Will keep it pretty general, obviously Alijah was terrific. He is our all around best player. Just a beast defensively and very under control on offense. His athleticism, ability to shoot it and improved handles along with his maturity just make the college game look easy for him. For sure level of comp will get better and won’t come as easy but he gives us something we haven’t had in a bit, an intense perimeter defender who also can score. Our best defensive line up will be any line up with Aberdeen, Martin, and Reuben on the floor. Haugh is also important there. The way Aberdeen and Martin stick to their man and funnel action to big Reuben in the middle is going to be tough for opposing offenses. We will be improved on that end of the floor. Also look for us to vary more how we handle ball screen action. This has me excited as in the past we played primarily drop coverage or ice coverage which when done over and over can make it easy on the offense. Have to be able to mix it up and show good offensive players different looks. Best offensive unit is when the core 4 of Walt, Alijah, Condon and Haugh are on the floor. Haugh looks great. His shot is much more calm. Just looks more comfortable offensively all over the court. Put Will with these guys and you get another shooter, put Aberdeen with them and you get someone who can attack off the dribble and create a numbers advantage. Aberdeen will get a lot of minutes. His offensive game still needs maturing but his defense and athletic ability will make him an important contributor off the bench. If he can grow in confidence on the offensive end it would really help. Either way he is an important guy for us. Condon is not quite himself yet. I think he just needs to get his legs and wind underneath him and he will be fine. I expect he will be much better in a few weeks. Sam is raw offensively, but as our 2nd big off the bench will provide us with minutes at the 5 next to Haugh or occasionally at the 4 depending on foul situation. He is a role player at the SEC level currently and will most likely give us 15-18 min a game. Brown looks like a nice athlete whose defensive game is way ahead of his offensive. I don’t see him playing a ton of important minutes this year unless there is an injury. He looks like someone who has a chance but a little raw to really impact the SEC as a frosh. urban is a wild card. Very good player who if, and it’s a big if, becomes eligible will definitely help us. He could be our legit back up PG and give us a solid 9 man rotation. As it is, I see us mainly with an 8 man rotation. As I said all summer Haugh is a 4 with this staff and I think it’s the right call with his skill set. Is not currently playing any 3 and I would be very surprised minus an injury if we saw any of it at all this season. Expect to see a free flowing very fast paced offense with multiple players who can initiate the break. We will look to shoot quickly when we can and play thru our bigs with handoffs and ball screen action in the half court. All in all, should be another fun year of Gator hoops!
I don’t think Aberdeen will stuff the stat sheet, but he will make an impact whenever he is on the court with his length, versatility, athleticism, defenses, and handles. Definitely reminds of a mix of J-Ham (especially before his knee issues) and Wilbekin (especially before he broke out offensively).
@gatorrick1 Glad you could make it to the scrimmage, thanks for the info. One thing that stood out in your writeup: you led with defense! YESSSSS. We always look more at the offensive side. You said "Haugh is also important" on defense. I think Eric wrote last month that this was a weakness last year that he needed to correct. Close-out speed and lateral speed, IIRC.
Gatorrick, from the level of detail, I assume you were at the scrimmage. So here are some questions... What's the problem with Klavzar's eligibility? How did Chinyelu look? Is he playing with control? Why would Condo's wind be an issue? He only hurt his knee the day before the first scrimmage. He should be in top shape. Has Clayton improved his defense? Wouldn't Alexis see more minutes at the 4 than the 5? I would guess that if Chin got a breather, Condo would move to the 5. How did Kajus look? Did we get a look at Ollie?
A weakness more in the sense that he was playing against bigger, athletic, skilled college fours for the first time. He has got plenty of athleticism and was solid for a freshman big. It’s just a real jump in competition.
I think Haugh was better than his analytic numbers last year. He was super active, maybe even overly so, but if teammates are not matching your effort sometimes it can hurt you. In my opinion that was a little of the story with Haugh last season. He is such an important player for this team. Does so many of the little things. Last year my comparison for him was Joakim Noah. Not that they look alike or have the same skill set, but instead how hard they played and how often their effort to get a hand on a ball or create a scrum benefited us. He makes so many little plays that impact winning. I’m excited for the second year leap.
Ollie didn’t play. Kajus was fine. Just physically probably not quite ready for SEC ball right now. Sometimes Sam will play the 4 sometimes the 5. Expect Reuben, Alex and Sam to all get some minutes at the 5. Mostly the first two but there will be times both Reuben and Alex are off the floor at the same time. Reuben will be able to play his role much like Micah did last season. Will be a nice lob option and has a little bit of a jump hook that he can maybe muscle up close to the basket and use. He is definitely a rim protector. Offense on the perimeter needs to continue to improve. Also please remember we were playing Charleston. They really don’t have the size or athleticism to match up with us. We beat them as we should. Which is nice. Don’t want to make too many conclusions based off this game. However you can see some possibilities and it’s exciting. This has nothing to do with the scrimmage, but I think with Urban it’s just a professional/amateur question as to why he is still not eligible. I don’t have any inside info whatsoever on his eligibility. Just know people around the game and that seems to be the general thought.
