Gator Basketball ***Official BBALL Game Thread*** Florida vs East Carolina

[TLB]

Dec 14 at 7pm on SECN

Early game projection has us 89.6% chance of winning, UF (6-3) by -10.5 pts over ECU (6-4).

Last few games for ECU:
vs Kennesaw St W 85-84
@ George Mason L 81-59
vs UNC Wilmington W 74-66
vs MD-Eastern W 63-52
vs South Carolina L 68-62

I guess we can take some indication of SEC play looking at USCe beating ECU at ECU most recently. South Carolina eeked out that win by 6, hopefully we win by more and can translate that into being better than USCe...dunno.

 

[stephenPE]

I love watching them play. So much room for them to improve and they seem to to have that capacity. The depth has me excited the most. Just wear teams down and play smart. Protect the ball.

 

[maheo30]

Hopefully we are 10-3 when the conference schedule begins against Kintucky.

 

[RiverRat]

Fun team to watch, good depth inside and out, will be interesting to see if they can keep up the dominance on the boards they have right now.

 

[Born2beagator]

Anyone going? It's at the rp funding center in lakeland and I'll be there.

 

[deuce]

Anyone going? It's at the rp funding center in lakeland and I'll be there.

Will try...

 

[maheo30]

 

[GatorJ]

Anyone going? It's at the rp funding center in lakeland and I'll be there.

Huh. That’s down the road from Tampa. Maybe I’ll go n

 

[Born2beagator]

I'll definitely be there if you wanna meet @URGatorBait 's minime

 

[Double Gator Dad]

I’m not real happy with the quote from Golden about Kugel’s play.
I don’t see any reason to accept sloppy, selfish play on the offensive end of the court regardless of the circumstances.

 

[TLB]

I'm a defense first guy, so I'm ok with that. Riley needs to keep getting some shots off - in part to keep the defense honest and defend him, in part to see if he can catch fire and start hitting. But his attempts ought to remain fairly low if it is one of these types of nights. If Riley is effective at shutting down the other team's greatest offensive threat, I'll take that in trade for whatever offense Riley might have contributed. We have enough other playmakers on the floor (great depth) to ensure we are getting our points.

 

[TLB]

Other thoughts from the article:

UF shot just 44 percent for the game, but smashed Richmond 49-30 on the glass and made 20 of 25 free throws, 15 of 19 after intermission. It was enough to allow the Gators to weather an 11-for-22 barrage (50 percent) by the Spiders from the 3-point line.

It might have been Richmond wore down in the second half against our depth, Idunno, didn't watch. But FTs is something that should be automatic. Glad to see us step that up - regardless of who you are playing, it is on our guy to make his chances. And, I see we're still majorly sucking at defending the three (they shot 50% on us, up from 37% on the season)....which I didn't think was that heavy a part of a Princeton offense (I'm usually thinking a lot of back door cuts).

 

[Double Gator Dad]

I'm a defense first guy, so I'm ok with that. Riley needs to keep getting some shots off - in part to keep the defense honest and defend him, in part to see if he can catch fire and start hitting. But his attempts ought to remain fairly low if it is one of these types of nights. If Riley is effective at shutting down the other team's greatest offensive threat, I'll take that in trade for whatever offense Riley might have contributed. We have enough other playmakers on the floor (great depth) to ensure we are getting our points.

Too many wasted possessions as a result of bad shots taken early in the shot clock along with triple pump double reverse layups that are nothing more than forced shots because he’s trying to do too much.
The tough games have and will continue to come down to a few possessions and we must reduce the wasted ones. Getting a steal on defense can be immediately mitigated by a quick, bad shot.

Hopefully Riley will settle down and play within himself.

 

[Born2beagator]

40 bucks for a seat. Is that normal?

 

[VirginiaGator]

Uh, saw some pictures online of the arena. Did they renovate it or something? Not sure why we are playing here vs Orlando or Tampa.

 

[FireFoley]

From the little I have seen this year Kugel is still not playing that great on defense but shows a little more effort. Offensively his problem is he is way too nonchalant. Is he a good player? Yes. Is he as good of a player as he thinks he is? No. That is his problem. If he played with the effort that the big white kid #21 plays with, then he could be an elite player.

 

[LeeForThree]

Go Gators!!!

 

[Born2beagator]

This place is PACKED. I'm probably going to miss most of the first half

 

[stephenPE]

lots of gator fans in Lakeland. Is that line that long to get in.

 

[LeeForThree]

Florida is up 14-8 at the under 16 timeout. Clayton coming out hot with 10 pts already