Tribe2013 said:
Pumpkinhead said:
I think the 'wheels fall off' partly because teams start to get more tape on you and the scouting improves. Tbe opponents see what other did successfully vs you (or not) and start to adjust and then if you don't adjust or have a decent response back then bye bye.
Which is evened out by you having film on that other team also
I don't know if the information always 'evens out'. Probably depends somewhat on what the flaws are and the matchup issues and so forth. Obviously watching A&M, the flaws are primarily in the back court and those flaws have obviously been taken advantage of by better teams who use schemes against us to try to exploit that (e.g., almost continuous double teams of our bigs, etc). A&M seemed to struggle trying to figure out any sort of consistent plan in the back court with a variety of flawed options in Collins, Hampton, Chase Carlton, Eubanks, Smith etc.
Eventually one thing that you saw happen is Gilder simply start playing literally 40 minutes per game. You saw them pretty much go with freshman Robert Williams as a starter over Trocha. You can see as the games have played out and Davis/Williams/Trocha have gotten more time with each other that the big-to-big passing has improved. You have seen Tyler Davis gradually get better at handling double teams (for one, he is doing a better job actually letting the double team come to him first before then reacting, rather than too quickly trying to back out of the double team or make a pass.
The freshman Williams seems to be getting better and better finding the other guys instead of turning the ball over. Obviously Hogg foot injury in the middle probably didn't help in terms of struggling to find some roster continuity.
The season is pretty disappointing, though at least to the team's credit, they haven't seemed to just fall off the map and mail it in, like Auburn has now seemed to do (Auburn's defensive play the past several games is pretty inexcusable IMO. They have been really terrible and are giving up historical performances to opponents. They allowed the most points ever scored by Florida in the history of the Gator program, allowed what may have been the second best FG% all-time in an SEC conference game to A&M.
The team actually seems to have gotten better in some aspects. Gilder has really come along. Robert Williams has gotten better and better as the season has progressed in stuff like passing chemistry between him and Davis/Trocha (as I mentioned above). Tyler Davis has seen to grow more in terms of handling double team pressure (as I mentioned) But then there are other guys who didn't show much this season. Has been a mixed bag with the net result being disappointing obviously.
NOTE: I do find this season unacceptable and very disappointing. The coaching staff screwed up getting us in the guard situation that we were in this season. Obviously A++++ for finding/landing a guy like Robert Williams which ain't easy to do, but the guard thing really put them in a bind. By trying to note some of the 'improved play' stuff that I feel like I have seen lately, does not mean I am trying to change the negative mood of this board. I totally understand the negativity.