Fast starts

[orlandogator]

As far as I can remember , all of our wins were from fast starts. That isnt cooincidence.

I am just curious, what is it about this team that allows for consistent fast starts in games where we jump up 10, 15 even 20 points in the first half?

"Scoring more points than they do" isn't a valid reason. Do they take longer to warm up in shooting, do they have specific good defensive game plans coming into the game to cut off certain players? What is the reason?

[tec68]

Its our defense.

[jcp]

As far as I remember our second game against UGA wasn't a fast start. We were even down at the half, weren't we?

But yes, the cause is our defense!

[orangeblueorangeblue]

Originally Posted by jcp

As far as I remember our second game against UGA wasn't a fast start. We were even down at the half, weren't we?

But yes, the cause is our defense!

UGA led at the half.

We were up 2 on Air Force, 3 over Middle Tenn.

But the rest have mostly hinged on huge leads relatively early.

[G8rNkoko]

No, not all, even last week we trailed KY 4-0 three and a half minutes into the game. I don't think that can be called a fast start by us.

[born2beagator]

Well, they were close games at one point :P

I really don't think our success is a fluke. These other teams have talent and pride. Sure they aren't very good, but to make so many of these college teams look like high schoolers tells me they must be doing something right.

[VTGator]

This team looks very focused and ready to play right out of the gate. That's gotta be a combination of experience and coaching.

[oneatatime]

Except for Arky when things got out of hand, two fouls in the first half means you sit until halftime.

Billy D knows that our defensive intensity will wear down most teams in the second half even if the game is close, so he'll pour it on after halftime

[MadduxFanII]

It's an interesting question. My initial thought is that early results might be fairly attributable to coaching, in that the first few minutes of a game are the times when everything the coach has said over the previous few days is most prominent in the players' minds and when any adjustments the team has made will have the best chance of confounding the opposing team's expectations.

Over the course of a game talent will do most of the work, but in those early moments of the game and after half, and after timeouts, coaching has its largest effect.

That's the theory, anyway. It would certainly speak well of Billy, not that we need any more proof of his badassitude at this point.

[gatorfansrule]

Experience and defense. The only reason we haven't beaten some of these teams by 40 to 60 points is because we build up a 20-30 point lead in the first half and then relax a little in the 2nd half and pretty much just keep our lead.

[GatorPlanet]

Our team is amazingly efficient on both ends of the floor. A 3-point lead becomes 5, then 8, then 11, then 15...the lead just keeps stretching.

[InstiGATOR1]

UF started fast against Zona, really both halves, but failed to sustain.

[regurgigator]

Originally Posted by InstiGATOR1

UF started fast against Zona, really both halves, but failed to sustain.

I agree with those that say it's our defense. And, I'm of the opinion that we we didn't bring our best defense to the games against Arizona, K State, and the other holiday season games.

We've built some huge leads in the first 10 to 15 minutes even in games where we started off cold for the first few minutes.

But, even with our slower start against Georgia, for example, I felt very confident going into the second half because of the way we were playing (i.e., that UGA's scoring rate would slow down against the tough defense we were playing and/or that more of our shots, which were mostly good looks in the first half, would start falling).



I think Arkansas' defense is the only one that's kind of befuddled our offense (not just cold shooting by us, but actually not able to get the looks we normally get). It'll be interesting to see if we can better handle their switch-everything defense the next time we play. Or, how we handle it from other teams that have the personnel to do it.

[TampaGatorFan]

Originally Posted by InstiGATOR1

UF started fast against Zona, really both halves, but failed to sustain.

A couple of hobbled players and a couple of sketchy calls late didn't help, either.

I would LOVE to have another shot at Zona. I think we smash them on a neutral court.

[tommyuf21]

This is from UF's Sports Information. I think this gives a good answer to what we are discussing in this thread.

EARLY-GAME DEFENSIVE PRESSURE
The Gator defense has been particularly stingy in the
early going, as eight teams have scored 20 or fewer in
the first half. Below is a look at opponents that have
taken at least 15 minutes to get to 20 points and when
their 20th point was scored. The Gators are 15-1 in
these games.

Game Clock Half
Alabama State 6:24 2nd
South Carolina 10:23 2nd
Savannah State 11:44 2nd
at Florida State 12:34 2nd
Georgia 16:15 2nd
at Texas A&M 16:16 2nd
at Mississippi State 19:25 2nd
Kentucky 1:42 1st
UCF 2:08 1st
Missouri 2:09 1st
Ole Miss 2:11 1st
at LSU* 2:27 1st
Southeastern La. 3:18 1st
at Arizona 3:24 1st
Mississippi State 3:49 1st
at Auburn 3:57 1st
Marquette 4:38 1st
vs. Air Force 4:40 1st
*Had 20 points at hafl time

[bullish]

I feel our players give it all they have for 15 minutes of each half, then good teams that are substituting wear us down. With our focus on playing great defense takes a lot of effort and offensive shots start clanging, ft's are missed and we seem a step slow to shut down their shooters around the last five minutes of each half. Depth is a problem, especially for our bigs. Additionally no creative pg that puts us on his back in clutch time.

The more Billy tightens the line-up, fatigue usually follows. Hopefully next year we have a full complement of players that Billy will allow to see the court nightly to be able to close out close games on the road in hostile gyms.

With the Tennessee road game, I have a lot of friends that are big Tennessee fans. If we fold in the end there, I will hear, the Gator basketball is our *&^%$! Please take out the hillbillies!