I thought Jones would be that shooter but he’s definitely not. Not only is he shooting terribly but he cannot create a shot and die to his release he needs like a six foot cushion to get his shot off. More still, when he got fouled shooting threes last night, he couldn’t convert from the line. I was hopeful it was just a slump but now I think he’s just not as good as advertised when teams actually defend him
I'm 83 years old and can hit 50% of three throws. If we hit 50% last night we could easily have won the game. Can't blame coaches for that. Offensively we played lackadaisically at best. LSU stole the ball when our players were very careless with the ball and we could not hit a three if our lives depended on it. The coach can't shoot the ball for them.
They are following a trajectory similar to the football team. They looked good at the beginning of the year, but the players seem to be limited and once a blueprint was established on how to attack/defend them, the coaches seem to have no idea where to go from there. White, like Mullen did, can call plays that create opportunities, but as long as the players can’t consistently execute those plays, the end result will be the same. Teams didn’t respect our football team’s ability to go deep, so they crowded the LOS. Deep passes would be open, but that didn’t matter as the players couldn’t consistently execute those plays. So even though the correct play call was made against those defenses, the end result was a wasted play because the offense couldn’t execute the play call. It is on White to put his starters in a position to succeed, or put in different players who can. Another potential problem is White has an issue playing young players, which leads to a short bench and delays player development. That leads to the transfers we have seen the past few years because players didn’t sign to sit on the bench.
We have a mid-major coach with mid-major players. It's really that simple. Save CC and possibly AD, we are a mid-major level team. We may pull the occasional upset, but we are not capable of playing at a high level consistently. That's what our talent level suggests and that is exactly how it is playing out.
The more I think about it there is a lot of true things to this statement. You certainly can’t argue the mid-major talent level which at a school like Florida should not be happening.
Well, I guess you didn’t see the box score because the Gators shot exactly 50% from the line going 11-22. Which is horrible by the way. Helen Keller could hit 50% on a bad day.
A long time ago the Magic lost a playoff game against the Rockets when Nick Anderson missed four consecutive free throws in the last ten seconds with the Magic up 3. The Rockets hit a three to send it to OT where the Rockets won. The next day when warming up for a pickup game a number of us went to the line, got ready to shoot, closed our eyes and shot. We hit about 70%. So Helen Keller hitting 50% is not far fetched. BTW Nick Anderson was a career 67.6% FT shooter in the NBA, so not a great one but not Shaq-like (52.7%)
We were cold as ice. I think this song was written for teams like we have now. Sad our evaluations landed three guys shooting about 25%. I guess since we play a team a step down from these first three games teams, I guess we will see if the SEC is too big for these players, certainly hope not. We should not practice defense until each player can shoot 70 out of a 100 ft’s and they find a point on the court where they feel comfortable and shoot threes for an hour. If it is a close game, and we go like usual ice cold, then caulk it up that we practiced defense so when we go to the NIT, we can keep the games ,close. Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day, Groundhog Day Groundhog Day. The opposing coaches in the SEC know our chuck and duck offense and our players are easily kept off the boards because we are soft. Try something different, play more guys to maybe find when everybody is not worn out playing defense, we can actually hit more shots. Come on Gators, get up an go!
Mike White went to the NIT once at UF. We lost after our third away game in a row. That was the year after BD left. BD had a losing record the year before so no post season. Not even NIT. I have no idea what you are talking about. We have not been an NIT team year after year under Coach White.
I am not saying we will make the NIT, if at all. We could possibly not even make the NIT if we collapse, just like the football team. If you remember, that collapse was due to the coaching staff. CMW recruited these players, teaches his system, tightens his bench, possibly to the detriment of players either worn out or losing confidence with slow starts and chasing teams for forty minutes trying to catch up. We have played three tough teams in a row with a lot of tough games to go the rest of the season. If we can’t find a win soon, we could finish losing more games than we win. South Carolina is looming large as a turning point for the season, it is not going to be easy.
I don't think MW is committed to putting the best players on the floor. And because of the inconsistency of the players at the guard spots, it is hard to measure who should be playing and who shouldn't. Appleby is streaky but makes many mistakes in distributing the ball. Jones has probably never fully recovered from COViD. McKissic is our best option at the point because of his defense and because he does not make as many poor decisions with the ball. Felder should be starting. Until and if he proves that he cannot handle the starting role, the man needs to get starter minutes. Fleming seems to have lost his confidence, and so I would like to see Reeves (who is our future) take more of the minutes at the two position. I would put Duruji at the 3, Castleton at the 5 (Jitoboh until Castleton comes back and sometimes at the 4 to give Felder a break. With this lineup, you have three 6'6" or taller players taking 3s on the perimeter- two of whom can jump out of the gym, and one who can hold his own in getting rebounds. Felder and Duruji are the best finishers on the team and are probably (next to Reeves) the best outside shooters on the team (percentage-wise).
Sad but true. I think with a coach who is good at developing players or developing a scheme to exploit what the individuals and team do well, we would see have seen at least 3-4 of the games we lost be wins (Maryland, OU, LSU, and Mississippi). MW does not know how to get his teams motivated to play game in and game out.
that was Game 1 of the 1996 NBA Finals, one that the Rockets swept because Nick choked away Game 1 and Orlando never recovered mentally. it was Jordan's only full year out of the NBA in the 90s so that was Orlando's one and only shot - and Nick blew it. no idea how this relates to Mike White at all, but now I have some mild PTSD on a Tuesday morning
At least be honest here. That poor last year under BD occurred due to graduating almost the entire team that went to the Final 4 and lost to UConn in a close one. BD was almost starting from scratch that following year. Similar to how the 2007 UF defense seemed to be a shell of the 2006 UF defense, you can’t replace that much experience without a hiccup. Those same players that BD played in that losing season are the ones White rode to the Elite 8. The talent was there, but not the seasoning.
Throw in the fact that some of the talented additions wound up to be duds, like Chris Walker. I think that season told Billy that the party was over in Gainesville and he decided to bolt before things went back to pre 1997. I'm not saying that they would have as long as he was here, but regardless, he may have felt that it was no longer possible to live up to the standards that he had set here. After Billy left, Foley was forced to reach again for a coach. None of the hot names that year (Miller, Mack, etc) had any interest in following him. I can't say I blame them, but in my opinion, that was what we needed to keep this program near the top. White, to his credit, had some good years but the Houdini act with transfers is not working anymore. The league has gotten deeper and better and we are falling further and further behind. I wish I had an answer. I have none, well maybe, if you're the religious sort, pray very hard for St Jimmy V to intercede with the almighty and send us another Billy Donovan type to resurrect this.
