Florida Basketball Cram Session

Written by James Brown, Gatorsfirst.com Co-Founder

After the high-scoring affair against the gamecocks on ESPN Tuesday night, the Florida Gators get a break in the action this weekend. I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity to throw out some generalizations about our team, and the season to date. 

Also, if you’re way more into football and recruiting, you may need a cheat sheet to get into basketball for the home stretch toward March Madness. So, consider this your '08-'09 Florida Basketball cram session.
 

Let me start of by saying our record indicates a fantastic start. The OOC losses to FSU and Syracuse are nothing to be ashamed of, and the South Carolina last second loss looks better by the week. The UT beating in Knoxville was somewhat expected, and the blowout win at Vandy was very impressive—regardless of their conference record. 

I realize we still have another date with the Vols, and two with Kentucky… along with road games at LSU and Mississippi State. We’re halfway through the conference schedule, but could end up losing five of the last eight. 

Which would put us on the bubble- a perceived ‘down year’ for the SEC means we need to get to double digit conference wins, and maybe even 11+. And not get embarrassed in the SEC Tournament again.

Another point to make is this year’s tendency to play a matchup zone defense, and to press a lot more than last year. Both of these things, I think, are Billy’s way of dealing with our team defensive issues—when you have an undersized guard that’s a defensive liability, and an unathletic point guard, you’re going to get beat on a lot of dribble-drives. 

Unless you set up in a zone and make another team shoot lights-out to beat you. The zone makes it possible to leave some extra bodies closer to the rim, and cut down the driving lanes for the opposition. 

The pressing is a gamble that we’ll get more turnovers than we allow easy buckets, which is a way of making our team play less defense. Playing less of our weakness and more of our strong suit (turnovers, or rebounds off of rushed, bad shots, that lead to transition baskets) has to be a good thing, right? 

Lastly, our lack of an enforcer-type post presence mean Billy D is taking the zone rebounding approach- try to get the defensive boards by putting more bodies closer to the basket, the drawback being the boxing out assignments aren’t as cut and dry as a man-to-man defense. 

You can easily see the games we get it, and the games we don’t. Offensive rebounds are about effort- and Alex Tyus and Chandler Parsons are quick, long, and athletic- but you’ll see a breakdown on the defensive end, because of this team’s shortcomings. 

Just look at the rebounding numbers from the victory over South Carolina.

Where else is there to start but with Nick Calathes? His second career triple-double (only the third in Gator history) came against Georgia last week. He’s played himself into the top five, nationally among point guards- and if he could actually jump and/or run, he’d be higher than some of the other guys. 

He has had some sequences where he is turnover-prone, but it’s hard to blame the guy. The loss against the Vols illustrates our inability to replace him on the offensive end- he only played nine minutes in the first half (foul trouble), which is a huge reason we were down 17 at halftime. At least we won the second half!

Going through the starting lineup, the next choice is Walter Hodge (‘the old man of the group’ and ‘the southpaw’- for those of you playing a drinking game, like I do with the commentators). 

I have written many times about my disappointment with Hodge. We have another undersized player- freshman Erving Walker- who is clearly a better all-around player than Hodge, even at this point in their respective careers. Hodge played a good role off the bench for the back-to-back championship teams, but is not a factor in extended minutes on the court. 

You forget he’s even out there, as often he doesn’t create his own shots, and is a defensive liability (you can blame his size, but opponents respect Walker more). 

Heck, if Jai Lucas stayed, he would have been starting over Hodge. Maybe Walker should to- we at gatorsfirst.com certainly like him, as our main basketball contributor has dubbed him the ‘Official Player of the Blog’ or OPOTB for short.

The single most controversial player in our starting lineup, among Gator fans, is Dan Werner. There are entire facebook groups devoted to stopping him from shooting threes. 

I don’t mind so much, as he usually has been the one player to put in a consistently high level of effort on the defensive end. He’s also a good passer, as are most of Donovan’s players this year, but his real contribution is on the other end of the floor- the end most of our team wishes just didn’t exist. 

Werner, over the last two years, has shown a willingness to mix it up with the other team, and to get involved in the more physical aspects of the game. If we had more post players with a presence, or more players that actually seem to care, we’d be better off- regardless of how bad you think his three-point shooting is.

Chandler Parsons has had an interesting year. Normally a good shooter, he has suffered from an almost season-long slump. Though his three-point prowess single-handedly took Vandy out of the blowout in Nashville, that sort of performance has been the exception this season. 

