I said "zero loss, won't be missed" right after the post saying he was entering the portal came out. It was a little emotional on my part, but my point is, if you ain't a Gator, you're GATOR BAIT!! He made his choice now he can live with it. I go by what my own eyes see and I think TCG is going to do a great job.
At least someone has a right to criticize a coach without your lambasting them for expressing their opinion. People hang around because they are alumni of the school. They endure the misery because they are part of the program because of the years that they were in Gainesville. They watched the horrible years of Florida basketball as I have, and then an era of euphoria. People who have been around as long as I have a right to be upset with the direction the program has gone in the last decade. Your pretending that the program is not in a free fall is delusional and only exposes to anyone reading your comments that you are completely out of touch with reality.
Everyone has a right to criticize anything they want. That doesn’t mean that others aren’t then allowed to criticize their criticisms. I didn’t pretend anything. You’re putting words in my mouth that I never said. What I did say is I if I was as miserable as you, I would occupy my time with something that didn’t make me so miserable. You’ve done nothing but complain on here for years on end. This all started by me asking you a question that you had already asked. Why are you allowed to ask it, and I’m not?
guess I'm skeptical. All conference in Colin C, Kugel ascendance, and I believe hit on most portal players targeted and yet team was huge disappointment. Hope I am wrong about next year.
So I am putting words your mouth but you have carte blanche to speculate about my state of emotions and well being. Just because a person makes LEGITIMATE and irrefutable criticisms of a program that has tailspun under the last two head coaches, does not mean that they are miserable. It is a leap of logic and results in warped syllogisms. You probably did not have to endure 15 years of almost obscurity that this program lived in in the 70s and 80s. You probably did not even know what a Gator was! I did live through those days and attended games in the Florida gym long before the O Dome. To watch a program revert to virtual insignificance when it was at the pinnacle of college basketball makes me voice my strenuous objections to the management of the program. When FAU Miami, and St. Peter’s can out recruit and out perform a program of our magnitude, it is disturbing. Any major program can have an off year. We have had SEVERAL. It is in a word INEXCUSABLE! And as long as the athletic department insists on trodding down this path of irrelevance, I will voice my criticisms. Put me on ignore and live in your delusions.
I don’t find all of your criticisms to be legitimate or irrefutable. I find most of your posts to be hyperbolic nonsense, which is why I usually don’t respond to anything you say. You seem miserable. I’ve been on here for several years and do not remember a time when you posted anything positive. All I’ve ever seen you do is complain. If all I ever wanted to do was complain about something, at some point I would probably start to avoid whatever that something is. Like I normally do with you. You asked a question. I repeated your own question back to you. All the other nonsense you keep going on and about is stuff you’re just pulling out of your ass. I don’t remember posting my position on any of the other topics you keep bringing up in response to my posts. You want to argue with me about things I never made an argument to the contrary about, and you’re currently trying to argue with me about power forwards on a thread where I made a posts explaining how we’d abandoned the offensive boards to improve our transition d. It’s just nonsense. I asked you a simple question (that you asked before me), and made a simple statement in response to your answer. You can put me on ignore and live in your miserable delusional world as well.
The answer to your question should be self explanatory. I graduated from Florida undergrad and law school. I invested 6.5 years of my life supporting the school with my talents and loyalty. I am having an amazing life because God blessed me to go to a great university. So leaving my school and all that it engages in is not an option for me. I can’t change the degrees on my wall to the University of Michigan. Reeves can because he doesn’t have one. The same is the case for HS school recruits who have never committed to Florida. The fact that you are struggling to dichotomize between the predicaments is on you. I have made a proportionate number of positive comments given the stagnancy of both programs (football and basketball [basketball more so]). The fact is other than s few standouts in both sports, there has not been much to be positive about lately. I have been positing here it seems like for almost 20 years. i don’t believe in giving participation trophies. Florida University is beyond that. I am not going to give kudos because our 3 point percentage goes from 21% to 23% in the ensuing game . Perhaps you do. Perhaps you’re willing to sensationalize mediocrity which is part and parcel as to why our program is in the doldrums that it is in. You cheer our players when they hit the rim after an airball. I ruminate over why teams that have not gone to a final four In 60-70 years perennially own our program on a gym floor that comes from the national championship court where we won a decade and a half ago. Dissent is the catalyst for change. If you can’t agree that SOMETHING needs to change here at Florida soon then I pity you. How can you talk about rebounding without talking about power forwards? Do you know anything about the game or are you just using phrases that you hear from sports commentators to fit in? The position of power forward is to first and foremost take care of the boards even more than a center which is often used as an offensive weapon more than a ball possession weapon. There are exceptions to the rule, but it is nonsensical to discuss crashing the boards when you have ACUTE deficiencies in personnel to do so!!!!! The fact that you are incapable of connecting the dots exposing the utter flaws in your analysis renders any further discussion on this fruitless. Have fun spewing out how you wish a team that often averaged 6’5” in height across the 5 players on the floor at any given time would crash the boards more against teams with often two or more players that were 6’8 “ or taller and 30-40 pounds heavier.
