Florida is down 42-35 at half. No worth watching the 2nd half. This team lacks heart and leadership with Chiozza playing like the high school Chiozza. FSU dictating the pace and everyone fading on shots. White has to adjust this team now.
My observations are aligned with this.
Chiozza was never in the game, despite playing 34 min (most of any UF player). He simply never looked interested.
For a bit in the first half, it felt like the refs were against us. Then for a different run (including the flagrant), it felt like they were against F$U. In the end, I didn't feel they really effected the game much.
We didn't hit shots. If we make some, that takes away some of their rebounding (or, hides some of our lack of rebounding), and cuts down on their fastbreaks. I'm not knowledgeable about basketball enough to know if we were simply taking bad shots or having a bad night shooting like we did against UNH. It looked to me like the same shots we have taken all season, they just weren't falling. It didn't feel like the F$U defense was that much in our face. We simply didn't hit shots.
I didn't realize how long their players were. I believe our players could have effected that some - better defense means being in position to harass the shooter and NOT commit a foul, and being in position to block out and get rebounds. There are times when a player is simply taller and will win the rebound, but there is a lot a player can do to help his cause, and we weren't doing any of it.
Coming back to the missed shots. I can't fathom how an entire team goes cold like that. In earlier games, we had 3gor go hot and carry us through a game. Hudson did that a bit in the PK80. Nobody could get their shooting straightened out, certainly not enough to carry us. A team has to have other players step up, not everybody crap the bed together.
White does carry a lot of the responsibility. I didn't know he told the kids it is 'just another game', but whatever - kids have to want to win every game, and they didn't. But wtf is with the lack of timeouts to regain focus and direct the players? This isn't the first game I've watched White let them play, hoping they can play themselves out of a funk....instead they let the hole get deeper. Managing the lineup....I get that Hayes, Gak, and Stone are all we have for big men and each is fairly limited in what they can do, but for God sake, keep at least one of them in to help rebound and block the lane...and make sure they understand that is their job. We can't put the season on hold until Egbunu returns, we need the players we have NOW to play better.
It was laughable to think we are some top 10 team with how we looked last night - crap shooting, lack of rebounding on either end, plethora of turnovers. I'll give credit to F$U for winning it, we didn't give it to them as much as they simply took it from us. They will get ranked, take some bruises for the ACC season, and likely be in the dance. We'll recover from this, and I'd like to think it is a teaching moment. But man, we stunk.