Marquette, at FSU, and at Arizona

[JohnC1908]

How do you guys see us doing on this stretch? What record are you expecting? Personally I think we win the first two and drop one on the road to Arizona.

[InstiGATOR1]

I would take 2-1. But the first one could be tough so my thoughts now are to get that one first.

[Bradass]

The Arizona game is the most difficult on paper I think. I would be surprised if we didn't win 2 of the 3, and not surprised at all if we win all 3, but I might be a little overconfident. This little stretch will tell us a lot about this team, I think.

[REM08]

I think Zona is clearly the main one to be worried about and I really only see it being a road game as being reason at all to worry.

FSU is ranked 38th in the AP and that was before their home loss to Minnesota last night. Minnesota is fools gold IMO (using that phrase loosely). Marquette falls outside the top 40 in both polls. I know rankings don't mean everything, but I do think Florida is worthy of their ranking. You've got a veteran team that is playing well.

While Arizona posses the biggest challenge, I would still put my money on 3 - 0 quicker than I would 2 and 1. If you lose at Arizona - thats certainly a respectable loss especially considering it being on the road. If you win at Arizona and lose one of the others, you get to offset a not bad loss with a very quality win. You don't want to go 1 and 2 I guess.

I've said all off season that I like the way Florida's schedule plays out this year. I think you'll be favored in all but two games all year (@ UK and @ Mizzou) and even those games depend on UK improving significantly and Mizzou continuing to play well by then.

[ArtVandelay]

3-0

[luciaboy]

that's a good stretch to determine how good this team is right now. any losses should not matter much unless we unexpectedly have alot of them. i like these games and feel it prepares us much more than a game against high point

[MJGator8104]

I can't wait to see how we do this stretch of games. Personally, I'm very confident we win all three, but I'll take 2 of three (just hoping the lone loss isn't at FSU).

[GatorLurker]

I have always wondered about why UF seems to under-perform against FSU under Billy D, but I guess that it works out. It helps Hamilton keep his job and that helps UF. A really good coach at FSU would be major trouble.

[your_perfect_enemy]

I'll say 3-0 but could see us dropping one. I was surprised how spaced out they are, we get 6 days between marquette and fsu then another 10 days before we play arizona. Which I think is good for plenty of prep time (provided Patric doesn't give anyone else a concussion in practice :)) but I guess there's some risk of needing to shake off rust.

[lean_gator]

3 - 0

[gogators73]

This is incredibly biased but the only one I maybe see us losing is at Arizona.

Unless we just shoot absolutely horribly (even on open shots) I don't see us losing to any of those teams besides Arizona if they play well.

I know playing in Tally is tricky but they have been pretty bad this year. Both exhibitions were single digit games, they lost to South Alabama, beat North Florida by single digits, and got blow away by Minnesota.

[themistocles]

Right now, I think the Gators are somewhat over rated.

I could see this stretch going anywhere from 3-0 to 0-3.

FSU has been highly inconsistent so far this year, but they always, always, always bring their best game against the Gators (and Duke), and playing in Tally is worse that playing in Arizona.

Nonetheless, I think 2-1 is most likely with 3-0 a reasonable possibility and 1-2 a roughly equal possibility.

It really is too early in the season to know much of anything other than the fact that Duke appears pretty strong.

[GreenGatorGuy6218]

I expected 3-0, but after watching Wisky and our other opponents struggle, these next three games will be very interesting. Still expecting 3-0 though. Go Gators!

[GatorPlanet]

I could see this stretch going anywhere from 3-0 to 0-3.



Good call, as there are no other possibilities. Okay, I guess there are other possibilities, such as cancellation, a la Georgetown. Or the sun going supernova...or a gravity wave...or Yellowstone supervolcano...or...

[GatorPlanet]

Sorry about the snarkiness...:happy:

[mastoidbone]

4-0 we beat fsu so bad it counts as a double

[gatorbogey]

we play some defense like we're showing so far, we should go 2-1 or 3-0; losses may come if we have a poor shooting night and/or just don't run the offense like we should. BD's been good at getting us to run the offense and making those in-game adjustments when we stray.

i'm expecting all three to be pretty tough. but i think we can gut-out a 3-0 record.

