(WBK) UF vs Ole Miss January 16, 2025 9 pm SEC N

Agree - No doubt Coach Finley has recruited better players than we've had in a long time. But the results are pretty much the same. Still hoping for the best - at some point.

 

I think it is very admirable that people still support Kelly. She is a nice person and does things right. But isn't this her 6 year and we are still bottom feeders. She is a good coach but not a SEC coach. If you are happy with us being in the bottom 4, then we have no problems.

 

warning: storybook incoming

I know everyone wants to fire the coach after each loss. Im not disparaging anyone for that, because it means you care about the program—which is SO important. This is a game we could win for sure but it didn’t look like it last night.

if we get rid of Finley right now, it will certainly set recruiting back literal years. McGill is gone 100%, Kyle is gone after this year regardless. O’Neal, kitts and reynolds would probably leave. This set back of years could only be avoided by hiring a “win now” coach. Unfortunately those coaches have zero reason to want to go to a school like Florida. Dawn wasn’t big when SC hired her, she made SC a destination. Vic Schaefer made Miss St a destination. Geno made UConn a destination. Mulkey did well at LA TECH and made Baylor and then LSU a destination. LSU only got her to leave Baylor because she’s a native of LA. Kenny Brooks didn’t make UK a destination …he was proven at another p5 that doesn’t care at all about wbb. And it took him YEARS to get there. Coaches like Kenny brooks are never coming to Florida. Why? You say it yourselves—Florida never has been a wbb school. Unfortunately, big money is offered by all the big schools that want to win. We have the money, we don’t have anything else. Florida needs to become a wbb school before coaches that we want will want us. Finley inherited a program in literal shambles that was already set back years by newbauer. I say look for improvement this year. A team can be fun to watch and still lose. That wasn’t the case last night obviously. Ole miss is a team that appears to have little discipline but a lot of talent. It was painful to watch, but if I see some serious development by the end of the season, I say we chill on putting Finley on the hot seat. Firing her will only set the program back yet again imo. I know everyone wants us to be good at wbb but unfortunately most coaches don’t bring a whole roster of 5 stars when hired like Kenny brooks and that’s not what we would get. We would likely get a mid major or d2 coach who has had a few good seasons.

So consider that when calling for the coaches job. Are you all going to be patient while a championship team is being built for another 2 or 3 (or more) years? From scratch?

Finley has a nicely ranked class coming in next season too and hasn’t even looked in the portal yet.

And for those saying that the coach ran off matharu..she’s at her 4th or 5th school…and averging less than 10mpg off the bench at Baylor. So if you think that’s why we aren’t playing well idk what to tell ya

5 years ago we would have never signed Liv McGill, I’ve been following the program since Amanda was coaching and I promise the product on the floor is miles and miles better than anything I’ve seen before. We were begging Delicia Washington to stay just a few seasons ago. Progress has been made.

that being said, last night was hard to watch.

 

My mistake. But four years should be enough for a great coach to turn it around.

 

I love the optimism but Kelly didn't take over from scratch from Newbauer. She was his right hand from the time he was hired. She recruited and developed the players she took over. Her best year was her first and we have regressed each since. If progress was being shown I could see it, but we get worse each year. That is on coaching, development, and roster management. The 25 class is an unknown. It's basically all international players and guessing games as to how they will turn out. Not to mention we have to hold onto players that show up here and we have lost a lot of talent as well under Kelly. Fear of losing recruits is pointless. Teams are going to recruit McGill regardless. It's the name of the game now. Our best players are less likely to stay for a coach with an uncertain future, and will be recruited by proven coaches with chances to win big. She has a bit of time left, but it doesn't look promising IMO. Waiting a year to do the same thing puts us back yet another year.

 

I agree it is not time to get rid of her, it is time to see what is around her though. She needs a very strong assistant coach and also might need to tighten her grip on the team some. Liv is definitely gone if KRF leaves..Oneal also and I think she makes a big jump next year. My issue with Matharu leaving was that we didnt have anyone to really take her spot. Salgus is ok, when she is not shooting well though it is very tough to have her on the floor. With all her faults Matharu would play defense very hard. She was a irritant out on the floor and a good ball handler. The other night was part of a pattern to during games. We lose all focus and it is hard to reign the team back in. People dont remember Dawn at Temple where her teams struggled for a few seasons.

I have implored for people to come to the games, I will keep imploring them. I have seen recruits show up for games having the most fun and look into the crowd and hardly see anyone. I know we have been very close on a few transfers and other high level recruits only to lose out to them at the end and not due to coach or the school itself. But they want to play in front of 3 to 4 k a night at least. One game we had a recruit at last year and we had around 400 people ..It was horrid. Needless to say said recruit ended up at another school. I agree talent wise this is the best I ahve seen probably in 25 to 30 years. Maybe back to the Page/Milton teams'

I said in a previous post one thing that might really ignite the team and the crowds is a big time transfer. I have heard several young ladies may be looking around at the end of the year, that could really give the team a big boost. Hopefully they hit the portals after the season and give us a listen to.

By the way I know KRF would at least get 1 more season but I am hearing 2 more unless we just implode the next season and a half

 

yeah I am going to push back some here, we have not regressed, to me we havent. Last year was horrible after Kyle got hurt. Before she did we were on our way to very good season. This year I really believe we got screwed a few games, but we are so young really on court playing time minus RK. Now the other night was inexecusable, but teams have games like that sometimes.

Who says KRF has an uncertain future? No one from Admin, I said the other night that hell she needs to improve but no matter what she would get at least another year

That young woman from Canada has played against very top heavy teams from the US and she has played very well...she domimated against some girls we were recruiting and after that we dropped them.

the others have really good reps
I am not ready to see the team and organization blown up..I would like to see a few hires on the staff to really help

 

21-11 Year 1
19-15 Year 2
16-16 Year 3

And it's going to be a stretch to not drop again the way we are playing. That is literally regression every year... just saying. And I promise you coaches out there will negatively recruit against that. It is not the record of a coach with a certain future.