OGT-Florida vs. East Carolina Lakeland, Fla Dec. 14, 2023 | 7 p.m

Rebound and put-back dunk by Samuels sealed the game for us at the end. Held my breath for a while there….whew!

 

With last night's win we....dropped five spots in KenPom to 35. The good news...with the loss, ECU rose 20 spots to 186.

As weird as that sounds, I think it actually fits what happened.

 

Yep, when you watch kenpom, you'll see that happening every day. SOS figures into the figurin' a LOT.
It's okay. Beating them dropped us a little. Losing to them would have dropped us a bunch. Michigan up next, and they're at #41. A win over them on a neutral court will be go down as a quality win.

 

Their 7 assists to 12 turnovers was an even worse ratio than our 12 and 17

 

Sadly, yes it does

 

Something about that Michigan fight song that just makes me want to beat them badly. Hope we bring better shooting and ball security.

 

You’re a better man than I am, exiled. I can’t help but think about how we went down to the wire against a team with a KenPom rating of -2.

 

The thing that I appreciate about KenPom and all the algorithms is that that they not only treat winning by 18 as basically the same as winning by 20, but they also treat winning by 1 as basically the same as losing by 1.

Don’t get me wrong. I like to win -especially in a single elimination tournament- but I think us fans overly value the difference between a one point win and one point loss. There is a lot of luck that goes into differentiating those two outcomes.

 

Well, your first sentence is clearly false. I'm just a long ways from feeling as hopeful as I felt when I first saw this squad play. Love the hell out of these guys and hope to witness a lot of growth, but honestly, my expectations aren't crazy.

If we win the next three, we still have to go 10-8 in conf to get to 20 wins. That can certainly be done, but will take some maturing.

So I'm just going to enjoy the fighting spirit I see and ignore the sloppiness in games like this.

 

Totally agree. I've been noticing last several games he seems to hang his head and lose focus as soon as he misses a shot or two.

 

Upon further review...

Tis the season. A time for giving. A time for holiness. A time for sports entertainment. A time for jolly drinking. A LOT of jolly drinking.

Not in the order, but let's tackle the season we are in.

Holy CRAP! That is about the best description of what I just saw. What a very entertaining game...as long as you are not a Gator basketball fan. If ever there was a time to justify your drinking skills, this IS the time.

Now to the "giving" season. I saw giving on all sides. First, Florida had so much giving, they almost gave the game away. I will give you a chance to begin your jolly drinking now so let's break here and find your Triple-shot Eggnog (TsE, it isn't just for breakfast!).




Free throws, or should I say the "concept" of free throws. A team "earns" free throws and they are also "given" them. You plainly earn them when you drive to the basket with authority or rebound offensively and put the ball back up. You are given free throws when the other team is sort of lazy playing defense and so they foul instead of play sound defense. And lastly, you are "given" free throws because...the refs recognize the fouls. Let's go to reverse order. The refs, and I use this term after I begin my second TsE, were, um, giving the sport some new ideas of how bad it can be. Now, I will not say that they could have been the reason for a loss, just that their idea of what was a foul was.........."uneven". I would say that the reason why they did not assist ECU in a program-defining win is because of the law of averages in shooting the ball. They were making some amazing shots and so they missed some average ones. You are what your stats say you are.

Now to the "lazy" way. What I saw by Florida can best be described as lazy defense. Also, some lazy rebounding and passing. It is amazing (again, that double-edged word) how we could be so dominate in rebounding margin and yet find ourselves in a dogfight and "miss" important ones (potentially). Clayton was about as "Bi-polar" as there probably can be. Truly bizarre. And now to the truly bizarre...and the ticking clock. Kugel is just not getting this team. He...just...isn't. He is either going to go home for the holidays and find his mojo, or he will be sitting and even leaving before the season is over. This is against meh competition. He will NOT be given the chance to shine against the SEC competition. Richard is too good on this team's makeup to sit because Kugel may get drafted next time. MAYBE... But then, if Kugel checks out, we need another guard to take his place. Rishwain seems to be the natural option. But we have a LONG ways to go to get to "that place."

If I had to say, ECU's team is EXACTLY what Mike White wants in a team: really good team defense, movement in the half-court offense and hang around to try and win it going down the stretch. They have them a really good coach. I doubt they are going to be able to keep him.

Now to what we have "earned", but I will let you get your second TsE (and my third)...




