Two more wins and we would have been tied for 4th/5th/6th place...

We would have won several more if not for our earlier habit of horrendous starts. We would be down by double digits soon and then have to battle back in the 2nd half. Game after game.
That said, we would have beaten Aubie and Tammy if we'd started stronger.
Losing by 2 at home to FAU was devastating at the time, again after a really bad start. As it turns out, it would have been a quality win.
Anyway, it's all water under a bridge. Or maybe a bridge under water. I just want to see us finish strong at this point and maybe gather a little momentum to help us recruit a few key pieces during the next few months.

 

Sad...always felt if CC was healthy, we would be in the Tournament. No doubt in my mind.

 

Nah, our interior defense evaporated when CC went down. Fortunately, Will and Riley are peaking right now and that's kept us from completely tanking.

 

Yes with CC around we might have done it, and would possibly (if we had won/will win 2 in the SECT) been in the big dance. Woulda coulda shoulda

 

I think most of the rest of the players did play better without CC. Some stepped up big time and some got chances they wouldn't have had if here were still playing. But it was too much of a loss to overcome.

I am excited about some of the guys that stepped up. I'm also excited to see Coach Golden change up lineups, get more guys PT and change his game plan to better suit our personnel. I think the players, the team and the coaches learned a lot since CC went down.

 

Outside of Tenn, ironically is our best win Kennesaw state?
Tenn win shows this team had potential and underachieved for sure, but always would have been a bubble team.

 

Tenn win showed who Tenn really is. When they run into problems offensively they can't handle it, start stretching and freeze up. Not taking anything away from that win of course but Tenn is not who we thought they were.

 

Not to mention the embarrassing mishap against OOC FAU.

 

Coach has been experimenting with different lineups, Also experimenting with half-court zone d and full-court pressing. Shimmy got his chances, then had just 1 minute against LSU. Niels is getting minutes. It looked like the full-court press has been effective, but an opponent with top-flight guards can make you pay for pressing.
I think we'll see CTG mixing things up just to keep the opponent off-balance. When we settle into a base man-to-man defense without CC, we get abused, and there's not really a cure for that with the bigs we have left.

 

CC just earned first team all SEC! Im not sure we were watching the same games my friend.

 

And well deserved. Definitely not a knock on Castleton. Not sure we lost any games without him that we wouldn't have lost with him is simply the point. The team did not fall apart and had similar results.

 

Aside from the early season woes, The @UK game felt like a missed opportunity, then dropping to Vandy at home was just a killer.

I think we already blew the NCAAT by losing the Vandy game even before Castleton went down. Win that one and we might have been set up. Certainly a fighting chance. But we would have had to beat UK at home too, probably. That’s what, 18-13? That would have been right on the bubble.

 

At the start of the SEC season, Florida lost three winable games that came down to the last few possessions of the ball game:
Texas A&M (63-66), at Auburn (58-61), and at Texas A&M (63-66).

Those could have been at most three wins right there. UF could have gone off to a spectacular 6-0/8-0 start rather than the 3-3/5-3 start which is respectable.

There may have been many other factors involved in those results:
- Florida had a young, 1st year coach (Todd Golden) taking over a program in the SEC. UF had an entirely new team (4 new starters) from the previous season that had an up & down non-conference season that was still trying to find their identity - only Castleton was back at center.

- Initially, Golden played the top transfers along with Castleton in the first 3rd of the season. UF had two PG's (Bonham & Kyle Lofton), Will Richard & Fudge. That lineup would later changed into a 4-Guard lineup & Castleton for the majority of the season: Myrone Jones (in place of Bonham) & Lofton, Will Richard along with K.Reaves/Kugel (whoever was hot) & Castleton.

- Both Auburn (Bruce Pearl) & Tx AM (Buzz Williams) have veteran coaches who had previous NCAA/NIT/SEC success, so the coaching edge would definetely go to them instead of Golden.

- The outstanding thing about Golden's coaching results was his undefeated record against other 1st year SEC Coaches (?7-0) and Florida's wins over #20 Missouri & #2 Tennessee!

Unlike in some non-conference games this season (i.e, UConn(54-75), W.Virginia(55-85), Kansas St), Golden's UF teams were largely competitive in most SEC-games whether at home or on the road.

Only after losing Castleton (at Ole Miss), the road Arkansas game was a blowout loss (65-84). Jitoboh again ended up the starting center after the Castleton injury and more bench players got some playing time: i.e, Nile Lane, Aberdeen, etc.

=============================
Another significant point in the season were Florida's games against Vanderbilt & Kentucky. Those out comes were swing games.

Stackhouse built a good enough team that was slightly better than Florida's. That's two more winnable games. The result is that Vanderbilt ( SEC: 11-7) and not Florida(9-9) is in a 3-way tie for 4th place in the SEC!

Florida would lose a couple of more close games against Kentucky: at UK (67-72) and at UF (74-82).

In the 2023 season, Florida could not get a split-result (i.e 1-1) against either Kentucky or Vandy.
============================

However, good job in Florida at least finishing 9-9 in the SEC which is still ahead of Miss St & Arkansas.

Eight of the nine SEC losses came against the following:
1. 16-2 Alabama (1 loss)
2. 15-3 Texas AM (2)
3. 12-6 Kentucky (2)
4. 11-7 Missouri (UF win)
4. 11-7 Tennessee (UF win)
4. 11-7 Vanderbilt (2 losses)
7. 10-8 Auburn (1)
-------------------------------------
8. 9-9 Florida
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9. 8-10 Miss St (UF win)
9. 8-10 Arkansas (1 loss)
11. 6-12 Georgia (2 UF wins)
12. 4-14 S.Carolina (UF win)
13. 3-15 Ole Miss (UF win)
14 2-16 LSU (2 UF wins)

 

which tournament?

 

Both Texas A&M games

I still have to know what in the world was up with all of those slow starts to the game that we witnessed. Better starts probably could have placed the team in a position to win more games. That's tough to fight an uphill battle the entire game and still have a little left at the end to pull off the win.

 

I actually don't think our record would have been any different had CC remained healthy. The Arkansas game may have been closer, but I still think those 3 Ls would have still taken place. I do think our ability to win a few games in the SEC tournament will be heavily impacted by his injury.

 

Why talk about would of, could of should of?

 

Hard to know, you are probably correct, but in my view we’d already blown the tourney by dropping the Vandy game at home. So while Castleton injury obviously sucks - not the way he wanted to go out. It probably didn’t change the final outcome. Maybe UK @home? But doesn’t really matter at this stage.

Obviously it makes the miracle run in the SECT that much harder if not outright impossible.

 

While the stretch of arky, UK and vandy at their place was a difficult one, CCs loss completely changed how we play. I think it is very difficult to say we would have or wouldn't have won given the totally different style of play.

The one that stands out to me is KY. OT destroyed us. Yet, CC took his lunch money and ate his lunch in the first game.

To me we are nowhere near as effective defensively without CC and our offense is essentially hitting 3s.

I think we would have played those 3 teams much closer with an actual chance to win instead of getting soundly defeated. But I get your point. We didn't lose a sure winner like uga or LSU... But we sure gave LSU a run at a loss.