Florida Scouting Report

[Hey Adrien!]

Crazy busy week upcoming at school and I’ll be at the Iona game on Tuesday so I wanted to get a head start on this prior to the week beginning. Enjoy!

Florida: 6-3
Kenpom Rating: 48
​

Best wins:

• W over #160 Florida State 76-67
  • Colin Castleton: 25 points, 9 rebounds, 9-14 from field
• W over #235 Oregon State 81-68
  • Trey Bonham: 19 points, 3-6 from three

Losses all against top-70 teams:

• L against #67 Florida Atlantic 74-76
• L against #31 Xavier 83-90
• L against #25 West Virginia 55-84

OFFENSE: 45th in efficiency

• 27th best in preventing turnovers
• 34th in team 3P% (38.4 3p%)
• 75th in team FT% (74.6%)
• 87th in tempo (16.5 sec average possession length)
• 142nd in FTA/FGA
• 212th in offensive rebounding rate
• 270th in A/FGM (46.8%)
• 298th in 3PA/FGM (32.0%)

DEFENSE: 57th in efficiency

• 21st in block % (14.9%)
• 33rd in 2p% (43.8%)
• 46th in preventing assists to made field goals (46%)
• 57th in preventing opponents 3PA (32.6% 3PA/FGA)
• 64th in defensive rebounding (75%)
• 65th in fastest opponent possession length (16.6 second)
• 95th in FTA/FGM (26.9%)
• 235th in steal % (8.4%)
• 273rd in opponent 3p% (36.5%)

Was never much of a fan of Mike White, so I was impressed when Florida nabbed Todd Golden from San Francisco, who was one of the hotter young coaching candidates this offseason.

Revered for his use of analytics in his own regards and as assistant coach alongside former San Francisco and Columbia head coach Kyle Smith (an analytics head who is now at Washington State), I’ve been surprised that some of his offensive trademarks from San Francisco (shoot a ton of threes, eliminate the mid-range jumper) are now not a part of Florida’s offense while his defensive trademarks (force iso, prevent teams from shooting threes) is still holding up.

Florida’s success lies around the performance of two-way big Colin Castleton, a true “five-tool” center. In their last four games, UConn has been playing against their fair share of talented bigs so the rotation of Sanogo and Clingan should be ready to stop Castleton.

Amongst their guards and wings, their best offensive weapons are all good spacers with Richard, Reeves and Bonham shooting 40%+ from three while St. Bonaventure transfer Kyle Lofton is more of a classic style point guard who limits mistakes and does most of his scoring from inside the arc.

Renowned for his ability to defend all five positions, LSU transfer Alex Fudge reminds me a bit of Isaiah Whaley and he’ll be hugely counting on to help guard our bigs.

Overall, Florida’s lineups are pretty “classic” with always one big, one forward, a point guard and then two mix-and-match guards/wings.

​

Early season true road games have been tough on teams this season and I’m glad UConn’s first will be against another quality team. Again, UConn has a good chance to win, but I am not taking this game lightly.

 

[ucp990411]

Thanks again. These are the best

 

[aburks41]

Perimeter defense is going to be what wins or loses us this game. Keep Florida to a low 3pt % and we should win

 

[WeAreUCONN]

Perimeter defense is going to be what wins or loses us this game. Keep Florida to a low 3pt % and we should win

Wrong. We will demolish them inside and then outside and their 3 pointers won’t matter. UConn by 25.

 

[Palatine]

Castleton will probably get his.

 

[Tenspro2002]

So they're a great 3-point shooting team, but don't do it very much, and rely on a lot of 1-on-1 stuff?

 

[mauconnfan]

Nice scouting report as usual HA.

Should win by 30, just ask shizzle

 

[TheChamps990411]

Crazy busy week upcoming at school and I’ll be at the Iona game on Tuesday so I wanted to get a head start on this prior to the week beginning. Enjoy!

