Gator Basketball ***Official NCAAT Game Thread: Florida vs St. Bonaventure***

InstiGATOR1 said:

SG: Francis, 6'5" 205 lbs, RJR, 15.7 min, 5.3 pts, 2.0 boards per game, 39.2% on 3s. You know him, but it looks like he has adjust and gotten his shot in order since leaving UF.

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Always liked BFRs potential-hopefully he doesn’t hurt us.

MADGator said:

And those wide open looks were wide open BRICKS. I imagine the rim had to be adjusted at halftime. They were good shots but I kept thinking, "Damn, these shots aren't even close!" But shooters gotta shoot which they kept doing and they started falling in the second half. It's funny now, wasn't laughing so much last night. In my opinion we won't advance with another half like that first one.

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Agree we have to be more consistent offensively. But the first half wasn’t as altogether bad as it felt at the time of the 7 min drought. We jumped out 20-9 and then closed the half strong. We held them to 22 points at the half which indicated strong defense and timely rebounding in that half.

Hudson, Allen and Chiozza couldn’t throw it in the ocean in the 1st half but the score illustrates that defensive effort and the fact that we have other options. Not a scenario that all teams have.

In the end....we are going to live and die by the outside shooting. We get less than 10 points a game post scoring and that is not generally a recipe for a deep run. One off night and we could be turning off the lights.

Lee accurately points out we have to offset our post deficiency by playing fast. The more we can run the more we keep them out of the zone. Win-win.

I missed the first few minutes of the second half. What happened? Did we just shoot them out of the zone? Too much fast break? Or did we finally work in and kick out?

Ancient Reptile said:

I missed the first few minutes of the second half. What happened? Did we just shoot them out of the zone? Too much fast break? Or did we finally work in and kick out?

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A little bit of everything. We shot better, got out in the break, and Cheese was distributing very well.

This game would have been a massive blowout if the free throw discrepancy wasn't there. We were up by 20+ late in the game and the free throws only even out some because they were hacking us the last coupe minutes and going after hero plays to try to steal the ball.

rogdochar said:

We have not been developed at the teamwork to think on, look for, execute this "inside game". Those Good, strong hands can be S&C-trained. Should be trained & relied on for at least a decent % of our total score. That is the truth about a balanced talent team. Watching this game, even when St. Bonn tied us, I still believed that we would win. But as I saw sideways pretentious passing, I resented our total lack of "breakers" toward the basket. Our attack put zero pressure towards breaking down their D-alignment. Doing so, we allowed them to easily keep us back behind the arc, where that "do or die' more risky scoring becomes required.

Insti's description was very good. The Gatirs played with grit. But in this better-teams tourney where the coaches bring extra-fire, our ignoring that game-controlling inside threat & surer scoring looks like the "handwriting on the wall" announcing our unnecissary elimination. Great win, when our shooting % was bad.

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Disagree with the hands assessment. In my experience bad hands has rarely been a strength issue and cannot be resolved in a weight room. It is more often a hand-eye cooordination issue coupled with an inclination to move before you have secured the ball AND a further inclination of not staying balanced. Often a classic case of “needing to slow down in order to speed up”. I have always taught that it is a game of balance, spacing and angles. When these are mastered the game becomes easier. It’s far easier to teach an individual skill than it is to teach these concepts to someone who does not come to them naturally.

I do agree with your assessment of “breakers” or as I refer to them...slashers. You attack a zone with ball movement, ball reversal, and willingness to attack the gaps. (And of course knocking down J’s) Too often we extend well beyond the 3 point line and just play catch back and forth...literally. Rather every movement of the ball should be preceded by a ball fake, head fake or a move to a gap. You have to “move” the zone. When we simply play catch...the clock is winding down and we have made no progress offensively. We are literally allowing the zone to set up/match up as they desire rather than creating gaps and angles. Eventually we end up with a forced shot from the outside or a desperate off balanced drive against a heavily defended paint.

I’d love to see more slashing to the basket ...particularly from Hudson, Stone, Okauru and Ballard. They have the speed, size and “ups” to get to the rim. Egor slashes well but often doesn’t finish because he’s not at the rim.

Swamped Gator said:

A little bit of everything. We shot better, got out in the break, and Cheese was distributing very well.

