TV: ESPN2
RADIO: 103.7-FM
WHERE: Stephen C. O’Connell Center
BOTTOM LINE: No. 10 LSU presents a tough challenge for Florida. Florida has won one of its six games against ranked opponents this season. LSU has moved up to No. 10 in the latest AP rankings following wins over Texas A&M and Alabama last week.
FABULOUS FRESHMEN: Florida’s Andrew Nembhard, Keyontae Johnson and Noah Locke have collectively scored 38 percent of the team’s points this season and have accounted for 40 percent of all Gators scoring over the last five games.
TERRIFIC TREMONT: Tremont Waters has connected on 33.1 percent of the 142 3-pointers he’s attempted and has made 5 of 17 over the last five games. He’s also made 79.1 percent of his free throws this season.
WINNING WHEN: Florida is a perfect 12-0 when it scores at least 71 points. The Gators are 5-12 when scoring any fewer than that.
STREAK STATS: LSU has won its last eight road games, scoring 82.1 points, while allowing 75.1 per game.
DID YOU KNOW: The LSU offense has scored 81.8 points per game, the 24th-highest figure in Division I. Florida has only averaged 68.3 points per game, which ranks 258th nationally.
— The Associated Press
LSU gives up 75 points per road game in their last eight? Then it would be great if we score 20 more points against them than we did against Georgia and that should translate into a win. We’ll see if The Boys come out focused and on fire or if they lose their Orange and leave fans, once again, with the Blues.
Key Questions:
1.
Will White stick with his patented “Zombie Apocalypse Offense” wherein our players spend the majority of each offensive possession standing around doing nothing? Given that this offense combines being easy to stop with also allowing the defensive players to rest, I can’t see why he would, but then again, he has all year, so it seems he just likes zombies.
2. Will our players be arrested for loitering as they stand around staring into space?
3. Will LSU’s defenders be able to resist the urge to laugh out loud at how easy we make it for them by standing around doing nothing, or will they pretend to be totally overwhelmed with comments like, “Oh, no! Don’t just stand in one spot! How am I supposed to guard someone who just stands in one spot? Oh! It’s so hard! I don’t how to do it!” Meanwhile, all they do is stand next to our zombified player trying not to burst out laughing.
4. Will White be named The Nussmeir of Basketball by the SEC media?
5. If our players actually ever do attack and put some pressure on LSU’s defense, trying to wear them down mentally and physically, will White start screaming, “Stop! Stop! You’re challenging them and that’s mean! Just do nothing!!!!!! Be a zombie!!!!!! Better to lose a close game than go for it and risk losing by a larger margin!!!”
el lame-o
Many Gator fans, present company included, wanted Allen and Hudson to stay aggressive and confident as senior leaders and utilize their offensive skills. They combined for 5/23 or 22% in an ugly loss to UGA. The rest of the team was 13/25 or 52%. Excluding the bigs, the rest of the guards were 6/14 or 43%. How would you want Coach White to play against LSU?
I don’t know if Allen and Hudson were forcing shots against UGA. I don’t think Hudson played horrible as he led the team in scoring. The stats seem to indicate that Allen was forcing it a bit. I say don’t push Allen to score if LSU keys in on him like UGA. If LSU cheats towards guarding Allen, then someone else needs to step up. I don’t think Allen can create his own shots against good defenses. Make the opponent pick their poison rather than push Allen to force what is not there. Coach White should have a plan for Allen to pass it off for a better shot. Of course Hayes or whoever gets the pass from Allen needs to first catch the ball and finish.
Georgia’s coach basically said they were very focused on Allen and it showed in the game as their defense on our guards was very good and since we lack an inside game those are the kind of games we can lose and we did. We need to recruit some big men and also alter our game plan I believe for parts of the game by playing more than one big on the floor to offset when teams are playing great defense against our outside game.
Steve, I think the problem with putting two bigs on the court is that you lose offensive skill when you do that. Bassett isn’t any better than Hayes in the post, and while Stokes has some post moves, he plays below the rim for the most part. Those two are the only other bigs the Gators have. At 6′ 5″, Keyontae Johnson is the best rebounder on the team. Hayes and Bassett both have questionable hands and fumble away rebounds right in front of their faces. Stokes has trouble jumping high enough to compete for rebounds with the more athletic bigs. Johnson is shooting about 35% from 3 point range and 70% from the FT line. If you replace him with Bassett or Stokes, I think you’ve downgraded on both ends of the floor.
I think it’s worth a try to draw the defense away from the perimeter and give our guards more space to shoot and also create better ball movement which will create more open shots and an inside/out game which we desperately need. If it doesn’t work at least we tried it and made an adjustment which we need against the long athletic teams. I think we have to try it out of necessity and we won’t know if it works or not until we do! To be honest, Billy D. would have made this move a long time ago!
I do think it’s good logic, and it couldn’t hurt to try it. I just don’t know if any two of our bigs are going to be able to force the opposition into collapsing on them. But, like you say, we won’t know for sure unless it’s tried.
Joe, Stokes is getting better as he can draw some defenders and Hayes is good at playing off someone and can grab a rebound if he misses and kick it out to an open shooter for a three. It’s worth a look but unfortunately Coach White is going to stick with his 1-4 offense and won’t try it. It’s more of a pro offense because pros have the talent to execute it and most if not all college teams don’t including us.
Against a ranked team spoiling for payback, slow starts, extended scoring droughts, blown leads, or late game charity stripe vapor locks cannot be afforded. Just made a terrible GA Toilet Drinking Bullfrog team look like a defensive powerhouse. So, will it be a dramatic home court turnaround? Or will it be another painful demonstration, that since ‘06-‘O7, it’s always something.