#1 Goes Down
Kansas edges Florida in the first great game of the season -- the first on TV, anyway. Forgive me for ignoring the Great Alaska Championship, and focusing this whole post on this terrific contest.
1. Kansas' frontcourt outplayed it's more highly-regarded opposition. I was extremely impressed with both Julian Wright and Darrell Arthur.
I've seen Wright before, of course, and had been skeptical of his ability to play 3. I'm not sure if Wright is technically playing 3 (an injury to Sasha Kaun and the dismissal of C.J. Giles has left Kansas thin up front), but he certainly played like a 3 Saturday night. He showed a nice touch out to about 17 feet, the ability to drive to the basket (and to finish more ferociously than anyone I've seen so far this year), and he also threw at least two beautiful, no-look passes that even the best point guards would have been proud of. I'm not sure he can hit the triple, but it's hard to find other flaws in his game.
Arthur played a critical role in getting Joakim Noah and Al Horford in foul trouble. He and Wright outworked the Gator pair, who were notorious for their work ethic last year. Most impressive about the freshman, however, was the poise he showed on the free throw line down the stretch, hitting four in regulation and another pair in overtime.
2. Florida's backcourt, then, kept the Gators in the game. When the first half ended, Florida had been so thoroughly outplayed that I was stunned to see that Kansas was only up six. All of that credit goes to Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey, who had 10 points apiece. Green kept it up in the second half, while Humphrey came alive in the overtime. Without those two, there wouldn't have even been an overtime.
It is encouraging for Gators fans to see that their team can stay above water with guys like Noah, Horford, and Brewer struggling (in the case of Saturday night, all three sat for large portions of the first half due to foul trouble). But what's concerning is how unbalanced Florida looked. There were large sections of the game, as noted, where the perimeter players carried them. And there were short stretches where the post players were the ones scoring points. But -- and it surely is a bit of selective memory, though accurate enough to validate my point -- I can remember only one or two instances where a perimeter bucket was followed by one on the interior, or vice versa. This kind of versatility on offense -- the ability to score inside and outside -- is only good if both facets can work together in concert.
3. The game was marred, if only very slightly, by a few big mistakes from a couple key players down the stretch. Wright was brilliant all night, but his obvious, violent foul on Brewer's drive up four with ten seconds or so remaining was just inexcusable. On the other end of the court, Green nailed a three to put UF up 80-77 with just over a minute left in OT, but after a KU bucket, he dribbled diagonally across the halfcourt with no real purpose, eventually losing the ball to Wright. And finally, down 1 with just under ten seconds to play, the Gators let more than four seconds run off the clock before sending Robinson to the line. They had a chance for a quick foul in the backcourt, and didn't take it.
This is November, though. It's likely this kind of mental mistake will go away by the end of the season.
(And 1) This is just a minor point, but with 14 minutes to go in regulation and Florida down a half dozen or so, Billy Donovan chose to insert both Horford and Noah back in the game, with three fouls each. Neither player had been particularly effective and it's not as if Kansas was on a huge run, so it would have been more prudent, in my opinion, to play one and leave the other on the bench, with that much time remaining. A fourth foul to both -- even though they were struggling -- with more than a quarter of the game remaining would have been deadly for the Gators. Donovan has the luxury of a deep frontcourt, and I don't think he used it well in this situation. It didn't come back to bite them, but it might have.
1. Kansas' frontcourt outplayed it's more highly-regarded opposition. I was extremely impressed with both Julian Wright and Darrell Arthur.
I've seen Wright before, of course, and had been skeptical of his ability to play 3. I'm not sure if Wright is technically playing 3 (an injury to Sasha Kaun and the dismissal of C.J. Giles has left Kansas thin up front), but he certainly played like a 3 Saturday night. He showed a nice touch out to about 17 feet, the ability to drive to the basket (and to finish more ferociously than anyone I've seen so far this year), and he also threw at least two beautiful, no-look passes that even the best point guards would have been proud of. I'm not sure he can hit the triple, but it's hard to find other flaws in his game.
Arthur played a critical role in getting Joakim Noah and Al Horford in foul trouble. He and Wright outworked the Gator pair, who were notorious for their work ethic last year. Most impressive about the freshman, however, was the poise he showed on the free throw line down the stretch, hitting four in regulation and another pair in overtime.
2. Florida's backcourt, then, kept the Gators in the game. When the first half ended, Florida had been so thoroughly outplayed that I was stunned to see that Kansas was only up six. All of that credit goes to Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey, who had 10 points apiece. Green kept it up in the second half, while Humphrey came alive in the overtime. Without those two, there wouldn't have even been an overtime.
It is encouraging for Gators fans to see that their team can stay above water with guys like Noah, Horford, and Brewer struggling (in the case of Saturday night, all three sat for large portions of the first half due to foul trouble). But what's concerning is how unbalanced Florida looked. There were large sections of the game, as noted, where the perimeter players carried them. And there were short stretches where the post players were the ones scoring points. But -- and it surely is a bit of selective memory, though accurate enough to validate my point -- I can remember only one or two instances where a perimeter bucket was followed by one on the interior, or vice versa. This kind of versatility on offense -- the ability to score inside and outside -- is only good if both facets can work together in concert.
3. The game was marred, if only very slightly, by a few big mistakes from a couple key players down the stretch. Wright was brilliant all night, but his obvious, violent foul on Brewer's drive up four with ten seconds or so remaining was just inexcusable. On the other end of the court, Green nailed a three to put UF up 80-77 with just over a minute left in OT, but after a KU bucket, he dribbled diagonally across the halfcourt with no real purpose, eventually losing the ball to Wright. And finally, down 1 with just under ten seconds to play, the Gators let more than four seconds run off the clock before sending Robinson to the line. They had a chance for a quick foul in the backcourt, and didn't take it.
This is November, though. It's likely this kind of mental mistake will go away by the end of the season.
(And 1) This is just a minor point, but with 14 minutes to go in regulation and Florida down a half dozen or so, Billy Donovan chose to insert both Horford and Noah back in the game, with three fouls each. Neither player had been particularly effective and it's not as if Kansas was on a huge run, so it would have been more prudent, in my opinion, to play one and leave the other on the bench, with that much time remaining. A fourth foul to both -- even though they were struggling -- with more than a quarter of the game remaining would have been deadly for the Gators. Donovan has the luxury of a deep frontcourt, and I don't think he used it well in this situation. It didn't come back to bite them, but it might have.
posted by H.S. Slam, Ph.D at 2:08 PM
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