Your degree does not force you to spend a great portion of your time complaining about the athletic program. You are allowed to find a better, less frustrating, use of your time. Kowacie has given a lot of his time to UF too. If you’re allowed to ask him the question, I’m allowed to ask you. The rest is, again, more made up, hyperbolic nonsense.
Well, I'm with you, for whatever its worth. I can't understand how anyone can be happy with where this program is at and where its been in the last few years. Still, I think this staff deserves a legitimate opportunity to grow and improve. However, they don't have a lot of time and they have a big hill to climb. Let's hope it happens, because if you think our AD will change his philosophy on hiring, I have some bad news for you.
Well, since we are all in the dumps these days, let me opine with the rhetoric. IMO, what we saw last season was definitely a disappointment, especially when we saw the amount of, and in some ways the type of, player infusion Golden gave us. And if we want to be more sober, we could say that the influx of talent either has to complement what is the team or it had to bring pure horsepower to overcome the lack of maturity in playing together. We fell WAY short whereas Kentucky...again...made it to the tourney but did not have enough pieces...again...to go very far. It is what it is. Where things look bad is that we aren't all that excited in the current math: what do we lose versus what we are gaining. It is still early in the portal acquiring process and so we don't know what will be the final math. It is just that the first round of talent from the portal wasn't quite good enough. Richard is a nice piece but his "off" games were more than his "on" games, in order to win the tough games. Fudge was a shot for length that had less-than-good outcomes overall. I am not that caught up in the talent out there to know what we may have acquired instead. The NIL and new coach/philosophy sort of mucked up the system. I do like the potential sophomore bump for Szymczyk, even though we need a LOT more. He and Aberdeen did not receive much experience this season. Kind of a pity in hindsight. I still say the real miss this last season, besides the mental meltdown of Reeves, Felder, and maybe Lane, was Lofton. He HAD to be THE key piece to stir the drink. He was...less-than-hoped. I think anyone who is watching the post-season ball sees what quality guard play, and consistent 3-shooting, does for a team. We just didn't have it. Let's call it basketball IQ. And now to my real reason for posting. Again, it is WAY too early, but if the latest infusion isn't good enough - 2 stout front court players, a real shooter and at least a mature and steady PG - I can foresee Golden lasting only 2 1/2 years in the job. Not that he will melt down like the women's BB coach but rather he may be indicating he is enthusiastically making it up on the fly rather than having a viable plan. And yes, I think it would be another AD making the new hire. To me, from a w-l situation and how easily it could have been WAY better with two more wins (and obviously no injury to CC) and so it could be postulated that he "just missed" but when looking at the total and who and how he played his players (Felder especially after the CC injury), the jury IMO is feeling kind of questioning. And as I said, I can see where the jury will decide sooner rather than later. But we shall see beginning in November.
