#1 Duke rallies, beats Gators 87-84

[gators4224]

Suck end to a suck day.

Any team that has a player in the middle will give us trouble, Hayes and Gak are backups at best.

Hayes and Gak are good rotational players but just aren’t dominating like Egbunu can be. If egbunu played that game we win

 

[LeeForThree]

Need to bring him on. He knows what went wrong

 

[DarksideGator]

What an upside do we have rehabbing with Egbunu. He should be the dominate presence inside that this team needs. A ton of positivity from this game.

Hayes imo just doesn’t have good hands, in position but can’t hold or grab the ball that’s necessary.

 

[rogdochar]

Need to bring him on. He knows what went wrong

David Lee is free to come coach our inside guys. Might could find a position for his fiance' Caroline? :cool:

 

[LeeForThree]

What an upside do we have rehabbing with Egbunu. He should be the dominate presence inside that this team needs. A ton of positivity from this game.

Hayes imo just doesn’t have good hands, in position but can’t hold or grab the ball that’s necessary.

Lots of positives. Our offense has many options. We reb well as a tea but still needs work and defense overall was pretty good. Need better half court offense and someone has to step up on the inside big time

 

[stephenPE]

It think fatigue and Chiozza getting busted up the last game showed. and the late starts maybe. Egnunu does not let us get completely abused inside like that. Hayes probably has missed not scrimmaging against Egbunu for almost a year now. Ball movement slowed a lot later in the game but they just missed some shot and had those TO's they usually dont have. Have to give credit to Duke as they hit big shots in the game. We left some of those big shots in that double OT game. We musta hit a dozen or so. I like the Duke big fr. He wasnt whiny or immature. He just played hard no matter what. And interviewed he was humble. Duke gotta a damned good one there and thank GOODNESS he goes on to be a millionare after this year.
Amazingly Ballard comes off the bench and gives us Hudson like play. Hayes and Gak will be much better with Egbunu in there. And our guards get more of a break. Egor played pretty well against that big last night. I keep saying if he was 6 10 the rest are playing for runner up this year. You have to love this team. They play team ball and go hard...........with Chiozza leading them with his toughness its gonna be a fun year.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

Took the air out of the ball too soon and our offense was completely out of rhythm down the stretch. Cheese and Hudson both made uncharacteristic mistakes, as well. We played a pretty incredible game of basketball right up until the last few minutes, so hopefully it was a learning experience. Can’t wait to get Eggy back, we need him badly.

 

[MidwestChomp]

I hate Duke. We need Eggie back ASAP. But this will get other teams looking seriously at us. Gotta work on that D. Now, let's win the rest of them this year .

 

[ATXGator]

Tough loss. Team played well. I agree we should have kept our pace of play. Hudson made mistakes down the stretch, but he is amazing!

Bagley for Duke is incredible.

White needs to develop Okuru. Chiozza can’t sustain these types of minutes.

This team is fun and very good.

 

[MatthewM.]

Damn, tough loss but good game. Duke is Duke, they’re on tv more than leave it to beaver reruns.

 

[Frozen Gator]

Nobody's b@tching about the non call, I guess when your Duke you get those.

 

[gators4224]

I definitely let that lost get to me lol. I went full idiot but It wasn't so much the loss but the fact that it was Duke. I really really don't like Duke and the entitled arrogance of that program. They are the Bama of college basketball.

 

[Gator Fever]

We just need to get a little better in the middle. This team barring injuries should be at least a 2 seed I would think. A&M is pretty good and KY should improve as the season goes on. Actually the SEC as a whole looks pretty good so far.

 

[gators4224]

No doubt and to play them that close without our best shooting night and key center Egbunu is a really good sign. We are a top 5 program. Also, we just caught Bagley at a bad time. Dude was a 55% FT shooter on season and then decides to go full GOD mode and make like 10-11 free throws.

 

[CGgater]

Too late to stay up... Based on what I’m seeing here, did White get conservative in the final 4 minutes? I hope he learns to keep his foot on an opponent’s throat until the final buzzer.

Glad to hear we have a team that can hang with the dookies. Gotta translate that into wins when March arrives.

 

[LeeForThree]

Too late to stay up... Based on what I’m seeing here, did White get conservative in the final 4 minutes? I hope he learns to keep his foot on an opponent’s throat until the final buzzer.

Glad to hear we have a team that can hang with the dookies. Gotta translate that into wins when March arrives.

Up 17 with about 10 to play and started running clock. So stupid imo. Not vs Duke and not when we have some halfcourt o problems still

 

[BNAG8R]

We had tremendous defensive pressure to start the 2nd half. Basically shut down Bagley and the little douche, but I think all that defensive pressure had us gassed. We weren’t taking or making any of the 3s we did in the first half. Tired legs?

I wonder if the lethargy of the last 5 minutes was White recognizing the team was gassed.

 

[alcoholica]

We lost it in the last 15 possessions or so. Very poor shot selection and not working the offense. Egor had some really questionable shots that he forced throughout the game.

If we can hold our discipline for 40 min and make smart decisions, we’ll be damn hard to beat. Shoukd’ve won last night.

 

[TLB]

How much was our offense choosing to slow it down, versus Duke defense stepping it up and getting back? I'd credit the Duke D more than our choice of O.

I'm not too bothered by the loss. We proved we can win, we had several leads but just didn't hold them. Kids know they can outscore the top team in the country, and they know what they need to work on to win those games. I'd always rather win than lose, but this is a good loss in many ways (early in the season, neutral site, top team in the nation, etc). It won't hurt us, as much as it will help us going forward.

The subs, and managing rest for key players, is where I was scratching my head the most. I'm screaming at the tv as to WHY we have Stone and Gak on the court at the same time. Against other teams, we can manage. Not against Duke. Gak just seemed so lost out there even when asking for a pass that he doesn't catch when it is thrown to him. Just...I can't even. Seriously, he was on the court for 2 min and I told the kids he's going to foul out with virtually no impact on the game...too freaking lost on both ends of the court to be of use. I'd like to say it is youth, and that he can be coached up, but it hasn't happened yet (sophomore playing like a freshman). Stone puzzles me a bit, in that he was lost as a freshman last year, but appears to have been working a lot on getting the ball at the top of the key/arc and driving to the basket. Not something I'm used to a big man doing, but he's consistent, so I'll give him credit for growing. He is better than he was last year, but he's still got a ways to go.

3gor was mostly quiet, but I didn't have any issue with his game, really. Honestly, I got sick of Allen jumping in the air everytime Grayson caught the ball for a 3. At least 3gor recognized every catch was followed by a ball fake and step left for the shot - 3gor kept his ground, stepped to block the move/shot and didn't launch himself uselessly into the air to go flying by on defense. Yeah, his offense could have been better, but he never quit. None of them did, so there is that.

Throughout the tournament, I felt like our bench depth is what made the difference, that giving starters a break wouldn't drop the level of play too far. However, against a top team like Duke, any drop off is too much it seems. On the flipside of that, I was waiting for Bagley to get tired - I'm not sure they ever subbed him, did they?

And I liked how we went at them for the first 35 minutes, I was counting on their bigs to start fouling out. The slow down at the end cut into our attacking nature and we never reached that point. I felt we would have had a definitive edge as the fouls added up.

 

[Jbossgator8]

and yet...we STILL moved up in the polls!