In anticipation of Florida basketball’s season starting shortly I reached out to the Gator Country community for questions they had about the team. I already did one article answering some of the questions from our Gator Country users but since there were so many outstanding questions I knew this was going to turn into a multiple part series.
If you haven’t yet read part one, you can do that here.
If you have a question you’d like to have answered you can head to the message boards and post it there.
Here’s part two of the Gator Country Preaseason Q&A:
Can Golden coach guys to do a better job of rebounding? How does he do that?
67walkon
I love where your head is at because the Gators have done a horrible job of rebounding the ball defensively ranking 333rd and 275th in the country the last two seasons. There is nothing more devastating to a defense than locking down for a possession–only to give up an easy putback on an offensive rebound.
You will be happy to hear that Golden’s San Francisco teams were outstanding on the defensive glass ranking 33rd, 52nd, and 33rd in his three years there.
How did he accomplish that? A few ways. For starters, he liked to play big lineups. The Dons often had two true bigs on the floor at one time, and while floor spacing may have occasionally taken a hit, the rewards were massive. Being a top defensive rebounding team not only limits the extra possessions your opponent has but allows you to outlet the ball and get on the fast break quickly turning defense into offense. Clearly the benefits of playing big outweighed the negatives and if Golden were to bring that defensive rebounding excellence to Florida it would be a huge boost.
Contrast that with Florida who has primarily played 6’5” shooting guard/small forwards at the four over the last several years, and it’s clear that personnel decisions can play a pretty big role in how a team rebounds.
Another element that helped Golden’s teams rebound the ball is the fact that they were 16th in the country in opponent three-pointers against, meaning they excelled at limiting these shots from their opponents. Long shots make for erratic rebounds so the more threes you give up, the harder it is to defensive rebound. I can guarantee you that Golden’s “no threes” defense will make it’s way to Florida as well and it should have a major effect on the Gators’ defensive rebounding.
What do you foresee being our strengths and weaknesses for this season? We all know that Colin Castleton will probably lead us in scoring and rebound, does he have all-American potential? Who will be our 2nd leading scorer or the most impactful for the team? I apologize if there is too many questions!
Jcmiller910
I appreciate the enthusiasm and all the questions!
The biggest strength of this team is the length and athleticism. Adding Will Richard, Alex Fudge, and Riley Kugel the 2-4 rotation alongside Kowacie Reeves and Niels Lane (who I’m expecting big leaps from) makes this lineup infinitely more versatile and switchy than the Gators have been in recent years and it will make them able to match up with the SEC in a positive way. Florida should have a lot more rim pressure, be more disruptive defensively, and much better on the glass than recent years and just be generally hard to play against.
In terms of a weakness, I am a bit worried about individual offensive creation. The Gators don’t have a lot of guys who can create a shot for themselves or go one on one and break down a defense and late in close games you really need those styles of players to win ball games. Will someone emerge? Potentially. But if I have to say a weakness right now, I think it’s that the Gators lack a bit of offensive electricity.
Let me be clear about my feelings about Colin Castleton–I love the guy. I love his intensity and I love the way he cares equally (or maybe even more?) about defense and blocking shots as he does about scoring. He will be one of the most productive players in the country and he has proven his consistency for two years and isn’t someone who has off nights.
However–it’s tough for me to imagine him being an All-American. Firstly, it’s not common players make huge leaps from year 4-5 when they have the opportunity–players in college often are what they are in years 3 or 4 so I don’t really expect there to be a huge leap from year 4 to 5. There isn’t anything wrong with that, again, I’ll reiterate–Colin is an awesome player who has been consistently awesome–I’m just not sure I see another leap that puts him into All-American consideration. What hurts his ability to be an All-American is also the fact that there are so many incredible big men in the country making it tough to stand out as a center, especially when the other great big men like Drew Timme and Oscar Tshiebwe are on top-5 teams in the country. If Castleton is going to get in that mix, the Gators will probably need to be a consensus top-10 team, and perhaps even more like consensus top-5.