What we have "earned" is a chance to lose games by not making free throws. It will be that way for the remainder of the season. Methinks there is a uniform maker who puts hexes on them. Probably someone who is attached to Cal and Pearl. If I could give this team a Christmas wish, it would be to just stop playing basketball, have some fun, and then when you want to do something "constructive", just go into the gym and shoot free throws. Make a game out of it. Like, if you miss three in a row or you make 7 out of 10 or less, you have to kiss your grandmother or sister on the mouth for two solid seconds. Something WILL happen sooner or later.

I do hope this was a sort of teaching-moment game, but it did not feel like it. Yes, we won and so we have a non-descript win (we shall see at the end of the season) instead of a disastrous loss. It feels like it could be a "too much holidays" moment but it can also be a "why worry, we won?" game. And THAT would be delaying the inevitable: a truly bad loss...or two...or....

And so, for the Gator brethren and this season of holiness. Merry Christmas, embrace your family, have fun and most importantly:


drink your jolly drinks. Lots and LOTS of them. You WILL need them. Trust me.

 

I just hope the Michigan coach doesn't try to punch coach Golden. (snicker)

 

Don't remember where I saw it but there was a video with a former NBA player I believe who was talking about how their coach would bench a player for poor body language. I see a lot of that at the free throw line and wish it would get corrected

 

If Howard is allowed in the building, it's a real possibility.

 

I'm no coach or expert but this team puzzles me. We have some great rebounding, good bigs, Samuel is a monster, Clayton is a stud, Pullin is a good distributor, Richards can shoot albeit it's streaky, UF has depth in the frontcourt, they hustle, seem generally unselfish and yet......... something seems amiss.

Yes, I know Riley is struggling, is it because he is no longer the "featured" offensive threat? Clearly free throwing is an issue.

When this team is rolling they look like they have the potential to be great ..........but then, the motor starts to sputter.
Mark Wise kept repeating that UF likes to score fast in it's offensive sets. I would not exactly call UF a "running / fastbreak team" though.

Just seems the Gators "could be" better than 7 - 3. It's also hard to judge the competition. Still relatively early.

As mentioned, they need to beat Meechagan and Float like a butterfly sting like a bee Howard.

I dunno, obviously like most on this board I would like them to be as good as they potentially can be.

So whats missing? Causing the engine to sputter??

 

Legit questions.

Kugel is anyone's guess, but as for making these really nice pieces click - I think that's something we're seeing CTG try to sort out when he tries these varied lineups - searching for the 5 or 6 that work best together. Complicating that process is the inconsistency seen from each player. Richard comes on while Riley disappears. Clayton goes on a tear while Zion can't find a bucket, freshmen doing freshmen things, Clayton giving up points, Kugel sometimes creating a production black hole, and a team that largely seems incapable of controling TOs . Micah going down didn't help either.

But this is all just normal basketball team stuff. Not excuses. I think we need to wait until we're a few games into the SEC schedule to know just how skilled we really are - and to see how well coach can coach.

So - IOW, I have no answer. Let's just hope steel sharpens steel and/or our coach is good.

 

Leadership

 

Appreciate the feedbacks. I like this team. You see the working parts and we have seen glimces of a really good club.

I find them to be as fun to watch as any recent Gator squad and most of the game announcers and in studio narratives have generally agreed UF is a tournament team, probably in a lower bracket.

That's a positive for sure, I think I can speak for the board to suggest that seasons that don't end in the NCAA tourney are a disappointment.

Well as mentioned, UF is about to hit the rugged SEC Schedule and it's always a grind, even during UFs best years.

I hope as mentioned, leadership is manifested and coach Golden hits his stride.

Obviously Riley needs to let the game come to him and not force things, if UF gets that worked out and can creep up FT shooting to 67 - 70%, things may get interesting.

I am a bit worried about our young bigs getting through the rigors of SEC play, their going to get beat up, everyone does in this league. It's going to be tough depending on dominating offensive rebounding against this league, as UF has been
doing out of conference so far.

Anyway: basketball is much funner than football right now.

 

Despite the deficiencies, Gator basketball will mature and become one of the best teams in the SEC. This team is dangerous!

 

Todd Golden really addressed deficiencies on last year's team and has put together a great group of players for 2023. Whether or not they can gel into a really good team is up to them, but the talent is there. Free throw shooting, 3-point defense and offensive cohesion are problems that have to be fixed, but the pieces to the puzzle seem to be in place for this group to accomplish a lot.