Question is does the team look better or worse than a few weeks ago. I think they look much improved. I think early on in the season we were big game from Clayton or bust. Offense seems much more balanced, and arguably, while Clayton has been the most consistent scorer, there has been another player who was for lack of a better term “the MVP” of each game. Pullin, Clayton, and Richard seem to have clear identities now. Samuel is focusing on scoring down low off off assists rather than trying to create his shot. He’s got a great ability to catch the ball, drop step, and gather himself before going up. Usually there are three defenders around him when he catches the pass, but by the he goes up to dunk it, he’s already muscled them out of his way. Handlogten is a clean up man and rebounder. Condon is that Swiss Army knife athletic big.
I think the team looks better in lots of areas. Like today. Free throws have improved. 3-point shooting is marginally better. 3-point defense is marginally better. Turnovers are fewer. Condo and Haugh have gotten a better handle on team defense, and I see improvements in Condo's game almost every game. Kugel had started to mesh better on offense (until today). But we still tend to suffer breakdowns with the lead. Lost focus, I guess, but we must get control over that tendency quickly. After letting the whopping big lead slip away today, I was happy to see us regroup in the overtime and come out swinging. All in all, we're trending in the right direction. I'm hoping we can stay with Kentucky down to the last 5 minutes and then let the chips fall where they may.
Our FT defense has been quite good lately, too. Bullpups shot 53% from the charity stripe today. I bet their fans (do they have basketball fans?) are calling that a win if they just shot better at the line.
I still think in the end the whole quad one thing is overrated. You know who else doesn’t have a quad 1 win? Auburn, and Lunardi has them as a three seed (before tonight’s loss). Every other metric for us is well inside the bubble. 37 kenpom 31 rpi 27 ELO 42 net (before today) we would be in today, don’t care what the some of the bracket pundits say. Of course it’s moot with 12 games left, minimum.
As of right now, Gators are: #36 in Kenpom #29 in Torvik #39 in NET Ranking (the biggie) These are positive trends, but we still have work to do. A Quad 1 is at the top of the list. Forget Lunardi. He's never held a real job. He's 41, never kissed a girl, still lives in his mom's basement, and cranks out "Bracketology" between marathon stints of World of Warcraft. And people still lap his shite up.
What we are missing is a shut-down defender like Wilbekin or Brewer or Josie Grimsley. Every game someone sets a career high against us and we can't seem to find a way to stop them. We also need to figure out how to get better calls from the refs, especially at home. I think Georgia didn't get their first foul called until the 13 minute mark.
Shooters sometimes get in a zone. He did. Georgia as a team shot really well and still lost. Good thing that we shot really well for the balance of the game. Sucked that we didn't for the last three minutes of regulation. With just under three minutes to go it was UF 85 and Georgia 75. 10-0 run by Georgia to end regulation.
