Unselfishness Under Duress

[gatormann]

When Florida plays Billy Ball and moves the ball around, its offense can be a thing of beauty that is admired by any basketball purist.

Wednesday night, we saw something different when Missouri turned up its defensive screws during the game's last 10 minutes and it was the same thing we've seen in other pressure situations. As the game grew closer and the clock counted down, we saw players revert to hero mode wanting to be the guy who hits the big shot.

Some of that is a good thing. You want guys to feel confident to take the pressure shots. What happened though was that Florida abandoned its selfless play and lost confidence in running their offense, in relying upon offensive execution and making the extra pass. They didn't trust that the extra pass would earn them more and better looks. It wasn't just Boynton. I saw a couple of quick looks even out of Wilbekin who is the team's poster child for unselfish play.

When it comes to late game swoons, there are a number of culprits. Failure to protect the ball...missed free throws...lack of a presence in the paint, etc

Part of it, however, is simply trusting in the things that you do best. Florida didn't do that the other night.

Bring on the Razorbacks!

[ApexNC]

Yeah, I've said a few times that the lack of any pressing seems to have an effect on how aggressively the team plays as a whole. I realize that there are teams and situations where you don't press as much, but I wish we'd show it some. Seems to get the guys playing more freely.

[NorthCaptivaGator]

Originally Posted by gatormann

When Florida plays Billy Ball and moves the ball around, its offense can be a thing of beauty that is admired by any basketball purist.

Wednesday night, we saw something different when Missouri turned up its defensive screws during the game's last 10 minutes and it was the same thing we've seen in other pressure situations. As the game grew closer and the clock counted down, we saw players revert to hero mode wanting to be the guy who hits the big shot.

Some of that is a good thing. You want guys to feel confident to take the pressure shots. What happened though was that Florida abandoned its selfless play and lost confidence in running their offense, in relying upon offensive execution and making the extra pass. They didn't trust that the extra pass would earn them more and better looks. It wasn't just Boynton. I saw a couple of quick looks even out of Wilbekin who is the team's poster child for unselfish play.

When it comes to late game swoons, there are a number of culprits. Failure to protect the ball...missed free throws...lack of a presence in the paint, etc

Part of it, however, is simply trusting in the things that you do best. Florida didn't do that the other night.

Bring on the Razorbacks!

I kind of think just the opposite, I feel like when the other team cranks up the ball pressure and starts to jump passing lanes and get a couple of turnovers our guys become timid with ball movement and end up trying to do too much individually instead. That is not trying to be a hero as much as it is trying not to be the goat, it is not trusting your abilities to beat a guy off of the dribble or to make a ball fake and then a good pass. It's called getting tight. a perfect example was Bradley Beal, of all people traveling twice in the last two minutes against Louisville or Scotty passing the ball almost immediately to Boynton who was not in any better position to do anything with it than he was.

[gatormann]

Originally Posted by NorthCaptivaGator

I kind of think just the opposite, I feel like when the other team cranks up the ball pressure and starts to jump passing lanes and get a couple of turnovers our guys become timid with ball movement and end up trying to do too much individually instead. That is not trying to be a hero as much as it is trying not to be the goat, it is not trusting your abilities to beat a guy off of the dribble or to make a ball fake and then a good pass. It's called getting tight. a perfect example was Bradley Beal, of all people traveling twice in the last two minutes against Louisville or Scotty passing the ball almost immediately to Boynton who was not in any better position to do anything with it than he was.

I don't see us as being on opposite sides of the fence at all. What you wrote makes perfect sense.

[GatorJason]

Al McGuire once noted that teams that like to pressure the ball don't like getting pressured themselves.

I guess when the Gators turn up the defensive heat in practice, it's always the 1st string against the bench so the first string never experiences what it feels like to get pressured except in games. The opponent comebacks were also on the road against teams that were fighting for their lives. In the case of Arkansas, it was a situation where their coach told his team the Gators were crushing opponents by 24 so if his Razorbacks didn't jump the Gators from the word go, they were going to be humiliated in front of a sold out Bud Walton Arena. Anyway, I hope the Razorbacks show the same aggressiveness now in Gainesville. The Gators need the experience of playing these types of teams.