Three Big Things: Florida

[InstiGATOR1]

Here is the start of this article by By Eamonn Brennan :

In the buildup to Midnight Madness, ESPN Insider and our college hoops team are collaborating on a preview of one high-profile college hoops team per day -- based on Joe Lunardi’s top 20 teams in his offseason Bracketology. We're calling it "Countdown To Madness." I'll be tracing three key things you should know about each team we preview. We're calling that Three Big Things. (Hey, that's snappy!) Today: Florida.

1. Do not sleep on Kenny Boynton.

You would think a statement like this would be superfluous, given the rather remarkable offensive season Boynton put together in 2011-12. But Boynton was overshadowed on the brightest stage by the 2012 NBA draft’s No. 3 overall pick, Bradley Beal. Beal struggled at times in his one-and-done season at Florida, particularly early in his career. Unlike in his high school days, when Beal dominated the ball and played a pure (and totally dominant) scoring guard, Florida coach Billy Donovan needed him to act in more of a small forward role. He needed Beal to work off the ball, spot up on the wing and chase down offensive rebounds from the outside in. This allowed the Gators to keep all their best players -- including Boynton and senior point guard Erving Walker -- on the floor at the same time.

Here is the rest:

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/64395/three-big-things-florida

[ArtVandelay]

Any Gator preview with no mention of Erik Murphy or Will Yeguete isn't much of a preview in my opinion...

[don23lucia]

Any Gator preview with no mention of Erik Murphy or Will Yeguete isn't much of a preview in my opinion...

Cosign

I will agree I would like to see big Pat try to block some shots and really establish the paint this year. I like the fact he takes charges but he should be playing volleyball out there on defense.

[InstiGATOR1]

I was thinking at lunch that this team could be Donovan's best defensive team ever at UF. Certainly Boynton and Wilbekin are top shelf defenders. Rosario can defend when focused and healthy as we saw down the stretch.

Prather has the tools to be a solid defender too, but needs to focus ala Rosario and not lose sight of opponents. Murphy is a very good defender particularly he adds in the Horford/Noah skill of coming off his guy to block shots. Young is a good defender with all the tools, but I agree needs learn to bother shooters too.

[Osiris_DPM]

This is a silly statement - Boynton has been once of the SEC's best on ball defenders since his first game as a freshman.

Maybe Boynton, having figured out the offensive side of the game last season, will turn his attention toward defense.

[rserina]

Thanks for the link, Insti. I thought this was a fascinating testament to how much Boynton's game has improved offensively:

But Beal’s late emergence also had the effect -- right when many casual fans (and NBA people) pay the most acute attention to the college game -- of obscuring just how good Boynton was throughout the entire 2012 season. And he really was remarkable. He averaged 15.9 points per game on a team with balanced scoring (five Florida players averaged double figures). He launched 270 3-pointers, and made 40.7 percent of them. He made nearly 50 percent of his 2-pointers. According to Synergy scouting data, Boynton scored 1.2 points per possession on spot-up opportunities, among the best in the country, and he placed in top efficiency percentiles in transition, on isolation plays, and in pick-and-roll sets. He rarely turned the ball over. Despite pretty frequent usage, much of it from distance, Boynton ended the season with a 121.8 percent offensive rating.
Part of that was the result of more judicious shot selection, part of that was the result of getting that nice little jump stop in the lane going, but I would argue it was mostly the result of improved play around him on both ends. Because of Beal and Wilbekin, he didn't have to be our primary perimeter defender against good scoring guards. Offensively, he could take his shot within the framework of the system since we had such good balance scoring the ball and his diminished requirements on defense kept his legs for the other end. The big question is whether we can replicate these dynamics with Beal and Walker gone.

On the Patric Young shotblocking angle, I personally have never put much stock in rejections unless you are talking about an elite rim protector like Varnado or Anthony Davis, or to a lesser degree a Tyrus Thomas or a Noah, when they were hot. If you aren't a natural shotblocker, which Young obviously is not, then leaving your feet and swatting at balls will result in more fouls and more time on the bench. Where he needs to improve and I think he can is consistently denying post position and cleaning the glass defensively. Macklin struggled with this at times too, in part because of the switching we do on defense and in part because he got tired running the floor. But if Young can fight through the fatigue, I suspect he will improve in both of those areas with the benefit of last season's experience. There is no reason he can't perform the way he did down the stretch in 2010-11 over extended minutes.

[your_perfect_enemy]

Thanks for the link, Insti. I thought this was a fascinating testament to how much Boynton's game has improved offensively:


Part of that was the result of more judicious shot selection, part of that was the result of getting that nice little jump stop in the lane going, but I would argue it was mostly the result of improved play around him on both ends. Because of Beal and Wilbekin, he didn't have to be our primary perimeter defender against good scoring guards. Offensively, he could take his shot within the framework of the system since we had such good balance scoring the ball and his diminished requirements on defense kept his legs for the other end. The big question is whether we can replicate these dynamics with Beal and Walker gone.

On the Patric Young shotblocking angle, I personally have never put much stock in rejections unless you are talking about an elite rim protector like Varnado or Anthony Davis, or to a lesser degree a Tyrus Thomas or a Noah, when they were hot. If you aren't a natural shotblocker, which Young obviously is not, then leaving your feet and swatting at balls will result in more fouls and more time on the bench. Where he needs to improve and I think he can is consistently denying post position and cleaning the glass defensively. Macklin struggled with this at times too, in part because of the switching we do on defense and in part because he got tired running the floor. But if Young can fight through the fatigue, I suspect he will improve in both of those areas with the benefit of last season's experience. There is no reason he can't perform the way he did down the stretch in 2010-11 over extended minutes.

