Men vs Florida Game Thread

[Jaxr29 65]

We need to let Okoro run Point Forward and surround him with our best shooters 

[tgrogan21 6,198]

Just now, Jaxr29 said:

We need to let Okoro run Point Forward and surround him with our best shooters 

... Do we even have 4 good shooters on this team?

[jared52 4,354]

1 minute ago, AUTigersfan89 said:

We'll be fine, we just need to figure out how to make our players more effective. The talent is there, but it is not being utilized correctly at the moment against SEC play. We needed to be humbled a bit, and that has certainly happened the last two games. J'von will learn that he needs to not try and do so much scoring inside, Samir needs to simplify his game as well. I expect to see more plays with Austin and Okoro.

I don’t like what I heard from Bruce about not watching much game film with the team from the uat game. He can’t shield them from the pathetic effort they gave in that game. Doing so showed even worse today vs  UF. Yes, they will be “fine” but there’s zero excuse for missing the dance this year. I do agree this team is going through the same phase last year’s team did but it feel worse because we already know how that turned out. I’m confident Bruce will figure something out but this is going on 4 weeks now, it’s just that they have hit teams that can match them athletically. 

[AUTigersfan89 256]

2 minutes ago, Jaxr29 said:

We need to let Okoro run Point Forward and surround him with our best shooters 

You could be on to something. With Okoro's maturity, I could see him being that guy that can draw defenders and know what to do with the ball. Right now, it looks like Samir and J'von struggle with that. They can draw defenders inside, but try and finish with these really acrobatic layups that don't go in.

[tgrogan21 6,198]

3 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

My few suggestions:

1. Stay with DP on the bench. He looked better there. The only other adjustment you can make there is either benching Wiley and trying to maximize the spacing by moving mac to the 5, but then you'd bench your most consistent and impressive player for a hope. That rarely goes well.

2. Give Jaylin Williams most of DC's minutes. DC had a good start granted, but he kills the spacing with his kiddy league shot form and he can't finish unless it's a dunk.  He also gives you at least one dumb foul/turnover a game. At least try Jaylin

3. try super sizing the lineups at times and move Okoro up to the 2 guard? I feel like when you have these droughts where one of Jvon/Doughty isnt hitting, you need to start getting creative to remedy that

Can't agree more with your second point. You and I have both been high on Jaylin (granted you were high on him earlier than I was). I think Monday, Pearl needs to come in and let the team know that ALL positions are open again. Don't care if you're a senior, don't care if you were highly recruited in high school. Maybe knowing their starting spot isn't secure will light a fire under EVERY one. Wiley needs to be in the gym working tireless on his post game because his touch has gotten worse over the season. 

[PigskinPat 2,562]

Next game, I would have Samir coming in off the bench. I don’t know what is going on with him, but he has been ineffective and a liability lately.

[Altima 200]

first off... this team just isn’t that good.

our lack off presence in the paint is glaring.  in seasons past, it was masked by solid shooting from the perimeter.  bruce needs to hit the trail and recruit some bigs!!! now!!! 

but in all seriousness, in my mind, this was a rebuilding year.  daughty is the ONLY reliable minutes we had returning.  i’ve watched austin since he was in high school... the potential is there, but he’s not that good.  mccormick is nowhere near as good as jared was.  mclemore has experience, but he’s a skinny center... it is what it is.  danjel is the definition of streaky, at best.  besides okoro, our freshman are pretty bad.

this will take a great coaching job by bruce to keep this thing together.  with the start we had, barring an epic collapse, we’re still a tournament team... but it’ll take a few years before we can legitimately make a run.

we need to finish the season 22-8 or 21-9 to be a ncaa lock.

we’ll see...

[tgrogan21 6,198]

4 minutes ago, Jaxr29 said:

We need to let Okoro run Point Forward and surround him with our best shooters 

This is something that I've said in the game thread. I am more comfortable with Okoro running the point than I am with Doughty.

[SCTiger2011 1,277]

1 minute ago, GwillMac6 said:

Keep in perspective. Mizzou last Saturday beat Florida at home by 16. Then Mizzou turned around and lost by 30 at home to miss St. Such is life in college basketball.

I'll borrow a phrase from the football program here.  It's not so much that we lost, but how we lost.  Home/road discrepancies aside, making 29% of shots taken in the past two games is a red flag.  The guard play hasn't looked even close to average.  That said, we probably shouldn't hold this team to last year's team standards.  Very few people expected any banner additions this season, and it seems to be beginning to play out toward that direction after the fortunate schedule and hot start.  3 straight NCAA tournament teams continues to strengthen the program reputation regardless of how frustrating the rest of this season may (will?) be.

