***Official Game Thread*** Florida @ Arkansas

[InstiGATOR1]

There should be no issues making the dance this year.

There shouldn't have been last year either, but UF found a way to lose at home to both Vandy and particularly UAL. Until White leads a team that wins the key games and gets in, there is doubt.

 

[MidwestChomp]

Didn't shoot great, but won at a tough place to play. Love the defense and only 9 turnovers. Good win. Now let's build on this.

 

[Gator Fever]

There shouldn't have been last year either, but UF found a way to lose at home to both Vandy and particularly UAL. Until White leads a team that wins the key games and gets in, there is doubt.

We didnt win hardly any decent games out of conference however while we will have a few this season.

 

[NVGator]

In before JBoss starts OWNING & DESTROYING all the haters.

 

[InstiGATOR1]

Last year pre-conference UF beat two at large teams, St. Joe and UWVa, one on a neutral court, beat another tourney team, FGCU, and beat another power conference team in Ok State on a neutral court. UF was 2-0 against probably the best power conference. That is pretty comprable to beating SHU, Miami and say FGCU this year.

What UF did not do was win enough games over all or win at home down the stretch. I still believe UF deserved a bid over some teams that got in, but that 0-4 stretch in February including losing at home to a bad UAL team and Vandy to let them sweep UF did UF in.

 

[rogdochar]

We've got a "team" of players sharp at defense. Plus, this array of individual players will improve
a lot with the passage of games. Allen + Robinson near season's end will probably contribute 40+ ppg.
By then Stone & Hayes will raise their points contribution/game. Maybe Barry can settle into better scoring?
Some coach had better figure out how to transfer a shooting-touch to Egbunu. Even in close he shoots a
terrible FG% and that suffocates our momentum.

Question ?? Would Gak be able to play in Rimmer's place better? I know he's light-weight, but he has timing
and he can jump. So they'll have to foul him to use their greater weight on him.??

What I care most about is our maintaining a highish FG% on offense and staying with our superior defense.
This should shape up to be a proud season. Go Gators.

 

[InstiGATOR1]

We've got a "team" of players sharp at defense. Plus, this array of individual players will improve
a lot with the passage of games. Allen + Robinson near season's end will probably contribute 40+ ppg.
By then Stone & Hayes will raise their points contribution/game. Maybe Barry can settle into better scoring?
Some coach had better figure out how to transfer a shooting-touch to Egbunu. Even in close he shoots a
terrible FG% and that suffocates our momentum.

Question ?? Would Gak be able to play in Rimmer's place better? I know he's light-weight, but he has timing
and he can jump. So they'll have to foul him to use their greater weight on him.??

What I care most about is our maintaining a highish FG% on offense and staying with our superior defense.
This should shape up to be a proud season. Go Gators.

1. The defense was good at times tonight. UF does a nice job switching at almost every position.

2. I hope Allen and Robinson both are consistent by the end of the season. Robinson is finally consistent now as a Junior. We shall see about Allen.

3. Hayes is already established and Stone is moving toward that. They are the future of this program.

4. If White plays Gak, the opponent fouls him every time down the court. Rimmer you can't do that. Rimmer can grab a board, can hit a free throw and can just be ok if Egbunu and Hayes are in foul trouble like tonight.

This season has great potential.

 

[InstiGATOR1]

UF's centers Hayes, Egbunu and Rimmer for 2 minutes played 40 minutes tonight and scored 15 points and pulled down 17 boards with only 2 turnovers. That is a nice stat line for that position.

 

[Gator Fever]

Last year pre-conference UF beat two at large teams, St. Joe and UWVa, one on a neutral court, beat another tourney team, FGCU, and beat another power conference team in Ok State on a neutral court. UF was 2-0 against probably the best power conference. That is pretty comprable to beating SHU, Miami and say FGCU this year.

What UF did not do was win enough games over all or win at home down the stretch. I still believe UF deserved a bid over some teams that got in, but that 0-4 stretch in February including losing at home to a bad UAL team and Vandy to let them sweep UF did UF in.

