Without Yeugette, do we change our style of play?

[Brewski]

Originally Posted by NorthCaptivaGator

dude, one missed free throw and your excitement during game threads turns into worry, I imagine you are on the verge of tears right now

Heh, so true.

[akaGatorhoops]

Donovan said that it will obviously force us to play smaller than we would
like for stretches of a game. He did not mention playing more zone, but that it could be challenging to press as much as we would like.

[tommyuf21]

Originally Posted by born2beagator

I hate this so much, one injury and my excitement for the season turns into worry. I don't think this is a FF team without will.

Pre and early season, I didn't think this was a FF team with Will. However, as we've seen throughout the season, the lack of a singular dominant team makes this year's NCAA tourney a proverbial crap shoot.

Someone is going to be making a lot of money when the nets get cut down in April.

[tommyuf21]

Originally Posted by akaGatorhoops

Donovan said that it will obviously force us to play smaller than we would
like for stretches of a game. He did not mention playing more zone, but that it could be challenging to press as much as we would like.

What I hate about the injury isn't so much what it will do to the team, but what it does to Will. I feel terrible for him. Thankfully, its not like as bad as last season and if things go well, he'll get to play again this season.

The team will respond, the coaches will make the necessary adjustments. There won't be 25+ point blowouts and a 51pt game average anymore, but this team is good enough to compensate for that.

I understand that people get upset, but ultimately the game is a reflection of life and nothing is fair about that. We can take solace that we have the best coach and some experienced and talented players that have gone through this before and will handle it with maturity. We may even get to see a couple of youngsters step up and take advantage of their opportunity to grow up in front of us.

Go Gators!

[sec1]

without him we are going to struggle on D for sure...i dont think we can go far at all without Will

[oragator1]

If we play man and either young or Murphy gets in foul trouble we are in deep deep trouble. Zone is a necessity even if it means we give up a bit on defense.
Offensively it won't hurt our sets too much ,but fewer offensive rebounds, putbacks and hustle plays, which help define the team's character. Then there's either more minutes for the big guys or going longer stretches small, both reasons for more zone. And pressing I would expect when we go smaller, to offset height disadvantages, but in much more targeted spots because we are 7 deep basically. It's inevitable.
But one name not mentioned a lot here is Frazier, he is going over to the deep end of the pool now. His size becomes a big factor in what we need more of.

[oneatatime]

Originally Posted by ApexNC

Prather will have to play the 4 a lot more than we ever wanted him to. Good news is that we can bring Frazier in at the 3 when that happens as he's a strong rebounder. Still gonna be a challenge.

Play Prather exclusively at the 4. He played well there during the tournament last year.

the big concern is what to do if young or murphy have foul trouble

[GatorPlanet]

Originally Posted by ThePlayer

Unfortunately I agree.
His absence is really going to hurt against more physical teams like Kentucky too.

I don't think you've seen this year's edition of Kentucky.

[grant1]

Originally Posted by GatorPlanet

On the other hand--and I mean this in no way as a knock on Will--we actually got better when he was injured last season. BD decided to turn up the speed to HIGH even though our depth had diminished, and we played at a higher level from that point on.

What we have going for us is that Mike Frasier II is getting better each time he steps on the floor. His minutes will go up...what we lose in Will's defense, maybe we can make up with Mike's offense.

But this year's WY injury leaves us with less depth. BD is talking 4 guard rotations with Frasier playing the 4 spot.

[tim]

I think Frazier can essentially fill in Beal's spot this time last year (in terms of their rebounding, nothing more) and we're basically the same team as last year with better D and a slightly longer rotation with graham, walker, and dare I say Kurtz. Overall I trust billy and I think we're going to be fine come tourney time. Just my opinion.

[Ahab]

Walker is going to be our 4th big now. He needs to really hustle and do his work early on defense. Hopefully he can provide some decent help on the boards.

[ETGator1]

Play the bench, press, and run - more man defense - Play 4 guards a lot - rotate Young and Murphy - rotate Prather and Walker.

That's not what we are going to do, but it is what we should do. I suspect we'll play a boring slow down game designed to keep it close and get close wins if we can.

[dadx4]

This hurts....we need guys to step up big time.

[InstiGATOR1]

The way I see it is that UF must replace about 21 minutes a game, That is the number of minutes Yeguete has played since LSU when Prather was hurt inclusive not counting the last game. In the minutes UF needs to replace 6 points, 6.5 rebounds and Yeguete's defense.

In the two games before LSU, Yale and UGa, when Murphy was hobbled and Yeguete's knees were acting up some, Prather played 26 and 21 minutes respectively and scored 9 against Yale and 10 against UGa. He also grabbed 6 rebounds against Yale and 7 rebounds against UGa. So Prather getting back to 20ish minutes will nicely replace Yeguete. Frazier may get a few more minutes and he scores better than Yeguete and is a solid rebounder too.

To me the issues are post defense and defensive rebounding. Any team UF plays whose 4 is 6'8" or less, UF will be fine with Prather who is listed only one inch shorter than Yeguete. Against teams with bigger 4s, Prather or Frazier will have to push the catch further from the basket. A four will not want to put the ball on the floor against them. Rarely will a four even want to try to back them down. However if taller 4 can catch the ball deep on them, they will just shoot over either Prather or Frazier. Also Prather or Frazier need to get a body on the 4 immediately after a shot to prevent a offensive rebound put back. Their lack of size mean any offensive rebound by their guy is likely to be an easy put back.

So to see how well UF is replacing Yeguete, I would look at:

1. How many minutes Prather is playing and what his points and rebounding stats are.

2. Is the opponent's 4 able to catch the ball in deep and turn and score over Prather/Frazier.

3. Is UF giving up more offensive rebounds.

[Ahab]

Frazier at the 4 sounds tough. I'm pretty sure we're going to give up more offensive rebounds one way or the other.

[gulfgator]

As unlikely as it sounds, I really think we should get Kurtz involved in some of Will's minutes. He's big enough to play SF and the guy has some grit.

[ncorangeblue]

Originally Posted by gatorev12

Good post...this is has I see things shaking out too.

Heck, who knows--perhaps even Kurtz gets looked at for some minutes: he's got the height and has shown well this season with the minutes he's been given. Dare I say, he's performed better than either Graham or Walker to this point.

Agree, seems like Kurtz has a high rebounds/minute

[gymgator]

The bench players foul and are turnover machines. While I had high hopes for Prather this season, the injuries have been a set back for him.

I do think with our small size, we have to run more and use our speed to neutralize the other teams size. Graham & Walker will need to give 4-6 min, though out the game just to give our guys a few minutes rest. If they can just not turn the ball over and foul every play, it would be sufficient.

[wci347]

Originally Posted by Bullis33

I get it, but a HUGE mistake IMO...we have never zoned well and this will negate our biggest strength this season: our amazing half court man to man D

our zone D has always been very very subpar....Arky game just another example of that fact

It's Billy's switching out of man to man and into zone which has made our defense most effective. I think that our zone defense has been indispensable to our success this year.

[themistocles]

Personally, given the underlying philosophy of Billy D's game methodology over the past 7 years or so, I really don't expect to see much of either Walker or Graham. You may recall that he commented roughly: D. Walker is a possible option, but I'm not sure he is ready.

Yes, Prather needs to recover and get back to his earlier performance level, .

I don't really expect to see much more zone, unless foul trouble occurs.