Let's Talk Florida
- Thread starter Tampa_cat54
- Start date
I hate this time where we only play one game a week, glad it’s back to two games.
I’m excited to see this team on the road. They seem like a group who will take joy in being booed and heckled- it’s been a while since we had some guys like that.
I haven’t seen much of Florida; but looking at their schedule I’m not sure on all the hand wringing. Could we lose, absolutely; but some are acting like UF is a top 5 team.
I’m excited to see this team on the road. They seem like a group who will take joy in being booed and heckled- it’s been a while since we had some guys like that.
I haven’t seen much of Florida; but looking at their schedule I’m not sure on all the hand wringing. Could we lose, absolutely; but some are acting like UF is a top 5 team.
Did that team make a Final Four? Did they have 6 road losses? Glad true statements amuse you.
A man jumped from the golden gate bridge and survived. So jumping from the golden gate bridge is safe. Anomalies aren't the norm.
Idk why that's an anomaly in your mind.
Literally just last year, UCONN lost 6 games away from home (all in conference), 2 games at home (also in conference), entered into the tournament with 8 losses and won the whole thing.
The year before, UNC lost 7 games away from home and had a 20 point lead at halftime of the National Title game.
UCONN won titles in 2011 and 2014 with pretty mediocre road performances.
UCLA made the Final Four in 2021 after an abysmal road performance all season.
Losing a road game (or a few) in conference does not mean we are not a title contender.
Not sure how you think that's not the case, unless I am misunderstanding you.
Ky’s defense rank is 53 while UF is 58 (Kenpom). Ky giving up 97.4 per 100 possessions versus 97.9 for Florida. They are fairly close. Our offense is better- their rebounding is better.
The thing that's worrisome for me is that their team strength hits our team weakness flush. Hope we've been running a lot of rebounding drills this week, and I hope that Adou is back and healthy.
Agree, neither one of the 2 are great defensively. The game comes down to rebounding if Kentucky minimizes your alls offensive rebounding I like our chances if not then it will a good day for you all
To be fair, scoring defense is not an accurate metric. Our pace alone dictates way more possessions, and thus, more points on both sides of the ball.
The main metric here should be PPP (Points per Possession).
In that, we rank 116th at 0.859 PPP, however since the bigs have returned, we rank 74th.
Last year, UCONN won the title allowing 0.834 PPP.
And I expect ours to continue to get better as the bigs continue to get worked back into the rotation- rim protection goes a LONGGG way in this metric, and we have only played 4 or 5 games with Bradshaw back and 3 games with Ugo back.
So let's see where we are in February.
Even this tho should be taken with a grain of salt. You don't want PPP. You want PPP adjusted by SOS. So basically..........Kenpom lol.
There's also https://barttorvik.com/# where you can filter the dates and get the adjusted offensive and defensive efficiencies for specific timeframes.
And in that, we rank 53rd! So we have gone in this conversation from 236 to 116 to 74 to 53, the more the numbers are actually analyzed, the better we actually start to appear defensively.
And again, as we come out of 2 straight weeks of 2-a-days, continue to get the bigs into the flow, etc., I expect this to improve even more.
Our offense is good enough that if we can get our Kenpom defensive rating down below 35, we will be the favorite to win the whole thing come March, and that is super attainable for this group.
UK - better O, slightly better D
UF - better rebounding, home court
Hopefully it’s one of those electric games of old. Mike White zapped all of the energy out of Gator fans, but Golden looks to be bringing it back.
UF - better rebounding, home court
Hopefully it’s one of those electric games of old. Mike White zapped all of the energy out of Gator fans, but Golden looks to be bringing it back.
Here's hoping UK has worked really, really hard on rebounding this week...and Thiero is healthy.
This! If they don't shoot the 3 ball well and and still leading the nation in O rebounds...then it has to be from missing a lot of bunny shots..right? Leading the nation in O rebounds is a double edged sword. They have to miss a lot for that to happen and they know they don't shoot well from 3. What's left?
It comes down to one thing IMO...whoever shoots best overall. 3's still count more than 2's and if we shoot the ball well, we will win, assuming rebounds are close. I don't think either team will stop the other often but if I were their coach, I'd try to make it into a wait for it...rock fight. Lol! They can't out run or out shoot us so they better slow it down, play d and rebound. All weaknesses for us.
Been worried about this one and I don't know what's gonna happen. If we shoot well, I like us. If not...I like the better defensive and rebounding team. Unless that changes...it ain't us. We'll get good looks but will they fall?
