To date, three players have recorded some eyebrow raising DNP’s …. Kowacie, Felder and Lane… all returners. The starting lineup has settled into 4 new guys … Bonham, Lofton, Richard, Fudge…. along with CC. I am not saying it would be right or wrong, but wondering aloud if Golden has a preference toward the guys he brought in. On some level- that would make sense… as they reflect players he selected for his system. Thoughts?
It could be that White’s guys aren’t buying in, other than CC. Felder and Lane are complete no shows on offense, and Reeves is inconsistent.
Thoughts? Here ya go: You're cherry-picking, ignoring the fact that Kugel, Aberdeen, and Syzminxkyszkyzk are on the bench. And I expect Kugel may start before the season is over, but he is a freshman and shows it (although admittedly, all of our guys play like freshmen at times). You could make a case for the 'Wace (who gets lots of minutes), but who actually still believes that Felder and Lane should start ahead of Richard and Fudge?
i am not necessarily referring to who starts, as I have little gripe there (aside from lofton, maybe). But Kugel has played in 12 games with 203 minutes. By contrast, Lane has played in 5 games, totaling 32 minutes. And Felder has appeared in 11 games for 185 minutes. So, I’m not sure you can point to Freshman Kugel as evidence of cherry picking. And I don’t think there were any real expectations for Aberdeen or Szy this season. Though fewer total minutes, the former has actually appeared in more games than Lane. The fact we are contrasting the playing time of Aberdeen and Szy with that of CJ and Niels… kinda speaks to my question. edit: fwiw, Aberdeen was a Mike White recruit.
Felder and Lane didn’t contribute much last year either, so maybe it isn’t so “inexplicable”. Although many thought Felder was illness related last year and that he would bounce back strong. Obviously that was not the case. Lane was a weird deal: in that for all of last year he displayed an almost total lack of offensive skill for a guard/wing but for a couple games where he got aggressive attacking the basket and hit a few jumpers. I guess people thought/assumed it would be that Lane who would roll into this year. But honestly we don’t know what he’s showing the coaches in practice. Maybe it’s the “stiff” version of Lane that struggles to handle the rock and isn’t showing any offense in practice. Lane at least could be a defensive specialist, esp if we insist on man to man 100% of the time, so it’s surprising these guys are getting *zero* minutes but it’s hardly surprising they aren’t contributing much overall.
I don’t think Felder was right last season. Still, he had team best 3-point percentage, at nearly 39%. This season he is converting 40%. . . but has taken a total of 5 shots from the arc. I made similar comment about Lane. I am baffled by the DNP, but it is now two consecutive coaches making the same decision. Perhaps there is something the fans are not seeing.
It's weird. Not sure how you let a guy with great 3pt% ride the pine while you watch the guys on the floor go 2 for a bazillion. And last night would have been another opportunity for Lane's defense. Put him in Sherfields pocket when he looked to be heating up.
Other than Reeves, there are better players on the court. Reeves sitting on the bench is eyebrow raising. Hopefully he has learned whatever Golden is trying to teach him.
I kind of said this last night, but take CC and JJ out of the equation, and my money would be on a team of Kugel, Reeves, Felder, Aberdeen and Lane to beat a team of Lofton, Bonham, Richard, Fudge and Jones. In other words, I think that the reserves would beat the starters.
I'm always a win now guy, but I don't see that as possible this year - so let's run the youth out there more please. I largely agree with you here, though I'm keeping Fudge out there. Let's give Aberdeen some real minutes and see if he's a baller when the lights are on. At this point we know what we have in KL and TB.... Give Kugel more minutes too and for the love of God, make him run when he's moving off ball. He just jogs around in whatever we're calling our half court set.
