In the well-deserved absence of @akaGatorhoops . . . Coach Golden said to Lee on the radio post-game (paraphrased): Disappointed in the way they came out. Thought they were tentative. This group has been doing a good job of building confidence and he thought they would have a better start but they didn't and didn't finish the first half well. Proud of the group for the way they came out in the second half with a 10-0 run to get back in the ballgame but against a top 5 team on the road you can't expect to dig yourself that kind of hole and still win the game. Just didn't think the team was aggressive enough. Besides some turnovers they got looks (in the first half) and when you go on the road you have to put the ball in the basket. You have to find a way to finish your rim 2s. They were 4-22 from 3 for the game and you have to step-up and knock them down to beat a team like this on the road. At halftime they just talked about their mentality. It's a little easier to play free when you're at a deficit like that. They need to do that for 40-minutes not just to start the second half when we have a big deficit like we did.
thanks for stepping in! I’d disagree with the notion we had good looks. Especially in the first half. It was a real struggle to get quality shots.
Yeah . . . and I'm pretty sure KR was 0-for-howevermany and rushed several. Lee kept getting really unhappy with the shots they were taking in the first half. He used "poor" and "forced" several times.
This team isn't a good 3-point shooting team, yet continues to try and win games shooting 20+ 3s. lol
KR hoisting 3's every single time he touches the ball is really getting old. Golden has to put an end to this already. He needs to be taken out of the game every time he does this regardless if the ball goes in or not as most of the time it doesn't and just kills momentum. CC has to stop dribbling down the court. Too many TO's like this lately. Fudge taking long contested 2's also are bad shots. Overall shot selection is not good right now. Florida needs to shoot lights out vs Tennessee to have any shot and they have to value the ball better. 14 TO's is not going to cut it.
Just tired of the terrible 1st half basketball. Good lord if we just kept games in single digits to start with we'd be fine given our 2nd half play. Nothing else to add.
It’s mental if they can do it in the second half with a deficit. The problem is I don’t think there is enough time with this team to work through that.
A good coach would address issues like Reeves taking poor shots every time the ball touches their hands, Castleton driving the length of the court with the ball, and Fudge taking long contested twos. Besides, isn’t long two point field goal attempts one of the things that are a point of emphasis to avoid in analytics? Common basketball sense should tell you to pass the ball instead of taking a contested shot, unless you are shooting to avoid a shot clock violation. How many times have we seen these things repeatedly this season. I can understand Golden not wanting to destroy KR’s confidence by putting too much emphasis on his shot selection but Castleton dribbling the ball more than two bounces shouldn’t ever happen. Magic Johnson he is not.
The first half was truly not a team playing as a team but the 2nd half was more disappointing. What is with coming out and playing with all those attributes for winning and then someone takes a windmill circus shot driving to the basket from 10ft out? Followed by another CC drive in the paint only to see him immediately have that look of amazement when the opposing player swats t h e ball away that he is holding at his waist. The missed layups or shots a few feet from the rim are killers too. These arent new issues but they have been excused by playing teams with no idea how to take advantage of it. Teams such as K State know how to push and push until we break. Tennessee will do that to this team very easily.
To me it all feels like we sort of have to figure out what we are and who is going to remind us what we are offensively at the beginning of the games. If the opponent is playing good defense then unless some lone shooter hits shots (early in the season it was Bonham) we still look for the "on" switch. And then for some reason, we morph into something like "on" finishing up the first half or at the beginning of the second. But as we all know, by that time (unless the other team is shooting poorly) we have a BIG hole to climb out of. Kugel is just too young and inexperienced to be The Man. Reeves and Fudge are too much free spirits to come close. I think Richard has to be that guy until Kugel can take the role (hopefully). Lofton/Jones is better than any other combo overall but the difference between a quality and mature (to the program and each other) backcourt and this group is REALLY telling. That truly is our Achilles heel. Not sure if it is going to get any better against the good defenses.
How do you know coach is not encouraging Reeves to launch it often? I certainly don’t know that. If he told him NOT to shoot often, and he continued to do so, that’s a problem and he needs to sit. I think coach, like most of us, are wondering where the points are coming from. We need one or two, reliable, deadly shooters. The younger guys can get there in time but not this season.
I think Golden has given him the green light to shoot but KR doesn’t know what a bad shot is. He was probably The Man on his high school team and a volume shooter so he hasn’t had to deal with shot selection before.
I hope you are just kidding because he should be allowed some time to right the ship. I’m not a big fan of his coaching but he doesn’t have much to work with especially on offense. Fudge is limited and still a work in progress on offense, Lofton can’t hit the ocean from a boat, Kugel is developing but needs time, MJ is not a reliable scorer, KR hasn’t met a shot he won’t take, WR is playing the 3 much of the time and that’s not his true position, and I could go on and on. Castleton doesn’t have a lot of quality pieces around him and tries to force his offense much of the time taking shots that he doesn’t have much chance of making. Golden will need to replace a lot of this roster next season.
he really has no choice but to, but how is his HS recruiting going? Filling the roster with mid-major pieces isn’t working out..
I think he was making a joke about firing Mike White . . . not opening the door for more team bashing.
Yeah, I missed the CMW reference. I was actually defending Golden, that he needs more time. Not that I’m a fan but fair is fair.