It’s really too bad he’s had the shooting woes (including missing the front end of 1-and-1 to allow the South Carolina buzzer beater), because I actually think he’s improved a lot on the other aspects of his game. He also gets a good number of offensive rebounds, but that’s based on effort, as I discussed earlier. 

He’s not great at boxing out yet, and at least some of that can be attributed to his thin frame. But his continued development is a necessity for this team, if we’re going to make any kind of a splash in March, we need Parsons to have some more huge games. 

He is a difficult matchup problem for opposing defenses and seems to be comfortable guarding the inbounds pass at the head of the press.

Alex Tyus has had some fantastic games so far. While he has some good post moves, and a great jump shot for face-the-basket offensive situations, he is really the beneficiary of the great passers on this team- specifically Nick Calathes. 

He runs the floor very well, and gets a lot of points on defensive breakdowns or in transition. While I like Tyus as a player, he would be better complemented by a bigger frontcourt mate, and think a lot of statistical success can be attributed to the fact that the starting center on our team is going to get a certain amount of opportunities just by our system. 

I think I’ve already talked about his athleticism, and I’m excited about his improvement, but it’s a little more tempered than a lot of the hype he was getting earlier this year.

Kenny Kadji has started a couple of games this season. The big postman from Cameroon (while not particularly thick) should grow into a great low-post presence for Billy D in years to come. 

This season, he has shown the freshman inconsistency- but flashes of brilliance which make me think a return by the Gators to the top of the mountain is just around the corner.

What more can I say about Erving Walker—I’m not convinced he’s 5'0", but that may just be the Raycom feed I’m stuck with out here in Texas—other than what I’ve already stated? He’s OPOTB. He should be starting over Hodge. 

In short stretches, he does a great job filling in for Calathes, though out of necessity our gameplan changes while he’s on the floor. He brings a defensive intensity and a spark of energy in this ‘relief pitcher’- type role. 

He also has a knack for creating his own shot, and a real knowledge of how to play that game. And he’s not intimidated by being the smallest man on the floor and seeing quality minutes as a freshman.

Ray Shipman is another member of the freshman class to play significant minutes this season. While at times he seems to lack confidence on the offensive end, his size and athleticism at guard could really benefit this team. 

I know it’s nothing original to talk about his defense, as that is all the recruitniks focused on from the time he committed to Billy D, but that has to be his focus for our team to rise to a new level.

His skill set is unique among the other members of our team, as I’ve already banged on our perimeter defense. And his offense doesn’t seem to be all that bad, I think he’s just lacking confidence and maybe a little more overwhelmed by the transition to SEC basketball.

Allan Chaney is another of Billy Donovan’s ‘three amigos’ front court freshmen. Okay, I made up the lame nickname. But I am nothing if not lame. I really, really like what I’ve seen out of Chaney. He seems to be a more physical player than the other inside guys, and seems to have a good understanding of his assignments. 

He’s been injured a few times, and is currently listed as out for two weeks, so his progress this year is a little behind schedule, but I am very excited for his future as a Gator. Lastly, my brother says the referees hate him, and he goes to all the games. 

And to think I used to feed those same refs Quizno's for a pregame meal!

Eloy Vargas is the last (I’m obligated to say ‘but not least’) of this year’s freshmen. He missed pretty much the first half of the season due to injury, and hasn’t played very much at all. 

I haven’t seen enough of him to pass judgment, but he was a highly rated recruit, and I trust Billy D will have him ready to go next year. Besides, Joakim Noah didn’t play much his freshman year, either…

Adam Allen I left for the end. It was announced this week he's going to redshirt this season due to injury. Hopefully he’s not a kid who gets lost in the shuffle, because with his shooting touch he could be a big matchup problem for other teams. 

Plus, last year, the Raycom guys kept getting him confused with Chandler Parsons, so maybe we can fool the defense.

We also have our set of walk-ons, Kyle McClanahan supposedly passed up the opportunity to play at other schools to walk-on at UF, but he doesn’t see much time. Hudson Fricke injured both wrists at once- and made Billy cry. 

Also on the bench is Vernon Macklin, a behemoth of a man and a Georgetown transfer that won’t be eligible until next season. Billy called him out a couple times in practice for not being physical enough, but he should lend even more help to our frontcourt problems.

My prediction for the season? Possible bye in the SEC tournament, but no SEC Championship. First weekend exit from the NCAAs. Anything more and this season is a smashing success.  But, like I said preseason, a beginning of a new streak, and certainly much more to build on for '09-'10 (not to mention Hodge finally graduating).

Any thoughts?

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