Three observations following UF’s 80-72 loss to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament on Friday night:
— From a shot selection standpoint, Florida reverted to taking some ugly ones. A running-out-of-control shot by guard Egor Koulechov in the second half resulted in to what amounted as a turnover, allowing Arkansas guard Jaylen Barford to sink an open 3-pointer in transition. Senior point guard Chris Chiozza even forced a few shots that weren’t there, while freshman guard Deaundrae Ballard and junior guard Jalen Hudson had a pair of preventable charges. Florida played out of control offensively for most of the night.
— The Gators just didn’t do a good enough job protecting the defensive glass, allowing Arkansas to out-rebound them 43-28 and outscore them 18-15 in second-chance points. Junior guard Jalen Hudson had a key second-half defensive rebound slip from his hands, while Arkansas center Daniel Gafford simply manhandled Florida junior center Kevarrius Hayes inside. The Gators allowed too many putbacks.
— Florida continued its late season free-throw regression, going 9 of 14 (64.3 percent) from the line. With 1:05 left and Florida down 69-60, the Gators had a chance to cut it to a two-possession game when KeVaughn Allen was fouled on a 3-point attempt. But Allen, a 92.3-percent free throw shooter, made just 1 of 3 free throws in a pressure spot. Hudson also missed a pair of free throws early in the game.
Whenever stone is the leading scorer we loose 99%of the time guys
And oh yeah I would rather have Chris walker than clumsy Hayes man this guy so scared to shoot the ball it’s pathetic
The misery for this team will be over soon enough, man are they hard to watch. Thank goodness spring is here!
Their effort sucked. We need much better effort. When they play like this it is hard as a fan to watch them and root for them.
Tru dat. Hayes should get his scholarship reclaimed. He is beyond soft. Weak hands constantly getting stripped of the ball. He was dominated by a freshman. White shares a bit of responsibility for not developing a paint presence during the off season. This late in the year and no consistency. It was a shameful display offensively from three starters. They are a one and done team come tournament. Good riddance.
UF’s “paint presence” is a bench presence due to injuries and illness of three UF big men. Of course, I’m sure you and bf blame coach White for that.
Everyone of the comments so far lead back to Michelle White.
Hope this season’s frosh transfer. They deserve better.
Looks like we’re screwed and that we’re married to this lightweight, fake coach for some time.
In my opinion, your first takeaway is fair but using that play isn’t a good example. Egor got hip checked toward the baseline and shot the wild runner because he was expecting, as was I and many others, a whistle.
Even Coach White threw his arms up in bewilderment at the no call, and we all know if takes something pretty obvious for him to show frustration with officiating. How the official right near the play doesn’t call that I’ll never know.
Florida going into the NCAAs refreshed and mostly healthy (except for the big three). Loving it. Florida usually does well in the NCAAs when that happens. Go Gators.
“Florida played out of control offensively for most of the night.” Correct! So …
1. Where was a very visibly enraged Coach White? Missing, as usual.
2. Why does Coach White keep on inflating already the over inflated egos of his supposedly star players?
Oops: I meant: already over inflated egos
Arkansas went zone with 5 minutes left in the first half. UF failed to score again in the half. White never adjusted to the zone. It’s as if he’s never seen a zone defense. The inability to attack the zone led to bad shots late in possessions. Very disappointing outcome.
“Whit never adjusted to the zone.” I didn’t realize he was one of the players on the court! Need to be more observant, I guess.
The players do what the coach tells them to! Thats what “coaching” is. When your team isnt responding well to something the other team is doing its the coaches responsibility to make adjustments. In fact in all team sports, they are actually a competition between coaches and the players are their chess pieces! They recruited them, they trained them, and they coach and motivate them during the game! When a team fails , its the coaches fault.
This would be pretty strong logic if players were mere chess pieces and not human beings. I have heard White say that he wanted his team to move the ball side-to-side, but they failed to do so. Also, you may have noticed that Arkansas was working hard to cut off the Gators’ passing lanes, which largely worked because the Gators’ effort did not match the Razorbacks’. Coaches can put players in a position to succeed, but the players have to execute for it to happen.
For this team to win 20 games and sweep UK and beat Gonz and beat Cinci is something special
Coach White is in over his head. He is not developing a game within the paint b/c he’s not recruiting the bigs.
White signed 3 stars Bassett and Gak in 2016 and 4 stars Johnson and Stokes in 2017. It’s hardly his fault that three of those four have been out or severely limited by injuries for the entire season. Because of position needs, White had to sign guards in the 2018 class, and he has LOI’s signed by a 5 star point guard (Nembhard) and a 4 star shooting guard (Locke). The 2017 class was ranked number 20 by 247, and the 2018 class is ranked number 16. Give him some time.
Agree!
This game ended up just like every other loss this season. Allen/Igor/Hudson each struggled shooting, we get significantly out rebounded, Hayes is in la la land all game, going for blocks, missing them and allowing his guy to get the rebound with easy put backs, and the other team can’t seem to miss with one guy going for a career high. I have the same sentiments as everyone else here, that I won’t be disappointed when season is over, this time is incredibly frustrating. I’d like to think that White is a good coach, but there are some things that I just don’t understand. Defensively we refuse to at least try going zone to mix things up when the other team starts lighting us up, we don’t press even though this team has the players for it and would help offensively at times, and are half court offense is stagnant with Chiozza just trying to drive and kick off a high ball screen as basically our offense.