By Eric Fawcett
First of all, happy Thanksgiving, friends!
This is a great time to be with family, enjoy some great food, and spend some time on the television watching a simply incredible sports calendar!
For the Gators, they have a quick break until Sunday where they’ll play Troy, a nice follow-up to their time at Fort Myers taking on a couple of high majors.
This is a time to speak on what you’re thankful for, and today (and everyday) I am thankful for the opportunity to write for people like you. So thank you to everyone who reads and engages with my work, and thank you to the great folks at Gator Country for giving me the opportunity!
Here are a few quick thoughts on Florida basketball, and I’ll try to keep it brief because I know you have plenty to do today!
The Ohio State game featured some of Mike White’s best coaching.
Of course Tyree Appleby’s winner will rightfully get most of the publicity, but the bucket to tie the game was pretty special too. It was the lob to Anthony Duruji that he slammed home with authority.
Earlier in the half, White ran two similar dribble drive plays (right out of the Nate Oats Alabama playbook, I’ll add) and then with a minute left, what does he do? He calls a counter, this lob play to Duruji. Here is a link to the play on Twitter, a link you’ll have to click.
Mike White had an absolutely brilliant play call to tie the game. After running the same dribble drive gap play twice earlier in the second half (shown in the quote tweet) in the final minute he runs a counter to it that’s a lob to Anthony Duruji. Really, really good coaching. https://t.co/wyvN1UQF5l pic.twitter.com/7D5dKuR0kG
— Eric Fawcett (@Efawcett7) November 25, 2021
That’s really great coaching. I know Mike White hasn’t always been great as a coach on the offensive end, and he still isn’t, but in this instance he did something absolutely brilliant, and he deserves full credit.
I also love that he didn’t call a timeout when Myreon Jones got the rebound before pushing the ball up to Appleby for the eventual winner. Calling a timeout in that situation means you have to go the length of the floor against a set defense, something that is very tough to do. That Appleby shot was probably a better look than anything the Gators could have got after a timeout, so it ended up working really well.
You know a team is good when they can win on a night they aren’t playing their best basketball.
That’s what we saw against Ohio State–a Gators team that was really fighting it offensively and honestly didn’t have much of an answer to Ohio State’s post-centric offense. They just continued to scrap and claw, and they came away with a win on a night where they shot poorly from everywhere and couldn’t keep EJ Liddell or Zed Key from scoring on the block.
Defense doesn’t really slump, so if the Gators keep up that intensity… they’re not likely to have many off nights.
Florida might be at their best when CJ Felder plays a bigger role.
Felder finally started to look healthy against California and wow, did the Gators look good with him on the floor. Mind you, the Gators already looked great defensively, but when they added Felder…wow. I mean, let’s remember he was guarding 7’1” centers on the block, and then when the Gators went and scored on the other end he spearheaded the full court press and hung with guards in the open floor.
On a team with a lot of incredible defenders…he very well could be the best.
Felder also added two three-pointers on the offensive end, though I’m not sure if the Gators can bank on that kind of shooting. His stroke doesn’t look great yet, but clearly there are times where he’ll still be able to guide a few in.
Even if he isn’t bringing shooting, he’s a tremendous defender and a well above-average rebounder and the Gators looked great with him on the floor healthy.
Is Elijah Kennedy ahead of Niels Lane on the depth chart? It looks like it.
Mike White has gone to Elijah Kennedy before Niels Lane (and Kowacie Reeves, for that matter) and that’s something that is definitely a surprise to me and many others who expected him to be seldom-used and maybe even redshirt.
First of all, his heightened role speaks to his quality as a player right away. In high school he had a reputation as a shooter, and we have seen those skills on display already. What I didn’t expect was for him to be such a confident and capable ball handler, and it looks like he’s going to provide a lot more value on the offensive end than simply as a spot up shooter.
I will say, while Kennedy deserves plenty of credit for carving out a role, it also speaks to how Lane has struggled and how Reeves is yet to establish himself. Lane has been fighting it on the offensive end whenever he gets the ball, and Reeves hasn’t yet earned a regular enough shift for us to really see what he can bring.
Florida’s rotation has largely been set, but there still could be an interesting battle for some bench wing minutes around Kennedy, Lane, and Reeves, and right now Kennedy looks to be in the lead.
That’s all folks, enjoy your weekend!