Observations from the Basketball game vs Florida

I am by no way a basketball expert. Far from it. Never coached it or played it. With that said:

1.Sword is a big time player. Incredible hustle, effort. Needs some help. He was one of the few that could match up against Floridas giants. They are huge.
2. Gavin busted his butt. I think the bigs for Fl wore him out.
3. FTF has got to get his shot down. Open for several 3 and missed.
4. Ready has a great 10-12 ft jumper. I wish he would shoot more.
5. The student section was all in. The season ticket holders not good. Very little enthusiasm from them.
6. Our number 25 ..can't remember his name, tried to hold his own.. Nice touch around the basket, they just didn't fall. I like his game though.

Florida is freaking huge. # 4 should go into WWF. How we hung in so long is a testament to how hard these guys play.

All in all my daughter and I had a blast..RR is a darn fine coach..

You can't really get a feel for how much bigger, stronger, and more mature Florida is than we are right now unless you see it live and in person. My seats weren't great, but the size disparity was still very obvious and alarming. I have no idea if it's a strength and conditioning issue or if Florida is just older, but it really looked like children playing against grown men.

We played hard, but were simply overmatched. There's not much more you can say about it.

And where in the hell were all the season ticket holders? The students were there, but the rest of the stadium was only halfway filled. We were playing the damn #3 team in the country and people didn't show up- really embarrassing.

Size has been an issue with us ever since Gordon and Rhodes left.

Been saying that about Sword for a while now. He's got unbelievable talent getting to the rim, but a lot of people just want to hate on his shot. You can't have it all these days, or else you don't play more than 1 year of college basketball.

Agree on all points. Flat Top struggling mightily is really hurting us. IJ needs more offense run through him, mainly him shooting. If we can't get entry passes to Ware in the paint, and if the team keeps Sword from driving to the rim, we are in big trouble. Roc Johnson is doing a good job, but like you said, cannot finish around the rim. He is due to miss one dunk per game it seems. Attendance is abysmal, but that was expected with expectations of this team and their performance last year. I think that a lot of our hoops fans were attending because we were winning. I don't believe that we ever had very large crowds in the past 30 years when we were having down years. Most of the non-football fans focus has been placed on baseball. I expect very large crowds in baseball this year. The administration understand the shift in money being received in hoops over the next few years from ticket sales/attendance and they are pushing that towards the Dudy Noble renovation. Ray needs to continue to recruit and develop talent. He is doing that. The crowds will come back when they believe that we can compete to make the NCAA's. The average basketball fan probably cannot see the improvement that we have made this year. I know that a lot of my friends are always bitching about basketball because they look at just the results. It's just the way it is.

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Originally Posted by messageboardsuperhero

You can't really get a feel for how much bigger, stronger, and more mature Florida is than we are right now unless you see it live and in person. My seats weren't great, but the size disparity was still very obvious and alarming. I have no idea if it's a strength and conditioning issue or if Florida is just older, but it really looked like children playing against grown men.

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They have better athletes- but experience was also a big factor. They made a big deal pregame about how Florida had all these Sr's this season- and how that gave them a big advantage over other teams- but especially a young team like State. Our guys will continue to mature physically

People have got to realize that we started 3 Sophs and a true Freshman last night against the #3 team in the nation. And held our own for the most part- they were just a better basketball team.

Next year? We'll start 4 Jr's and a Soph with only 1 Sr coming off the bench (provided Shooter Cunningham finally gets pushed to the end of the bench with a full team).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by messageboardsuperhero

You can't really get a feel for how much bigger, stronger, and more mature Florida is than we are right now unless you see it live and in person. My seats weren't great, but the size disparity was still very obvious and alarming. I have no idea if it's a strength and conditioning issue or if Florida is just older, but it really looked like children playing against grown men.

We played hard, but were simply overmatched. There's not much more you can say about it.

And where in the hell were all the season ticket holders? The students were there, but the rest of the stadium was only halfway filled. We were playing the damn #3 team in the country and people didn't show up- really embarrassing.

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We were on the 4th row mid court and let me tell you they were huge.

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Originally Posted by Drugdog

We were on the 4th row mid court and let me tell you they were huge.

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Patric was HUGE!!!

I was shocked they went 8-19 from the stripe.. Normally a good FT shooting team

Don't forget about Borchert, he was our leading scorer last night. Without him we have several more losses.