Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard pulls up for a jumper against Charleston Southern.
UF Shooters Look to Heat Up in Sunny Paradise
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas — During the spring and summer, throughout fall practice, and during the run-up to the regular season, one of the constants for Florida coach Mike White was his optimism about the offensive potential of his 2018-19 team. Even with the loss of the program's all-time assists leader (Chris Chiozza) and shooter/rebounder/soldier Egor Koulechov, the scoring potential of Jalen Hudson and KeVaughn Allen, plus the influx of three talented, offensive-minded freshmen, had White thinking big numbers on the scoreboard.
Factored into that vision was an ability to hit 3-point shots.
Obviously, 26.2 percent was not part of the plan.
That's where the team stand through three games, which upon arriving in this island paradise Monday night for this week's Battle 4 Atlantis put the Gators (2-1) at 322nd out of 351 Division I teams heading into Wednesday's opening-round date against Oklahoma (3-0) at Imperial Arena. That's rates behind the likes of Bryant, Southern and Coppin State ... but ahead of UNLV, Cincinnati and Syracuse, so there's that.
But there's no one on the team, coach or player, who doesn't understand those numbers have to go up.
Or doesn't believe they're going to.
"We're better shooters than that," fifth-year senior shooting guard Jalen Hudson said. "Maybe [it's been] a little bit of nerves in the first couple of games for a couple of guys. I wasn't shooting shooting it well either, so I want to continue to get better. Some of the other guys, I know, are really good shooters, too. I'm not too worried about that at this point."
Hudson is at 28.6 percent. Senior shooting guard KeVaughn Allen is at 18.2 percent. Fourth-year junior Keith Stone, a 42-percent career shooter from deep last season is at 50 percent, but he's only attempted four. Freshman guard Noah Locke came to UF with a reputation as a sniper, with his four makes from deep tied with Hudson for a team high, but at just 36.4 percent. Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard has the second-most makes with three.
"It's been kind of a rough start, but we've got a lot of great shooters on our team," Nembhard said. "It'll get going really soon."
Like ... immediately would be nice. The Sooners are making 50.4 percent of their shots overall, a robust 45.2 from the arc and scoring 84 points per game, though they've not played a team — or a defense — as ferocious as the one that got the Gators off to such an atrocious start (37 percent from the floor, just 6-for-24 from distance).
UF has made 17 shots from the arc thus far. Or 5.6 per game. Last year, the Gators averaged better than nine 3-ball makes per outing at better than 37 percent.
Twelve more points a game is a big chunk of offense to replace.
Fourth-year junior forward Keith Stone, who hit 42.4 percent from the 3-point line last season, has attempted just four shots from the arc thus far this season.
"Well, it's our biggest strength offensively, and it just hasn't shown up in games, yet," White said. "I really do have faith that we're going to shoot it well this year, especially with sharing it a little better over the last couple games. Of course, we're going to need some makes this week to have any success. We're going to need to gain some confidence and convert from 3. We're very capable. Our percentages are really high from the first day of practice. I think there's a bunch of factors involved."
He cited three.
* The current rotation: Ten players are averaging at least 12.3 minutes per game (and that's with Nembhard at 30.0 per game). In a tournament where the Gators will face a team from the Big 12, then either the Big Ten (Wisconsin) or Pac-12 (Stanford) on Thursday, and one of four NCAA Tournament regulars (Virginia, Butler, Dayton or Middle Tennessee State) on Friday, the figures to be some separation in those minutes.
* Tweaks in the offensive system: The Gators are still searching for rhythm and comfort in what they're trying to do.
* Wear and tear: Yes, it's only three weeks into the regular season, but White has intentionally tried to maintain a high level of intensity at practice. On that front, he's tried to scale back on the minutes (quality over quantity) of late, but there's always a fine line with that. Different teams respond in different ways. White will see which direction this one goes.
In fact, he'll find out a great deal about the Gators this week. "I don't know how you don't find out a lot more about yourselves after this trip. Three games, three days, three high-major opponents, neutral sites, quick preps," White said. "A lot of it is going to be about ourselves, more so than a normal game with the quick turnarounds. Hopefully, we'll find out a lot more positive about our team, than negative."
Better yet, maybe the Gators will find their 3-point touch along the way.
