I think he played less than 5 minutes, and I don’t believe he saw the second half. Considering how poorly everyone played, what could possibly justify not playing Riley? This is odd, though not unprecedented for Golden. A year ago, it was Kowacie who came into the season with huge hype… and similarly struggled. During a road stretch, Reeves was suddenly benched. Golden’s explanation was a bizarre sorta… “Oops, my bad. I got caught up in the game and kinda forgot about him.” It will be interesting to hear an explanation for tonite….
He better be sick or injured, otherwise it looks rather silly for him to be sitting there on the bench watching the lead grow from 4 to 20.
Todd is way in over his head. Did the same thing last year with Reeves and Lane. He doesn't know how to manage his bench. No different looks on defense, no improvement with free throw shooting, etc. IMO...he won't be here long term. I'm waiting for the thumbs down, MCB.
You think Golden blows a good lead in 2nd half in NCAA tourney against an inferior Oral Roberts (like Mike White)? I don’t.
Well then, perhaps he got pissed at not starting. Golden played the John Wooden card about the bench being the great motivator.
At the risk of igniting a mike white debate…, the question now is wether or not Coach Golden will have opportunity to blow a lead in the NCAA tourney.
The transfer portal causes a change of identity of the team. And as we can see from the additions this year, Clayton and Puliin are ballahs. Hands down. Their leadership and takeover aggressiveness have relegated Richard and Kugel to spectators. I honestly believe that to salvage this team Aberdeen should come in and start for Richard who has done absolutely nothing in two conference games. His lack of production cost us the Kentucky game, and his timidness facilitated the blowout of this game. We can simply not afford to have a starter who gets major minutes and finishes with zero points and 5 points in 51 minutes of playing time.
I wouldn’t bet on it but the season isn’t done yet. You well know winning on the road in SEC is difficult. Tennessee got beat at Miss State tonight. Right now it looks dismal but I don’t give up easily and hope our team doesn’t either.
He has to get there first. Currently 7-22 record against the Ken Pom top 100 as Florida HC. Not a recipe for NCAA tournament selection.
I'd have to re-watch but Kugel took a step back 3 off the dribble early in the clock and had another bonehead play that led to a turnover. We have to find the right role for him but Kugel has to play smarter to stay on the floor.
Unfortunately, you have a valid point. This is not an average team. There is real talent on this team if he would use it. I thought we had a three-point specialist. You can't tell me when a team is scoring 60 points on you in a half that you don't put your 3-point specialist in because he is not good on defense.
Coming into conference play I was hoping we’d just about sweep the home schedule and manage .500 on the road. Which would get Florida around 14 wins. Yes, that’s better than any expert predicted but I really thought our high scoring output wouid be hard to beat at home. Hopefully this team can still have a strong home record from here on out. My expectations have quickly been reset with this ugly loss. But still hopeful for double digit conference wins. Honestly it would be incredibly disapponting to miss the tourney yet again. This seemed like our best team at least since that last elite 8 run, but that was just on paper and the up and down out of conference. The D is looking incredibly soft against quality opponents, so hopefully they figure some stuff out.
