Archive for the ‘Basketball (M)’ Category

Coach Donovan talks about offensive struggles

Posted by admin on December 24th, 2010   No Comment

Head coach Billy Donovan and the No. 20 Florida Gators have faced several games this year where turnovers and poor shooting resulted into either a loss or a victory that wasn’t by much. This week is a perfect example.

Florida, who was upset by Jacksonville earlier this week had 17 turnovers and shot 35 percent from the field. Well Wednesday was a little different but not a whole lot. The Gators did edge past Radford but they still had way too many turnovers (16) and shot 40 percent from the floor. They made ill-advised passes and couldn’t shoot worth a lick. Games like those are not going to get you far when the tournament comes around, unless they are trying to shoot for the N.I.T again.

“We’ve got to get better at valuing the ball”, coach Donovan said at a press conference.

Looking at the Gators three losses, the Ohio State game was in they’re hands and could of been won but the Buckeyes fought harder overall. Especially in the paint in the second half. On top of that Ohio State is a very good ball club, ranked No. 5 in the country isn’t that bad.

The UCF games in Orlando should have been won. Yeah the Knights are still undefeated and may have the pair of Jordan’s, but that game should of not turned out like it did. The Gators made two out of their thirteen three-point attempts, while just shooting over .500 at the free throw line. And the big one that hurt again… TURNOVERS. Florida had 14 while UCF only had 7. At the college level you should not be turning the ball over fourteen to fifteen times a game, yes that’s the average in high school but this is division I college ball.

And I don’t even have to talk about the Jacksonville game. Everybody knows why they got beat on they’re own home floor. Also if you look at the close wins Florida survived, those could of easily been turned into losses. If your aiming to play in the big dance this year you can’t be beating teams like Morehead State and FAU by six and ten points.

Florida is going to have to start playing like they are capable of playing. Averaging 14.2 turnovers per contest is just not going to cut it. Right now they are ranked 174th of 345 Divison-I schools in turnover average. They can’t keep waiting to play when ever they want. Florida will host Fairfield (8-3) on Dec. 28th and that’s another team who is looking to come into their house and put up a fight. Don’t let the name fool you. Right after that they have to face Xavier and Ole Miss then that is when the SEC play starts up. January 11 they will travel to Tennessee for the first SEC game of the season. All the way to March 5 is strictly SEC games. That is why Billy needs to make sure they all get their acts together right now.

Here is a short video where coach Billy Donovan talks about the Gators turnovers and what they struggle from.


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Florida edges past Radford, despite offensive miscues

Posted by admin on December 23rd, 2010   No Comment

Erving Walker’s 20 points and 5 three pointers edged the No. 19 (9-3) Florida Gators past the (2-9) Radford Highlanders on Wednesday night, 66-55.

The Gators found a way to bounce back from a big home loss against Jacksonville the other night and were fortunate enough to avoid from falling in the rankings.

“It’s definitely frustrating and we’re not going to win at the level we want to win at scoring 40, 50, 60 points,” Chandler Parsons said. “We’ve just got to keep shooting the ball with confidence and just keep trying to get the best shot. Obviously we have guys that can score. We’ve just got to start making some shots.”

Turnovers killed the Gators last night. Absolutely hurt them. Florida had 16 turnovers last night and 35 in the previous two games. Shooting was also a factor early in the game until the second half when Walker found a groove. Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton struggled the whole night with his shot until the last little bit of the game when he sunk a pair of threes. They don’t have any pure shooters like they had with Humphrey a few years back, but when they are on its game over. Radford shot fifty percent from the floor while Florida shot around forty percent.

“The turnovers are a major problem,” Donovan said. “It’s a major, major problem, and it’s not getting corrected and it’s not getting fixed. I think they’re conscientious of it. I’m not sure how good of a passing and feel team we are.”

Coach Donovan sat Walker on the bench after a horrible alley-oop pass that shouldn’t of been made. Will Yeguete tried a ill-advised behind the back pass down low and was immediately yanked from the game by Donovan. As soon as Yeguete came to the bench I heard Donovan say, “Are you out of your mind”?

Besides early poor shooting and turnovers, Florida missed 10 free throws. The Gators finished 11-21 from the charity stripe.

The Gators started out with a 9-0 lead early and then opened up a double-digit lead in the second half and just started to pull away from there. Radform kept it close but couldn’t get the lead under 10.

Chandler Parsons finished up with nine points, eight rebounds and five assists. Senior Alex Tyus scored eight points and five boards, Boynton had 11 points and four assists.

