Richard returns for his senior season

agreed, and also a better defender than either of those guys, too. If Will can get back near his sophomore 3pt accuracy this season at the same volume as he launched 'em last year, he'll be a heck of a weapon for us.

 

Actually, Lee Humphrey was an outstanding defensive player. He was better than Richard.

 

Lee was definitely a solid defender but imo his reputation on that end has been a bit inflated over time. Richard is bigger, a better athlete and can guard more positions.

 

Yes, Richard is bigger, a better athlete, and can guard more positions. But he gets beat by a bunch of quicker guards. Humphrey was locked in on his man and rarely got beat. Plus the guy had amazing stamina and could play hard all game. I stand by my assessment.

 

no worries brother, Hump was a great Gator and I loved watching him and the 04s play too. My assessment would be different than yours, but I'm just another dork on the internet with an opinion, so no big deal.

we can definitely both agree that if Will can regain his sophomore shooting form and get a little more consistent overall, it's going to be a big help for us next season.

 

https://247sports.com/college/florida/article/hoops-humphrey-out-for-1-3-weeks-104292578/

 

Thanks for sharing that!
I remember that Ole Miss game on the road. They had a pretty good team and we came into it shorthanded and limping. But came out of it with another BD masterpiece. He was plugging walk-ons and rarely used subs in at just the right moments to give the heavy lifters the chance to pull out the win.

 

I don’t know what it is that Donovan said exactly, but something must have been taken out of context by the author of that article. Maybe Lee was the best defender among our guards, but Noah, Horford and Brewer were elite college defenders and were exceptional defenders in the NBA.

 

What he said is pretty clear, and he said it more than once. He isn’t taking a shot at the other guys at all. They were terrific defenders, too. But this was 2005-06, when they were still pretty green sophomores learning how to play consistently. Remember how bad we were defensively during our February slide that year? Gave up a ton of looks at the rim and from the arc because of missed rotations, gambling in the lane, etc. South Carolina got us twice, Pearl got us twice, Bama, Arky. Well above our defensive averages on those games.

Unlike the younger kids, Humphrey was more disciplined (given his height and athleticism, he had to be) and more experienced in SEC play. Donovan repeatedly talked about how he was our only perimeter defender who stayed in proper guarding position. That’s also why we put him (rather than Green) on guys like Jordan Farmar or Aaron Brooks. Both at us alive going to the rim, haha, but we wanted to give no help to limit threes.

 

When Scottie Wilbekin enrolled early at UF and got plugged into the game as a true freshman when the Vols were abusing us, he shut their main scorer down (can't remember who) and the Gators rallied to win. I was at the game and thinking, wow, he defends just like Humphrey. So fundamentally sound and focused. Being a coach's son prepares you well before you get there.

 

I watched (almost) every game of Lee's career and feel good about my opinion here (although like I said I'm just a dork on the internet and my opinion should not be taken as absolute fact). He was definitely a solid and fundamentally sound defender, but I think Richard is better overall as a guy who's also fundamentally sound but longer, more athletic and versatile defensively.

I don't feel like this is some kind of hill to die on here, though, and this is supposed to be a positive Will Richard thread rather than a Will vs Lee thread, so I'm going to stop arguing the point now.

 

Well, I can agree that Richard SHOULD be a better defender. He is lot longer and more versatile. Pretty physical, too. But he dropped off massively as a defender last year (after what I considered a solid sophomore season). As I said above, he can be a terrific collegiate 3 and D given his skill set.

 

Lee had the luxury of having an elite rim defender in Noah playing behind him. Guys he was guarding weren't looking to take it to the hole with Noah rotating around on D.

You have to remember that defense is a TEAM thing and not just one on one.