To the last question–if I had to make a guess, give me Kowacie Reeves. I was so high on his scoring ability out of high school and while we didn’t see him do it a ton as a freshman the shot creation and shot making ability is definitely in there and with a newfound confidence and a lot of added bulk he is someone I’m expecting a big leap from.
With Bonham and Aberdeen having solid Fall camps do you think the staff passes on a 23 H.S. PG?
Donnell
First of all, shoutout to you Donnell. You are one of the Gator Country members that makes the site and the basketball message boards so incredible with the tireless work you do with recruiting. Salute to you, my friend.
I like where your head is at–I don’t think the Gators take a ‘23 point guard. Part of the reason is truly that I don’t think Golden and his staff are looking for high school recruits that aren’t certified studs, and right now they are pretty late to get involved with ‘23 players and most of their focus is on ‘24.
Of course, as you mentioned, Bonham and Aberdeen having great camps really helps, and Florida could feel comfortable at that position. And if they don’t, they’ll probably make another run at a veteran point guard in the portal. Even with Bonham and Aberdeen having great camps…that could still be the case. It feels like every team in the country wants a 5th year point guard and even if Bonham is excellent this year I wouldn’t be shocked to see Golden still try to land whoever the best ball handler on the transfer market is.
I am then expecting the Gators to land a big-name point guard for the 2024 class.
With Coach Todd Golden’s use of analytics, what strategies do you see us using that run against the “historically accepted coaching methods”?
OklahomaGator
Let me also cheers you, OklahomaGator, for your work as a moderator on the boards. Appreciate you!
I love this question and could go on for a very long time about all the ways that Golden is going to fly in the face of convention with his use of analytics. This will be something I almost certainly will write about many times throughout the year so I won’t get into everything now, but I will focus on one this he does that’s going to shock people if they don’t expect it.
Golden is going to intentionally foul at times that some fans will be horrified to see at first glance. For starters, when up by 2 in the last possession at the end of a game.
Yes, you read that correctly. Not down by 2 when you need to get the ball back, that’s not what I said. Not up by 3 when you don’t want a team to have a chance to tie, nope (I mean, he will foul than as well). He will foul when his team is up by 2 points.
First reading that, you might be extremely puzzled. Let’s break it down.
When you’re up by 2 and your opponent has the ball with the opportunity for the last shot they could tie, or win the game, or of course miss a shot and lose. By fouling, Golden takes control back of the game. At worst, the free throw shooter will make both and the game will be tied–but Golden’s team now has the ball back. If the free throw shooter misses, they lose. But it’s very hard for Golden’s team to lose in regulation with this strategy.
There are a lot of numbers to back up this strategy, but I thought I’d keep it relaxed by just explaining it here.
You’ll also see Golden fouling at the end of the first half to get the ball back if the opponent has it with under 30 seconds left. If you don’t foul, the opponent has the opportunity to get a bucket on the last shot, and you have no opportunities to score. If you foul, your opponent has the chance to get 1 or 2 points, but you get the ball back with the chance to score 2 or 3. The value gained by the first half fouling strategy is marginal, but it’s a fairly low-risk proposition.
Of course in either of these fouling scenarios you’d ideally foul a poor free throw shooter and that will be the goal, but Golden’s teams will foul even good free throw shooters in the end of game scenario.
I’m sure some of you reading this will have your head spinning and think this concept is ridiculous and there might be some growing pains, I get that. But it’s definitely the one strategy I had to point out as one that is very, very different than what most teams in the country would do.
That’s part two of the series, and I thank everyone who submitted questions! If you posted question on the message board and it hasn’t been answered yet, don’t worry–more parts are coming!
If you want to have a question answered and you’re not yet a Gator Country member this is an excellent time to join with an exciting Florida basketball season about to begin.