I really don't understand what TG is doing. He continues to play Fudge or Richards at the 4 at the expense of playing a true 4 in Felder. Lane continues to not play, while our defense gets torched. TG is practically playing the same type of players, all of whom aren't that good defensively. Why TG has been unwilling to make changes on a losing team. I like Jones, but he's done unfortunately. Completely lost his confidence. You're telling me Lane can't have his minutes. For whatever reason, TG has written Lane off, which is a big mistake. He's the type of player who can't be measured in practice. Felder is an even bigger mystery. When he's in, you have a better offensive flow, better positioning defensively and better rerebounding. Florida's talent should have beaten Oklahoma going away. That was another terrible loss imo and one that's on TG. How many terrible offensive possessions did the Gators have in a row without making any changes. Reeves, Richard's, Fudge & Bonham taking contested 3's early in the shot clock with no one covering or forcing out of control drives to the basket. Take these guys out and make them learn what a good shot and possession is. Absolutely no discipline or accountability whatsoever. I saw good things for 18 minutes, only for them to completely fall apart. It seems that TG offers little in game adjustments, isn't that good at utilizing his personnel (not just playing the best athletes, but guys who better fit the team concept). I'll give TG a pass on Lofton and what a huge disappointment he's been. Thought he'd be good but right now he's really struggling. This team on paper should be much better, but TG is not maximizing what he has. Is TG just throwing this year, wanting to get his guys playing experience for the future? I'm not sure this is the case. What was Scott Stricklin looking at in TG because what I've seen so far is a step down in coaching ability than Mike White. That's saying something. At least White made adjustments to fit his personnel in-season, but TG is sticking with his guys no matter what. The result has been bad. This is a losing team and its starting to look like this team will be in the bottom teams in the SEC. All we hear is we're getting better after losses by TG, but the reality is not really. This was the game they had to win. Now the season is all but lost and its only Dec 20th. Can't remember saying that so early in a season. What exactly is the plan going forward. I'd like to know it because I'm not feeling so confident in TG right now. There is no real track record to say give him time and that he knows what he's doing. He better re-evaluate his plan, who's he's playing and who he's going to bring in for the future. At this point, I'd like to see TG try some different line-ups and give us hope that he knows how to adapt when things aren't going well.
Lane isn’t a P5 player, and has zero self awareness about his role when he does get time. Hate to be blunt, he may be a good kid but he’s just not someone who should be on the roster at all. Reeves gets into me first mode, did it again last night in the second half. And that’s not retrofitting the facts, I pointed it out before TG sat him. Felder is a fair question, but to my eyes he just can’t seem to find his niche on offense. our real problem is PG.
I could be misreading, but this confuses me as to your position…. What you “kind of said last night” seems opposite of what you are saying here.
I am pretty sure that I said last night that I would bet on Kugel, Reeves, Felder and Aberdeen in a 4-man game over Lofton, Bonham, Fudge and Richard, and that I also would take Lane over Jones. In other words, play your bench.
If it’s me you are referring to, I didn’t say anything last night, I didn’t post on the game until this one. My point with KR was that when he sat him in Portland it was after I had pointed out how he was just chucking up shots from anywhere without trying to run the offense. Last night in the second half he kept trying to go one on three to the rim and turning the ball over or taking a bad shot. He already had a short leash from previous transgressions. Last night he wasn’t alone though. Lofton went 1-8, and only had 2 assists in 34 minutes. He is our biggest problem right now IMO. He isn’t a great shooter, isn’t quick enough to take guys off the dribble to break down the D, and he doesn’t create shots for others…really hinders our offense. It’s either run it through CC or hope someone hits a three after some perimeter passing. I would almost consider moving Bonham to the 1, Richard to the 2, Fudge 3, JJ 4 and CC five and see how it goes. Of course starting your only two big men creates a bunch of other problems, Or bonham, Richard, reeves fudge cc. But something has to change.
Brent, I am not finding what I thought I posted last night, which was that if you took CC and JJ out of the equation because CC is so much better than JJ, then our bench could beat our starters. I don’t know if our moderators decided to expunge my post, but I feel certain that I posted it.
ok. I misread your post. It began with “i kinda said this last night”, which I wrongly thought was agreement with the post to which you were replying. And that post was the opposite of your position. It was my bad.
nah- I just misread Tampa post. I agree with all of comments here. I was actually going to post that I’d like to see us try: Bonham Richard Fudge Felder CC Bring Reeves, Lane, Lofton, Kugel and JJ off the bench.
Just spitballing here but maybe there are issues with practise. I have no inside info, but doing the right things in practise usually earn minutes in games.
