#5 this morning in NCAA NET Rankings. #7 in KenPom. #10 in Torvik. #3 in AMSTS. #4 in Massey. #8 in EvanMiya. #16 in ESPN (kiss my hairy ass, ESPN).
Gators just seem to continue to improve. UF has what - 9 guys they can put in the rotation without worry? The team is deep, playing well on offense and defense, and seems very unselfish.
Just like to plug these players: Haugh - So impressed with his dvelopment. One of those guys that does the "hard work" - defense, rebounding, nose for the ball, sharing the rock, consumate team mate. His three ball is starting to find the range and his confidence continues to rise. Rueben - He has been a terror inside recently and continues to get better. Can dominate the paint at times. Rueben will be key in helping the Gators handle the rigors of SEC and tournament play. Alexis - Is it just me or does this guy seem to know how to score? I have been surprised just how well he can score with the rock in his hands. Klavzar - Pretty clear this guy can shoot the rock. While not seeing much PT he has gotten time in "real game" situations. I'm hopeful that he can be that "instant offense" guy should the guard rotation be a bit off on nights, and add a little shooting muscle to UF, especially from range. Brown - Not much PT for Brown but he strikes me as a kid that is more than just "clean up time". He can pop the twine as pretty as any of them. What little we have seen of him suggests he is a real threat to score with the ball when open.
My remaining question: how will we do when getting bullied and out-physical’d? I know we are better on this than last year. Still, some SEC teams on our schedule that are big and play just on the line of dirty.
Not many guys in our rotation who aren't physical and competitive. That's one of the great things about this team. I'm not worried about us being beaten physically. More of a concern is what happens when someone takes the air out of the ball and slows down the game. That is the opposite of how this team wants to play.
I feel like A&M did this to us last year -- made us look like a finesse team. (But I might be mis-remembering.) Auburn with Broome and especially that punk Baker-Mazara seem to have the gift of constantly doing bush league crap, but then getting the calls to go their way. I shouldn't be worried. We are stronger/tougher at likely 1-5 and 6-7 this year. Samuel -> Condon is a question, but Condon is always up for a good fight. Obviously Martin is a bad man.
Not too worried about bully ball this year. Martin is a rock and condon wont back down from anyone. We lack the scoring skill inside of some teams (broom) but I don’t think we ever get trucked.
Good question. I think our guards bring a different attitude this year and are tough as nails, I don’t think anyone will push them around. Reuben? I don’t think anyone is pushing him around either. Condo? The only issue would be maybe against someone bigger, but as far as toughness goes there are fewer that have his inner fight. Haugh? Same. Alexis? He might be a bit undersized but he has a long wingspan, seems pretty tough too. All in all I think we’ll be the team bringing the fight to other teams, even if we are undersized at times. We also have an older team, whereas a lot of the SEC teams will be playing some younger guys (Broom and Sears etc aside). it remains to be seen, but I think we do a LOT better in that category than last year
It's a physical league. I get fired up for: KY Vols Bama Auburn Arkansas Heck, everybody really. Lol But France is right, UF can get into some serious rock fights in this league.
That’s a good point. The one way to counter that is forcing turnovers and turning it into transition offense, get out and run (hopefully in spurts). If we can get 10-12 points that way, we can still win even if we get beat in a half court grind it out slugfest
For our resume, I wonder if they consider the UNC game tomorrow a home game for them. #28 Kenpom team at home (definitely will not look “neutral” tomorrow night)
Only 5 unbeaten teams remaining. After UNC tonight, we play UNF and Stetson before hitting a brutal SEC schedule. North Florida is a competitive team, Stetson is not. I'm hoping that we can get lots of floor minutes during those two games for Klavzar, Brown, Mikics, and Kublickas. These guys need game action because you never know when you find yourselves short-staffed due to foul trouble, illness, and injury.