Definitely agree. Another thing I think that helped Boynton in addition to what you said, was he really worked on his jumpshot last offseason. He used to have tendency to shoot it on the way down sometimes and he didnt always shoot it the same way consistently, but for the most part that went away last year.

Could not agree more with you about Pat not leaving his feet, chasing blocks. At his size he should be able to keep from posting up anywhere near the basket, which is just as good as a block. Now if he wants to unleash a few of those pin against the backboard blocks that fire up the whole crowd and team like he did against fsu when appropriate, I'm ok with that.

[don23lucia]

I dont want him to chase for blocks but it would be nice for him to swat some or just contest some shots a little more often and let the other teams know they cant just come strolling through the paint.

[akaGatorhoops]

One of the three "Big Things" when discussing our upcoming seasn absolutely must be our frontcourt. Young, Murph and WY should be among the best trio in the game.
I think the continued emergence of WY will be a huge story this season.

[rserina]

I think the continued emergence of WY will be a huge story this season.
He needs to start taking and hitting that midrange jumper, whether flashing to the high post out of the zone or spotting up along the baseline or at the weakside elbow against man-to-man. I know he can make it, but he has shot precious few of those (okay, any?) in the last two seasons.

[sec1]

i hope so ... sounds great

[Ahab]

There's also an ESPN Insider column on Florida:

http://insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8419359/florida-gators-2012-13-countdown-madness-preview-ncb

The keys: Defense, depth and versatility

The flaws: PG, post scoring, Young's stamina

Even though Donovan lost a lottery pick and his best all-around player in Beal, this Florida team is the type that will exceed expectations. This team may not be quite as good as last year's version, but it will be very good, and I see the Gators winning around 27 games and reaching the Sweet 16. -- Jay Bilas

[rserina]

Thanks, Ahab. Their summary seems about right, though between Young and Murphy I don't think we have much of a problem scoring at the post positions. Most programs don't have two double digit scores returning at the four and the five and, as history has proven with Donovan, the more frequently we have two guys who can score the ball in the paint, the better we are. In the ten seasons we've had two double digit scorers, we made the tournament each time and advanced the second weekend six times. In the six seasons with only one double digit scorer in the post, we've missed the tournament four times and failed to advance to the second weekend in the other two. In my opinion, that is the single most determinative statistic in Donovan's tenure: the better balance we have offensively inside-out, the less dependent we are on threes and the more opportunities we have to get open threes because of the attention on the posts.

[Mayhem41]

He needs to start taking and hitting that midrange jumper, whether flashing to the high post out of the zone or spotting up along the baseline or at the weakside elbow against man-to-man. I know he can make it, but he has shot precious few of those (okay, any?) in the last two seasons.

Completely agree.....

[GatorLurker]

Young's stamina is not a real issue. Young's foul trouble is a bigger issue in terms of minutes played. This year will be the same.

While I love Eric M's total game I never think of him as a dominating defensive player. He gets a lot of blocks as a secondary defender and having a high defensive IQ. Blocking as the secondary and not getting called for a foul is a real art and he does it extremely well.

He is also really good at giving help when it does good instead of giving help and leaving his man open for a lay-up. It would do us no good if he got two blocks a game by helping and at the same time gave up 10 uncontested lay-ups. That is not a problem here.

[InstiGATOR1]

Young's stamina is not a real issue. Young's foul trouble is a bigger issue in terms of minutes played. This year will be the same.


I agree that stamina inot the real issue. Heck he played 26.5 minutes a game last season which about what a big will play for Donovan. If Yeguete does not get hurt this year that will go down a minute or so.

To me there are two big issues with Young's production from last year to this year. They are:

1. How much was he hampered by playing on a hurt ankle for much of last season.

2. How much was he hampered by PG play not getting him the ball on the blocks very frequently.

[rserina]

Actually, Donovan said more than once that Young's ability to fight through fatigue was a limiting factor, which is perfectly understandable given his size, the pace at which we played, and that it was his first year as a fulltime starter at this level. But the stamina was a real problem and led to him getting back late in transition, not initiating contact on a post player early in the clock defensively, and not establishing post position early in our own possessions. My impression is that Bilas was only parroting Donovan with that statement.

Young isn't the only one who struggled with that. David Lee had a very hard time, even into his senior season (e.g., the benching against Florida State). So did Speights and Tyus, and to a lesser degree Macklin. It happens, especially amongst bigs. But he is a hard worker and a good kid, so I don't think it is for a lack of effort or commitment. Hopefully he can work his way out of it somewhat this season.

[gatormann]

...While I love Eric M's total game I never think of him as a dominating defensive player. He gets a lot of blocks as a secondary defender and having a high defensive IQ. Blocking as the secondary and not getting called for a foul is a real art and he does it extremely well...


I would have agreed with you going into the NCAA Tournament last season but Murphy was a defensive force in our run to the Elite 8. I think the fact that he played so well in that tournament really is a testament to just how good the bigs in the SEC were last season. Now, many SEC teams may not have been well balanced but the overall talent in the league was obvious especially compared with what we faced in the tourney.