Typically when you see a high-major team matching up with an opponent from a smaller conference the bigger school is trying to accelerate tempo and create more possessions in a game where their talent and depth should (hypothetically) win out. That wasn’t the case for the Gators against Towson where they kept things slow and only attempted 5 shots in transition, attempts that yielded 2 field goals including an and-one from Tre Mann. Only attempting 5 shots in a modern basketball game is a wild feat considering how many teams are looking to score off the break and many fans found this number extremely concerning, even though it may not be all that surprising.
Florida has attempted 13.3% of their shots in transition this year, down from the 14.5% of attempts they had last year which is quite a feat considering the national average is around 18.5% of attempts in transition. The Gators had a reputation of playing slow last year and this year it looks like they could be going even slower, something that will have some people scratching their heads considering the athleticism and speed of Scottie Lewis, Keyontae Johnson, Tre Mann, and Ques Glover. They’re currently 268th in the country in offensive possession length, usually a good indicator of how a team pushes, and the way they are forcing other teams into long defensive possessions has made them 345th national in adjusted tempo.
When asked about the offensive rhythm following the game against Towson Mike White had a measured response.
“I thought the flow was ok. We’re still searching too with playing fast and playing slow. We’ve gotta pick our spots.”
What this would suggest is that he wants the Gators to look for opportunities to push when they first get the rock but if nothing is there initially he wants them to get into half court offense. For those who expected the Gators to turn games into a track meet with their athletes out there running and gunning, White has a different outlook for you.
“I don’t think we’re an incredibly fast team. I don’t think we’ve been really efficient in transition offense. That doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to push it and try to continue to develop that part of our game.”
It’s clear that White isn’t confident in his players’ ability to push in transition right now and that is certain to clash with many fans’ perspective of Florida’s players, many of whom were expected to be blurs in transition. Analytically, White is correct when he talked about the Gators being inefficient in their transition offense right now. Currently they are at 0.75 points per possession in transition, a number that has them sitting in the 10th percentile of teams nationally.
Right now, it seems, the focus is on scoring the basketball with the game slowed down.
“Right now we’re a little bit better in the half-court. We seem to execute a little bit better. We’re searching.”
To check the analytics again, the Gators are at 0.8 points per possession in the half court, a number that is pretty poor (30th percentile) but is still slightly better than what they have done in transition. Even though they haven’t been able to hit many shots yet Coach White is still confident they are improving and a lot of that has to do with the way they’re passing the ball.
“…another huge positive is just the perimeter passing to the interior was — if it was an ‘F’ the other day it was at least a ‘B+’ tonight. We continue to throw that thing in high/low opportunities, spread pick-and-roll opportunities, just wing-post passes, just simple plays. Sometimes it was post to post. Most of the time it was guards to post but the amount of times that Omar and KJ and Jitoboh caught that thing, to put a little pressure on the defense was nice to see.”
Moving the ball from side to side is definitely good to see within the offense but it’s also clear that White wants to make their star graduate transfer Kerry Blackshear Jr., who is coming off of two straight double doubles, a focus.
“We’ve been stressing it all fall and I don’t know that we’re going to be a pound that thing inside every possession type team but we’re trying to get good at it and we’re trying to get good at driving it and we’re trying to get good at shooting it, drawing fouls, the whole thing.”
Even though Blackshear Jr. has been able to put some points on the board he hasn’t been particularly efficient in doing so quite yet as defenses have been loading up on him but it’s clear White wants to make sure he stays a key part of the offense without the Gators relying exclusively on the guards to score.
We don’t want to be one-dimensional. We’ve been one-dimensional for a while. As we go through this process we understand we’re going to take some lumps and there’s going to be some learning lessons. There’s going to continue to be some trial and error but I like the focus there of getting more paint touches.”