Revised rest of season predictions?

[bullish]

Wow, I think Bogey is about right. We are like a wounded battleship taking shot after shot from here on out. We are going to have to play the freshmen whether we like it or not. Of course Billy wants no injuries and of course not to play freshmen, but they are a part of the game and the freshmen needed.

The losses could go as high as six, but I hope we patch the hole enough to get better offense than we had at Arkansas and hopefully we don't play zone with white hot shooters fillin it up.

I think Billy will be surprised and get some help from the freshmen, but the tougher part of our schedule and the target on our backs as a conference leader will work against all this. I am hoping by the NCAA tournament, we are able to get Will back, but bone chips in the knee is tough. It could be an early exit.

Hopefully we get another recruit with size before next season as we have seen what a lack of depth up front does over a season. I would like for us to build for the tournament rather than peaking to early with a short bench. We can only hope if we can't land another big that Patrick gets a hunger for a title and comes back.

[g8rboy]

Come on. If losing one guy can cause disaster, the situation was way too fragile to begin with

[LoyalGatorFan]

Originally Posted by g8rboy

Come on. If losing one guy can cause disaster, the situation was way too fragile to begin with

Yeah exactly...if we depend this much on one guy, then how good of a team are we? Will losing Yeguette hurt? Sure...but lets not forget we got within minutes of the FF last year without him...I still think the only games we COULD but not necessarily SHOULD lose without him are @UK, @Mizz, and @UT...if we can somehow just win 1 of those and take care of the teams we should beat, we still finish 15-3 and likely SEC champs...

If there is a year to suffer through injuries, it's this year because the SEC is so down...

And next year we have big man depth...Finney-Smith, Harris, Prather, Yeguette, Walker, and other Walker....and the possibility of Young coming back....next year IMO will be somewhat a reverse of this year in terms of depth...

[gatordavisl]

Originally Posted by Jonas

We aren't losing to Tennessee. They are turrible.

Thank you. Anyone predicting a loss at UT hasn't watched them play.

[GatorsGators]

Lots of overreaction here. Shocking... I know.

[regurgigator]

Originally Posted by g8rboy

Come on. If losing one guy can cause disaster, the situation was way too fragile to begin with

First, it depends on how you define "disaster". Is it a "disaster" to go from a possible favorite to win it all to being "just" a very good team that will be a tough out in the NCAA Tourney?

Second, by your definition, many outstanding teams have been "fragile" over the years, and have played their regular seasons and gone into the NCAA Tourney as favorites with relatively short 7 to 8 man rotations (seems like every Duke team is that way).

I don't agree with the use of either term in this situation.

But, I do feel the potential loss of Yeguete is huge. I have regurgitated my views several times over the season that I think this is a special (very special) team primarily due to their extraordinary defense and that I think Yeguete is at least as important as Wilbekin to our defense.

I think it was a huge loss last year also despite reaching the Elite 8. Maybe with Yeguete we would have reached the Final Four, as maybe he would have come up with some defensive plays or 50/50 loose balls against Butler, to offset Butler's forward who was making the kind of hustle plays for them that Yeguete often makes for us.

[Matthanuf06]

There are only 4 more games that we can even conceivably lose. We will be favored in all 4 of those, a couple by double digits.

[Brodeur]

Originally Posted by Matthanuf06

There are only 4 more games that we can even conceivably lose. We will be favored in all 4 of those, a couple by double digits.

I mostly agree with this. The game at Mizzou might be a pick'em after the way they played today, but I have a hard time seeing this UF team lose more than 2 more regular season games.

[swampsupreme]

i don't think we lose a game the rest of the season, until maybe the SEC tourney

[ThePlayer]

Originally Posted by swampsupreme

i don't think we lose a game the rest of the season, until maybe the SEC tourney

Sorry, I'd love to believe that too but just can't.
Arkansas was nothing special...until we weren't either.
Losing Will Yeguette is a game-changer for the worse.
Teams like Kentucky will be damn determined to beat us.
And we'll find out if anyone else wants it more than we do.

[gatorbogey]

i may need to make a revision here and there to my revised prediction after a win against UK....

[orlandogator]

at Missouri is the only one I see as a possible loss. they are 14-0 at home much like the Arkansas phenom.

[rounds]

Kids (& their fans) get overconfident when killing everybody by 15-20 as would be expected. Billy could have stopped the Arky massacre w timeouts, but chose not to. Our guys let them shoot the 3 flat-footed w no hands up against them and actually playing way inside the 3-pt. line to prevent them from their specialty which is driving and also because they were 12-18% from 3 pt. line. Uncontested set shots & they were 8-9 to start game. We were down 23 @ 11 min. mark. We let them open 2nd half w ~11-0 run to 23 pt. lead again. They ran clock...game over, they win by 11. Abberation. We are not that bad.
Yeguete will be back and his surgery gives Frazier & Prather minutes to build their confidence. We REALLY need Prather's scoring ability in the paint for the big dance and he and Frazier's FT ability in close games.
A LIVE BY THE THREE TEAM WILL DIE BY THE THREE. Prather takes the pressure off our HAVING to win by the three.
I hope Boynton keeps driving, dishing, creating and drawing the foul.
Billy knows how to get us prepared for a DEEP run in the tourney, a 1 seed is NOT necessary and actually may be detrimental to these guys.
JMO

[regurgigator]

I don't agree that Arkansas was getting a bunch of easy looks.

We didn't always get a hand up, but we were right in front of them on most of those shots (which means they have to rise and shoot quickly; that makes a difference as can plainly be seen by how automatic Frazier is from 3-point range when he's wide open compared to his % when someone is closing on him) and some were taken from NBA range.

[GatorLurker]

I stand by my predictions in the "early" thread:

Close losses to AZ and K State.

16-2 in the SEC (One random loss and at Rupp)

SEC Tournament Champs

Lose in NCAA Championship game.

I hope that I am wrong on the last one if we get there.

[rounds]

Perhaps I exagerrated, but it pizzed me off. Billy discussed the lack of 3 pt. defense in his postgame on gatorzone.
Regardless, I believe that loss helps this team in the long run.