My thoughts on UF basketball the last year

Golden has a blueprint that will almost certainly be copied across the country: double bigs, veteran transfer guards, roster continuity, freshmen with international experience or physically ready to play (as opposed to high dollar 5* or more developmental recruits), emphasis on offensive rebounding and shot volume. Proven path to a quick turnaround.

 

GatorCountry, can you please deep-six these GD clickbait ads? You know the ones...

 

They basically said they can't/won't fix it. I've had the issue twice while using safari on my phone, never on my tablet or laptop. Using a better browser or ad blocker will fix it on your end. Brave works well for me.

 

Brave is the best. Highly recommend to anyone.

 

I’m pretty certain also that we held them to their lowest scoring game of their season; we locked them down late as we were making our furious come back. It was one hell of an effort in the final game of the season - our team deserved to win by their indomitable will, perseverance and tenacity. I have enlarged photos of Martin’s two dunks against Auburn on my wall in my man room. I had gotten away from displaying UF memorabilia as it got out of hand but these had to be displayed. My wife loves them too!

 

Stating the success factors does not make it replicable easily, at UF year over year, much less at other places with different coaches/staffs.

 

True. Bu

True. But, if he coaches with this methodology, he surely knows how to beat it too. The key is getting his team to perform like he wants and with high energy and effort. I’m excited about next season!

 

Yep. Very underestimated. Will be interesting to see how he evolves with age. Lots of younger coaches are young grinders who don't grow into elder statesmen well, the way Mike K, Billy D, Izzo, and some others have.

 

Billy D and Steve Spurrier were constantly tweaking their approach and coming up with new wrinkles as teams learned more about how to defend them. I expect Golden to tweak things over the course of years.

 

Switch your phone browser default to duck duck go or Google.

 

Another thing that makes this season so special is how outstanding college hoops was. Last year of super seniors meant a different level of experience, not to mention NIL money was building solid rosters everywhere. I believe 4 of the 9 highest rated teams in the 25+ years of KenPom. SEC was the best conference in 30 years. And we somehow only lost 4 games, got a 1-seed, and won the SECs and the NCAAs on an insane hot streak (won 10 of last 11 and 16 of last 17), despite being outside the top 25 to start the season.

 

Dog

 

It is a bit of luck but it did produce the same top 4 teams in the final four that everyone thought were the best four teams. I think the biggest thing about the tournament is that it finds your weaknesses. If you have some, they will get exposed. This team had very few.

 

I think we were a Sweet 16 team last year too if not for Micah’s injury. Don’t forget that we were hot in the SECT last year as well, and we pounded Auburn earlier in the season - you never know , but we had a lot of bad luck in that last week…..

 

I liked our chances too. I figured it would take a stellar offensive effort from an opposing team to knock us out of the Tourney, and that, unfortunately, is what happened in the first round. It still took a pushoff and a lucky bounce/kind rim to keep it from going to overtime.

 

Just watched the end of that game. Haugh with 2 FTs to ice it.

And Aberdeen inexplicably fouling at mid-court with 6 seconds left.

 

The team had plenty of issues, at least in the short-term, but it was tough as hell. That to me was the difference between us, Houston, and the rest. I am not that invested in watching old games...yet...mainly because the games are mainly wash, rinse, and repeat. Make it look dire and then...make some moves that ends in a win. It is kind of difficult watching that "thriller movie" from the beginning to the end and feel what I did when I watched it in real time.

But I DO like to watch the last say 5 minutes of the NC game. That was crazy good...for the UF fans. What it also did, IMO, was play the same game as the semi-final between Houston and Duke. The less-tough team just could not fathom how they lost the game. Truly a great season/tourney for the basketball purists (college level) and not the sportscast highlights types. And we can say we are at the top of the mountain!

 

I’ve watched the ending of the NC
Game at least 150 times since April. I’ve studied what each of our guys did. I’ve studied what each of their guys did. I still have no idea WTF the Houston guys were doing. The last guy who had the ball right before Sharpe actually crossed mid court and was expecting Clayton to go on a fast break when Condon passed him the ball with 0.01 secs left. Zero situational awareness. All 5 Houston guys just became lifeless manequins the moment Sharpe dropped the ball not to travel.

 

The only persistent issue that I could give credence to was the turnovers but that seemed to be really just the last few games of the tournament. This team had size, scoring, defense, cohesion, good guard play…all the things you need to win it. They were also mentally tough. They could play up tempo and run with anyone and win a grind it out physical game like they did with Houston.