If we can’t beat florida then we have no shot at anything. lol. It’s not the fear that bothers me it’s that people think we can lose games like this and be ok. What has happened to our fanbase???? Low expectations. I remember when the only road games we gave a thought to were to 10 teams. 🤣
And I agree no more of this mediocrity garbage. Win big or leave cal.
Road conference games are tough no matter who the other team is. Kentucky should win and is the better team but in the road especially in the SEC this year every road game is gonna be a damn war
It’s gonna be a war because we are still an inconsistent ball club that isn’t up to our historical standards. The sec is no great conference. What’s the best win? UK beating UNCheat?. We haven’t had a title winner since 2012. No when I see florida, uscjr, ole miss, tamu. I laugh thinking we could lose those road games. What’s the best win those teams have put together this year? I’m not buying the sec being a juggernaut and yeah on a given night in the sec any team can lose on the road. It’s usually a 1 off. And are you bullish on running the sec slate at home? I’m not and have no reason to be.
The SEC is better than it’s ever been. The ceiling isn’t very high for most teams but their floors are certainly higher. Kentucky has 2 good wins UNC and Miami are 2 good wins. In the SEC Kentucky should go anywhere between 14-4 and 15-3 in league maybe 13-5
From a Sea of Blue story.
Odds: DraftKings has yet to release the odds for the game. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives the Cats a 38.3% chance to win. Bart Torvik has it at 41%, while EvanMiya has the game as a tossup, 50.1%-49.9%. KenPom is at 52%. Kentucky is currently 7-3 against the spread, while Florida is 5-4-1.
Predictions: Bart Torvik and Haslametrics both have Kentucky losing, 88-86 and 89-88, respectively. EvanMiya couldn’t predict a winner with an 83.2-83.2 projection. KenPom is projecting an 86-85 victory, Kentucky!
Odds: DraftKings has yet to release the odds for the game. ESPN’s matchup predictor gives the Cats a 38.3% chance to win. Bart Torvik has it at 41%, while EvanMiya has the game as a tossup, 50.1%-49.9%. KenPom is at 52%. Kentucky is currently 7-3 against the spread, while Florida is 5-4-1.
Predictions: Bart Torvik and Haslametrics both have Kentucky losing, 88-86 and 89-88, respectively. EvanMiya couldn’t predict a winner with an 83.2-83.2 projection. KenPom is projecting an 86-85 victory, Kentucky!
No I don’t see it. No title contender in the SEC outside possibly us but we will lose to a bunch of middle of the road opponents on the road. Alabama tamu all these top net ranked teams have beaten no one. Playing a bunch of good teams and losing gives an illusion of strength but the sec once again ooc failed .
Tennessee is good, they are reliant on knecht scoring but they are good. A&M has a good squad and will be a good team, bama has talent but their system is truly hit or miss. Florida and a group of other teams are good not great but will give almost anybody a game. Ole miss & scar are the two teams I have no idea about. I don’t know if either one is good or not
I believe, since 2013 the eventual national champion has been no worse than number 22 in adjusted D. All but 2-3 years the national champion was ranked 11th or better in D. We need to get better here but I am not sure we will. The schedule is about to get much harder.
Dang , I was hoping the students wouldn’t be back from Christmas break and we could get a lot of Blue snowbirds in there .
Haven’t seen Gators.
UNCW was a loss because they had two guys on fire down the stretch who could not be stopped.
That’s the thing with this team. No real shut down defenders.
Game should be a really good measuring stick.
UNCW was a loss because they had two guys on fire down the stretch who could not be stopped.
That’s the thing with this team. No real shut down defenders.
Game should be a really good measuring stick.
No longer than 4 days between games the rest of the year. Hallelujah.
Folks if we cant beat Fla,where ever we play them we will not win SEC. This team scores alot of ɛoints,dont plsy much defense and rebounding is spotty at least so far I am looking for improvement starting this Saturday
This is the best and biggest Florida team we’ve had in a long time. Which makes our glaring weaknesses, 3 point defense and free throw shooting, very frustrating. If Kentucky takes advantage of those weaknesses they win. If not, Florida wins. It will be the story of our year.
Im already pumped for this game tomorrow. I hate the long breaks between games during the holidays. Most fun part of the year is about to start, and we have a huge opening test tomorrow to start conference play.
Lets get it done, boys.
Lets get it done, boys.
One game I watched them their 5 man looked physically pretty weak going for rebounds. Looked like he can be banged around some. Guys like Thiero and Ugo strength wise would make it hard for him unless he is quicker.
I've been to their gym a number of times. It's a good shooters gym. Not too big to be distracting due to the depth of the stands etc.
I think we will win this game although I see a close game.
Play our game and take our chances.
