ESPN+ article but he ranks us number 25 in his index and here is what he has to say about us. Bilas Index: You're about to get a lot smarter! Ranking the top 68 teams “No. 25 Florida Gators: Todd Golden has a good basketball team in Gainesville, and one that can continue to get better over the last month of the regular season. Florida plays at a fast pace and can really crash the offensive glass, ranking second in the nation in offensive rebounding, gathering back nearly 40% of its missed shots. Guards Walter Clayton Jr., Zyon Pullin, and Will Richard are the scoring engine, and big men Tyrese Samuel, Alex Condon and Micah Handlogten are the board crashers. Florida has been winning games with its top-10 offense, but the defense has shown flashes of improvement. Still, Florida relies on outscoring teams rather than limiting opposing offenses. An overtime win over Kentucky at Rupp Arena, a one-point loss to Texas A&M on the road and a blowout win over Auburn in Gainesville show the Gators have the mindset to win, not just play. Two games against Alabama and a game at South Carolina remain on the regular-season slate. Those games will show just how much that mindset has taken hold.”
Beat anyone and lose to anyone. Never a dull game. Improve on defense and play hard every minute and it's a lot more of the former. Play in every gym like we do at home and have a couple of guys consistently hitting threes every game and we're top ten.
Lose to anyone? That’s just not a fair assessment. One thing about this team is that they have no bad losses whatsoever.
Bilas's assessment is on par, don't disagree with any of it. I think we need to pinch ourselves a little bit on the rebounding edge. The defense is not a strength, but when you rebound better than all but one team in the country, that's BIG.
I have us around 30, so from my POV he’s one of the few analysts who might have is slightly overvalued. But stuff like this is good because it helps set the national discussion around us.
Indeed. Surprising. Disappointing. But possible. I hope we're really coming together and kill this final stretch and tear it up in the tourney. We all like wins but watching a team develop and excel... that's the best.
Offensive rebounding is the easiest way to make a bad shooting offense good, and a good shooting offense great. Golden realized that his first season in the league when we had to keep multiple guys on the perimeter to help with transition D and couldn’t crash the offensive glass. He has gone all in on playing with two bigs, and it has worked. Your D is always going to be compromised when you have two big guys having to operate out in space, but the trade off on the glass is worth it.
That was the biggest problem with White's teams at UF. We needed everybody to crash the defensive glass and pretty much gave up the offensive glass totally. We had some size inside but they seemed to always get hurt and our seasons tanked.