[tegator80]

While I understand that some of the teams that we have played may not be as up to speed as us this early in the season, what I have seen in the makeup of this team is that we should win all of these games unless something happens like missing 3s, not getting back on D and lots of turnovers. But right now I see the basketball version of our football team: defense and toughness.

[candymanfromgc]

Marquette will come in with tremendous pressure and a 290 lb center off the bench. How we handle the pressure will determine the outcome.

FSU-at their place so we have to be poised.

AZ. tough call but we match up well.

2-1 I'm happy. 3-0 estatic. 1-2 dissapointed.

[RD_gator]

I think Zona is clearly the main one to be worried about and I really only see it being a road game as being reason at all to worry.

FSU is ranked 38th in the AP and that was before their home loss to Minnesota last night. Minnesota is fools gold IMO (using that phrase loosely). Marquette falls outside the top 40 in both polls. I know rankings don't mean everything, but I do think Florida is worthy of their ranking. You've got a veteran team that is playing well.

While Arizona posses the biggest challenge, I would still put my money on 3 - 0 quicker than I would 2 and 1. If you lose at Arizona - thats certainly a respectable loss especially considering it being on the road. If you win at Arizona and lose one of the others, you get to offset a not bad loss with a very quality win. You don't want to go 1 and 2 I guess.

I've said all off season that I like the way Florida's schedule plays out this year. I think you'll be favored in all but two games all year (@ UK and @ Mizzou) and even those games depend on UK improving significantly and Mizzou continuing to play well by then.


I agree, that Florida has a (OOC) schedule that seems to largely 'protect' their rankings if the Gators just take care of business & play up to their capabilities. In the last couple of years, Florida had games against elite teams in the top 5 (i.e, Ohio St, Syracuse) that was largely make or break (mostly break & UF had to scramble for other wins to make up for the loss in rankings). This year in the non-conference schedule, there is no Indiana, Louisville (although uf played them in last year's elite 8), or Syracuse, etc. Even though Florida lost to these elite teams in the recent past, the experience gained from playing these types of games was very helpful during the sec seasons & the ncaa tournaments.

The Arizona road game will be comparable in difficulty to the road sec games against Missouri & Kentucky. The FSU game will be a rivalry game as heated as the one against Tennessee (who defeated UF twice last season & didn't allow the gators to finish higher in the sec standings). And finally, the Marquette & Kansas St games will be challenging games against probable NCAA at large teams.

Florida will probably finish 3-1 or 4-0 against these quality teams!

[akaGatorhoops]

I think we win tonight by 10+
The FSU game will be tougher than expected, as it will be squeezed between MU and Zona... not to mention a traditionally tough enviroment for us. It is the usual FSU team... long, athletic, inconsistent.
I think we are a better team than Zona, but the road trip at the tail end of these 3 games, makes this a tough spot.
I think we go 2-1.

[Go2gtr]

Is Marquette that bad?

[tec68]

Is Marquette that bad?

Not really. As Billy said, we played a good game against a good team.

[themistocles]

Not really. As Billy said, we played a good game against a good team.

Yes, I wondered about Marquette also, given how the Gators dominated them, so I looked back at their schedule and realized they had played well with, like the Gators a cancelled shipboard game against Ohio State, they beat most of their prior opponents by between 20 and 40 points with a 1 point loss to what looks like a very solid Butler team. They have two losses, one at Xavier and one from Illinois, but they beat North Carolina by 11 points, so, they are better than mediocre.

Obviously, 0-3 is now out, and, if the Gators play the way they did against Marquette, they 3-0 is certainly a strong possibility. However, if they play the way they did against UCF, 1-2 remains a possibility.

Aren't veteran laden teams supposed to exhibit consistency?

[akaGatorhoops]

^^ Tough crowd! :)

[ArtVandelay]

Not really. As Billy said, we played a good game against a good team.

Billy also says that every time we play SB State!

[gatorman_07732]

zona is a must for a signature win on the road. They will have to gut it out