Riley Kugel was sick: Thats why he didnt play much

We need Riley to play well & when he does such as the Auburn game, just look at the result. His on-ball defense when he's engaged will be needed, especially vs. tall guards/forwards. He can hit some shots and passes well when he plays within the offense. That's the key of course, is for Riley not to force things and be a little tighter with the ball. Right now, I think he's the missing piece to taking the Gators to the next level, so I'm hoping he can find some consistency down the stretch & help win some big games the rest of the way once he's healthy.

 

Perhaps he was sick… it would certainly be a reasonable explanation for how he played during his few minutes. But Golden didn’t offer illness as explanation…. didn’t reference it. Instead, his comments revolved around preparation, being “locked in” and teammates play squeezing his minutes down to three.

Here is Golden’s quote… which does seem a bit odd. I’m not sure Aberdeen played well enough that you just couldn’t take him off the floor for Riley. And I’d hope if Riley was sick - Coach would offer that up as some reasoning.

Anyway….

“More just the flow of our team… and where we were at; and the preparation the day before and the day of the game… and which guys I thought would give us a better chance to win. And you know, Riley when he is with it and locked in… he gives us a great chance. And I think Saturday could be that day for us also. But it was more so just flow of the game and other guys playing really well, and our team playing really well… he just kinda got squeezed on Wednesday.”

 

I’d agree… though I remember a season ago when Kowacie was a DNP. There was speculation he was hurt or sick. A day or so later, Coach offered a similar reasoning as he did today for Riley…something along the lines of “getting squeezed out of the rotation”.
I think that is Golden’s euphemism for “I benched him”.
The curious part is a report of Riley having been sick.
Regardless… let’s hope for a return to form tomorrow.

 

Kugel has clearly turned the page and is playing with a higher degree of confidence than Aberdeen. Aberdeen needs to learn how to impose his will as he did in HS.

 

Well said!

 

I don’t have a clue who you are, and I don’t recall ever reading any posts from you that added anything positive to the dialogue. However, you’re entitled to your opinion just like everyone else is. Todd Golden apparently disagrees with you, and my guess is that so does Kugel. As for your wisecrack indicating that I make a lot of absurd posts, that’s just you being an asshole. At least you appear to have 3 or so other tiddlywinks players who agree with you based on the emojis that your post received.

 

well, his username checks out.