If it’s a clean break just to the bone hopefully he gets lucky and can be as close to 100% as possible. I guess it depends on if any other damage to the ankle or muscles/nerves happened (esp with it apparantly breaking the skin) The only example I can even think of in basketball is that Louisville player. He literally snapped his leg when he landed after going up high for a block or dunk. He was on the court literally the very next season. Although apparently he did end up redshirting that year, so maybe he wasn’t 100% ready. But it shows it’s possible to get back after a gruesome break. Obviously with Handles being 7’ it might be a tougher road. Hopefully we eventally see him suit up again even if he has to redshirt.
The primary cause is that Auburn played lights out defense on the perimeter. Credit where it's due. We didn't have many open looks. OTOH, I'm glad we hit the 3 pointer to keep the streak alive.
That was a tough game. Man, those guys were literally mauling our guys. That semi-bald big guy with the skimpy braids should go into acting. I didn't think our guys legs looked tired, I thought their defense had our guys all out of synch and they just didn't shoot. Most of the time our guys were fairly out of range. Their "D" worked to perfection. Pearl is like a gangsta corch, ruthless, unrelenting and goes for the jugular. Very depressing. I feel bad for the kids. But...they can regroup and hopefully go deep in the tourney. Sweet 16 would be very cool. Go Gators.
Auburn finishes #4 in KenPom. We finish 28. Just 2 ahead of MSU. 9 behind UK, which I just don't get. Similar adjusted offense ranking but we're a good bit better adjusted defense, plus we have a much higher schedule strength.
This is exactly what I was talking about in my post. He is so soft for a big. He's good but complains to the refs about everything. Seeing it live at Birdgstone was ridiculous.
Agree that Auburn's defense definitely impacted us and our ability to find open looks. Just going on perceptions, but it seemed like we got some better looks from three in the second half that mostly came up short - particularly a couple by Richard - that made me think "tired legs" at that point. Then, the tv announcer was absolutely correct about us giving Auburn shooters some open threes and that's what blew it open for them.
Malscott, very well said. That semi bald guy was energized that there were with a lot of their fans and we had played three tough games in a row. His acting was like a small country school kid that has never been on the big stage. One technical would have shut down his acting and smart mouth. The whole Auburn team followed his lead. The pros will take him down at some point. Too bad Lambier is not still around. As for coach Pearl, he ask them to play the bump’em and grind up defense, like Buzz at Texas A&M. We throttled them in Gainseville, that was a great feeling. I think the kids missing Handlogten and they were emotionally dead after three hard late games. But when is the last time we went to the finals of the SEC? Wins at Rupp, beat down Texas A&M, beat Alabama two out of three, handily, Georgia three times, a lot of positives. Some young talent is on this team. if we can keep them together for another couple of years with the arrival of some experienced players in the transfer portal, we should become a team to watch across the basketball landscape. The NCAA draw is tough, Marquette, possibly Colorado, these are going to take our supreme effort to get out of these two early games, talking a little optimism in here. Like you said, hoping we can regroup! Go Gators!