How much is 5 games worth?
The biggest shock of the season to me was the uptick in Demary's three point attempts and percentage. He was our leader in 3 point attempts in conference play, by a good margin, and he shot a nice percentage at 37%. I didn't see that coming at all. But it was really the last 4 regular season games and the sec tournament game against Oklahoma that changed his stats. The previous 14 sec games, he was 25 for 74 from 3 (33.8%). This is not bad at all, but not above average either. His last 5 sec games he was 16 for 35 (46%), which is crazy good. But who were those five games against? Oklahoma, Texas and Vandy, three of the worst defensive teams in the league. Texas was severely injured and Vandy was injured too. One was againt South Carolina, who was trash. The Florida game was legit and kudos on that. But is a five game stretch where 4 out of the 5 games were against the absolute bottom of the league worth the huge bag????? Some team will be taking a risk for sure. He was our point guard and averaged over 30 minutes a game and we were dead last in assists in the conference. He was not good from 2 point range all year. He is a crazy good defender. He has great character. You will rarely if ever lose to inferior competition with him on the court. But can you beat the big dogs with him consistently, which is what it sounds like people are about to pay him to do? It's not a slam dunk by any stretch. I don't blame us for not giving him everything.
White
My frustration with White is that I feel like the regime has tried to sell the whole high school recruiting thing for the last two years. From White to Bateman to all the press clippings. The problem is, it feels like high school recruiting is the path of least resistance (in basketball, football is completely different). We have tried to romanticize it, but there is no differece in high school players or portal players. High school players have no special sauce on them or some special innate pure heart. It is about getting them best available player each and every year and we just have not had portal kombat mentality. Coach abe seems to have the same mentaility on the girl's side, which makes me think that they are under some directive from AD Brooks. But baseballl is using the portal like a boss so maybe it is just White and Abe?!?!?!?
The Portal
The good news is that every year is a completely fresh start and the portal awaiteth all coachs to go in there and do absolute great work. Everything can change in an instant for the better or worse. But it is time for White to show some portal teeth. He did not work the portal well his last few years at Florida. He has not worked it well here so far. Figure it out this year or lets cut bait, pronto. In basketball, its a portal world. We can't pretend its not there. Like trying to run a business without the internet.
The biggest shock of the season to me was the uptick in Demary's three point attempts and percentage. He was our leader in 3 point attempts in conference play, by a good margin, and he shot a nice percentage at 37%. I didn't see that coming at all. But it was really the last 4 regular season games and the sec tournament game against Oklahoma that changed his stats. The previous 14 sec games, he was 25 for 74 from 3 (33.8%). This is not bad at all, but not above average either. His last 5 sec games he was 16 for 35 (46%), which is crazy good. But who were those five games against? Oklahoma, Texas and Vandy, three of the worst defensive teams in the league. Texas was severely injured and Vandy was injured too. One was againt South Carolina, who was trash. The Florida game was legit and kudos on that. But is a five game stretch where 4 out of the 5 games were against the absolute bottom of the league worth the huge bag????? Some team will be taking a risk for sure. He was our point guard and averaged over 30 minutes a game and we were dead last in assists in the conference. He was not good from 2 point range all year. He is a crazy good defender. He has great character. You will rarely if ever lose to inferior competition with him on the court. But can you beat the big dogs with him consistently, which is what it sounds like people are about to pay him to do? It's not a slam dunk by any stretch. I don't blame us for not giving him everything.
White
My frustration with White is that I feel like the regime has tried to sell the whole high school recruiting thing for the last two years. From White to Bateman to all the press clippings. The problem is, it feels like high school recruiting is the path of least resistance (in basketball, football is completely different). We have tried to romanticize it, but there is no differece in high school players or portal players. High school players have no special sauce on them or some special innate pure heart. It is about getting them best available player each and every year and we just have not had portal kombat mentality. Coach abe seems to have the same mentaility on the girl's side, which makes me think that they are under some directive from AD Brooks. But baseballl is using the portal like a boss so maybe it is just White and Abe?!?!?!?
The Portal
The good news is that every year is a completely fresh start and the portal awaiteth all coachs to go in there and do absolute great work. Everything can change in an instant for the better or worse. But it is time for White to show some portal teeth. He did not work the portal well his last few years at Florida. He has not worked it well here so far. Figure it out this year or lets cut bait, pronto. In basketball, its a portal world. We can't pretend its not there. Like trying to run a business without the internet.
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