Hello wci. Well it's apparant that you hold the program to a high standard. My UF experience started in 78 and I did catch a couple of seasons in the old Florida gym. When Sloan and Towe came in, he supplied a little hope (and Ronnie Williams). He also was forced to offer scholarships to 1A players from places like Malone, Florida. You have made comments that suggest Florida should be competing at much higher levels and combine the Donovan and SOS / Meyer years as the Florida "standard". This of course is not accurate at all, in terms of historical accuracy. For DECADES UF football and basketball was a middling force in the SEC with nary a sniff at a conference championship much less a national one. While I do not blame you one bit for wanting the championship pedigree that UF was surrounded by under SOS / Meyer and Billy D, those era's were hardly representative of UF's historical records in both sports. You are calling for perhaps the hardest of the hard, for a Johnny come lately to not only climb the ladder but stay on top of the heap. Few, very few acheive that type of status. Football? an arguable point but programs like Bama, Ohio State, USC, Oklahoma, Notre Dame. Basketball - Ky, Duke, UNC, Kansas. I'm not sure you can put UCLA on the list, despite all the rings they have, because outside of the Wooden era they have hardly been consistently "on top". My point is, while I agree with your "WANT" of UF to be a consistently high standard program in both football and basketball, the fact is, historically neither sport can come even CLOSE to claiming a high level of consistency. In fact, historically speaking, UF can claim "Door-Mat" as a more accurate description of the programs when looked through the broad lens of history. So while you are ready to blow a head gasket about this subject, perhaps you should relax and check the actual historical facts. I want UF to be successful too. Like most UF fans, I have no problem admitting that when UF wins and is on top I am generally a more happy person and feed off Gator "winning". I am grateful for being a very small part of a larger UF community. But your outrage and umbrage, insinuating that UF is F'ed up and led by a bunch of losers may be a tad bit ingenuious, at least historically speaking. Napier and Golden are who we are and what we have. Year 1 did not go well for either. Little if anything will be accomplished shit canning these guys right now. Both may be gone in 2 years, yes thats true, but I see little to be gained, at this moment in time, by not supporting them.
I agree. There are many things to like about Golden. He is very passionate, and he genuinely seems to want to win. Perhaps his hands are tied regarding recruiting since we have one of the smallest budgets in the SEC. My thing is if we are not going to make a serious commitment to basketball, then why not go the FAU route and bring in a coach that we pay 400K to, who nevertheless manages to get us to a tournament, that guys we are paying 10 times that amount can seem to do.
I appreciate your sentiments and historical perspective. What we were 80 years ago does not define what we are today. We are not forever latched to a reputation for achievement with occasional aberrations. And I am not asking for NCAA championships for either program (although that would be nice). What I am asking for which apparently from the general consensus in this board appears to be overreaching, is competitiveness. We are not competing even on the levels we competed pre-Donovan. The football program has much more so than basketball. I am not about to blow a gasket. Perhaps my words are as harsh as the enormous ENORMOUS compensation these coaches are getting (plus perks) to put out losing products. My primary stress point is that when you have stuck with a strategy that appears to sink you deeper into a hole, isn't it time to call the name of a person who has a long sturdy rope or chain that can pull you out of it? I want Golden and company to shock the world. I honestly believe that a professional golfer can take a 50-dollar set of clubs and come close to scratch golf. The skill of the person really really makes a difference, and what we are seeing plaIn and simple here at Florida (Napier and Golden verdict is still in deliberation), is that Florida is bringing in people with high handicaps. And then to add insult to injury at least in the basketball predicament, they are giving them 50-dollar golf clubs to play 18 holes against programs that are using Titleist and Taylor Made. How can you land blue-chip players with a miniscule recruiting budget? My hope is that my harsh rhetoric will resonate with the offices of the AD and the new president of the University. Either release a policy statement saying that Florida is no longer considering basketball a priority in the scheme of things or give Golden the tools to go out and bring in talent that apparently Central Florida and FAU who combined have smaller athletic departments than we do have managed to do. I can quite frankly sleep comfortably under either circumstance. But to pretend that we are doing EVERYTHING to be a viable contender for the SEC championship and deep-run NCAA tournament team is an INSULT to the Gator faithful who have seen a lot more done when priorities were in order.
