Agree. Overall I don't have much complaints, see my first post about the tournament. But if there's one thing I'd like to see is us play our young guys more, they'll benefit from it next year and down the road. I just don't see a point to playing walk-on's and upperclassmen who aren't producing.
Basketball Woes
- Thread starter ocalaman
- Start date
You have identified one big problem. We rely on Kurtz. However, if you look at his production, he is more effective than Chris Walker. Maybe, to your point, we if he makes Walker play through it and learn on the job, he would get better faster. That might be right. But I think Billy is trying to win games, first of all. Walker is really an impediment to that, much more than the three upperclassmen of Kurtz, Horford and Finney-Smith
I love Kurtz's hustle, but he just doesn't have SEC-caliber talent. Our bigs get out of position way too often, especially Walker & Horford. The team actually played well for the most part last night, but they just don't have the "it" factor when it counts. One game it's free throw shooting; another game it's turnovers; another it's lackadaisical defense. But consistently this team is not very smart, there's no leadership and when they need to make a play, the teamwork to get an open, quality shot is absent way too often. I think next year's team should be back in the hunt, with the big guy transfer from USF combined with the incoming freshmen, a more hungry, experienced team from this year and only losing Kurtz & Horford. It's just painful to watch these guys this year and I can't imagine the agony Donovan is going through.
Because Billy D's teams have always largely depended on jump shots. He loves the 3, always has, always will, but you live and die by it. Transition baskets and offensive rebounding are the only good looks he get around the basket. Frazier is far and away their best shooter and he has had a bad year. That's why they are 12-12. Not to mention, Kasey Hill is a poor mans Rajon Rondo. No reason to guard him, just let him dribble around the perimeter. I don't care what his stats are, he needs to shoot the ball when he is open.
So are you saying coaches can't have a bad year, same as a player? Again, these players are not talented, but Billy has not done a great job this year either. We score 38 points in the first half last night. We did that by getting good production from DRob, Carter and Walker. Kurtz played limited minutes in the first half. Move to the second half and Walker sits a ton, Carter picks up a 3rd foul and goes to the pine and scoring dries up. Murphy started to play well in the 2nd half and that helped keep us in it. So we get down to the last two critical offensive possessions and our best scorer is sitting on the bench while Kurtz in there. Murphy, who had played great in the 2nd half is sitting over there on the bench too. Walker kills us at times, but the kid is probably playing scared. Makes one mistake and he is pulled quickly, just like last night. Let him play through that once in a while.
This won't be popular...but...I have a feeling that Billy has been aware for quite some time that this team simply isn't very good.
I'm sure he knew that after the end of last season, but was likely hopeful until the team started playing.
I think he's kind of been mailing this season in for a while.
I'm sure he knew that after the end of last season, but was likely hopeful until the team started playing.
I think he's kind of been mailing this season in for a while.
Billy is still a great coach and one of the best in the country and I've always said he's the best coach at any sport in UF history but even the great ones have bad moments. This is just one of those moments for Billy D. The last 3-4 years I would say he's been the best coach in the country. This year he's struggled. And yes a lot of it is on the players just like all the great years are a lot of the players as well. This is just a group that doesnt get it and hasn't bought in to what Billy is selling.
Last years team lost 3 total games the entire year. 2 to National Championship winner UCONN and the other a road loss to Final Four participant Wisconsin. We did that with virtually not 1 NBA player on the entire roster. Just about unheard of in this day of college basketball.
Last years team lost 3 total games the entire year. 2 to National Championship winner UCONN and the other a road loss to Final Four participant Wisconsin. We did that with virtually not 1 NBA player on the entire roster. Just about unheard of in this day of college basketball.
Did anyone see that stat about Chris Walker? I think someone tweeted that he is the first consensus top 10 player ever out of HS to average less than 5 ppg as a sophomore. So we basically have two of the biggest busts on the same team, just like we had Driskel in football.
How does this even happen to ONE school this CLOSE together?
How does this even happen to ONE school this CLOSE together?
That is bad for basketball. At least in football like 80% of the top 10 QBs don't work out in college but we kept playing ours for some reason even when it was apparent he wasn't getting it done.
I have some hope for Kasey Hill to figure it out. He's as fast with the ball as anyone in the country, plays defense and can pass. He's just bad in half court sets, which is about all we run. Some of it is on Billy to get him in good situations. It's harder to get out in transition these days though, because defenses are better at getting back.
Walker is so far away from being an effective player, you wonder if he will figure it out. It took pat young to year 3 to figure out that he could impact games just by refusing to be moved out of the middle on defense. Once he figured out how to use his athleticism, he got better and better. Walker still gets shoved under the backboard on just about every defensive possession.
Walker is so far away from being an effective player, you wonder if he will figure it out. It took pat young to year 3 to figure out that he could impact games just by refusing to be moved out of the middle on defense. Once he figured out how to use his athleticism, he got better and better. Walker still gets shoved under the backboard on just about every defensive possession.
Did Billy Donovan go over to Muschamp's house during football season? I swear he caught the same fever Muschamp has!!!!
TEAM STATISTICS
UF ATT Free Throws - made 266-401 66.3 percentage
OPP- ATT Free Throws- made 335-456 73.5 perentage
REALLY? The opponents outscore UF at the charity stripe by 69 points at this juncture?
What's that? An average 2.9 points per game disadvantage?
In 9 of the 12 losses UF has averaged losing by 3.3 points per game.
Anyone else see a problem here other than just no being a "great" team?
UF ATT Free Throws - made 266-401 66.3 percentage
OPP- ATT Free Throws- made 335-456 73.5 perentage
REALLY? The opponents outscore UF at the charity stripe by 69 points at this juncture?
What's that? An average 2.9 points per game disadvantage?
In 9 of the 12 losses UF has averaged losing by 3.3 points per game.
Anyone else see a problem here other than just no being a "great" team?
Three possessions after taking the lead: Hill dribbles into a turnover; two plays for DFS and he passes up one on one looks twice for Murphy three pointers. Murphy doesn't make three pointers (and got the ball too late to even get off a shot on the second). The end. Another close loss for the Gators.
Great games for Chris Walker and Eli Carter. Walker really played with a bad attitude. Hope to see more of it. I'm hoping to finish above .500 in league.
Great games for Chris Walker and Eli Carter. Walker really played with a bad attitude. Hope to see more of it. I'm hoping to finish above .500 in league.
It would be nice if this team could actually learn how to finish games in the SEC tournament but that is probably asking for too much.
I don't think they know what they're trying to accomplish on offense. They don't know who's supposed to shoot or what kind of shots they want. They pass up good shots all the time and end up taking worse shots late in the shot clock.
