Wilbekin reinstated will play not start Saturday

[InstiGATOR1]

From twitter and UF:

Julie Quittner ‏@JQuittner

RT @gatorhoops: Florida announces Scottie Wilbekin has been reinstated, will play vs.
Middle Tenn State, not start.

[DuPontGator]

Great news!

[gatormann]

Personally, I like Boynton starting at the point better. It is good for Boynton and good for UF since it puts both he and Rosario in the backcourt which is our best offensive lineup. When Rosario plays the 3 in the 3 guard lineup it sacrifices too much length and rebounding.

Wilbekin has shown the perfect attitude to come off the bench and play that role.

[RD_gator]

Terriffic news. SW will be a great defensive edition!
Also, I am curious to see how Wilbekin does in running the team at PG!

[GatorPlanet]

Good to have him back.

The game is Sunday, not Saturday, by the way.

[madgator]

Originally Posted by gatormann

Personally, I like Boynton starting at the point better. It is good for Boynton and good for UF since it puts both he and Rosario in the backcourt which is our best offensive lineup. When Rosario plays the 3 in the 3 guard lineup it sacrifices too much length and rebounding.

Wilbekin has shown the perfect attitude to come off the bench and play that role.

Tough to make that claim when you haven't seen Wilbekin in the lineup yet.....growth curve this year for Scottie should be HUGE.

Plus, we will be an even better defensive team with him in there. Rosario is not the best defender in the world. He has gotten better but he frequently gets out of position in the zone and doesn't always seem to care about recovering.

plus, I think having a floor manager would open up Kenny's scoring chances. I think KB is a much better scorer than he is a floor manager. Not that he has done a bad job. I just believe his skill set is better maximized as a wing scorer.

[StrangeGator]

We will see down the stretch who is the ideal starter at PG. Might be better to wait until Prather is healthy to start Wilbekin, then bring Rosario off the bench to back up both Boynton and Prather. He could get almost as many minutes.

[themistocles]

Given an average of 5.5 rebounds in about 20 minutes of playing time, I'm not so sure that Frazier might not back up Prather at the 3, and particularly when he goes to the 4, where his speed makes him very dangerous (as he showed last year when Yeguete was out).

His play against Wisconsin suggests that the Gators do, in fact, when healthy, have an 8 man rotation that can perform against decent quality opposition.

Regarding Wilbekin - Why is it that this kid, who has absolutely out done anything that anyone could possibly have expected from him as a VERY YOUNG player, does not get the respect he deserves? I recall that last year, with Rosario coming on the team, quite a few were saying: "He probably won't get more than 5-10 minutes per game." Of course, he averaged about 15, like he did as a frosh. He is not perfect, but then, who is?

I go back again to what Billy D said when Prather and Wilbekin were both Freshmen - "I need to get those two on the floor together more. Good things happen when they play together."

And, despite having neither of these excellent defenders in 2.5 games, 1.5 against decent quality opposition, the Gator defense has been very very effective.

[HALLGATOR]

Good news for Scottie and the team.

[tegator80]

Overall I thought the Rosario showed that he has turned a corner in what Billy wants out of him. We do not know yet whether Wilbie has taken the next step too. If he is ready to be a steady PG (no lazy passes) and can hit the outside shots when the defense doesn't respect him then I prefer Rosario to come in as an offensive change-of-pace player instead. And I hope that Casey is ready to take over the starting 3.

[GatorSieg]

Thought about this yesterday, good to see him back - still wondering what he did to get suspended.

Though only based on 2 games so far, would like to see the starting lineup stay the way it is. We've been playing well (the starting 5 at least) in fast-paced, helter-skelter style offense that's kept good defenses like Wisconsin off-balance. Part of that's everyone knowing each other from experience.

It breaks down when freshmen sub into the game and the offense needs to be more tightly controlled, which is where Scottie coming in pays off. Of course, Scottie can also play with the other starters too when we need a designed play run correctly.

Just my preference, though; Scottie plays more of a control game for tempo.

[corpgator]

How turnover prone is Wilbekin? We had way too many against Wisconsin- 20.

[madgator]

Originally Posted by corpgator

How turnover prone is Wilbekin? We had way too many against Wisconsin- 20.

Exactly

people are forgetting that Wisconsin is a younger team and lost their "do everything team leader" in Jordan Taylor and then his replacement went down with a torn ACL last month.

Don't get me wrong, Wisconsin is a good win as they will be a quality team. But that is probably not at top 20 team this year. they could develop over the season, being young, we'll see.

try having 20 turnovers against Kentucky and see how far that gets us.

[GatorPlanet]

Originally Posted by corpgator

How turnover prone is Wilbekin? We had way too many against Wisconsin- 20.

Yeah, but that kind of turnover rate is pretty standard for the Gators this early every year.

[GatorLurker]

20 turnovers is high, but not too unexpected given the situation. Playing things "safe" on offense against Wisconsin would play right into the tempo they want. Being risky pushing tempo and aggressively passing the ball looked like the game plan to me. Of course that will increase turnovers. But if it results in high quality shots most of the other times (75% FG% in the first half is unheard of against the Badgers!), then it just might be a trade-off that is a net (pun intended) positive.

To answer the Scotty W question: He is not turnover prone. But he also isn't very daring.

[InstiGATOR1]

My view is:

1. I too am of the lets wait and see how Wilbekin plays a few games before fixing roles on this team.

2. Wilbekin had an excellent assist to turnover ratio last season. He does not make flashy passes, but he do get the ball into the post.

3. I think Donovan will try to mix and match players to get a balance between defense and offense in the game at any one time.

4. Rosario had a kid he could beat one on one against Wisconsin. There are not many guards that bad in the SEC. Additionally, Rosario had 4 turnovers in the Wisconsin game so I would not say he has turned the corner. He has improved as one would hope in his third year in this program.

5. Donovan is unlikely to risk starting his only 3 bigs after the MTSU game. Potential foul problems makes that too risky a strategy. I suspect he goes back to the exhibition starting lineup after this game.

[GatorPlanet]

One thing to keep in mind is, it's one thing to look good coming off the bench, and another thing to look good as a starter. When you earn the starting job, things get more difficult because opposing coaches spend more time scheming against you. They break down your tendencies more on film than they do for the guy who comes in 8 or 10 minutes a game.

This is why you sometimes see the guy you clamored for to be a starter, get the starting job, and then disappear.