Our resume is ALREADY better than the past 2 years!

[tilly]

First we finally beat FSU and now this...

We have had such a poor resume come tourney time....Now we have a big time win.
The national guys know that Billy's got some guys buying in and we are back on the radar.

One win in college hoops is really that big sometimes.

This program needed this.

[tommyuf21]

Agree completely. I wasn't expecting a win last night. I just wanted to see them compete hard for 40 minutes and show improvement over last year. Mission accomplished, and then some!

So much of this game is between the ears and in the chest. Smart play and heart will overcome physical limitations a lot of the time. It's something that we seem to have a lot of this year.

[akaGATORHOOPS]

the past 2 seasons, we did not even afford ourselves an opportunity like this.

not only is this a great win, but it is a huge learning exp. for our guys.

unlike previous years, when we were blind-sided by the first bit of actual competition... our kids will be fully prepared for SEC opposition!

[gatorcwboyfan]

We had to schedule cupcakes the last 2 years to build up the teams confidence. This years team is more experienced, atheltic, and tougher. I think billy knew deep down this team was pretty good, but you have to test them by playing fierce competition. Great start so far.

[ThePlayer]

What a difference Macklin and Boynton have made for starting in just their first seasons.

Not sure if Mack was a starter for Georgetown, but Boyntons' contribution is phenomenal.

[luciaboy]

I am glad we strengthened up our schedule. this win will count just as much come tourney bid time

[akaGATORHOOPS]

Originally Posted by ThePlayer

What a difference Macklin and Boynton have made for starting in just their first seasons.

Not sure if Mack was a starter for Georgetown, but Boyntons' contribution is phenomenal.

no... he got very little pt at g-town.

[tommyuf21]

Originally Posted by gatorcwboyfan

We had to schedule cupcakes the last 2 years to build up the teams confidence. This years team is more experienced, atheltic, and tougher. I think billy knew deep down this team was pretty good, but you have to test them by playing fierce competition. Great start so far.

I understood the reasoning behind that, especially with all of the freshman in 2007-2008. I'm not sure how much it helped us last year. If anything, it gave some players false confidence. However, I'm not sure we would have gained any benefit from a more difficult schedule last year. That team just didn't have the mental toughness and the "want to" in order to persevere.

[GatorSieg]

Originally Posted by akaGATORHOOPS

the past 2 seasons, we did not even afford ourselves an opportunity like this.

not only is this a great win, but it is a huge learning exp. for our guys.

unlike previous years, when we were blind-sided by the first bit of actual competition... our kids will be fully prepared for SEC opposition!

That's going to be Billy's biggest challenge this year. He has the bodies to keep the big men rotating in and out like Murphy getting minutes last night, we could sub for when Macklin got poked in the eye and kept Tyus and Mack rotating in all night long.

Our guard situation is a bit more limited, and he'll have to find ways to keep Walker and Boynton from getting gassed down the stretch of the season - especially if we keep playing press on defense most games. It was possible to use it in back to back games against FSU and MSU because it's early in the season.

Boynton is the bigger concern - he's played a ton of games as a HS phenom and McD's AA - but the college season is longer and more physical, and Shipman will need to pick up a lot more of his minutes in games that aren't as challenging as MSU to keep him fresh.

[akaGATORHOOPS]

Originally Posted by gatorcwboyfan

We had to schedule cupcakes the last 2 years to build up the teams confidence. This years team is more experienced, atheltic, and tougher. I think billy knew deep down this team was pretty good, but you have to test them by playing fierce competition. Great start so far.

Nah... that is not the reason. Billy's has consistently scheduled cupcakes regardless of team strength.

The change resulted from waning fan interest and some backlash. . . including some from the SEC commish. Also, two missed tourney's could be partially blamed on a very low rpi/schedule rating.

Regardless, I think it is proving to be a good change.

[veridicusgator]

Earlier in the thread ... a mention of situations where Walker might be gassed ... that's tough for me to imagine ... he seems to have limitless energy and in fact, sometimes maybe a bit too much!

[BLING]

Yep. Right now UF is probably +2 compared to recent years. But I'm not counting the chickens yet. Still need to go through the conference without that late season collapse, last couple of season the finishes were brutal schedule wise and gators didn't get it done either to finish the regular season or the tournament.

[SJB612]

With wins against the ACC, Big 10, and Big East already, and what I am sure will be at least a 500 season or better in the SEC, I think we are already a lock for the tournament unless something dramatic happens. The committee will reward the Gators for scheduling tough OOC games, and also for winning them.

[BLING]

Originally Posted by SJB612

With wins against the ACC, Big 10, and Big East already, and what I am sure will be at least a 500 season or better in the SEC, I think we are already a lock for the tournament unless something dramatic happens. The committee will reward the Gators for scheduling tough OOC games, and also for winning them.

Not so fast. We were in shape for SEC at some points last year, but did not finish strong. The only way to look at it now is UF is +2. But it is a LONG season.

[TrumanCoyote]

Last year, going into conference play they had wins over UNC and Washington and losses to FSU and Syracuse.

Still gotta play UNC and Syracuse this year. This kind of talk is WAY too premature.

[Gator40]

Originally Posted by TrumanCoyote

Last year, going into conference play they had wins over UNC and Washington and losses to FSU and Syracuse.

Still gotta play UNC and Syracuse this year. This kind of talk is WAY too premature.

UNC? I think you mean NCSU.

[jareduf]

This team is far from in the big dance, but they have some huge early out of conference wins. Now if this team wins 10 conference games they are a lock for the tournament. We still have games with Syracuse, at NC St. and Xavier at home. Win a couple of those games and 9 conference wins could put them into the big dance. However, they should be able do very well in the SEC this year and I expect them to compete as one of the top teams in the league. Great start!

[gatorev12]

The NCAA selection committee consistently rewards teams who schedule tough OOC competition and emerge with at least one decent win.

This year, we have two solid wins (against what should be two teams which should finish around .500 in their conferences--both two of the best in college basketball) and a great win (against the former #2 team and national runner-up last year).

We could finish the rest of our tougher OOC games with losses (against NC State, Syracuse, and Xavier) and still be a pretty good lock for the tourney--assuming that we finish .500 or better in the SEC (which we should given what I've seen thus far from this team). And for the record, I don't see us losing to all three of NC State, Syracuse, or Xavier--I think we could easily scoop up two wins out of those three.

In any case, this is a great start for this year's team and I'm proud to see the chemistry and teamwork there again in a Gator basketball team.

[GatorSieg]

NC State, even at their gym, is a likely W. Anything could happen, of course.

Xavier will be a good one, with homecourt advantage. 'Cuse will be 50/50 since it's in Tampa; they will need to bring a good shooting touch to beat the vaunted (and very over-rated) zone.

Go a couple games over .500 in the SEC, and the MSU/FSU wins have already punched our NCAA Tourney resume. Only thing is - Kentucky & Vanderbilt look quality so far this year; Tennessee's one loss was by 1 point to Purdue and Ole Miss' one loss was to Villanova. The rest of the SEC, however, has some pretty bad losses on their resumes. The conference looks to have improved w/ better Vandy and Florida squads, Ole Miss is still a mystery - but it's starting to get worrisome that you may need a .70 or .75 win-record AND good OOC wins to get an at-large from the SEC.

[bachikarn]

No way we need to be .7-.75 to get into the tourney. Last year was also an EXTREME down year for the SEC, and we were still a bubble team despite going .5 in SEC and having a horrendous OOC. If we do .5 in the SEC again, we are a lock. We'll do better than though, so it is a mute point.