The Gators are back in action in Gainesville as they host Farfield on December 28. Tipoff is at 7:00pm.

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Florida falls to Jacksonville in OT, 71-68

Posted by admin on December 20th, 2010   No Comment

Gainesville, FL.- Terrible defense and poor shooting cost the No. 19 Florida Gators (8-3) a huge upsetting loss to Jacksonville University (7-3) at home earlier today.

This is the first time the Dolphins defeated the Gators since 1994, and it sure was not a game you would of enjoyed watching. Head coach Billy Donovan said it was the worst game he had been apart of the past 15 years of coaching at Florida, and I agree with coach Donovan one hundred percent. It was horrible.

Florida played one of their best games so far against Kansas State on Saturday and they turn around on Monday like they have never played college basketball before. I’m not trying to stay negative but they didn’t do anything right. Poor defense. Poor shooting. Poor passing. I can go on and on. But don’t get me wrong, Jacksonville has some talent and they played hard but this game had no business turning out like it did.

“We were totally ripe to be beat,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m not sure we could have beat anybody tonight. And that’s not taking anything away from Jacksonville, because their kids did a great job.”

The Gators went into their locker room at halftime trailing by two. I thought for sure they would of came out during the second half with some kind of fire… Intensity… something. But they didn’t. They were dead the whole entire game. You could tell that Jacksonville was fired up, the bench was into the game just as much as the five guys on the floor.

Florida had a small little run going during the second half but it just didn’t phase the Dolphins from fighting back. Florida also had a golden opportunity to go ahead at the end of the second half but they used poor clock management and got off a bad shot instead of trying to go to the basket with more time on the clock so it resulted into overtime.

Delwan Graham made a couple baskets that were huge late in the game and Keith McDougald stepped up big, sinking the one-and-one with about 30 ticks to go that put them up 69-66. Florida responded with a two pointer that narrowed the score down to 1 but McDougald sunk two more free throws with 17 seconds left that put the game away.

“He was very, very confident,” coach Cliff Warren said. “He talked about it in the huddle, ‘I’m going to make the free throws, Coach. Just get me open.’ Very confident.”

Erving Walker led the Gators with 21 points and teammates Vernon Macklin (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Alex Tyus (10 points, 11 rebounds) both finished with double-doubles.

The Gators are back in action this Wednesday as they host Radford at home starting at 7:00pm.

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Billy Donovan press conference

Posted by admin on December 16th, 2010   No Comment

Florida Gator basketball head coach Billy Donovan talks about his players Kenny Boynton and Vernon Macklin. Coach Donovan also discusses about the upcoming game on Saturday against No. 5 Kansas State that will take place at 3:00pm in Sunrise, FL.

(Video credit by Doug Finger)

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Gators start to share the ball

Posted by Calvin McDermid on December 9th, 2010   No Comment

Gainesville, FL – After an ugly first half struggle the Florida Gators turned it on and finished beating Kent State 65-52. While the Gators had an ugly first half, Vernon Macklin did not. Macklin lead the Gators scoring in double figures and dominating the paint and kept Florida in the game until a late first half run. Then in the second half Alex Tyus went on a tear with several thunderous dunks and finishing with twenty points and five rebounds.

While Florida dominated the paint they continued to struggle from the outside going 3-16 (18%). Kenny Boynton as well struggled, just going 3-12 from the field and only seven points and missing some very wide open shots. One bright spot was the play of Scottie Wilbekin’s play throughout the game. When in the game Wilbekin directed the offense very well and showed a great deal of hustle going after loose balls.

Billy Donovan over the last week and a half has preached sharing the basketball more and improving the team’s assist-turnover ratio. The Gators definitely showed a great amount of effort in that department and better overall offensive execution. Florida finished with 11 assists and seemed much more focused on getting better shots. While the assist numbers improved the Gators had 11 turnovers and wasted quite a few offensive possessions and fast break opportunities.

With Florida traveling down to Sunrise, FL to play #5 Kansas State this Saturday, it was nice to see some offensive improvement. That being said, it appears this basketball team must continue to focus if they want to upset K-State this weekend.

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Florida holds off late rally in Tally, 55-51

Posted by admin on November 28th, 2010   No Comment

Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton scored 14 points while teammate Erik Murphy put up 10 points that led the No. 14 Florida Gators (5-1) past the Seminoles 55-51 in Tallahassee Sunday night.

Florida State (5-1) sophomore guard Michael Snaer drained a three pointer with 50 seconds left that cut the lead down to 53-51 right before Erik Murphy’s put back with 16 seconds left that sealed the deal for the Gators. Snaer finished the game with 15 points for the Seminoles.

