Missouri Game Box Score MVG: Scottie Wilbekin

[InstiGATOR1]

Let's say you are the other team's star perimeter and you play say 38 minutes a game because you are the star. Well struggle at the start of the game because Wilbekin is in your grill. Then Wilbekin gets pulled out for a rest and you have friggin Boynton in your grill. Not a fun 38 minutes.

[gatordavisl]

Originally Posted by 108

Scotty is starting to turn the corner at PG

You can tell he is getting more confident with the ball in his hands

I had my doubts about some 17 yr-old kid coming from a local private school. As if he would be able to fill the shoes of Gator players who are recruited nationally. Honestly, I thought SW was more of a "bandaid" recruit than anything. As it turns out, he is becoming a major contributor on this team. He shoots well when open, is an obvious defensive stopper, and is developing his handle and dribble-drive capabilities. He's even developing the ability to create his own shot. So glad to see SW becoming a serious player.

[madgator]

Originally Posted by rserina

No doubt Wilbekin was phenomenal, but the team defense on Pressey was the difference. We did a great job clogging the lane with help and hedging on those screens and in general picking Pressey up in transition before he could set anything up.

The other guy that stuck out to me was Young. The six turnovers absolutely killed his stat line, but a game like he had today makes you think of Horford: 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals. He has been unbelievably active on the defensive end this month.

time for Pat to start playing for the draft. He is going to have an UNBELIEVABLE March/April when it's time for him to earn him recognition/draft status.

look for him to shine against Kentucky where he is going to look to impress the scouts.

with P.young it's a question of want to and maintaining focus.

[NoahBeanBizzel]

For two years Young was an energetic defender, who was just really raw on the other end of the floor. Offensively he needed to polish his game up a bit. And as madgator pointed out, it's about focus with Young, and he can be as good as wants to be.

Again, Donovan shows again that he can develop players as well as anybody. Look at how far Murphy, Wilbekin, Young, Rosario and even Prather have come since that loss to Georgia last season. Those are five players who have become more consistent and effective in almost every aspect of their game in less than a year.

Billy's the man.

[NoahBeanBizzel]

Originally Posted by gatordavisl

I had my doubts about some 17 yr-old kid coming from a local private school. As if he would be able to fill the shoes of Gator players who are recruited nationally. Honestly, I thought SW was more of a "bandaid" recruit than anything. As it turns out, he is becoming a major contributor on this team. He shoots well when open, is an obvious defensive stopper, and is developing his handle and dribble-drive capabilities. He's even developing the ability to create his own shot. So glad to see SW becoming a serious player.

His game has as much upside as any player at Florida right now. He has the ability to become a future pro.

[rserina]

Originally Posted by gatordavisl

I had my doubts about some 17 yr-old kid coming from a local private school. As if he would be able to fill the shoes of Gator players who are recruited nationally. Honestly, I thought SW was more of a "bandaid" recruit than anything. As it turns out, he is becoming a major contributor on this team. He shoots well when open, is an obvious defensive stopper, and is developing his handle and dribble-drive capabilities. He's even developing the ability to create his own shot. So glad to see SW becoming a serious player.

Some of it was that I believe he only played one season of travel ball (which I netted him offer sfrom Tennessee and Maryland), but he just had no publicity. The travel circuit is really weird that way. You get a reputation established with the regional and national websites, as well as assistants on the road, from the 14-U days forward. If you listened to Bill Simmons' interview with David Lee and Stephan Curry the other day, Curry mentioned that he didn't play much in the travel circuit after moving back from Canada and that is why no one recruited. Then, somehow, the same darn thing happened to his brother, who ended up at Liberty before transferring to Duke.

Wilbekin was without question a top-100 player in his class and may have ended up with that rating had he continued playing with Team Florida. He was already showing a nice handle and mid range game to go along with great size and athleticism for a collegiate point guard. What surprised me, though, was his willing commitment to defense--and his effectiveness--from the start.

[ApexNC]

Originally Posted by rserina

No doubt Wilbekin was phenomenal, but the team defense on Pressey was the difference. We did a great job clogging the lane with help and hedging on those screens and in general picking Pressey up in transition before he could set anything up.

The other guy that stuck out to me was Young. The six turnovers absolutely killed his stat line, but a game like he had today makes you think of Horford: 9 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals. He has been unbelievably active on the defensive end this month.

I was going to say this too...taking NOTHING away from Scottie's game yesterday, but the team defense contributes to shutting down opponents' stars.

[Gatuar]

I notice Scottie is getting into the lane off the dribble much easier...it's almost uncharted territory for him he seems a but unsure

Will only get better and it creates plays for PY....easy dunks

[regurgigator]

I'll go along with that being Wilbekin's best overall game to date.

He's been doing a much better job breaking the press with both his dribbling and passing - and avoiding the double teams (with pass or dribble re-direction) before they can trap him hard. It seems to be key that he avoid getting trapped as his biggest weakness in passing the ball is not his decisions on where to throw it, but that his passes get deflected too often by the player(s) that's guarding him.

Wilbekin doesn't seem like a naturally gifted passer to me (like Pressey appears to be despite his poor game against us). It seems more that he's just a fine all-around athlete whose hard work at getting into the lane and reading the defense to figure out who to pass to is paying off. He still had a couple of head-scratching turnovers, but all the good plays far outweighed the couple of bad.


A lot of good play from Young also, but wow did he have some ugly turnovers also