Hello everyone!
I’m writing this mere moments after Florida’s season was ended, getting blasted at home by UCF which was not a good look whatsoever. It dropped the Gators to 16-17 on the year, a losing mark which quite frankly, seems deserved after such a disappointing year.
This will likely be the final newsletter for the season, though I might jump in to talk about offseason happenings when the time comes. If you’ve been a loyal reader, I deeply thank you! And if you’re a casual, I’m thankful for you too!
Let’s get into it.
This was the least enjoyable Florida basketball team I have ever watched.
In fairness, the first time I ever watched Florida basketball was in 2006–so I have been pretty spoiled to follow the team in a century where they have been pretty good.
Last year wasn’t fun, nor was Billy Donovan’s last season. You can add in Mike White’s first year at Florida where they were rebuilding and missed the tournament.
But let me be very clear, I enjoyed watching those teams a whole lot more than this year’s Gators.
After the loss to UCF the Gators are now 140th in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency and I don’t think that number does justice to just how bad this team was offensively. They ran a bad offense, and they didn’t run it well. When they did create a shot, they couldn’t hit one. What makes it so frustrating is the fact that the Gators have a lot of quality offensive players, but they were let down big time by the offensive scheme.
Defensively the Gators put together a great six weeks in conference play, but over the sample size of the entire season you saw a whole lot of dud games on that side of the floor as well.
Yes, Florida’s record was 16-17 which isn’t terrible but when you look at who the Gators beat–it was largely their easiest games of the non-conference season and the bottom four teams in the SEC. Adding to the lack of enjoyment watching this team was the fact that they seemed hardly capable of beating any quality opponents, and watching them scrape by the basement of the SEC wasn’t particularly fun.
Believe me, I wish this team was still playing games and competing, but I have to say–this was a very aesthetically displeasing season.
I think we have seen the last of Riley Kugel.
When asked about whether he’d return to Florida after the game Wednesday he said he didn’t have an answer at this time which is a completely reasonable mindset to have. I think that he has shown enough that an NBA team will give him an opportunity, and that seems to be the best option for him at the moment.
Florida will try to pitch him on returning for another year to try and work his way into the conversation for a first round pick, but I’m not sure the smart money would be on him doing that as opposed to simply going pro now.
The Gators shouldn’t have played in the NIT.
If you are a regular on the Full Court Press forum at Gator Country you will know that I said I was hearing that the Gators would NOT play in the NIT. That was based on the fact that a majority of the players said they didn’t want to take part in it.
Coach Golden wanted to play in it, so despite knowing that the players weren’t interested, he accepted the invitation.
If you watched the game on Wednesday it was very apparent that most of these players had no interest in playing in that game, and they played against a UCF team that was far more interested in being there. It led to a blowout loss at home for the Gators, something that finishes the season on a sour note.
It brings up an interesting discussion about who should have final say regarding whether or not a team will play in the NIT. This was a clear example of a staff wanting to play in the NIT and the players having no interest–and I think the on-court product on Wednesday spoke for itself when it comes to whether or not the Gators should have played.
While I don’t think the Gators should have played in the NIT, I really respect that Golden wanted to be in it.
There were no questions in Coach Golden’s mind, he was going to play in the NIT. I disagree with going against what your players want to do, but I respect the reasoning behind the decision.
“As long as I’m at Florida, we’re going to compete.”
That was Golden in a press conference after saying the Gators would go to the NIT, and I love the mindset. I love that he wasn’t too proud to go to the NIT, and I love that he didn’t want to just get to recruiting when the SEC Tournament ended–he wanted to keep playing games.
It’s clear the Gators have a coach that loves basketball and loves to coach. Let’s hope that passion leads him to finding an offense that works in the offseason.
Thanks for reading everyone. Go Gators!