Golden Post Game Comments: vandy

TV showed Will Richard up close and personal at the foul line for two, he missed them both. He was dripping wet. This guy is a very good free throw shooter. He also defends, assists his teammates and usually shoots good shots. He was gassed, whether it was exhaustion or maybe he had the flu! But I agree the effort by the team as a whole wasn’t there. We didn’t play with the passion we play with at the Tennessee and Kentucky games!

 

Maybe start getting some top recruits in the nation to commit to the program. Because NOTHING NOTHING is going to change until you do.

it is SO clear that this patchwork strategy of bringing in transfers JUST DOES NOT WORK. If you are bringing in one or two a year, it is one thing. When you are bringing in 5-6 every year it becomes Grand Central Station, not a cohesive program.

When you are compensating for an inability to recruit or what is largely becoming an acute lack of interest in a program that had it all a decade and a half ago but has inexplicably fallen into abject obscurity, you are telling the rest of college basketball winning just isn’t important anymore.

And quite frankly the way the basketball program has played over the last 14-15 years (hard to believe), it is hard to come to any other conclusion other than winning is NOT a priority at Florida.

 

When it takes you almost the entire season to figure out who should be starting a getting the most minutes, the program is in turmoil.

There is NO question that the starting five should be Castleton, Lofton, Fudge, Kegel, and Reeves. I like Richard a lot and he is a decent three point shooter, but he does not produce consistently enough to warrant taking time away from a guy (Reeves) who committed to the program from day one.

when Florida gets back to recruiting players like Kugel and Reeves who can make major contributions as freshman, we are going to be the Grand Central Station of college basketball.

 

This loss wasn't caused by fatigue, lack of effort or coaching. These guys just can't shoot. Period.

 

We have had great recruits and they, like so many others, are itching to get that big NBA payday or transfer out for whatever reason. Stability is critical but you can't proclaim it or demand it. It's gonna take time and so many fans don't have the patience to accept set backs.

 

That's ridiculous. The team could have won this game. It's on the players not the coach. They can't make layups or free throws, let alone threes. You could say the players aren't coached to shoot well though. What I mean by that is some guys just look at the basket and chuck the ball into the general vicinity of the hoop hoping it goes in. You have to be more deliberate than that and concentrate on the ball going just over the front of the rim. Jones seems to be one of the chuckers.

 

I agree, I was waiting for Felder to come in. When Fudge missed his crazy dunk attempt was the time to send a message. As for Will Richard being gassed in the second half, he expends more energy on defense and offense then anyone on this team. I would start giving him time to rest and let Neil’s play some, who would provide steals, stops on three and drives and even rebound. he should be told to only try to drive it inside or feed CC and put backs only. These two would help this team and CTG has missed on who turned last season around. He is not getting the best minutes distribution this team has to offer. He has to open his mind to a big time D1 league where you have to have tough defense so you have to keep guys fresh. He is a coach with diapers on! LOL

 

Reeves “NO question” should be starting? I think a lot of us disagree with that.

 

Yesterday was a bad loss and who knows if Golden will be successful, but the "over the last 14-15 years" comment is a bit much.

 

Do we know for sure that Stricklin “rushed” the Golden hire?

It’s certainly possible (probable?) that Golden was in the tier of folks who returned Stricklin’s calls, and that this job isn’t as desirable as we want to think it is, for a host of reasons that aren’t just limited to basketball.

 

I'm sorry about the last post but I think something has been going on with this forum. Sometimes when I create a new paragraph it skips a good amount of space and once in awhile all of the way to the bottom of the page. That's why my response is down so far. Not sure if anyone else is having this problem. I thought it was my phone but I recently got a new phone and I'm having the same problem. Thought I'd mention this. Thanks.

 

Here was my response above

This is a fair point. I really don't know if he rushed the decision but it felt like it since Golden was hired the day after SF lost in the tournament. I'm not sure how desirable the Florida job but we should be on par or better with Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Auburn, so I see no reason we can't find a coach similar to the likes of these coaches who have more experience. I just don't understand going with a young guy who coached 3 yrs in the WCC just because he was the assistant under Bruce Pearl. So far this year, it feels like Golden has a lot to learn and the 23 class is okay so far.

 

Interesting take, but I think Richard is bringing much more to the team so far this here. Take a look at the per/40 stats:

Player.......pts.....rbd.....fg%.....3pt%.....asst.....stl.....blk.....to
Reeves.......17.5...5.9......37.7......27.9.......1.3......0.9.....0.5.....2.1
Richard......14.6....6.5......46.7.....40.6........1.2......1.3....1.0.....1.3

Richard is really our only reliable 3pt shooter and we need that threat on the floor. Add in the shooting % and fewer TOs and that's your reason he starts over Reeves.

 

Everyone . . . please let me or @GatorGrowl know if you're ever having any problems with any of the forums.

@jareduf it sounds like something is sticking the "enter" or "return" button. I haven't noticed it on my end.

 

Reeves coming into the season I thought had a chance to be our best player, but he had been having a horrid stretch of basketball and also takes too many bad/contested shots. Some of those shots should be benchable imo. It was nice to see him have a spark in the last game, but even then he took a couple of “heat check” 3’s after his good run, which cost is. Richardson is a damn fine player who generally only takes high % shots.

 

What is so obviously clear, and we all know it is this team really is bad at shooting. Oh the scoring streaks give hope but far too many times it doesn't feel like they control iit and that its more like the other team is allowing the scoring.

The consistent pattern is how many times layups or touch in shots are missed as if the hoop is in 3d obscuring that big ol hole of a net. How many drives to the basket look like a walk into church with the inevitable prayer shot.

I have no faith in 3 things...the drives to the basket showcasing the required circus shot. CC dribbling down the court displaying the fact that the 4 other faster guys are not available to do the same. And of course 3 point shots over and over that when attempted makes one immediately think.."wonder if we get the rebound this time?".

 

I think 2 things can be said after having 36+ hours to process this...

1) Golden is still learning. We got a very young inexperienced guy. Right or wrong, we went with "young and promising" instead of "experienced and accomplished" in both football and b-ball. Will it work? I actually think so (on both), but when you go with "young and promising" you will get some growing pains/ mistakes.

2) The team was exhausted Saturday. Missing FTs, lack of defense, missed dunks, poor shooting are all marks of a tired team. Imagine the mental energy it takes to play vs 4 quality teams in a row as we did, with 3 of them on the road. On top of that, we had a very late night vs Bama, and a quick turnaround game vs Vandy.

It's just a fact you can't give an A+ effort every game. Teams will let down, esp after a tough slate of games. And we did.

That said, I think we will see a much better team vs Ole Miss, and I think (hope) we can go 5-1 from here.