Prather's playing time

[rserina]

Originally Posted by bullish

I disagree, you have to have the lights on, people in the seats screaming and the other team scrapping at you to make you look silly, then you are exposed and you work even harder to get back. That's how players feel.

Then how did Noah develop? How about Prather? Or Yeguete? The point is that there are plenty of ways to develop other than getting in the rotation. Any athlete will tell you that playing helps you improve more than practice, no doubt. But no coach worth his salt puts a kid on the floor because he wants him to improve; he puts kids on the floor to win games. If the freshman is ready to contribute, then he plays.

You seem to want Donovan to extend his rotation so that freshmen don't get fed up and transfer. Well, sorry to say, but Donovan has never done that, nor will he ever do that. Kadji played 12+ minutes per game as a freshman. That is plenty to "develop," yet he didn't. Part of it was injuries, part of it was complacency. Whatever the reason, that he has a good skill set and is playing well for Miami has no relevance whatsoever to how prepared he was to play as a freshman at Florida. You could cite any number of guys who left and were successful (White, Abukar, Appleby, Mitchell), but the fact that they were successful does not mean they deserved to play more at Florida or that they would have accomplished what they did here. Do you honestly remember Appleby dribbling the ball against Zona's ball pressure in 2003? He was never the same after that, even with playing time.

Sorry to disappoint you, but Donovan doesn't share your philosophy and that won't change. Look a little closer and you will see that attrition is down appreciably, despite the shortened bench the last few years. There is no correlation between the two. If a kid leaves because he hasn't gotten playing time, then that has more to do with him than his development at Florida.

[GatorJeff]

Donovan essentially used just eight guys in each of the national title years, with Hodge, Richard and Moss coming off the bench the first title year and Hodge, Richard and Speights the second year. That "tight" rotation seems to work well for Billy.

[UFreak]

Eight is the perfect number.

[InstiGATOR1]

Originally Posted by rserina

Kadji played 12+ minutes per game as a freshman. That is plenty to "develop," yet he didn't. Part of it was injuries, part of it was complacency. .

If you put Frosh Kadji's numbers down in an array with Lee, Haslem, Noah, Horford, Tyus, ect. they do not stand out including his minutes which fit nicely in the middle of that group. Kadji just was injured and then caught in a numbers game at UF after Macklin transferred in. My view is had he stayed he would have been a big contributor his SR year, but might have slowed the development of Murphy or led him to transfer.

[bullish]

Appleby, LOL! dont bring him back in any conversation. I always thought, who was the mastermind behind him signing with us. Big mistake. OH well, more good ones than bad. Listen, a short bench this year is wearing down the guys, PY, Will I believe are both playing though sore knees. Will is now getting less playing time, Pat doesn't really have someone to spell him without us having to put together wings and guards out of position. Of course there is no one else to come off the bench, they are all freshmen guards/wings which we have in abundance. I hope we survive the grueling early SEC wars, because it is going to get a lot harder down the stretch. There will be good teams that have depth, size and talent. We won't be able to lolly gag for a half and then turn it on, Georgia comes to mind. I hope the eight man rotation ya'll seem to be totally behind works when we get to the tournament. That is if all the players are physically ready. I never will understand when we are ahead by thirty within 5-7 minutes left in a game we can't infused the line-up with backups. I know we Gators all believe in Billy, I do, but no one is perfect. Get them ready and when playing the easy part of your schedule give everyone a chance to share the fat. Tournament time is the time for the short rotation. I don't have a problem with that. I do when we play teams with losing records and we are pounding them with starters that are nursing injuries. It is a long season and the more bench you develop, the better team you will have both mental and physical.

To be ranked #2, I feel is too high and we have a target on our backs. Faced with the toughest part of our schedule, I see rough waters ahead. I am proud of both coaches and players working hard and together to be where we are. I hope when the smoke clears on this season, we all feel like the voters do now.

[ETGator1]

Originally Posted by rserina

They don't need to be in the rotation to develop.

Yes, but it doesn't hurt to put in a freshman with 4 of the regulars from time to time. With our big blowouts, it should happen. It's good team building.

[rserina]

Originally Posted by ETGator1

Yes, but it doesn't hurt to put in a freshman with 4 of the regulars from time to time. With our big blowouts, it should happen. It's good team building.

It can also hurt team building. I know everyone pretends that this is some terrible character blight, but in general these kids follow their stat lines and they want their points, rebounds, etc. They don't obsess over it, but it matters to them. When you take a rotation player out of a game when he can improve his averages in order to replace him with a freshman who hasn't worked as hard in practice or answered film quizzes correctly or what have you, then it actually could do the opposite. The vets have worked hard and want to play, not sit. It is like that at every level of sports and really in just about every sport. Not sure why we want Donovan to be any different.