This game would have been a massive blowout if the free throw discrepancy wasn't there. We were up by 20+ late in the game and the free throws only even out some because they were hacking us the last coupe minutes and going after hero plays to try to steal the ball.

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Thanks. I saw the free throw inequality. Either they were superb at blocking and we were lousy, or........

Swamped Gator said:

A little bit of everything. We shot better, got out in the break, and Cheese was distributing very well.

This game would have been a massive blowout if the free throw discrepancy wasn't there. We were up by 20+ late in the game and the free throws only even out some because they were hacking us the last coupe minutes and going after hero plays to try to steal the ball.

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I don’t know what it ended up but at one point the discrepancy was 33-9 in FT attempts and 20-9 in fouls called. Crazy..

Theologator said:

I’ve had a long week and couldn’t last past halftime. Went to sleep thinking they’d had a rough shooting night but were playing tough defense. Very happy to see the second half went so well.

When they play like that they are tough to beat. When they play like that and shoot better they can beat anyone.

A good season so far. One more win and it’s a “banner” year.

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No, next win is for par. Anything more is a very good year. Lose, and it is a disappointing performance for a pre-season top 10 team and program. And we sure as hell don't hang Sweet 16 banners at UF.

I like our chances in this next one. Then we'll see if Sas is right since he guarantees at least a 20 point loss to Purdue, and in fact seems to think we should be embarrassed as fans to even suggest we belong on the court with them.

lagator said:

No, next win is for par. Anything more is a very good year. Lose, and it is a disappointing performance for a pre-season top 10 team and program. And we sure as hell don't hang Sweet 16 banners at UF.

I like our chances in this next one. Then we'll see if Sas is right since he guarantees at least a 20 point loss to Purdue, and in fact seems to think we should be embarrassed as fans to even suggest we belong on the court with them.

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Well, we used to back in my day, sonny boy. I stand corrected.

I don’t disagree with your point. The Sweet 16 should be the norm for this program. That’s like, maybe a bit better, than top 10 in football. It means you’re contending for championships.

Back in the day we longed get to the tournament, then to be tournament regulars.

Theologator said:

Well, we used to back in my day, sonny boy. I stand corrected.

I don’t disagree with your point. The Sweet 16 should be the norm for this program. That’s like, maybe a bit better, than top 10 in football. It means you’re contending for championships.

Back in the day we longed get to the tournament, then to be tournament regulars.

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The Sweet 16 should be the minimum goal as there would be 8 winners and then a couple of teams that lost that could be 9 or 10. Top 10 finish is a successful season but obviously we have have exceeded that quite often in the past 12 years. I’d like to always finish no less than elite 8.

rogdochar said:

Insti's description was very good.

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My bad ... I gave Insti credit for Marine1's excellent analysis.

Marine1 said:

your assessment of “breakers” or as I refer to them...slashers.

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Yes, slashers ... couldn't pull up that word - breakers sounds silly.

Strengthening hands isn't with weight room stuff. When younger, I used a device = a 12 inch diameter metal ring, with leather finger-cots with resistant springs attached. Our H.S. basketball coach had everybody latching their fingertips atop the doorjamb to hang their bodyweight. (ever seen the handgrip of an Orangatan? we need Orangatan-hands)

On top of all that, I think there is reinforceable mindset over "snatching" the ball out of the air = attitude, felt-strength
and confidence involved. Stoke-victim rehab science found the forearm muscles are overly involved in grip. White researching that? Such rehab can be done in a "dorm room" spare time. I fret that coaching is constricted to too few "tricks" = obviously our favorite-few is passing around the far outside and jacking up a 3.

Anyway, It doesn't seem that the fashion in which this team is faltering all season long has all season long been coached at (sure doesn't seem). The teams we'll face going forward will possess a combo of skills that we haven't been enabled to match. Those are the things White and crew need to add to our training. Can we make the largest %-improvement working on what we already have high-skills in or %-improvement on things we don't do well.??

I truly acknowledge the many here who have much better BBall know-how. (and do enjoy those analysees) But who doesn't know that xs high 3-pt % will drop and thusly who isn't training their boys for combo-play? All year long.
I will be ecstatic to see us 3-pt Merlinize the March Madness field. But I will also be disheartened to watch us watch confusedly as another team combos us to go home.

Breaking noose = Purdue's star big man Haas broke elbow out for March Madness. Get well Haas, hope we play Purdue. :D