The close-game monkey

[tommyuf21]

It's amazing to hear some of this choke crap. Can you just accept that this team is what it is? This is not a National Championship team. When you get abused inside like they did today, that is not the sign of a championship team.

There is no choking here. They just are not as good in some positions as many here think.

[UFreak]

Originally Posted by tommyuf21

It's amazing to hear some of this choke crap. Can you just accept that this team is what it is? This is not a National Championship team. When you get abused inside like they did today, that is not the sign of a championship team.

There is no choking here. They just are not as good in some positions as many here think.

But you have to admit, in games decided by one or two possessions, we really don't perform well down the stretch. You can't deny that. We tighten up and play poorly. That really is what choking means, to succumb to pressure and perform poorly because of it. I feel bad for the players. It's tough, but I don't think you can call it anything but choking. And i really don't mean it with anger or animosity. They simply don't perform well in the clutch in two or three possession games down the stretch. It's a statement of fact.

[tommyuf21]

Originally Posted by UFreak

But you have to admit, in games decided by one or two possessions, we really don't perform well down the stretch. You can't deny that. We tighten up and play poorly. That really is what choking means, to succumb to pressure and perform poorly because of it. I feel bad for the players. It's tough, but I don't think you can call it anything but choking. And i really don't mean it with anger or animosity. They simply don't perform well in the clutch in two or three possession games down the stretch. It's a statement of fact.

When you live and die by outside shots, your chance of winning close games diminishes.

I think the choking part is way overblown. They don't choke, they just don't have as many options to score late in the game.

If we had a go to guy down low that could get us a shot and one, we would win a lot more of these "close" games.

[UFreak]

Originally Posted by tommyuf21

When you live and die by outside shots, your chance of winning close games diminishes.

I think the choking part is way overblown. They don't choke, they just don't have as many options to score late in the game.

If we had a go to guy down low that could get us a shot and one, we would win a lot more of these "close" games.

I guess we just disagree. I think we are tightening up down the stretch. Missing easy shots, free throws and making costly turnovers.

It happens. I still like these guys. But they have has a tough time this season in games that are two or three possession games down the stretch. And. Ow I think it is in their head a bit. I really did think they were going to pull it out today. I feel for them.

[Allanon]

I'm reminded of something my son's 9th grade coach told me after a loss last year. 3rd qtr I think, we were up 12 and ran a nice play and got one of our forwards right under the basket. The other team was ready to quit and we had the chance to make them quit by pushing the lead to 14. He missed the layup, we lost the game. Coach told me our forward was so scared on that shot he could see the BBs coming out of his shorts.

[rserina]

Originally Posted by tommyuf21

When you live and die by outside shots, your chance of winning close games diminishes.

I think the choking part is way overblown. They don't choke, they just don't have as many options to score late in the game.

If we had a go to guy down low that could get us a shot and one, we would win a lot more of these "close" games.

Funny part is that we had the same damn discussions in 2006 and 2007. Same dynamic: unselfish team that moves the ball and runs the system effectively, but has precious few shot creators. In 2006, we lost our first six games decided by six points or less before winning our last two. In 207, we went 3-2 in such games. But the revisionism around here (last five years--choke!) would lead you to believe we were this cool, composed, efficient unit in the clutch, not the one that thew inbounds passes directly to Tennessee players.

If we were losing all of these games the same way, then it might be a more legitimate discussion, but each one has been different. Today, we actually came from behind and were it not for putting a true freshman on the line with a 1-1 rather than a senior Murphy when we were down by two, the entire complexion of the game changes.

Against Zona, it was the late press. Against Mizzou, we couldn't keep the off the offensive glass. Against UK, we couldn't hit good looks. It happens. But rather than focusing on how much we dominated teams in the rest of our games, or how we kept games close in some of those games when we weren't playing well, it gets blown out of proportion into something Kevin Brockway would post.

[dawny]

Do we blame players or our Coach,happened last year ?

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Originally Posted by HALLGATOR

Looks like we got that off of our backs finally although I thought we did that in the first game against Bama.

Might want to reassess that opinion.

[rserina]

Originally Posted by dawny

Do we blame players or our Coach,happened last year ?

Definitely the coach. Fire him. Bring in Mark Few, just like these boards suggested a few years ago.

I am done with this stupidity.

[MaceoP]

Rough crowd. I've read stuff comparing this team to the 04's. Honestly, from a talent standpoint, we don't have one player who could compare with Brewer, Horford, Noah, or even Taurean.

We may very well make a deep run in the tourney, and if things shake out, who knows what can happen? IMO, make no mistake about it, Billy D did a great job with a bunch of good, not great players.

