’t score inside, we need to make sure our offense has ways to score. UConn used double screens, shared the ball for good shots. I believe our team played hard but we were just passing around the perimeter, our screens were ineffective. How can teams destroy our screens and we can’t get good shots. We drive the basket but can’t finish, of course Alex did get some with his quickness. Bonham and Lofton couldn’t even get a good shot, maybe Aberdeen and Riley and maybe even Will Richard the guards with playing time together if our two starting guards struggle again. Kowacie needs plays to get him open, because with space it’s bombs away at a good clip. We need contributions from everybody. CC needs to score, but not force shots against double and triple teams, recognize this quickly and look for distributing the ball to others. He needs to work on this, because all teams we play know we will start our offense with him. Felder needs to be an option at the top of the key sometimes to distribute, screen and shoot, because he is a pretty good shooter. We have made him ineffective due to him just rebounding and he doesn’t have any chance at screens getting him open. We are struggling learning to play effective together and haven’t found guards that can distribute and score. CTG doesn’t have time now because our schedule is so difficult. But others still need time on the floor. Our coach is learning in the south everybody is gunning to destroy us in our new coach and player situation. We have some talent, but we haven’t gelled. I see this team around 500 ball and not making the tournament. We need better half court offense and players helping out each other on defense. How many times did UConn just roll to the basket, this made me sad just seeing this happen. Coach better get on recruiting physical, aggressive players. If we somehow get to eighteen wins, he will have done a good job. Right now we are the team which others can’t wait to destroy! Finally, Lofton and CC don’t need to be shooting threes, every time they miss, the other team rebounds and goes fast down the court and shoots open threes with high averages. This is losing basketball of which we are seeing nightly with competitive teams. Things need to be changed or a losing record is eminent!
Good news is, Alex Fudge is getting better every week. After a very slow start, Bonham has gotten good. Kowacie can turn it up and be a real force if he's a little more careful with the ball and shot selection. Will Richard has been solid from the start. Kugel will start to shine in February, but we need wins long before that. Myreon seems to have at last shaken loose of his funk. All five just mentioned seem to be slowly improving their individual and team defense. No worries about Lofton and Castleton. Castleton needs to stop putting the ball on the floor in traffic. And, yes to Lofton shooting 3s when open, no to Castleton. Felder and Jitoboh are solid when playing their roles.
We're gonna need some real improvement to even make 9-9 in the SEC. They are capable of it and maybe even better than .500, but I can also see this team tanking in the SEC. Agree that the next two are huge games. Side note: OK is playing Ark today, so we can get a good look at 'em.
I want to know what happened to this guy? CJ Felder Could Be This Year’s Breakout Candidate | GatorCountry.com He played a season low 7 minutes vs UConn while CC was getting worked over by their bigs and could have used some help down low. He has been non-existent, and I really thought we were getting an Yves Pons type player. Not saying he would be that good, just a physical defensive specialist who could erase some mistakes by the guards.
You said some things in your post that make perfect sense… CC does not need to be shooting threes but we have to find ways to get him opportunities as other good teams do with their stars.
Yeah agree, those that say Fudge is outplaying him and taking his minutes. Here is what I’d say… even if he’s more productive he should not be taking his minutes… Fudge is not a banger down low and is not physical at all due to his slight frame. Felder can you give cc some help down low as he is much much bigger and stronger than fudge. I believe he has 30 to 40 pounds on him. I don’t care if Fudge’s numbers are better. Until we get more physical I’d say there’s no way we win 9 sec games. Not sure why Fudge and Felder can’t be on floor at Same time. Gives us a long line up and more physicality w Felder on the floor. Same way I think big JJ and and CC should see minutes together.
Agree with your point about needing to be physical, but even the banger stats (rbs, blocks) are not enough to make a case for Felder. We also need production at the offensive end and Fudge is giving that. Look at the per/40 stats. Player.....rbs.....blks.....stls.....pts.....fg%.....3pt% Felder.......9.6.....0.8.......1.0......7.8.....54.2.....25.0 Fudge.......8.8.....2.0.......0.7.....15.2....45.5.....40.0 Fudge also shoots 3.8 free throws per/40 to Felder's 0.8. We need more production from Felder, if he is to be a major contributor and I think that was Brent's point in the Felder thread, while suggesting a specific way in which he might give that production.
Excellent breakdown!! Still think hard to measure physical presence due to size/weight and Felder has it.
lets get real. if we keep playing this way no way we win 9 games in the Sec. we have yet to beat a decent team. Worst case win against Ohio lose to Oklahoma and K state, go 6 and 10 in the Sec. lose the first round of tournament. 13-18 Hope I am wrong
Ohio isn't a gimmie. Gators play D like the UConn game and work to get good shots, not their shot, and they should be fine.
Good start against Ohio last night. Now we get five days off before Oklahoma, which will only get two days off, since they play on Saturday. If we play similar defense to what we showed against Ohio, we have a chance to beat OK and maybe even pull out a decent SEC record. I know . . . one game at a time.
Yep. The win last night gave us a little boost in Kenpom, up to #48. At-large teams generally need to be that high or better at selection time. A win over Oklahoma will be big for the Gators.