I just remembered W Va but we went like 0-6 against the SEC NCAA tourney teams last year and that will get you left out usually.

 

[rogdochar]

When we played Duke, we played in front of 15,350 pro-Duke fans.
Tonight at Arkansas, we played in front of 20,500 pro-Arkansas fans.
Our Grand Opening game vs Little Rock we played before 10,300 pro-Gator fans (of course that was
during school break).
Having less travelling weariness by finally playing in our at home arena will contribute to us playing
with more quality performances for the remainder of the season.
Also, we can look forward to watching these Gators climb in the rankings. #25 tonight.

 

[T REX]

Another great win for Coach White and the Gators. I would love to make the tourney this year. Keep it up.

 

[ATXGator]

Really nice road win for the Gators against an RPI Top 25 team. Not just a win, but a comfortable win that wasn't close in the last minutes even with all the missed FTs.

This team looks much better than last year. White seems to be making progress getting the kids to buy in. I still think they take too many quick shots without running the offense, but their D and effort is fantastic.

 

[InstiGATOR1]

Last year UF finished 14th in Kenpom adjusted defense and 84th in Kenpom adjusted offense. As I remember, UF was consistently near those rankings most of the year.

So far this year UF is 13th in Kenpom adjusted defense and 19th in Kenpom adjusted offense. So it seems by Pomeroy's metric UF's improvement is mostly on offense.

 

[ChiefGator]

1. The defense was good at times tonight. UF does a nice job switching at almost every position.

2. I hope Allen and Robinson both are consistent by the end of the season. Robinson is finally consistent now as a Junior. We shall see about Allen.

3. Hayes is already established and Stone is moving toward that. They are the future of this program.

4. If White plays Gak, the opponent fouls him every time down the court. Rimmer you can't do that. Rimmer can grab a board, can hit a free throw and can just be ok if Egbunu and Hayes are in foul trouble like tonight.

This season has great potential.

Yes and watching the game this morning we are showing some of it, now Ak might not be that great on defense. Rimmer is limited but seemed at least when I was watching to use his brain pretty well.

 

[Gatorphan]

The SEC East was 6-0 vs the SEC West last night..........in hoops

 

[GBHOR]

I'm cautiously optimistic, a little consistency and I'll drop the cautiously

 

[GatorStud]

Hope this is the beginning of efforts we can rally behind and build a memorable season. I sure would like to get back to some serious game day anticipation knowing we are at least going to bring it with purpose. Keep growing players. Go Gators!

 

[rogdochar]

The SEC East was 6-0 vs the SEC West last night..........in hoops

Say, Phan, that has a nice ring to it.

 

[Jbossgator8]

HUGE win on the road for our Gators!! Yep NVGator is right!! Haters OWNED and DESTROYED on this night!! Great game by our guys and they withstood Ark rallys. Go Gators!!

 

[ChiefGator]

We've got a "team" of players sharp at defense. Plus, this array of individual players will improve
a lot with the passage of games. Allen + Robinson near season's end will probably contribute 40+ ppg.
By then Stone & Hayes will raise their points contribution/game. Maybe Barry can settle into better scoring?
Some coach had better figure out how to transfer a shooting-touch to Egbunu. Even in close he shoots a
terrible FG% and that suffocates our momentum.

Question ?? Would Gak be able to play in Rimmer's place better? I know he's light-weight, but he has timing
and he can jump. So they'll have to foul him to use their greater weight on him.??

What I care most about is our maintaining a highish FG% on offense and staying with our superior defense.
This should shape up to be a proud season. Go Gators.

Gak might be better late in the season. Rimmer seems to know what to do, but is not that athletic to do some things. I hate to say it but he apparently can't or won't jump much. Egbunu seems to have regressed. He refuses to give the ball back when doubled, seems to get explanations for his many fouls, and really needs a lot of work.