Thank you wci for your response. I find no fault in any of it. I too believe that UF, given it's size, location, alumni, and recent success in many sports should be held to a high standard in the two most important sports as defined by most fans: Football and Basketball. I am not in the football or basketball "empire building" business so I certainly do not know what it takes. But UF has recently committed more and more resources to it - O'Connell Center Upgrades, the new football facilities and so forth. Nor do I disagree with those that are not satisfied with the current status and I hope that the powers in control are hearing the complaints of the fan base. Having said that, we have two new coaches in the fold. Clearly MORE MONEY needs to be spent on basketball recruiting. That should happen immediately. In the meantime, my plan is to exercise a wee bit of patience and see what develops.
To Wci347 All I can say to your criticism of the program, you can keep harping on the short comings or get on board being a Gator. CTG came in so late he didn’t get to recruit a full squad of his players. He did okay but was hamstrung from his predecessor. That being said, CTG is young like Billy when he came here, Billy wasn’t the greatest coach when he got here, he made plenty of mistakes and had to recruit his butt off to get better. After two years the third season he started getting traction. His coaching starting improving also. Timeouts, in bound plays, offense, when to use which defense. The SEC wasn’t as good as it is now. So try to keep things in perspective. Hopefully CTG will have help with the NIL and get a bigger recruiting budget like the football team. If he can get an elite scoring pg (can shoot threes with some consistency) and a physical big that has some girth, muscle and can move his feet, we will start to come around. We beat Tennessee, we beat Missouri and Miss St. on the road. Our schedule was brutal, so let’s converse in a positive way, even complaining. I have been watching the Gators as a little boy growing up in the very early sixties, we have had some great players and teams but we have never been dominant till 2006/7. Even after that, it was hard for Billy with his hard earn reputation, to keep this high level of play. Be positive even in criticizing the program, people, recruits, coaches and handlers of shoe companies, agents, even handlers of AAU teams, could be reading these forums, even opposing fans. So harsh criticisms don’t help when every day someone like you, keeps harping on the negative. CTG and SS have to work with compliance, budgets, negative perceptions and fans of all walks of life, so be one to both give and take during the ups and downs of rebuilds in basketball and football. Losing seasons are tough on everybody. I don’t know if either coach can survive in this new NIL timeframe, where the school should be better at it, but now the laws have changed a little so we can communicate with direction to the NIL companies available to the Gators and start building a system to be competitive in recruiting the top 100 players in the nation. CTG being from the west coast doesn’t help for connections within the southern coaches, but internationally, he understands it. Next he needs to state we need another one or two full time people like Katie, in the football program, that keeps us front and center of all targeted recruits and markets the Gator basketball better than we ever have. Tickets for non sold out games should be lowered from the young people in grade school to fill the seats. We need a lot of things, but positive criticism are the best bet to change things. The wins and losses will dictate if these coaches will remain and keep building!
Some of you seem to think that the Titanic wasn't sinking it was just getting a bath. I heard all these arguments of needing to support Cam in his first two years. When I said he was the wrong man for the job. But complaining does not help I agree. Right now it doesn't look good. Kugel hasn't committed for next year, recruiting for next year was ranked 13th. and we are losing players. But just find 3 great players from the portal and that changes everything. Golden goes from a poor coach to a genius. He needs to follow the Gates system, Get 12 guys from the portal, keep your best player and hope to get 5 good ones.
I am as frustrated as anyone with our football and basketball outcomes in recent years, but way too many posters on here are blowing smoke out of their butts. I am happy with both Napier and Golden. They are normal, congenial people who seem to know their sports. We have had too many nut jobs as our coaches over the last several years. Our facilities and athletic budgets seem to me to be fine. Recruiting is going to be the key in both sports and the NIL is going to be a huge factor in recruiting and keeping high quality players. For now, go watch women’s gymnastics. The Gator women are tremendous, and the national championships should be incredibly exciting.
People who keep harping on the recruiting budget as some kind of end all be all need to realize, first, that simply spending money flying around to visit recruit’s doesn’t guarantee you’ll land them (nor does spending 10mil a year on a coach guarantee championships). Second, not all schools report these numbers the same way. UF reports a huge portion of their spending in a miscellaneous category. Some schools report every use of their planes in a recruiting category, some schools don’t. Third, with NIL now being the wild west shit show that it is, the University could spend 100 mil a year in their recruiting budget, but if the fans aren’t getting the NIL deals done on the side, that money is all for naught.
