Thanks for Mod'ing the board! The 'Net community has gone through shifts of folks coming & going, but by and large, it's a uniquely good crew of folks who pay special attention to Gator basketball.
We know Jones, Lofton, and Castleton are officially done. Of the remaining roster who should remain and who do you ask to look elsewhere? Felder, Bonham, Fudge, Lane, Richard, Aberdeen, Szymczyk, Reeves, May, Klatsky, Kugel, Jitoboh
May and Klatsky are walk ons. They have no impact on the scholarship limit. Since none of us knows who might be available as replacements, we don’t know who might be replaced by someone better
See no chance Felder is back after not playing at all and can't see why Lane would want to come back either. Lane should have gotten more minutes this year but was underused to say the least. I can see Bonham leaving as well. To me Kugel, Richards and Fudge will all be back. I'd say Szymczyk, Aberdeen and Jitobah will also come back. Not sure about Reeves. He's the wild card, but imo I'm not really sure I want him back. It feels like he practically shoots every time he touches the ball and often are poor shots that lead to transition buckets going the other way.
I had no idea what to expect from this years team. However my hopes were buoyed when Coach Golden and others stated before the season that they felt Florida was a second weekend NCAA tournament team. I guess they were a bit off with that prediction. Focusing on yesterdays game, you can point to the three consecutive 3 pointers Jones made and the "fight" our team showed after a lack luster first half all you want, but the truth is Florida went 3 for 14 on field goal attempts in the second half. For the love of God bring in some talent for next season. Enough of this mediocrity from the men's basketball program. As far as the "losers tournament" the NIT, pack it in and get started on sorting out who the staff wants to return for next season. Hit the portal hard and recruit! I listened to the adage of giving Mike White time for seven years. Golden needs to show some improvement in year two because the fan base has had enough of Gator men's basketball teams being irrrelevant.
That is roulette wheel recruiting. Not only that, it is counter-productive because whatever talent might consider Florida will reason (or be convinced through negative recruiting) that Florida is a program where castoffs get a second chance over HS talent. They will conclude- why go there and sit on the bench watching players who did not even make Florida their first choice or were worse, not even recruited to Florida when they were in HS? If these transfer portal players are so essential to our program, why were they not recruited by us when they were in HS? Castleton and Fudge were, but he is about the only one.
But don't you see, that kills your HS recruiting for next year? Because if he is getting sophomores or juniors in the portal, no top notched ready to play HS player is going to commit to us no matter how much money we have to pay him. If he gets a senior in the portal, then at best we have him for one year, and then no one to replace him because our HS recruiting is virtually non-existent.
Lets be realistic, if we go to the NIT we could easily end up 16-17. But I think they should go if invited to work on next year.
If they go to the NIT and loose it will have been 40 plus years since the basketball and football teams both had loosing seasons in the same year. Not a good look.
Of course we should go to the NIT if invited. If we decline (which we wouldn’t) who do we think we are? The team needs the work and perhaps it might be slightly fun, especially if we could get to Madison Square Garden. It also could give TG some insight into who wants to stay on next season. (He may already know)
Is it correct that Jitoboh has another season left? I want him to return but I also want him to dedicate himself to coming in at a reasonable weight. We can't have a matador in the lane on defense. And with his soft touch shooting inside, he could actually be one of the top centers in the SEC if he loses 30 pounds. Shimmy will continue to improve. We have incoming 6'-11" Condon and 6'-9" Haugh to help inside, but they'll be true freshmen and need to bulk up at this level. So with 3 guys definitely gone, I guess we have room for at least one more addition. I hope it's via the portal and it's either a pure shooter with some ability to play the point, or a 6'-9" or taller interior guy with the muscle and the hustle for rebounding and defending. If Felder wants to return, I'd be okay with that. He looked engaged and supportive on the bench, and I think he knew he wasn't going to play. We have a very good nucleus to build on with Richard and Kugel. We have two guys who frustrate the heck out of me with their basketball IQ in Reeves and Fudge, because they can be lethal when they focus on what they do best. I'd welcome them back if they can learn the difference between good shots and bad, but at this point I'm beginning to doubt that they can. Trey Bonham, I'd welcome back but he's got a lot to work on. Niels Lane, I'd welcome back. All told, we have t
