We’re well into the dog days of Summer and that means it’s time for another Gator Country subscriber mailbag!
One of the great elements of Gator Country is the ability to regularly hear from subscribers about the content they want, and mailbag series have become a regular part of the writing here. If you have a question you want answered, you can head to the message boards and post it now. There will be multiple parts of this series, so there is plenty of time to get your questions submitted.
This is part two of the series so if you haven’t yet read part two, you can do so here.
Here is part three:
GatorGolfer4: “What part of the game will this year’s team do better than last year’s?”
This might feel like a bit of a cop out, but the first thing that comes to mind is shoot the three. It also seems to be somewhat of a safe bet, just because it’s hard to imagine the Gators having another year where they shoot as poorly as they did last season, hitting 31.2% of their threes which ranked 315th nationally. The Gators graduated Xaivian Lee and his 29% stroke and he could be replaced with Denzel Aberdeen who shot 36%, and that would be a help right there.
Also, whether it be positive regression or improvement, the Gators will likely get better shooting from Alex Condon and Boogie Fland who shot 17% and 24%, numbers that still look so shocking they’re hard to believe. That could also lead to some improvement.
Domen Petrovic was a very good shooter in the Slovenian league and he will offer some efficient three-point shooting from the frontcourt that will really help as well.
PColaG8tr: “Which player from last year’s team do you see making the biggest improvement this year?”
I will log my official guess as Alex Lloyd. Coming out of high school I was a big believer in Lloyd and really expected him to play a role last year, and after that didn’t happen I guess I’m going to double down and suggest he could be the player that sees the biggest leap. I suppose coming off a year where he didn’t really play there is also the most room for improvement, as if he goes from only garbage time appearances to being a rotation player that would be a pretty sizable jump.
Lloyd is a very skilled ball handler who showed tremendous three-point shooting touch in high school, and if the Gators find themselves really needing more scoring punch he would be someone that could be looked at to provide.
The biggest reason Lloyd might not make a big leap is the crowded backcourt. He got squeezed out of an opportunity last year and it’s not like the room is any less crowded, and it could be even more crowded if AJ Brown ends up actually playing and competing for a spot.
My belief in Lloyd is definitely rooted more in liking the film before he got to Florida than there being a clear path, but I’ll take a bit of a risk here and see what happens.
GeauxGators05: “With all the talent we will have on the bench, it would appear we will go deeper into the bench this season in the rotation. Do you expect to see us using a full court press more frequently to wear other teams out and to create more turnovers?”
I don’t. I mentioned in a previous part of this series that there just aren’t that many high-major teams that really go all that deep in the bench even when their depth is celebrated, and the full court press is another area where many people speculate and then it just doesn’t happen. It’s so rare for high-major teams to full court press that it’s hard to predict from anyone, much less a coach like Golden who has never really full court pressed…
…however, I was stunned to see the Gators go to three quarter court pressure late in the season last year as that was something that Golden had never really done in his career. Florida even played a few possessions in zone! That is also something that Golden had never done.
Could this signal that the Gators are ready to try something different, and maybe extend their pressure full court? Could Bucky McMillan at Texas A&M doing it have intrigued Florida’s staff enough?
Maybe, but I’m guessing probably not. I wouldn’t expect it, but hey–we did see the extending pressure and zone last year which I would never have predicted.
WgbGator: “What is the plan if Zel cant play?”
If Denzel Aberdeen doesn’t get a waiver or the “five in five” isn’t passed, I am guessing Florida’s plan is likely to sue. If they didn’t get the waiver initially I do not see them winning in court either, though you never know these days.
I do not think the Gators magically have another transfer portal guard sitting in the wings ready to commit if Aberdeen isn’t there, as right now those players just don’t exist. They may have their eye on an international player, but if that’s an immediately impactful guy–he’s going to have unbelievable leverage and would likely cost the Gators a mountain of money. Though, at this point the cash in college basketball is nothing short of funny money, so who is even counting anymore.
MacBGator: “How much will Boogie improve in his role next year, can he be a go-to scorer?”
It is worth remembering that Boogie Fland entered college extremely young and last year in his second year he was really the age of a typical freshman, so his “sophomore leap” could actually come before his third year of action. Not only is he younger than people think, but he missed a considerable amount of action in his freshman year so he didn’t get the full experience there.
He definitely has some work to do in order to become a go-to scorer–you’d love to see him hit more threes for starters, but he also will need to improve his finishing at the rim. With his athleticism there are a good number of times he can get downhill and attack, and if he can scare the defense into really believing he’s going into there looking to score they’ll have to adjust and when that happens he can start spraying out to teammates and being more of an offensive creation hub.
People in college basketball media love predicting breakouts or improvements for players and it can be a challenge to do so accurately. I would expect improvements from Boogie, especially with shooting, but how much he improves is something that is really tough to say.
NorthernGator: “Backup forward position: Who do you see getting the most minutes and how big of a downgrade from Handlogten do you see this being? Could we potentially see Tommy slide to the 4, Condon to 5, and then Ingram (or someone else) subs in for Chinyelu to play the 3?”
There has been some talk around Gainesville that the Gators will play a little bit smaller this year. While there were a lot of benefits to the jumbo lineups, they fully realize they didn’t get the most out of Condon playing him at the 4, and they’d like to get him more minutes at the 5. They’d also like to get Haugh more at the 4 where he can have a big speed advantage in a lot of matchups. You were clearly on the ball with this assertion of some more Haugh and Condon frontcourts that you referenced.
I think incoming European Domen Petrovic will provide some good minutes in the backup 4 spot, and I think he’ll round out the frontcourt rotation of Haugh, Condon, Chinyelu (and Petrovic) on a lot of nights. He brings some excellent shooting that will be complimentary in just about any lineup, and he loves to move the ball with intelligence.
Handlogten did extremely well in the backup center role, but that just isn’t a super high leverage position and therefore I don’t see his departure as a massive issue. In fact, if it results in more minutes for Condon at the 5, which it looks like it will, the Gators might even be better off. That isn’t a slight to Handlogten’s game whatsoever, the fact of the matter is just that there wasn’t always benefits in Florida’s biggest games to having a pure size frontcourt without a lot of stretch or skill.
G8tr80: “Mikic – I’ve gone out on a limb with this guy. In your estimation, can he contribute?”
He’s okay. This question does tie in really well with the previous conversation about the frontcourt rotation where I, as you can see–did not mention Viktor Mikic.
Mikic finds himself in a bit of a tough position, where he’s a decent player, but he’s not good enough that the Gators were going to recruit with a rotation spot for him in mind–as you saw with Petrovic being added. Now, Petrovic is a very different player, but he also is much more complimentary to what Florida needs. Ultimately Mikic is best as a pure center on a team that has a lot of good options there. If something happened and he was needed to be the backup center I think he’d do adequately in that role, I just don’t see him usurping anyone ahead of him in the rotation.
Mikic is compensated well to be an active body in practice, and he is clearly embracing that position. Many players in his spot would have left to go get a bigger role elsewhere, and I think multiple teams would match the NIL he’s allotted, but he loves being at the highest level of the sport even if he’s not playing much.
That was part three of the mailbag. There will be more parts of the series coming, so you still have time to submit questions on the message boards.