Is March Madness in jeopardy?

Windy City Gator

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Will the team have a collapse like they did in White's first season and miss the tournament? That will be a shame to waste Cheez's final season....but this team is so one dimensional. They have ZERO inside presence on offense or defense. If they do make it, they are matchup dependent. They will get CRUSHED by any Big 10 team.
 

GatorJ

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To be honest – I don’t get all the love for Mike White. I tried watching a couple games this year and they were virtually unwatchable.

No I’m not saying we are going to be able to replace Billy Donovan. But this is a significant step back IMO. And it’s not anything to do with his style of offense. It’s just his weird substitution patterns and general coaching acumen.
 

MidwestChomp

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I think we will be in the tournament with 20 wins, and I see us reaching that point. This team's success depends on making threes...live or die by it. Physical teams who play great D will be a challenge to beat. As windy pointed out, no inside game doesn't bode well for success.
 

g8tr72

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With no real 5 player that has been able to contribute any significant minutes this year, I think this team and coach White have done a good job.

Gak is the only healthy player on the roster who is a true 5. Hayes has done well in that role, but he's a 4 at best.
 

InstiGATOR1

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Will the team have a collapse like they did in White's first season and miss the tournament? That will be a shame to waste Cheez's final season....but this team is so one dimensional. They have ZERO inside presence on offense or defense. If they do make it, they are matchup dependent. They will get CRUSHED by any Big 10 team.

This is certainly possible. Part of that is the SEC is so tough this year you can string together a bunch of losses unless you are ready to play each night. Winning at home against UAL this Saturday is pretty important. UF has a good number of road wins particularly SEC road wins, but can not let too many slip away at home in conference.

if you want a positive spin, everyone loves OU this year and last night OU at home barely edged the Baylor team UF beat solidly over the weekend.
 

lagator

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With no real 5 player that has been able to contribute any significant minutes this year, I think this team and coach White have done a good job.

Gak is the only healthy player on the roster who is a true 5. Hayes has done well in that role, but he's a 4 at best.
Gak's not healthy either. His knees are in bad shape apparently. The announcers were saying he can't even practice because they have to keep his swelling down enough to be able to contribute limited minutes in games.
 

alcoholica

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We should be fine in home games. And I think we make the tourney. RPI across the league is pretty strong.

I like White. I think there are definitely issues there this season and he hasn’t adjusted well at times. As for some of the complaints, Donovan was just as susceptible to poor in game management and lack of adjustments. I think Donovan prepared the guys better and they played better defense. But when you’re missing your inside game, it’s tough. And I think they were going to depend on the inside defensively a lot.

Bless Hayes, he tries really hard, but he’s reached his ceiling. Stokes hurts right along with Eggman.

As much as I like Cheez, he has started over extending and trying too hard at times. But the is absolutely no off ball movement.
 

lagator

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This is certainly possible. Part of that is the SEC is so tough this year you can string together a bunch of losses unless you are ready to play each night. Winning at home against UAL this Saturday is pretty important. UF has a good number of road wins particularly SEC road wins, but can not let too many slip away at home in conference.

if you want a positive spin, everyone loves OU this year and last night OU at home barely edged the Baylor team UF beat solidly over the weekend.
They won. How that's supposed to be some kind of UToothless-like moral victory is lost on me.
 

LeeForThree

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I think we will be in the tournament with 20 wins, and I see us reaching that point. This team's success depends on making threes...live or die by it. Physical teams who play great D will be a challenge to beat. As windy pointed out, no inside game doesn't bode well for success.
20 wins will get us in around a 6-7 seed. We just need to keep winning the games we should.
 

Spurdog98

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They are not a good team and the win in Rupp has turned out to be a fluke since UK pretty much sucks as well. Everybody slobbering over White and the Baylor win was laughable.
 

LeeForThree

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With no real 5 player that has been able to contribute any significant minutes this year, I think this team and coach White have done a good job.

Gak is the only healthy player on the roster who is a true 5. Hayes has done well in that role, but he's a 4 at best.
That's the most frustrating part. Hayes should play PF for about 10 min with Gak/Bassett at C. Especially if we get Stokes or Egbunu back. Seems like White is fixed with him only playing C though
 

rogdochar

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Love to see Cheez lead a March Madness Cinderella run - and that's what it would be.
Hard to judge White since this is such a "cobbled-together" team ... but hidden passion spreads to no one.
Really, in March Madness, this team is most likely to perform so :
50/50 chance of escaping elimination when they play a team ranked 26-35.
40/60 chance vs 15-25 ranked team.
20/80 chance vs a top 10 team.
The SEC tournament should be these fella's proving ground.

Here's hoping Egbunu retrofits well and plays possessed... and hoping Stokes provides strong surprise.
BTW what do the knowledgeable think Stokes might add?
 

stephenPE

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LIve and die by the three. The hand we are dealt this year is tough. Egor playing against big guys all the time is not to our advantage offensively or defensively. Giving up on White now after coming an eyelash from the final four last year is :what:
 

LeeForThree

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We are a 5 seed right now imo. Win 5 more games and we are in...easily imo. Get Egbunu or Stokes back and play much better winning games we may get a bump because the committee has to take into account the losses without them
 

Gator by the Sea

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I tried watching a couple games this year and they were virtually unwatchable.

I actually find this team kind of fun to watch. Frustrating at times, too, but for the most part I've enjoyed the fact that just about every game has been on TV this year. And I took the family to the Baylor game this past weekend and even the wife and kids had a great time.
 

GatorJ

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LIve and die by the three. The hand we are dealt this year is tough. Egor playing against big guys all the time is not to our advantage offensively or defensively. Giving up on White now after coming an eyelash from the final four last year is :what:

For sure what he did last year was pretty remarkable. But there are always coaches that have a great seasons and make it deep in the tournament – to never make it back again. And White may not be that. He may end up being a great coach. But I just don’t see anything in his game or roster management that shows me that.

Now Donovan was a different level coach. I get that. And White is young so I don’t think you can really compare the two as of yet. But when Donovan was hired – Man did we have games that were exciting. And he knew how to get the ball in play makers hands to really drive an offense.

Of course Donovan was a disciple of Pitino. And I’m not sure who White was mentored by. But his use of timeouts and lineup match ups are strange.

Another coach who did that as well was Phil Jackson. He wouldn’t even call a timeout when another team had them on the ropes. He wouldn’t bail them out. He said part of team growth was to have them figure out how to stop it and come back.

But of course Phil Jackson was special.
 

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