UF Basketball Opening Night

[ocalaman]

Gators leading UNF 39-22 at halftime. Blackshear leading UF with 11 points. Tre Mann has looked very good, as has Omar Payne. The defense has been very stingy against an experienced Ospreys team. Lots of guys playing and Florida is bigger and deeper than they have been in a long time.

 

[NorthJerseyGator]

We look exciting again like a couple of years ago when we went Elite 8.

We finally have all positions covered and athletic across the board, and deep....allows us to run the Coach White up tempo offense again like a few years ago.

 

[CountyGator2]

Once we got up by 23 we lost interest and intensity. The freshman all played a ton tonight. Shots weren't falling but that is opening night for you. We will know more after Sunday against the nolies. They've owned us recently

 

[instaGATOR]

Post Game Mike White -- "What did I like?" --- "I like that we won."
iG -- A typical kind of response that you'd expect from a (perfection seeking) coach like Mike, in a 1st game, with 9 FNG's on the team.
~~ As openers go the overall product probably wasn't completely unexpected given the Gators (1-0) were breaking in a team with 6 new players: Blackshear and 5 freshmen.

UF 74 - 59 N.FL -- Quick Stats
iG -- Only giving up 59 Pts Defensively - While scoring 74 Pts Offensively.
That's while going 0 for 8 FG's to begin, and then going 3 of 15 from the Arc for the game.

"There may be days where we go 0-for-10, I mean who knows?" Locke said. "We've just got to stay locked in defensively. We're a team that relies on defense. We pride ourselves on defense. I feel like that's what's going to win the game. Lock in defensively and then shots will come."

PF/C Kerry Blackshear - Double-Double
32 Min, 20 Pts, 10 Rbs, 3 Ast, 2 Stl - 6/11 FG's, 2/2 FT, 1/1 3's

PF/C Omar Payne - Half of a Double-Double in just 13 Min.
13 Min, 6 Pts, 5 Rbs, 1 Ast, 2 Blk - 2/3 FG's, 2/2 FT's

PF Dontay Bassett
9 Min, 2 Pts, 6 Rbs, 2 Ast, 1 Stl

C Jason Jitoboh - One third of a double-double in 7 Min.
7 Min, 3 Pts, 3 Rbs, 2 Ast, 2 Stl

I love seeing the Bigs with Asts,(8) and/or Stls (5) and Blks (2).
=====

CG Noah Locke
27 Min, 14 Pts, 2 Rbs

CG Tre Mann
27 Min, 11 Pts, 4 Rbs, 1 Stl

PG Andrew Nembhard
31 Min, 2 Pts, 0 Rbs, 4 Ast, 1 Stl, ZERO T-O'S

PG Ques Glover
12 Min, 0 Pts, 1 Rb, 1 Ast, 1 T-O

~~ the 2 PG's combined to go 1/11 shooting, a truly off night for both.
Mitigator -- in 43 minutes of combined play, they only had 1 T-O.

SF Scottie Lewis
23 Min, 9 Pts, 5 Rbs, 2 Ast, 1 Blk

SF Keyontae Johnson - #2 Rebounder
19 Min, 7 Pts, 7 Rbs, 2 Ast, 2 Stl

The SF's combined for: 16 Pts, 12 Rbs, 4 Ast, 2 Stl, 1 Blk in 42 Min.
Gotta be pretty darn happy with the SF positions winging it....

Eventually, 9 of the 10 Gators that got playing time, scored, and shot .722 FT's.
Even starting 0-8, the team ended shooting 42% for the game, so nice come-back.
Blackshear, Locke, Payne, & Bassett were 100% at the FT line, the rest need work.

 

[CountyGator2]

Good first test. UNF won't be mistaken for a top 25 team, but they start 4 seniors and have a great shot to win their conference and head back to the ncaa tourney. I like that we opened against an experienced team.

 

[instaGATOR]

FSU @ Pitt tonight (Wed) at 8 PM on ESPN-U, for anyone interested.

UF vs FSU this Sunday at 1 PM

Next day EDIT
Pitt won a close low scoring game in the 60's.
Gators should be ready for a lot of bullying fouls from the criminoles.
They will attempt to 'rough you up' to get you off your game early, and especially if the refs are not calling the game tight...