WHERE IS FELDER?

Such strong opinions without any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the situation. The secrecy involved MIGHT be indicative of a physical or mental health problem. Nobody seems to think he is injured, so it MAY be more likely to be mental health and if it is, it may not even be the coach's choice keeping him off the court.

 

If Felder was suffering from mental illness, I don't think it would be disclosed; nor would the coach or others deny such a fact (JMO).

 

Absolutely ridiculous. Not a good look for Golden imo. He needs to show drastic improvement in year 2 and decisions like this aren't helping. Lane for example finally gets meaningful minutes for the first time and scores 8 pts, 2 rbs, 1 steal, 0 TOs and as always plays great defense. It seems that Lane probably doesn't look great in practice but all Golden had to do is turn on some film from the end of last year and see how effective he is when he gets minutes.

Obviously I don't have any insider information but I'm confused as to what Golden's plan is. Why did it take so long to finally play Lane when the team is struggling so badly? Say what you want about Mike White, but he was always willing to change things up when things weren't working.

Why have Felder come back from his time away when you're not going to play him, especially with CC out? In fact, why was Felder not playing at all prior to him taking his leave when the Gators were getting killed on the boards? Why do the Gators always struggle the first 10 minutes a game and why does he never call TOs to break up the momentum? Why does he let his players take bad shot after bad shot without any accountability?

I think a lot of fans wanted a change from Mike White, but I don't think anyone said let's get TG. I think the fans wanted either an experienced HC or a guy like Nate Oats. I see some fans trying to justify Scott Stricklin's decision to hire TG as his experience and accomplishments are similar to Oats but I couldn't disagree more. In 4 years at Buffalo, they went to the NCAA tournament 3 times, including his last 2 years winning both the MAC regular season and tournament Championships. Also, in his last 2 years, Buffalo won a game in the tournament in both years and was named MAC Coach of the year. TG on the other hand, coached for 3 yrs at SF. Had a winning record in only 2 of 3 years and went to just 1 tournament in his final year, where they lost in the 1st round. He was an assistant under Bruce Pearl and was supposed to be a good recruiter and an analytics guy. These were his other attributes per SS.

I also hear fans who defend SS say that maybe this is the best Florida could do. I say that there is no reason that a more established and accomplished mid major coach couldn't be hired like a Nate Oats. If Alabama could get him, so could Florida and other coaches like Oats as well.

So now TG is probably going to end up with a losing record in year 1, going to have to bring in a majority of new players, w/ maybe 1 college ready freshman in his 1st full year recruiting class. You see how important freshman are over mid major transfers just by looking at Kugel as opposed to the transfers. If year 2 is another losing season, then TG better have a loaded 24 recruiting class or its hard to imagine things will get better.

 

Add Reeves to that. We've had two talented additions over the last couple of years from the HS ranks. Two... White's inability to recruit recently led to his overreliance on the portal. Before, he could bring in a Hudson, Egor or Barry to round out the team. That worked pretty well. But it fell apart. Then it became a crutch.

Now, Golden is stuck in the same cycle, unless he can somehow right the ship.

I hate to do it but consider this....How much does anyone want to bet that Calipari and his representatives will be reaching out to Kugel after last night? Reeves, with his flaws, is very talented and a NCAA tourney program would love to have him.

Golden's first job is to try to keep these two guys in town at all costs.

 

Good luck keeping really good freshmen from acting on their NBA dreams or transferring out. Does anyone really think Kugel will be a Gator more than next year? Even money he's gone unless he's surrounded with really good transfers or has a huge NIL deal.