[tommyuf21]

Originally Posted by bullish

To be ranked #2, I feel is too high and we have a target on our backs. Faced with the toughest part of our schedule, I see rough waters ahead. I am proud of both coaches and players working hard and together to be where we are. I hope when the smoke clears on this season, we all feel like the voters do now.

The ranking really means nothing at this point. We are the best team in the league and will have a target on our back whether we are #2 or #10. As long as you keep winning and those ahead of you lose, you're going to move up, like it or not.

I hate to disappoint you, but if we take care of business this week, we very well could be #1 next Tuesday when the Kitties come to town.

If losing a game or two before the end of the regular season is rough waters, I'll take it.

[regurgigator]

Seems like there needs to be a reminder that if Kadji hadn't left, he still wouldn't have been playing for the Gators this season.


Donovan plays freshman when they're ready to contribute. I support that. And, I believe his rotation went 10 deep in 2000 when he had that many players ready to contribute. So, I don't think he's wedded to a short rotation. Rather, he's wedded to playing only players that have earned his trust.

[bullish]

Regurgigator, listen Kadji I know would have no eligibility left for this year, but just think/dream, what if he had stayed and played with the Gators when we got to the final eight the last two years. We possibly, possibly, could have a couple of more banners in the rafters. Oh well, yes Billy has played 10 players in 2000, he could do it this year too if he wanted. The SEC is down on all accounts, we are blowing out teams, and we lose a lot this year, it could help us next year to develop these young ones a little faster, but Reserina says Billy can't change his coaching style to accelerate the young players growth or to help keep his guys physically fit for the long season and be ready for the tournament. If we were to lose few games in the SEC due to the freshmen playing too much, oh my god, the world is crashing.

I always think back to Liv Chatman a PF who knees derailed an exceptional player. Knees for basketball players are gold. Let's keep them fresh for tournament time and hopefully they have longer careers without wearing them out. Injuries happen and are unfortunate for whoever has them. Let's not cook the Golden Goose with a short bench in blowouts!

[Nblue]

Originally Posted by bullish

Regurgigator, listen Kadji I know would have no eligibility left for this year, but just think/dream, what if he had stayed and played with the Gators when we got to the final eight the last two years. We possibly, possibly, could have a couple of more banners in the rafters. Oh well, yes Billy has played 10 players in 2000, he could do it this year too if he wanted. The SEC is down on all accounts, we are blowing out teams, and we lose a lot this year, it could help us next year to develop these young ones a little faster, but Reserina says Billy can't change his coaching style to accelerate the young players growth or to help keep his guys physically fit for the long season and be ready for the tournament. If we were to lose few games in the SEC due to the freshmen playing too much, oh my god, the world is crashing.

I always think back to Liv Chatman a PF who knees derailed an exceptional player. Knees for basketball players are gold. Let's keep them fresh for tournament time and hopefully they have longer careers without wearing them out. Injuries happen and are unfortunate for whoever has them. Let's not cook the Golden Goose with a short bench in blowouts!

These are kids - they are playing basketball every day. Unless there is an injury (Will) playing 30 versus 20 minutes in a game is going to have no appreciable affect. If we were talking about Kevin Garnett's knees or CP3s then I would agree completely but not a college squad.

[bullish]

NBlue, I guess this is a situation no Gator wanted, Will getting hurt. It comes from playing when you are not completely healthy. His knees were sore already.

TommyUF21 we will drop out of the top ten before we get to #1. Our toughest part of the schedule and players are hurting. Hopefully Will can come back. I don't know how bad his knees are, we need him. We were too high at #2 and I knew the accolades would be read by the players and last night is what happens when they do. If I hadn't seen this coming, I would not have even wasted to the time to write down my thoughts.

I hope the Gators can recover and go on to be the team that gets to the final four but I get this gut feeling it will take Patrick coming back next year when we will have better front line help. I hope I am wrong. I don't won't a short trip in the NCAA tournament, but it is always a possibility as Reserina has noted.

This is not a doom message, we are having a very good season. What I have said all along is these road trips will define where this team will go. Hopefully we play better at the other road venues and when on national tv. Last night the announcers were trying to talk how tough we were but the ball kept clanging off the backboard and rim. Bad shooting night, loss of focus, full of people telling them they are better than the #1 team, we won't have to wait to long. Come on Gators, no one is going to lay down for us, they want to kill us. I am sure Billy will tell his team this and will get better effort next outing.

Here's hoping for a SEC title this year.

[tommyuf21]

I speculated on #1 before last night's game, but have never been one to carry on about rankings. They don't mean much, except to the fans who like to brag about it.

Overall, we are performing at a higher level than last year's team in a weaker league. There is a great opportunity to win a league championship and we all know they don't grow on trees.

As for the tourney, I echo REM's opinion that matchups are more important than seeding or even region placement. We were fortunate the last two years and outperformed our expectations getting to the Elite 8. It's impossible to predict what will happen. If we have the same luck, we are good enough to go further. I think we're a year away from a National Title though. I'd feel better about a championship if we had one more good low post player.