Florida State struggled from the field, shooting 33 percent on the night while their leading scorer Chris Singleton only shot 2 of 12 which really makes a huge difference in the game.

Free throws were huge for the Gators tonight. Florida made 17 of 25 from the charity stripe while the Seminoles were limited to only six points from the line. The Gators also out rebounded the Seminoles 35-31.

Tonight was the Seminoles first real test and they will get another one on Tuesday as they host the Ohio State Buckeyes in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Buckeyes dominated the Gators in Gainesville 93-75 back on November 16. If Florida State can get Singleton to find a way to make some shots and produce better team shooting, I believe they could get past Ohio State. They also can’t give up the paint like Florida. They just got demolished.

The Gators are back in action on Dec 1 as they take on former Gator coach Donnie Jones and the UCF Knights in Orlando at 7:00pm ET.

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Gators fall to Buckeyes, 95-73

Posted by admin on November 17th, 2010   No Comment

For those of you who thought Ohio State (2-0) wouldn’t bring anything to Gainesville because of Evan Turner is gone, you thought wrong. I mean I myself would of thought that Florida would of had a way better shot to pull this one out with out the All-American guard, but with the Gators (1-1) second half performance I don’t think they could of pulled it off by any top 25 team.

Buckeyes forward Jared Sullinger dominated the paint while teammate David Lighty was stroking from outside which led them past Florida in a dominating win 95-73 on Tuesday night. Ohio State went from a small lead to a quick double-digit lead in just minutes that sent the majority of the fans home early. It was crazy.

“Ohio State has a better chance of being a better team this year than they did a year ago,” Donovan said. “Evan Turner’s a great player, the player of the year in the country and they won 29 games and did a great job.

The Gators seem to struggle with their shooting so far this season. It’s only two games into the season but when are they going to get that together? Their defense was horrible also. Both teams to be honest. Ohio State just played better on offense. Florida shot 61 percent from the field and 43 percent from beyond the arc.

It was an exciting and intense first half. The Gators went into halftime with a three point lead but who knows what happened behind closed doors in the Ohio State locker room that had to fire them up. Ohio State sunk 24 of their 24 shots and broke Florida’s press like it was nothing. They would break the press, Florida wouldn’t help out on defense and it would end up turning into an easy bucket or dunk which we saw a lot of.

Sullinger straight dominated Tyus and Macklin in the paint. He finished the game with 13 of 17 shooting and 10 rebounds, five of those were offensive. Almost every time Sullinger would get the ball down low, he would turn it into an easy layup or throw down. Nobody could stop him.

“He had a great demeanor coming in here,” Matta said. “He knew he was going to have to play well for us to have a chance to win.”

The only other negative sign from Ohio State I seen was poor free throw shooting. They had a ton of three point play opportunities but failed to capitalized but it really didn’t matter looking at the final score. I’m sure coach Matta will address their poor free throw shooting during the next practice.

Parsons finished the game with 13 points and seven boards. Erving Walker put up 15 points but had seven turnovers. But as a good guard your going to make turnovers. Macklin had 12 points and five boards.

The Gators are back in action on Thursday as they host North Carolina A&T (0-2) at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL. Tip-off is at 7:00 PM ET.

(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

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Gators cruise past UNC Wilmington, 77-60

Posted by admin on November 12th, 2010   No Comment

The No. 9 Florida Gators opened up their season with a 77-60 victory over UNC Wilmington on Friday night in Gainesville.

The Gators were led by senior Chandler Parsons who scored 16 points along with teammate Alex Tyus who added 13. Kenny Boynton and Erik Murphy contributed 10 points each in the contest.

Florida seemed to start out slow at the beginning, trailing by five at one point but started to pull away late in the first half by using their size and their depth advantage against the Seahawks. Florida really pounded the ball down low in the post to start the second half and forced several turnovers on defense with their full court press which helped them turn the lead into 24 just minutes later.

The Seahawks were led by Chad Tomko who scored 15 points. Trevor Deloach finished the contest with 14.

You know who really caught my eye tonight? Scottie Wilbekin. Wilbekin is a young guard from The Rock in Gainesville, FL who graduated early from high school. Coach Donovan seems to really like this kid and he is going to be something special in the future after Erving Walker is gone. Wilbekin finished the night up with three points, five assists and four steals.

The Gators are back in action on Tuesday as they host the No. 4 Ohio State Buckeyes at the O’connell Center in Gainesville, FL. Tipoff is held at 6:00pm.

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