OGT: FLORIDA vs USF -- November 4, 2024 -- 8:30 PM -- SECN

I really loved what I saw in the backcourt. I really loved what I saw in the frontcourt. Midcourt needs work.

 

First half was very worrisome, but there may have been some jangly nerves. Plus let's not forget the USF guys were bound to play with some fierce emotion. Second half the emotion wore off and the better team gradually pulled away.

 

A strong ball handler. Everything else is gravy.

 

Gators with only 8 turnovers. Very nice.

 

We were 28-38 from 2 (almost 75%) and held them to 15-36 from 2 (barely 40%). That is tremendous. Drew 27 fouls and got 33 free throws off them. Forced 16 turnovers, 24-8 in points off turnovers.

Bigs struggled in ball screen coverage, but that should be expected with two new guys and two sophomores, plus Condon being on the bench so much. Just need to clean up our coverages/rotations.

 

I think we were 28 for 33 at the free throw line. Very nice as well.

 

I thought that was Aberdeen, but he got his pocket picked tonight pretty bad.

 

And he is. Pretty high usage with low turnovers. Got his own shots, got to the line, didn’t make mistakes, got us into early offense, and made good passes that other guys didn’t finish.

 

They shot almost 50% from deep. We have to improve on that.

We shot 20%. We WILL improve on that.

 

Yeah, you expect problems in the first game. It took us quite a while to find our groove but we looked like a different team once we did. Gotta stop giving shooters open 3s though.

 

Two trips out of three he stood there dribbling back and forth between his legs. Too many touches. Defender just sized that up and pounced. Easy to fix, just surprising DA thought he could get away with it

 

USF is a pretty good team playing with a lot of emotion. The Gators hot poorly from beyond the arc, but they limited their turnovers, drove the lane well and won the game fairly easily. Room for improvement, sure, but nice way to start the season.

 

Well the backcourt returned a superstar, a solid veteran, and added another solid veteran. Not to many questions there, other than Pulin was just so damn solid as a ball handler and decision maker it might be hard to replace even with the lineup still being pretty stacked with experience.

Front court is similarly stacked with 4 solid players in the rotation, just as we were last year. Are we better, as the pollsters seem to think? Hard to say, but eyeball test is we are at least similar (and that’s a good thing). Hopefully our overall depth is better and we can go 4 or 5 deep in the back-court to match 4 up front. Last year our rotation was too thin by the end imo.

 

Props to the players and coaches for being ready to handle game one with all the emotions in the arena. Its only one game, but I'm liking what I'm seeing.
Clayton - improved overall
Richard - improved game and physical body change
Condon - improved overall
Haugh - improved
Martin - a plus contributor
Alexis - promising start
Chinyelu - TBD
Aberdeen - TBD
Rioux - much taller than the average Canadian
The first 8 could make a solid unit for the season but hopefully a few young guys step up and give the backups some challenges to help push their improvements.