Florida: 6-3
Kenpom Rating: 48
​

Best wins:

• W over #160 Florida State 76-67
  • Colin Castleton: 25 points, 9 rebounds, 9-14 from field
• W over #235 Oregon State 81-68
  • Trey Bonham: 19 points, 3-6 from three

Losses all against top-70 teams:

• L against #67 Florida Atlantic 74-76
• L against #31 Xavier 83-90
• L against #25 West Virginia 55-84

OFFENSE: 45th in efficiency

• 27th best in preventing turnovers
• 34th in team 3P% (38.4 3p%)
• 75th in team FT% (74.6%)
• 87th in tempo (16.5 sec average possession length)
• 142nd in FTA/FGA
• 212th in offensive rebounding rate
• 270th in A/FGM (46.8%)
• 298th in 3PA/FGM (32.0%)

DEFENSE: 57th in efficiency

• 21st in block % (14.9%)
• 33rd in 2p% (43.8%)
• 46th in preventing assists to made field goals (46%)
• 57th in preventing opponents 3PA (32.6% 3PA/FGA)
• 64th in defensive rebounding (75%)
• 65th in fastest opponent possession length (16.6 second)
• 95th in FTA/FGM (26.9%)
• 235th in steal % (8.4%)
• 273rd in opponent 3p% (36.5%)

View attachment 81514

Was never much of a fan of Mike White, so I was impressed when Florida nabbed Todd Golden from San Francisco, who was one of the hotter young coaching candidates this offseason.

Revered for his use of analytics in his own regards and as assistant coach alongside former San Francisco and Columbia head coach Kyle Smith (an analytics head who is now at Washington State), I’ve been surprised that some of his offensive trademarks from San Francisco (shoot a ton of threes, eliminate the mid-range jumper) are now not a part of Florida’s offense while his defensive trademarks (force iso, prevent teams from shooting threes) is still holding up.

Florida’s success lies around the performance of two-way big Colin Castleton, a true “five-tool” center. In their last four games, UConn has been playing against their fair share of talented bigs so the rotation of Sanogo and Clingan should be ready to stop Castleton.

Amongst their guards and wings, their best offensive weapons are all good spacers with Richard, Reeves and Bonham shooting 40%+ from three while St. Bonaventure transfer Kyle Lofton is more of a classic style point guard who limits mistakes and does most of his scoring from inside the arc.

Renowned for his ability to defend all five positions, LSU transfer Alex Fudge reminds me a bit of Isaiah Whaley and he’ll be hugely counting on to help guard our bigs.

Overall, Florida’s lineups are pretty “classic” with always one big, one forward, a point guard and then two mix-and-match guards/wings.

​

Early season true road games have been tough on teams this season and I’m glad UConn’s first will be against another quality team. Again, UConn has a good chance to win, but I am not taking this game lightly.

This game has upset written all over it and i love it!!! These are the type of games that great Uconn teams would go into and id be a nervous Nelly waiting for the upset and those teams would knock that junk down down immediately. This game is going to say a lot about this teams toughness, poise and camaraderie. This game is the day after my birthday so a win would be a sweet gift.

 

[CTBasketball]

Castleton will probably get his.

Only person stopping him down there is Clingan. Hopefully he gets more than 8 min this game.

 

[NotADime89]

Only person stopping him down there is Clingan. Hopefully he gets more than 8 min this game.

I disagree. Adama will do just fine and Hurley will continue to play who he feels will be best for the team against that specific opponent. I'd say his rotations have worked pretty damn good so far...

 

[auror]

Castleton is a stud, obviously. They play inside out through him.

Florida has a lot of dudes I liked in the portal at some point over the last 2 years.

I wanted Bonham as our 7th or 8th man, though, and he's now starting for Florida. I liked Will Richard but he's still a year away from being a star. I really liked Myreon Jones 2 years ago but he shot poorly last year and the start of this one, and he got benched at some point.

They also benched Kowacie Reeves (and then literally DNP'd him) and started to play a little better and then got crushed by WVU in one of the games they DNP'd him. He was ranked similarly to Hawkins and his numbers look decent, so it's a little strange, And then he got more minutes in the last 2 games and they looked good (against cupcakes)

They've got almost as much talent as us, and a really smart coach. It's always tough to win high profile road games against teams with big fanbases (regardless of how engaged the fanbase normally is, top 5 schools like us coming to town will draw a big crowd). I'm glad this game is on a Wednesday and not a weekend.

