MBB OGT: #6 FLORIDA at #10 Kentucky -- January 4, 2025 -- 11 AM [ESPN]

and the 20-4 advantage in points off turnovers. Points off TOs had been our bread and butter, turn them over then get out in transition. We got the reverse today

 

kentucky, if they can beat Tennessee, should be the favorite to win it all.

 

My question would be can UK have a good shooting night for 6 straight games in the tourney? A team usually needs a better defense to win when it counts the most.

 

Williams outplayed him, but that's not a surprise--Williams is an exceptionally skilled, efficient player, who is also more experienced and developed. But 10 pts (4-4 shooting), 8 boards, 3 assists (against 1 turnover), and 2 blocks is a heckuva stat line for 21 minutes. Don't think anyone saw that kind of a game from him at this stage. Wichita was the only game better than his performance today. That's a pretty good sign going forward.

I'll be the first to say I did not like him starting alongside Condon, but that decision has proven to be a great one. His effectiveness defensively has elevated that entire unit, and his offensive shortcomings don't kill it when you have four double digit scorers around him. As a matter of fact, I love that first unit: you have three good perimeter scorers with two high level offensive rebounders on offensie, and on defense you have two great backstops who can rebound and protect the rim.

 

You are correct, sir.
We'd have beaten Colorado (who was underseeded, by the way), if the bone of our starting center and SEC-leading rebounder per minute hadn't punctured his skin in the game before.

 

That stretch was the key to the game. And it wasn't at all sudden great defense by UK that caused it, as the sportscasters were claiming. We had a lot of wide-open shots during that stretch that we simply and uncharacteristically missed.

 

Chins had really good minutes on the road against a top team, but foul trouble sent him to the bench. That's something we knew they've been working on, but it's going to happen now and again. But over the course of the season so far, I see him improving in little ways each week.

 

Yep.
Clayton was shooting almost 92% at the line before missing 3 yesterday. I don't think he's ever missed 3 in a single game before.

 

He is a streaky player. We needed either him or Aberdeen to get hotfrom the 3 point line.

 

Missed 4. At 91% from the charity stripe, good to get those misses out of the way now.

 

Yes- he sent me a FB message. Jeff is a good dude.

 

For the life of me, I don't understand why it took 16 straight points before we called a timeout.

 

Tennessee which prides itself on defense, is the best in the SEC. UConn also last year is annually a great defensive team. So I put it out there, if they can beat Tennessee on the road, they will be on their way. Of course on the road in an hostile environment, refs not helping, anything can happen. But from what I saw last night, they have more scorers than us, size and depth, good coaching, so we will see what happens as the year goes on. They will get even better playing together. They have already beat Duke, who has Cooper Flagg. Kentucky made a great coaching hire.

 

We did a 3/4 court zone pressure on one possession and UK started their half court set with 15seconds on the SC. They still scored, but given our struggles to defend all their off ball action in the HC, I don't understand why we didn't do that more.

So many times we'd defend well for 15-20 seconds, but eventually lose an assignment on all that action.

 

Watching Walter out front get the ball stolen from him with nobody around, I knew we were in trouble. Then right before half our infamous just give Walter the ball with thirty seconds on the clock try to dribble until there is almost no time left then hurry an ill advissed shot, I knew Golden hasn’t seen the need to try to get at least one other player involved on last half shots. We have done this all year and it hardly ever works. This is coaching not using an analytical approach, his forte, not! Watch how other teams have success at the end of clock plays and try a different approach.

 

People complained about Donovan doing this for years. And White. Now Golden. And if we watched more basketball, we would see the vast majority of teams do something very similar in those spots, which is not to just “let the PG bleed the clock and take a bad shot,” but is 99/100 a high ball screen out of a spread floor where the one has freedom to read the defense and make a play. And the reason coaches prefer that to a more complicated set play is because that usually takes more time to develop (so you can’t manage the clock) and there is a far greater risk of turnover (the last thing you want at that spot is giving them the ball back). But by all means we should keep complaining about it. 20 years isn’t quite enough.

 

Bullish that is an interesting take. We looked so bad against OSU. We still have some warts but I know this year is wide open.

I was talking to some Gator buddies today. It is nice that we have a coach who actually game plans, changes defenses, makes half time adjustments, and runs out of bounds plays.

Florida is damn good and you know how important guards are at tournament time. It would be of shock me one bit for UF to go farther than UK.

 

You definitely got the right coach, he got someone in the game every time someone was shooting free throws, of course icing our guys, LOL. It worked. Walter on our behalf needs to understand that he can’t go alone on end of the half or game.
He is still getting accustomed to full time point guard. I might add, a volume shooter.
Kentucky was the laughing stock at the SEC tournament last year. This year I know you all will bring it. I volunteer to work the tournament every year in Nashville, looking forward to both our teams rising to the top.

 

I can only say, we couldn’t hardly even do a high ball screen against Kentucky. The only decent pick was Chinyelu’s. A desperation shot with two men in your face is a low percentage shot as you well know. I don’t mind if we can learn to get him open in these instances, if he could do a drive and kick it out to Haugh, who is pretty tall and a decent shooter, either score from inside or kick it out.