Thanks! Great report. Last year, I thought Haugh showed the potential to be all SEC. He was a freshman with great size, great motor, great bball IQ and at least the framework of everything he needs to be a star. Nice handle for a big guy, good passer, blocks out well, moves great, very nice looking shot and excellent height. He could be the SEC break out player of the year. Aberdeen is another guy I love. Incredibly athletic, great length, good shot form but a little streaky, great defensive guy. He could have a break out year too. And Condon reminds me of Kevin McHale. Great player. Clayton and Richard are already studs and we should expect them to be better versions of last year. Even without the new guys, we have an incredible nucleus. It’s gonna be a great year.
About the only combination that really makes me nervous is Chinyelu + Alexis. Solid defensively, but not a lot of offensive spacing, skill, or experience at this level. Would try to avoid that combo as much as possible against better teams. Also curious to see how Chinyelu and Condon play together. Should be solid defensively, but, again, not a lot of space to operate. Staff seems dead set on Condon at the four, though I loved now he and Haugh played off each other last year. One lineup I can’t wait to see is Clayton/Martin/Aberdeen/Haugh/Alexis. That’s probably our most athletic, switchable group defensively. Can throw out some zone or press with them, get out and run in transition. No low post threat offensively, so maybe more of your high lost motion stuff with Haugh, but would be a great group to speed up a game or get stop.
Great info, @gatorrick1 . Interesting re Haugh not playing the 3 at all, he'll be a good stretch 4 for us. Sounds like he or Aberdeen will be the first off the bench, then Sam for an 8-man rotation. Wonder how far we are from seeing Urban cleared, and if Brown and/or Kajus will give us meaningful minutes. Looks like we could easily go 10 or even 11 deep, but in big games go with 8 or 9. I'm also surprised that Condon isn't in game shape if his injury was recent. Hope he's that much better by next week's game
Very interesting regarding Urban's eligibility. I thought with NIL the whole professional/amateur question would take a back seat, but guess there's a big difference between getting a trip paid for or gifts and actually playing for a professional team and getting paid to do so
Yes me too. I think if we have that Chin and Alexis combo we go heavy on the offense for 1-3, with either Aberdeen or Martin one of those 3 guarding the other team's best backcourt player so we're not putting that much pressure on our frontcourt and getting them in foul trouble.
it is, I guess they think making money off NIL is quite different than actually playing for a professional team then coming to college ball. But you're right, I would have thought that with college players being paid now, what's the difference between making money off NIL and a salary. It's just semantics at best.
Condon will definitely play some 5. I would expect if no one is in foul trouble our first guy off the bench to be Haugh in for Reuben moving Condon to the 5. Then Sam will get him and play some 5, but I do think we will see plenty of minutes with Condon at the 5. I think our best lineup especially on offense will be the line up you mentioned subbing out Sam for Condon. I think one thing too look for is when we make our first subs I think we get better, whereas a lot of teams dip a little with subs. We have a good top 7. To me and this is just my opinion Sam will be a fine role player, but I don’t expect a Samuel kind of impact from him. And I know two completely different players. It’s just that Samuel came from a power 5 league and had performed offensively well. Sam comes from a weaker league and isn’t super skilled offensively. He is fine on defense, but if he plays some 5 he will be undersized a bit come SEC time. I see him as a nice 4th big but more so a role player to give our bigs a break and help in foul trouble situation. Again that’s just how I see it as of today.
I want to clarify something with Condon. His conditioning will be just fine. Remember he had a little injury and sometimes when your close to season or in season, just a few days can impact your wind, especially in beginning of a game. I have absolutely 0 inside info on anything with him and conditioning. I am giving my opinion. I love Condon. A huge fan of his. I hope we all remember his role is changing compared to last year. Samuel was really our post scorer for us last year. He was a very good individual offensive player. We all were impressed how Condon came in and played super hard, ran the floor well, was physical and showed some basketball IQ and awareness. Taking that next step to be a consistent low post scorer will be fun to watch, but again just my .02 I hope he doesn’t press. Continues to let the game come to him. I think he will have a great year and will be the guy we saw last year. I guess just saying I hope everyone has realistic expectations of our sophomore big. Let’s see him repeat last season and then be excited if we see growth as a scorer. To me that’s the right approach with him. He has a terrific future in the game and again should be fun to watch. Such an easy guy to root for.