Outside of Castleton, their defense has been subpar. We're going to need another big Hawkins game and for Newton to get into the paint. We've thrived off getting into transition after creating turnovers with pressure and we've played a few teams that have played into our hands in that regard (Alabama, Oregon, and Ok St all are extremely turnover prone, Iowa St moderately so). Florida is not that way. The opposite. Lofton is very sure-handed. We're going to have to grind and do a better job of containing penetration than we did against Ok St.

 

[YearoftheHusky]

First true road game scares me a bit. This is a quality opponent who can certainly beat us, but if we play like we did at PK we should have no problem.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Thanks again, @Hey Adrien! Great writeup. These P5 teams always have good athletes, like we saw with Ok St. But their losses indicate some serious flaws. Hopefully there won't be a serious letdown, or Florida playing way above their level thus far.

 

[Giddyup5]

As much as we love blow outs and comfortable wins, a close game on the road will help mature this team. Hopefully, a close road win!

 

[mauconnfan]

They have size and girth it seems coming off the bench to add to Castleton. Nice game away from home to check the pulse of our Huskies. Also interested to see Adamas reaction to his awful 2nd half versus OSU where he took multiple bad shots, and passed to no one. I think he will be defended similarly in this one and I'd like to see some drop offs like he missed last week. If not I'd like to see a bit more DC than DH allowed. Granted, he may play great and we may not question a thing. But anything looking like that will begin to worry me.

Also a big game for Newton, need him back on track and getting to the rack. Would like to see some ball fakes when he gets there, draw fouls or just make bunnies. Of course, would love to see Alleyne find his way as well, rooting for this kid.

 

[REB1094]

For almost every game through the rest of the season, my commentary will be: if we play our game, we run them out of the gym. If we play their game, they have a chance

No team in America has 10 wins yet. Let’s go to their house and be the first. Go huskies!

 

[dennismenace]

Who do you think Andre will get as a defensive assignment?

 

[husky429]

Who do you think Andre will get as a defensive assignment?

Reeves or Richard. He'll need to stay disciplined and focus on denying the 3 for both.

 

[AntG168]

They gave up 43 to Florida St in the first half. If we defend the 3 i think we'll win going away. We should be able to get open looks

 

[jibsey]

ESPN analytics gives us a 37% chance to win.

 

[elmcityboy]

found this nugget on one of their boards. i like our chances if this is still true:

Though the 1st 7 games, Florida ranks 326th in the nation in FG% allowed in transition at 61.1%, according to hoop-math.com. Its 3 losses can be equated to the relative disorganization on that end. (but better in half court sets at 45.1%)

btw if any one else can find a good game preview thread on one of their sites, please post it! reading the opponent's thoughts on our team is one of my fav ways to get hyped for a match-up.

 

[ThabeetDown]

Helps that Kyle Lofton is a game time decision, which means even if he does play he's not 100%. Bonnie transfer who was hurt for our game vs them last year.

Essentially if Adama/Donovan can limit Castleton, I don't think we'll have much of an issue with their other players.

 

[imno1]

Helps that Kyle Lofton is a game time decision, which means even if he does play he's not 100%. Bonnie transfer who was hurt for our game vs them last year.

Essentially if Adama/Donovan can limit Castleton, I don't think we'll have much of an issue with their other players.

Or is he just scared to face us

 

[BGesus4]

ESPN analytics gives us a 37% chance to win.

Hopefully this is still funny Thursday morning

 

[auror]

btw if any one else can find a good game preview thread on one of their sites, please post it! reading the opponent's thoughts on our team is one of my fav ways to get hyped for a match-up.

A site that hosts a forum that also has a article aspect:
Florida Versus UConn Preview | GatorCountry.com

Interesting to see that Alleyne and Diarra have both had big games against Florida in their careers (I had forgotten that Alleyne's big tournament game came against them).