Calipari and KY brings in his players ready to roll. Billy has to develop his.. Look at Chandler Parsons, he started out here as a mediocre sub. Same with Murphy. The reality is we haven't been bringing in lottery studs. PY is the player who I thought would possibly be the dominant one. To date, it hasn't turned out that way.

IMO, we are getting the most out of the players we have.

[RealGatorFan]

Billy should get the COTY award simply for taking a bunch of average ball players and turning them into a sometimes great team. Hopefully, they can be great for 6 more games.

[geauxgator1]

Originally Posted by RealGatorFan

Billy should get the COTY award simply for taking a bunch of average ball players and turning them into a sometimes great team. Hopefully, they can be great for 6 more games.

I agree, we have a pretty good team, but not extremely talented. They have played up to their potential thus far, maybe even exceeded it.

[HALLGATOR]

Originally Posted by MichaelJoeWilliamson

Might want to reassess that opinion.

Not really. Losing this game today does not negate what they did yesterday, which was to win a close game.

[BLING]

Originally Posted by HALLGATOR

Not really. Losing this game today does not negate what they did yesterday, which was to win a close game.

But the team actually won by 10 points yesterday.

Now we did close out that game vs. Alabama really well, but it continued our crazy statistic of only winning by double digits this year. I guess if Alabama had scored on their last possession we could have at least wiped that crazy statistic out.

Obviously today brought back the concerns of closing out games. Although the "meltdown" actually happened right at the start of the half - rather than last 2 minutes - the last 2 minutes weren't so hot either...

[RealGatorFan]

I wouldn't say today was a case of not closing out a game but not adapting to Kennedy's halftime changes. We could never adjust to the changes and Ole Miss just kept going and we floundered. Ole Miss actually played really great defense and called a few more great plays like fouling Wilbe at the end of the game before he could ever take a shot. 2 missed FTs and that was it.

[WESGATORS]

We actually outscored Ole Miss 8-5 the last 5 minutes of the game. Unfortunately, that was not enough.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

[SmootyGator]

Originally Posted by WESGATORS

We actually outscored Ole Miss 8-5 the last 5 minutes of the game. Unfortunately, that was not enough.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

Yep. Choke artists. Didn't we hit a big three to bring us within one point? Another choke. What about a miraculous tip to give ourselves a chance to tie the game at the end. Choke! What about the steal from Henderson to give us a chance to tie on the last possesion? CHOKE!!!

Seriously, we played the same at the end of the games as we did during the games: plenty of good plays, plenty of mistakes. It just so happens that the mistakes (and misses) are magnified because it's the end of the game. Somehow people seem to forget about all of our good plays at the end of games. This is the same principle as bitching about the officiating.

[UFreak]

Originally Posted by SmootyGator

Yep. Choke artists. Didn't we hit a big three to bring us within one point? Another choke. What about a miraculous tip to give ourselves a chance to tie the game at the end. Choke! What about the steal from Henderson to give us a chance to tie on the last possesion? CHOKE!!!

Seriously, we played the same at the end of the games as we did during the games: plenty of good plays, plenty of mistakes. It just so happens that the mistakes (and misses) are magnified because it's the end of the game. Somehow people seem to forget about all of our good plays at the end of games. This is the same principle as bitching about the officiating.

Ok. Then how about we have not shown that we can elevate our play toward the end of games enough to get a win when the game is a one, two or three possession game this season? I for one think the reason they are not elevating their play is because the pressure is getting to them.

[MadduxFanII]

Originally Posted by rserina

Funny part is that we had the same damn discussions in 2006 and 2007. Same dynamic: unselfish team that moves the ball and runs the system effectively, but has precious few shot creators. In 2006, we lost our first six games decided by six points or less before winning our last two. In 207, we went 3-2 in such games. But the revisionism around here (last five years--choke!) would lead you to believe we were this cool, composed, efficient unit in the clutch, not the one that thew inbounds passes directly to Tennessee players.

Dude, where were you a week ago?

http://www.gatorcountry.com/swampgas...d.php?t=258760

[SmootyGator]

Originally Posted by UFreak

Ok. Then how about we have not shown that we can elevate our play toward the end of games enough to get a win when the game is a one, two or three possession game this season? I for one think the reason they are not elevating their play is because the pressure is getting to them.

Why wouldn't we elevate our play the whole game then, if we could do it? I think we've played pretty consistent all year (within games), which IMO is good. It just sucks when we play a mediocre game overall, we tend to lose, unless it's against a bad team.