NCDS: Rob Lanier, Asst. Coach - Florida
By: Rob Lanier, Asst. Coach - Florida
We are three games (Stetson, Georgia Southern, Troy) into
our regular season and we are clearly a team in the process of
establishing an identity. Billy Donovan coached teams have
generally been prolific offensive teams. The past two seasons
we've ranked at the top of the SEC in virtually every offensive
category. The problem has been that we ranked at the bottom of the
league in every defensive and rebounding area.
So we have made a commitment to improve upon those weaknesses and
it appears that effort has paid off some, at least to this point.
We have won all three of our games and held our opponents
to around 33% FG. Our guys have displayed a genuine pride in
our defensive improvement. The challenge that we are confronted
with now is getting our offense up and "running" (pun
intended).
Offensively, it is glaringly obvious how much we relied on Nick
Calathes the past two years. Nick had command of our team
and was a tremendous playmaker who made everyone else's job easier.
We have great confidence in our current backcourt but Kenny Boynton
is only a freshman and Erving Walker is a sophomore in a new role
as the PG.
As coaches, we love and need to rely on their scoring abilities.
Its a lot to ask of them, particularly with how hard they've both
worked defensively in our press and in the half court. We believe
they both have the athleticism and toughness to put it all together
but it is a learning process. In the days ahead we'll be looking at
some ways to accentuate their effectiveness in our offense and how
to take better advantage of best offensive players in general. Some
of the thing that had been so effective with Nick running our team
have proven to be much less so with the current make-up of our
team.
The second half of the game versus a tough and physical Georgia
Southern team was the first time we really pushed the ball on
offense and went from good solid defense to attacking on
offense.
Early on, we haven't shot the ball well from the perimeter and
had Georgia Southern actually go zone to force us to shoot... which
is an unusual feeling for us because we've had such good outside
shooting teams. We have good shooters so we believe that's a
dynamic that will shift as the season progresses.
We were able to prepare and respond well to Troy, our third
contest which provided a unique challenge for us. They entered the
game averaging 105ppg and as Billy said "they'll be Bombin 'em
up"! We dug down on defense once again, however, and were
able to pull away in the second half by holding Troy to 35%
shooting for the game and around 20% shooting from deep. It
was a great test for us. We have pride in our team's level of
conditioning and we were able to exhibit stamina and discipline in
overcoming Troy.
Next, we face in-state rival Florida State at home tomorrow night.
Florida State happens to be my scout and from the one game I've
seen, they are very good! They may be even better than the NCAA
tournament team of last season. They have great size, depth and
like most Leonard Hamilton coached teams, they play very stingy
defense.
After that we head to Atlantic City to participate in the Legends
classic where we'll face Michigan State on Nov. 27th and either
Rutgers or UMass on the 28th. So this a very challenging stretch
for us.
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