For much of the game, I thought we looked like the better team. Some of our guys had the yips, just a bit overwhelmed by the environment. Castleton dominated Tshiebwe. If he repeats that performance in G'ville, I think we get the victory.
The great Florida teams persevered through the biased officiating and won. It will always be that way against Kentucky. Golden has to drill that point home to the team.
Refs weren’t bad. We make layups and find anyone to hit an outside shot and we win. CC was the best player on the floor. Unfortunately Kentucky had 3 guys score consistently. We had 1 and can’t win that way. We play aggressive like CC did and we win. Until we find 1-2 other guys that can give us 10-12 points a game consistently and hit open shots we will struggle to win games like this.
Definitely agree, Richard and Fudge are the keys. They put up some numbers and we will have a good shot at tourney.
Will Richard is one of our top 3 players, behind CC and roughly equal to Lofton. Riley Kugel has rightly joined the starting five and continues to improve. Fudge showed a nice arc of growth earlier in the season but seems to have hit a wall in SEC play. If he can get adjusted (and quickly), we could have enough scorers to really make a difference. Since every player has off days shooting, you want more than one or two guys that can make baskets. Bonham has his moments but he's still a work in progress at this level. I have more hopes for him next season than for now. Kowacie is a mystery wrapped in a riddle, and I don't think he's going to be much help until he recognizes the difference between good and bad shots. And at this point I don't think he can. We only got excited about him when he had a couple of late games last season when he went off. That turns out to have been a fluke, and if you recall, he took some really bad, covered, rushed shots that just happened to go in. If you launch enough bad shots, sooner or later one or two will go in. But it's losing basketball. Norm Sloan called it "fool's gold."
I thought the officials did a good job overall as there are always calls missed but the key was that they allowed Castleton to play and didn't call a bunch of cheap fouls on him. If the officials wanted a blowout all they had to do was ring up CC for fouls and the game would be over.
I don’t see Fudge being a key. He needs to dramatically improve his basketball smarts to stay on the floor during crunch time. The best 5 are starting right now.
I must admit I don't understand how traveling isn't called on what looks to be be a third steps or a pivot foot picked up. I guess if you count 0, 1, 2 you aren't traveling anymore. How guys are allowed to pick up their pivot foot is amazing.
Definitely agree, Richard and Fudge are the keys. They put up some numbers and we will have a good shot at to i do as we need his athleticism and ability on the floor. I’m not saying he has to start or play 34 minutes but 18-20 minutes with his energy would really help us. A stat line like 8-5-3-3 is doable
CC definitely had a couple of uncalled travels in the game. But so did Oscar. On one play, when I thought Colin traveled, I could see in the replay that he actually did not. His long stride fools you sometimes. One of the uncalled travels that UK fans were whining about, they should instead shut up about, because Oscar hacked him before the travel. No foul called.
The traveling rule sure has evolved and kinda started with the Euro Step...which of course is a travel. Now they allow guys catching the ball to get extra steps or step back shots....even on a simple throw-in in the backcourt the guy will take an extra step. The jump stop is another beauty...jumping with both feet off the ground and landing with the ball...that's a travel. Don't get me started on the carrying or palming of the ball. There are some players now who could not play the game if they enforced the rules like before because half their moves require a travel or carrying the ball.
