Nothing 'Incy Wincy' About These Spiders
Tuesday, December 1, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- They got a serious dose of basketball reality two weekends ago when Purdue (ranked No. 21 at the time and now up to 11th) went on a second-half tear on the way to a one-sided victory. It showed the Florida Gators just how far they needed to go and how hard they needed to compete to become an elite team.
Now comes a paddlewheel of opportunities that will shed some light on how far they've come in the short-term.
The gauntlet starts Tuesday night when when UF (5-1) takes on Richmond (4-2) at the O'Connell Center. The Spiders don't have the name recognition of the programs on the horizon, but they'll warrant the home team's attention. Richmond already went on the road and knocked off Wake Forest (which has wins over Indiana and UCLA) and Friday night stunned then No. 14 California in a 94-90 shootout at a tournament in Las Vegas.
Richmond can score in heaps, with its 86 points-per-game ranked 25th in the country. The Spiders have four players scoring in double-figures -- each at least 11.5 per game -- and are led by 6-foot-8 senior forward Terry Allen, the reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Week, who upped his average to 22.2 after dumping in 34 against Cal.
“Their bigs aren't as big as Purdue's, but they can step out and shoot it and have a bunch of guys who can make the 3,” UF coach Mike White said. “At the same time, you can't fall in the trap of simply defending the 3, making that your sole goal, because they have guys who can go make plays one-on-one, especially in the post. ... They're just a handful, offensively.”
Get used to it, Gators, because next week it's road games at Miami (currently ranked 21st) and Michigan State (No. 3). After a week off for exams it's a neutral-site date with Oklahoma State down in Sunrise, Fla., then a home game with Jacksonville before Christmas break.
The first game back after the holidays is a Dec. 29 showdown with Florida State, which boasts one of the top freshmen classes in the country and is expected to contend in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“These are going to be some tough games,” junior point guard Kasey Hill said. “But we just need to focus on the first one and go on from there.”
Good idea.
The Gators would love to see some of their wing players, like freshman guard Brandone Francis-Ramirez (above) shake out of their only season shooting woes. UF's four top wing threats have combined to make just 23.6 percent from the 3-point line in the first six games.
White spends a lot of practice time working on his own team; what it's doing well and not so. The emphasis the UF staff has put on ball security and free-throw shooting after both those areas were poor early has yielded some very good results.
After starting the season with double-digit turnovers in the first three games, the Gators have committed just seven, eight and six, respectively, over the last three games. And after making 59.5 percent of free throws through two games, UF has improved to 69.4 percent, with its top three scorers -- forwards Dorian Finney-Smith and Devin Robinson, plus center John Egbunu -- all above 70 percent.
Now for the most glaring area: The Gators need their guards to fall in line when shooting from the floor.
Hill and backup point man Chris Chiozza get credit for running the team and posting a solid assist-to-turnover ratio (37 to 15), but eventually guys on the perimeter have to make shots. Especially from deep. The Gators are averaging nearly 25 3-point shots per game -- and making just 7.5.
For perspective, their 30.8 percent from deep ranks 11th among Southeastern Conference teams, but the wing forwards and guards are 21-for-89 collectively. That's 23.6 percent. And that's needs to start trending upward.
White said after Friday night's defeat of Florida Gulf Coast, when the Gators went 5-for-23 from the arc (21.5 percent), that the UF staff may have to start re-evaluating who's taking them, how many they're taking and where they're taking them. Maybe progress on that front starts against the Spiders.
If not Tuesday night, then it needs to start really, really soon. Out of necessity.
“I know Richmond is going to be difficult ... They just get harder and harder, but that can only help us if we continue to improve,” White said. “This team has potential, as we've talked about all fall. But at some point, these things that we talk about having to get better at, you have to be better and stop talking about it. We've made progress, but we have to continue to do so.”