[PigskinPat 2,562]

Just saw where St. John’s played today. Mustapha had 18 points. We sure could have used him today.

[GwillMac6 20,601]

 

[NoALtiger 3,849]

14 minutes ago, PigskinPat said:

Just saw where St. John’s played today. Mustapha had 18 points. We sure could have used him today.

We’ve missed him ever since he left. Can you imagine having him as an another option after Chuma went down last year? Could have been a big difference maker. He was and still is a big loss for us. 

[GwillMac6 20,601]

 

[Altima 200]

make no mistake... auburn is playing AWFUL right now.  that’s the bad/sad part...

for the good news... with as horrid as we are playing, we’re kept it within 6 pts with 8 mins to go... then proceeded to miss 2 straight shots at the rim.  in turn, they knocked down 2 three’s.  and bam!!! game over!

same as last wednesday... we cut it to 4 pts with 10 minutes to go.  i mean we were letting the air out of coleman coliseum... while playing terrible!  

put it this way, if we finish just a handful of those shots at the rim (in both games) it changes those games completely.

don’t get me wrong we’re not near as good as last year... but, unless these guys totally prove me wrong, i truly don’t think we’re as bad as our last 2 performances.

again, we shall see...

 

[TigerTennis80 343]

I actually thought we played pretty well in first half except that shots wouldn't fall. Defense and rebounding were good. FT shooting was stellar. The second half was a different story. Defensive breakdowns, poor rebounding, and still couldn't shoot. Hard to understand playing so much worse in that half. No mental toughness? Loss of composure? No leadership? Really disappointing. If we'd lost playing like we did in the first half I'd be frustrated by our shooting but not disappointed. 

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

I'm not a basketball expert but it might be time to try something different at guard. J'Von and Samir were... not good this week. 

[tigers23 643]

This is a case where loyalty cost Bruce. Instead of going out and getting a PG, he said JM had earned it with his play. Paying for it big time now.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

49 minutes ago, tgrogan21 said:

... Do we even have 4 good shooters on this team?

I think we have some decent shooters on the bench. Guys like Williams and Johnson need to play more. Sad to say i saw this coming after the Bama game. Florida is much better than Bama. Going to be interesting how we respond but Bruce is going to have to change up the rotation or starting lineup to get better shooting on the floor. 

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

Purifoy and Ike need to be more aggressive. And Purifoy needs to stop thinking he's our 3 point specialist and start using his size and drive the dang ball or post up more. We need to build out our bench too. Give those younger guys more minutes to see if they can handle it.  

[GwillMac6 20,601]

3 minutes ago, tigers23 said:

This is a case where loyalty cost Bruce. Instead of going out and getting a PG, he said JM had earned it with his play. Paying for it big time now.

He tried getting one. Tucker wouldn't bite. The plan always was for Jared to hand the baton to coooop. Our success last year changed that plan.

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

31 minutes ago, NoALtiger said:

We’ve missed him ever since he left. Can you imagine having him as an another option after Chuma went down last year? Could have been a big difference maker. He was and still is a big loss for us. 

I'd rather had Harper to return over Heron possibly still being here. Heron is a solid player but if this team had a good PG we'd be just fine. 

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

4 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

He tried getting one. Tucker wouldn't bite. The plan always was for Jared to hand the baton to coooop. Our success last year changed that plan.

Coop would be killing it if he was on this years team. Man. Him with Wiley and Ike...Geesh that would've been nice to see.

[GwillMac6 20,601]

11 minutes ago, WarEagle1983 said:

I'd rather had Harper to return over Heron possibly still being here. Heron is a solid player but if this team had a good PG we'd be just fine. 

This this this!!!! Could you imagine a senior year Harper!? He is the main person we absolutely could not afford to lose. He was our closer. He was our run stopper. He was our run starter. He made our team go. One of the greatest to ever wear that orange and blue. I hope him and Bryce have their numbers retired together.

[AUDynasty 585]

One thing to keep in mind with this slump... we’re a work in progress. We were 18-9 at one point last year before we finally figured it out.

I’m not saying we’re going to duplicate the same success this year around but given the volatile unpredictability of this year’s college basketball, anything really can happen.

I appreciate this kind of frustration and struggle as compared to Barbee years. Sure, it’s painful but I know no one takes more pain than this year’s crew. We’re going to be okay. Not pretty but it can be enough to win here and there for a good run. In Bruce I believe!

[Kaiiu 62]

Oregon getting blown out by Washington. Just college basketball.