Oof…that one really hurt.
If you’re not sure of what I’m talking about, well, maybe that’s a good thing. On Tuesday night the Gators went into Tuscaloosa and got absolutely hammered by the Crimson Tide in a game the Gators looked overmatched on both sides of the floor.
On Wednesday morning the team was back to the drawing board to pick up the pieces, and here on Thursday morning they’ll be figuring out a game plan on how to make things look a lot better for their game Saturday against the rival Kentucky Wildcats.
After a tough loss, and looking towards a big game, here are some of my thoughts.
What does Tuesday’s blowout loss tell us about the Gators?
Whenever a team gets blasted you always have to ask–was it a one-off bad performance, or an indication of some bigger problems?
Let’s start with the basics–Alabama dominated the Gators, and they did it without one of their best players in Jahvon Quinerly. That stings.
One of the reasons the Gators lost the game was the fact that they shot only 37% at the rim, a dismal number. Whenever they caught the ball near the hoop they looked timid and scared of Alabama’s length and even when a shot attempt wasn’t blocked it was often an awkward attempt by a Gator who seemed worried about getting it deflected.
Obviously finishing around the rim now appears to be a problem for the Gators but at the same time, it might indicate this game was a bit of an anomaly. The national average for finishing around the rim hovers around 53%, and going into Tuesday’s game the Gators were slightly above that. So, for the Gators to shoot 37% around the rim against an Alabama team that is good, but not great at defending there? It might just have been a bit of an anomaly and a rough night for the Gators. Florida hit 45% of their threes which will win you a game on most nights, and even if they shoot lower than that but bring their finishing around the rim to somewhere around a league average level they’ll be in pretty good shape.
One thing that Tuesday’s game DID confirm was that the Gators are not built to be a great defensive team.
Let’s just rip off the bandaid here and get right to the point.
The Gators simply don’t have enough great individual defenders to be a great defensive team.
Alabama’s entire game plan was to pick on individual matchups and go one on one, and they did that really effectively when they got a big man on smaller players like Noah Locke or Tyree Appleby or when they got a smaller player guarded by Colin Castleton or Omar Payne.
For the Gators, that was unfortunate. However, it wasn’t the most concerning thing. What was really concerning was that Alabama had players staring down Scottie Lewis and Anthony Duruji, thought to be Florida’s best defenders, and taking them one on one with ease.
Tre Mann is not an elite defender. Nor is Noah Locke or Tyree Appleby. Scottie Lewis has a reputation as a great defender, but he is not one, and neither is Anthony Duruji. Omar Payne and Colin Castleton also won’t find themselves at the top level of any defensive ranking.
I don’t even say that to disparage these players. In fact, I would say each of those players is an adequate defender, with the exception of Tyree Appleby whose size is a limiting factor.
However, 5 adequate defenders on the floor at once doesn’t make a team great defensively, it makes them adequate. The Gators likely have a ceiling as a good defensive team, but imagining them ever being great is difficult when you see they simply don’t have great defenders.
Defensive rebounding appears to be a program issue under Mike White.
Alabama, who is a good but not great offensive rebounding team, hammered the Gators for 15 offensive rebounds on Tuesday and that was one of the biggest reasons the Crimson Tide came away with the win.
Sadly, this can’t be too surprising for a Florida team that has spent 5 seasons struggling on the defensive glass. Last season the Gators reached their high point in defensive rebounding efficiency in the Mike White era at 150th in the country. Their average rank under White has been 218th. So, struggling to defensive rebound isn’t at all shocking for them.
Sure, there were times the Gators were undersized with Omar Payne at the center position and when the Gators put three guards in the game but even when they were at their biggest with Anthony Duruji at the four and Colin Castleton at the five they weren’t able to secure enough defensive rebounds.
One of the problems that contributed to this was the fact that the Gators love to switch and that meant they often had their smalls on Alabama’s bigs. When a shot went up, that obviously meant the Gators were at some level of disadvantage on the defensive boards.
When you look at the best teams in college basketball, they control the glass. Florida hasn’t been able to do that at much more than a mediocre level even when they’re at their best. Additionally, the Gators want to be able to play fast and get out and run but if they can’t get a defensive rebound they aren’t going to be able to play in transition.
This was just one of a few problems we’re seeing with the Gators, and considering how Florida has struggled to rebound all throughout the Mike White era it’s tough to see how there could be many improvements this year.
On the brighter side, the Gators have two tremendous shot makers.
Tre Mann is showing game after game that he’s one of the best shot makers in the country, and even though he had some tough moments the last two games his ability to make tough shots has remained and that is something the Gators have needed dearly over the last couple of seasons.
Tyree Appleby was Florida’s most productive offensive player with 18 points off the bench, and he showed he is capable of creating space even against bigger, more athletic wings.
Against LSU the game was close and the team with the better shot makers (Florida) won.
Against Alabama, the Gators didn’t keep it close enough to where it could get to the point where the best shotmakers would win out.
These two players bring offensive electricity that will become more and more valuable later in games when defenses tighten up and refs swallow their whistles, so keep that in mind as the Gators move through the rest of the SEC season.
Kentucky is bad, but that won’t make beating them any less sweet.
If you haven’t heard, Kentucky is looking awful so far this season. They’re 3-6, but their only non-conference win came against Morehead State before they went winless the rest of the way. They are 2-0 in the SEC, but their first win came against a lowly Mississippi State team in double overtime, and their second win came against Vanderbilt by three and the Commodores had a three to tie it at the buzzer go halfway down the hoop before spilling out. Props to the Wildcats for gritting out some tough wins, but man, this is just not that good a Kentucky team.
They’re relying on Davion Mintz, a transfer from Creighton who was a good, but not great Big East player and Jacob Toppin, a mediocre Atlantic 10 player who, quite frankly, was only picked up by Calipari from Rhode Island because his brother was Obi Toppin.
Florida desperately needs this game. Yes, Kentucky is going to be across their chests, but this is no Kentucky team we’ve come to know.
The Gators will desperately want to write the ship after the sour taste in their mouth from Tuesday, and Kentucky will give a great opportunity to do that.
That’s all for this week, see you next Thursday and go Gators!