Amazingly, we won the NCAAT without once playing our best basketball. But I agree with the poster that said we shouldn't EXPECT to repeat. Winning a tournament of 68 good-to-great teams is extremely hard.
Barring some big injury, I'll set my expectations at Elite 8. Sweet 16 I could accept, but with disappointment. Final 4 means things lined up well and we have a shot.
There are press interviews with Urban and C.J. up now on floridagators.com. Good stuff. Urban looks like he's slimmed up a bit although he's stronger after a full summer of training. He's working hard on his defense. He also says he doesn't know of any guards quicker than Boogie and Xaivian. C.J. looks like a beast already.
In 2001, 02, 03, 04 and 05 we had some really good teams that didn't make it out of the first weekend.
Agreed. The tourney is fluky. The regular season is a bit less so, so I think a top 2 seed would be a good goal. Then play hard and hope for some good luck in the matchups and on the court in March.
Exactly. It's a crapshoot. Even two years ago, Micah goes down and we lose first round to a team that lost the next game.
People undervalued Micah in a big way. He led the SEC that season in rebounds per minute, and it wasn't close. Even in the SECT championship, he had three rebounds in the first two minutes. One was on the play he broke his leg.
I'm just glad that Gator basketball is now back in the discussion for SEC and NCAA titles. Mike White had us as a consistently good team, but never a real SEC threat. And even though they made it to the Big Dance almost every year, except for that run early in his career with Donovan's players, we were never truly a national title threat. Todd Golden has got us back in the hunt, where we should be on a regular basis. I don't want to start looking ahead, but his next real challenge will be keeping us there after this upcoming season because we're going to be losing a ton of talent.
Gators 08 and 09 were NIT level teams for Billy D. It is going to be hard to sustain a high level after nearly all of our rotation leaves.
Very true. But look how fast Golden built the team into a title contender. I'll be interested to see how he goes about trying to do it again after this season. I mean we had 3 of our starters from last year drafted by the NBA. He did have a quality group coming back and added to that with 2 quality high school recruits and several elite portal guys.
Each season Florida has one or two secret, preseason games before the opener. Anyone know who they might be this year and when?
The landscape of basketball rostering (did I just invent a word?) is vastly different now from what it was in '08 and '09. Back then, BD essentially had to rebuild with high school recruiting after our top players had finished their college careers. Now, you can sign experienced, high-quality players immediately. Still, expecting a string of titles is just silly. That said, CTG has us on the cusp of becoming a lasting blueblood.
While you are correct, it is a drastically different landscape with the transfer portal. 3-5 impact transfers can overhaul a team real quick in basketball. Especially where you are a championship level program with a great young and fun coach to play for…
Illinois and I forgot the other one. Illinois Basketball to Scrimmage Reigning National Champions: Why It Matters
