Is this team causing a lack of interest?

That's actually the best case scenario at this point so I marked your post optimistic.

 

Looks like a Nussmeir Offense

 

I am an older gator and I root for them no matter what. I watched many less talented Gator teams achieve to their fullest and was all in because they got the best from the talent we had. I love watching the gators compete to the best of their ability.

But I struggle with coaches who make millions and do not get (or give?) the best for the talent they have. I am not convinced White is or is not the guy but it seems he is not taking advantage of the talent on hand. The talent for the team seems to not be improving year over year, seems less than the sum of the parts, and does not seem to be producing a fun, aggressive team. That makes it hard to watch, even as a die hard Gator.

 

The problem is that a great opportunity has been squandered.
Before this season there was more excitement and interest in basketball than since Billy's NC teams.
We need that kind of buzz to compete with the blue bloods in the future. However I suspect no matter the outcome this year we have lost most of the fan base
and I can't say I blame them.
The product on the court is borderline unwatchable and most of our fans are football fans. We had a chance to change that dynamic but our brand of play is boring to most fans
especially the casual basketball ones. It's the same problem we had with our previous 2 football coaches and you know how that turned out.

 

I'll have to strongly disagree with you here. If they start winning regular and head toward a good postseason the fans will be there. It's the nature of the beast to declare gloom and doom when things are not going well.

 

When you have two McDonald's all-americans as incoming freshman and you get a preseason # 6 ranking it's hard not to be like down at this point.

The offense is borderline unwatchable. No movement no trespassing and too much dribble out top by a point guard.

Once again, we have too many guards and not enough big men inside. That has been a problem for almost a decade or so now. Not sure why. Also we only have one pure shooter and that doesn't bode well for a small team.

 

I'll continue to watch, but to be honest, I have not been enjoying watching this year. Took all my will power to not switch over to the local hockey game last night. Never thought I'd say that about Gator basketball...but there was a free chicken sandwich on the line

 

I can't get behind this. Agree to an extent about "true fans," but there's plenty of room to question the current regime and plenty of reason for waning hoops fan interest. This is not about haters. It's about how much patience the Gator fanbase has for mediocre, uninspired basketball. I don't doubt there are haters or "negators" and they deserve their own criticism. This thread, though, deserves consideration.
I'm a pretty dedicated Gator hoops fan - was an undergrad during the Sloan-DeVoe-Kruger era. I can't think of a Gator team that has been so deflating at this midseason stage. There's hope that they will flip a switch, but there are too many setbacks for that to be more than a dream. This Gator fan is becoming less and less interested by the game.

 

What we are really missing are some dogs. Scottie is the only dog we have on this team. Ques has some dog in him but he has no idea how to play team basketball yet. Noah plays D with some dog in him. Too many guys disappear for long stretches. MW doesn't seem to be able to bring out the dog in anyone. They either have it or they don't. How is a guy like KJ, with his athletic ability, not posterizing somebody at least once a game? With that body he should be steamrolling through guys like Grant Williams did last year.

 

Absolutely agree w your point about "dogs." That's exactly what we need. I remember the talented but soft teams we had in the early 2000s. Saw the incoming class of 04s and it looked like we had some dogs coming in. Authentic toughness. And yes they were. Dog-tastic

 

Based on the last few seasons' results at UF, Mike White's forte seems to be defense. If he can just get this team to play much better defense from start to finish, it could help Florida in the long run in winning more games than not. The Missouri loss was another unfortunate set-back on the road. UF's road record is now 1-3 and that has to get corrected. In order for Florida to have a better chance at winning, the defense needs to clamp down on teams and not let games get so out of hand like the Missouri/Alabama games.

The offense seems to be coming around; however, Mike White still has to manage his line-ups much better in order to get the most out of this team. There can't be so many scoring droughts or the other team getting on so many runs offensively.

Florida still has many upcoming high profile games coming up (many of them in the O'Dome where UF has been 5-1): Ole Miss, an undefeated #5 Auburn, at LSU and #4 Baylor.

If Florida can get on a little mini-winning streak here and defeat two top 5/10 teams then that could be the beginning of a huge turn around. We might also see Florida's band-wagon picking up more steam (people) again. However, it will need to start with playing defense in addition to playing a well-rounded overall game.

 

100% this team has killed interest. I’m 31 and a diehard Gator basketball fan. I can remember most every single big win or loss since I was 10 and some before that. But this team has me DVR’ing games and just enjoying my family time. I never would have dreamed of doing that in the past. But this team isn’t fun to watch. Doesn’t play with much passion (minus Scottie). The offense has gotten tons better for sure though. Just not sure they will ever put it all together.

 

It's been bad for me as I seem to always tune into the games that are horrible. I will continue to "care" but I agree with some of the comments here that our players don't seem to be tough enough. Hype can be a dangerous thing so I don't envy the coaching challenge here. I'll give Mike White a pass here and probably another year or more. But the hype had me stoked and that makes this year pretty hard to stomach. This is going to be seen as a ridiculous understatement but I don't see the leadership out on the court. We're not going to consistently get it from a sophomore.

 

Fixed it for you.....
Has this team caused the lack of interest?

 

Exactly.

Yup. Mike White isn't even a bad coach. It's the players who are underperforming. He can't make them hit shots. It's all about talent. I've been on championship teams with horrible coaches, but the players were so good, it didn't matter. I've had great coaches with bad players and we couldn't win a game. People overrate our players and then get upset with the coach. Mike White is a very good coach.

 

The anecdotal evidence is fascinating, but is there any hard statistical evidence that attendance at games is suffering?

And, the talk (perceptions) about how terrible we are offensively and defensively is not exactly supported by our rankings (objective statistical information) in such things as Kenpom.

 

This response echoes my own sentiment.

 

A "true fan" of this team is called a player's parents or coaches' wives. Maybe.

 

I’m pretty similar to 33. I used to watch every game and my mood on any given day was largely tied to how we did in basketball (much to my wife’s annoyance). It wasn’t about good or bad teams either. I posted here during the Calathes years and the Kenny Boynton years just as much as the Wilbekin and 04 years.
But now it’s a combo of two things.....it’s harder to watch games because I have two young kids and a busy job and, quite frankly, we are boring to watch. I was able to watch the entire South Carolina game, but honestly forgot what time the Missouri game was and then didn’t even feel bad that I missed it once I saw the score.
This year I had planned for it to be my first trip to the SEC championship tournament. Now? Seems like a lot of money to spend on this product.
The arguments remind me of the Muschamp/Mac years in that there is definitely a difference between losing and being exciting and losing and being boring. Ultimately, basketball is entertaining and our product isn’t very entertaining.

 

Honestly at this point the recruiting has been a double edged sword. On one hand, love that we’re getting talent and we should be able to build something off them with the right staff. On the other hand it is causing us to drag out the discussion on what to do with CMW.

One interesting thought on your comment though (fans not having a choice...which you could interpret to mean average fans don’t have influence)...MSU used social media analytics to understand the fan perception of Leach and other candidates recently. In other words, do the fans have a favorable opinion of the candidate or not? It makes me wonder if bigger programs like Florida already have tools to keep a pulse on social media and opinions of current coaches? I know we’re football first but CMW is getting roasted by the fanbase right now and though Stricklin intuitively knows this and sees this, I wonder if he had a macro view of the overall perception? Might be something to watch in future years. Not that doing what fans want is the only concern of an AD but it’s definitely an important data point.