BEWARE the "Demons"!!!!

[gatorbogey]

Beware the Demons of Northwestern State; Beware the Demons that the Gators must exorcise to make a run....

compliments to InstiGATOR for his post on his observations about NW State's play:

1. They press. They press after made shots and even try to organize a press after missed shots and defensive rebounds by their opponent. BTW, they force 17 turnovers a game. Certainly this will give the Wilbekin critics/worriers much to chew on.
[remember 'Zona? remember Arkansas?]

2. They often make hockey like shift changes. That is they bring in 5 at a time. In the game I saw they played about 4 minutes and then brought in the first shift change. [sorta like the gators of '00. fresh legs could wear us down?]

3. Attacked PG of the opponent getting 3 first half fouls on the starting PG and the back up.

4. They were not a big ball screen team in the half that I watched. They were more like the dribble drive.

Read more: http://www.gatorcountry.com/swampgas...#ixzz2O38j5TNp

I said I got a bit queasy after reading this. said in another post, they're gonna be shooting as they get off the bus, so we need to be prepared.

I think we need to address our own 'Demons' too - that may be the story of this opening round game. got to be able to hit the clutch shot in crunch time. got to take care of the ball - value each possession. no lazy passes, etc. think fundamentals rather than theatricals. hit those front ends! play w/ energy, passion, urgency and intensity. for the full game. finish!

complacency can and may end our run before it even gets started .

[akaGatorhoops]

Their transition scoring is going to be thwarted by our own scoring. It is tough to run when you are taking the ball out of the net and in-bounding. UF should not have a tough time scoring on the demons, and doing so will make the game very, very rough on nw state. NW St. is also prone to turnovers... giving up 21 in a loss to lsu. They also conceded 105 points in that game.
I think Florida will have the pedal pressed in for the entire 40 minutes and will not relent.
I see this one getting ugly. "Blow out city" to quote Dickie.

[Emmitto]

I'd take a pressing contest. I doubt their ability to hang unless they're just canning circus threes left and right. And if that happens then it's lights out anyway. I say Gators big, even if it takes a little while.

[InstiGATOR1]

I think in a knockout tourney it is best to beware of each opponent.

[gatorbogey]

that's the best approach, Insti. and you HAVE to do the knocking out too. have to have that attitude of 'no let-up'. and it's not about glamour, but brute force sometimes too. more fundamentals than flash.

[UFreak]

We win by 30

[gatorbogey]

Beware the overconfident demons

[Lawdog88]

Can we exorcise the "we can't play in the paint" demons ?

[HayGator]

We will score plenty in the paint since there will be many breakaway layups and dunks. We win big.

[NitroSmoke]

Much of this doomed us against Arkansas. They let them beat up our guards on the dribble up and that is always going to cause problems. I think NW will try and match that game on the defensive side of the ball.

Arkansas also seemed to hit every Globetrotter shot they took in that game. We would D them up to the end of the shot clock and they would drain a long three or circus shot. This never let us gain any momentum and always set us up for their press. And thus, back into the bang-ball that the refs were letting them play. Dykes talks in EVERY telecast about our first ball screen happening inside 10 secs of the shot clock. When they are allowed to disrupt our rhythm with physical play we have a hard time getting going.

Like aka said, if we can hit shots and control the flow of the game then we should be fine. But something we have struggled with all year is the refs letting other teams turn it into a scrap (happened to UK last night too....Cal pointed it out at halftime). Ive noticed it on most all of the late collapses. Not blaming it on the refs, but you could tell the tone of the game changed. And if they do call fouls, we dont convert on the FT line. Next thing you know you get a couple 4-5 point swings and you are only up 4.

I think Billy has them ready and WY has a big game. I think WY and Murph are the keys to our team, and hopefully KB gets going. Hes GOT to cut down on the really bad shots though when trying to make that happen. GO GATORS!!!

[UFreak]

Blow out

[orangeblueorangeblue]

I think we win, but blowout? 30 point victory? I don't see it. Hope I'm wrong.

[HayGator]

Could be closer to 40.

[Lawdog88]

Originally Posted by HayGator

We will score plenty in the paint since there will be many breakaway layups and dunks. We win big.

Well, that may be on the run and gun side, but I was thinking of our half-court game.

And after the 'Ole Miss thing, I also wonder about exorcising the demons from our defense in the paint in half-court game.

[orangeblueorangeblue]

Originally Posted by HayGator

Could be closer to 40.

Yeah, I guess it "could."

[TampaGatorFan]

We will destroy them.

75-45 Gators

[gatordee]

Originally Posted by TampaGatorFan

We will destroy them.

75-45 Gators

This. I do not believe their style will hurt us at all and our team will get plenty of fast easy points.

[TampaGatorFan]

Originally Posted by gatordee

This. I do not believe their style will hurt us at all and our team will get plenty of fast easy points.

Yup...uptempo plays right into our hands, actually.

[GatorLurker]

If we are off and they are on it will be "interesting".

I really hope that we are on or they are off.

[gatorbogey]

we've had blow out victories in the first round and then got promptly thrashed in the 2nd round game. ref Michigan states vs gators in tampa.

I do think we need a confidence building game, but if we win - need to realize that there's still a lot of work to do. one game at a time.