Bill Koss on Florida Gators basketball struggles

As the handwringing within the Gator basketball nation reaches rafter heights- Bill Koss watches, listens and ponders.

The former Gator player, one-time assistant coach and longtime analyst does as tasked — he analyzes. But even Koss, who has truly seen it all, offers caveat to any explanation for Florida’s almost inexplicable fall from grace, and its assured fall from its lofty ranking.

“Hey, I’m like you,” he says. “I’m trying to figure this out too”.

Florida’s recent 3-game skid — one that began with a late swoon against Duke, and culminated with a near wire-to-wire homes loss to Loyola Chicago — is hard to figure.

But that won’t stop Koss from trying. Nor will it stop me from asking.

So what has happened?

“Well, when you lose – your deficiencies become more glaring,” Koss begins.

And even in the best of times, Florida’s defense hasn’t …. well, it hasn’t been the best.

Far from it.

“When we look back on this early season, and look at some of the games — Gardner Webb, Stanford, Gonzaga — and how many points we gave up, it tells you something,” he reveals. “We gave up 27 more points to Gardner Webb than did Wright State. And that’s true for other games we won.”

Yet Florida won. And so perhaps those shortcomings were masked or hidden from fans, though certainly not the coaches.

“The other deficiencies are glaring right now, none of which are surprising to my staff or I,” Coach Mike White said after Wednesday’s loss—sentiments identical to those of Koss.

They saw it– before inferior opponents piled points, and not-so-inferior ones tacked on a few L’s.

“We are just not really physical as a group, and you can see that in the overall body build of the team,” Koss says. “Our backcourt is really small, and we don’t have the physicality inside”.

The team is not going to get bigger, at least not until John Egbunu returns, but White has repeatedly implored it to get tougher—something Koss feels it needs to embrace.

“When Mike says they are ‘soft’, I think he is saying they are trying to win with finesse rather than really contesting,” he says. “Those guys are trying hard, but that’s a real challenge”.

And that is the mystery behind it all. Florida does seem to be trying, and White actually lauded his team’s effort following its most recent defeat.

But is it trying too hard?

Koss thinks so.

“All of these players individually want to score right now, but only because they want to win so badly,” Koss says. “They are thinking, ‘how can I do something?’, and then put the ball on the floor. We are trying to do way too much off the dribble to affect the outcome of a possession”.

So what should Florida do? What was it doing a mere two weeks ago when the offense looked so lethal?

Koss barks out his suggestion as if back on the sidelines.

“Cut, move, pass. Cut, move, pass!”

And just as quickly as Chiozza in the open court, the conversation with Koss shifts enitely from defense to offense.

“Look, Florida needs to score to win games,” Koss says. “I think we know by now that it absolutely has to score well.”

A Florida that had been pressing tempo is now pressing too hard to score. And that, according to Koss, has yield less scoring, and a statistical anomaly the likes of which he cannot recall.

“The loss to Loyola was the most statistically ironic game I have ever seen Florida play,” Koss says. “We won all of these battles — offensive rebounds (18-7), turnovers (7-14), free throw attempts (14-9), field goal attempts (65-50), points off turnovers (21-8), fast break points (14-4), bench scoring (23-11). We won every statistical battle and lost the game”.

How?

“We didn’t have a single player score in double figures,” he laments. “Not one”.

That is unfathomable for an offense once humming as nation’s highest point-producer and one loaded with four double-digit scorers and array of shooters.

And though all shooters miss at times — sometimes for extended time — the sight of Egor Koulechov hoisting clunkers has fans rubbing their eyes with those mystical 3-point goggles.

“We are not used to seeing Egor miss, but I looked back at statistics during his career — and he has had some rough slumps,” Koss says, while rattling off figures . “But even with those, he shot 47% from the arc a year ago – so it won’t last”.

Certainly Florida’s shooting is slumping, nullifying — or even reversing— its greatest strength. The Gators shot a putrid, combined 8-44 from the arc during its losses to Florida State and Loyola. That’s a shocking 18% from a team that had been converting at 46% clip.

But is the solution as simple as shooting? Maybe, but something looks different. Fans swear Florida has slowed its game, but Koss argues otherwise.

“No, I don’t see that,” he counters. “What I do see is opposing defenses slowing Florida”.

With game film to review, opposition is more thoroughly   scouting Florida — and learning some nuances.

“I think teams see we haven’t been getting offensive production from the paint,” he says. “And our passes out are coming off dribble drives. But teams seem to be waiting on the pass from Chiozza when he drives because his size maybe makes him less of a factor at the rim. Allen and Hudson maybe need to be more aggressive there”.

But contrary to appearances, and popular opinion, Koss says this is the same offense Florida ran teams off the court with a mere two weeks ago. But the combination of teams defending it better, and Florida not executing has made it look so different.

“I’ve spoken a lot about the schematics of our offense, and the freedom of it,” he says. “But that freedom requires guys to move without the ball, cut, pass and make good decisions. We haven’t been doing that, and teams are making it harder.”

But what about the zone — why can’t we effectively play against a zone?
“I don’t know if that is true. We’ve shot pretty well against all defenses until real recently,” Koss reminds. “But you have to move a zone — you have to make it stretch and shift by reversing the basketball. Again, I think we have had too much dribbling and not enough movement”.

Cut. Pass. Move.

And make some shots.

Koss believes the latter is bound to happen.

“Shooters are going to go through a drought, but it’s all of them having it at the same time. It’s crazy,” he says.

This drought in “Rainesville” has left Florida fans thirsting for victory. But Koss offers reason for optimism.

“I really see us going up there surprising people against Cincinnatti,” he predicts. “I’m still very encouraged that Florida will use these experiences and be a really good team as the year goes along”.

So whether by insight or optimism, Koss is calling for rain and wins