Florida preview

[kso_FAN]

Finally; a game worth previewing combined with a worthwhile set of stats to look at:

_FANalysis - Florida Preview

[Dr Rick Daris]

Finally; a game worth previewing combined with a worthwhile set of stats to look at:

_FANalysis - Florida Preview

that was really good.

darisalysis of the game is this. if you are going to this, then hit up some of the jamaican restaurants in nearby lauderhill and stay in ft lauderdale near n. ft lauderdale blvd and las olas. elbo room and pirate bar. 

[Dugout DickStone]

Finally; a game worth previewing combined with a worthwhile set of stats to look at:

_FANalysis - Florida Preview

that was really good.

darisalysis of the game is this. if you are going to this, then hit up some of the jamaican restaurants in nearby lauderhill and stay in ft lauderdale near n. ft lauderdale blvd and las olas. elbo room and pirate bar. 

That's a lot of bars, are you developing a steve dave to alcohol?

[theKSU]

Cool, thanks.  Looks like Defensive boards, not having turnovers and a decent shooting night from Pullen will be keys to the game.  

Oh yeah and Las Olas is pretty fun--the bars never close in Florida. 

[nicname]

It will be interesting to see Frank's guard rotation against the Gators, especially regarding Erving Walker.  Walker, as Fan mentioned shoots 48% from 3, but is only 5'8" and 171.  While Martavious and Jake are our shorter guards they have a definite height and strength advantage on th Walker, and are more likely to keep up with his quickness than our bigger guards.  The majority of Walker's shots are from deep so pressuring him with either Jake or Martavious and forcing him to drive looks like the answer.  We could also play our taller guards on him and perhaps sag off a bit more hoping that Russell's or Spradling's length would cause problems for him. 

Their other guard Kenny Boynton 6-2 183, also likes to shoot the 3.  Fortunately for the Cats he is a career 25% shooter from deep and shoots similar numbers this year (14-57 this year).  He does, however, shoot well from inside the arc at 52% for the year.  Playing off with any of our guards would seem to be the right play for him, as he doesn't seem shy about shooting, and missing a ton of 3 pointers. 

It seems as their guards share the PG duties much like ours, though Boynton has a more impressive A/TO ratio (nearly 2/1).  Walker is around 1/1 which lends more credence to our taller and stronger guards to force him to drive and make plays.  This also forces the KSU help D to step up.

I also noticed that while Florida doesn't foul, they also don't get fouled very often (34.1 ftrate), which could mean that they prefer to work the ball for open jumpers  which as Fan pointed out their pace suggests.  It also suggests that the Gators favor a cleaner game and could be rattled by aggressive physical play.  JYCing up this game on the inside looks to be a huge advantage. 

Keys to the game. 

1. Force Walker to drive and make plays.
2. Force Boynton to settle for 3 point shots.
3. Ugly the game up on the inside.   

[pissclams]

i've been scouting FLA for weeks.  this will be a sloppy game and won't do much to warm the hearts of the not happy with how we've been playing yet we're somehow 9-1 crowd.

k-state has more talent than FLA and should win this game 67-62 in another ugly hoops summit of champions.

[wetwillie]

I shouldn't be surprised but their starting rotation plus a few more is pretty much a collection of top 50 types.  Will be interesting to see how we handle their midget guard.

[sys]

good preview.

i like how the numbers shape up for kstate.  especially kstate's 3 pt defense vs uf shooting.


got to keep them off the oboards.  dboarding is historically a kstate/martin weakness, they have to do at least ok with that.  that and turnovers, kstate tos seem largely self-inflicted, so uf's lack of agression doesn't mean much, i don't believe.

[pencat]

i've been scouting FLA for weeks.  this will be a sloppy game and won't do much to warm the hearts of the not happy with how we've been playing yet we're somehow 9-1 crowd.

k-state has more talent than FLA and should win this game 67-62 in another ugly hoops summit of champions.

 

[kstatefreak42]

Vernon Macklin will have a great game.

[ChiComCat]

I think you kids are underestimating the changes that the SnowBusRideofTogetherness provided.  This is last year's UNLV game.  Cats win by 18!  SBROT!

[nicname]

Vernon Macklin will have a great game.

Need to keep him away from the basket, and play rough with him if he gets the ball down low.  He is a horrible FT shooter as well.  Getting under his skin would go a long way to the Cats winning this game.

I think we will frustrate him with our defense.   

[Wallace]

Hopefully this will be our UNLV game of last year, if you catch my drift 

[CNS]

Hopefully this will be our UNLV game of last year, if you catch my drift 

[sys]

Vernon Macklin will have a great game.

what's he been saying 'bout the matchup?

[kso_FAN]

Another thing I didn't mention is that Florida pretty much returned their entire team from last year or at least their major contributors.  Last year Walker and Boyton were 81% Min and 23% Poss guys.  Parsons and Tyus were around 70% Min and 20% Poss guys.  Macklin was 63% Min and 20% Poss.  Only real loss was Werner and somewhat Shipman, but he really wasn't much of a loss.  

Their only real significant new guy in contributions seems to be their version of Will Spradling, Scottie Wilbekin, though they have a couple other FR that were Top 100 kids.   They did start the season ranked around #10 in both polls. Plus most of their roster were solid recruits.  RSCI #s: SR Parsons 46, SR Tyus 53, JR Walker 79, SO Boyton 9, SO Murphy 43, FR Prather 52, and FR Young 19.  

[michigancat]

They should destroy us.  Way more talent.

[pissclams]

They should destroy us.  Way more talent.

4 loko night?  your post is pure insanity.  our team is far more talented than anything the gators will put on the floor this weekend, go cats and give me a break.

[Cire]

pretty powertardy.  kenpom and sagarin say we are going to get our asses kicked.

[hemmy]

pretty powertardy.  kenpom and sagarin say we are going to get our asses kicked.

We are

[jtksu]

Kenpom has us losing by 2 and Sagarin has us with an identical rating as UF.  Where did you see these ass whippings you were talking about?

[nicname]

Kenpom has us losing by 2 and Sagarin has us with an identical rating as UF.  Where did you see these ass whippings you were talking about?

[Underdog Wildcat]

Great stuff _FAN, I'll just throw a couple other points on here:

- As others have alluded to, I'm intrigued by who we put on Walker. My vote is for Pullen to be the main defender and put Irving on him occasionally. Knowing Frank's D philosophy, he's not going to have us sag off anybody, particularly an opponent's primary ballhandler. With this in mind, I have concerns about Sprads and Russell containing Walker. Problem is, even though he's got some ugly shooting% #'s Boynton can heat up(see BYU game in NCAA tourney last year) and if that unfortunately does happen, I think we'll need to put Jake on him to slow him down.

- Good obversation about Gruds attacking Parsons off the dribble, I know he has the quickness advantage but, should this be an option we use, Gruds still needs to take care of the ball

- Roster similarities: Kelly and Macklin were both very highly touted HS prospects in the Class of 06(RSCI's Kelly 30, Macklin 16), spent a couple lackluster years at Big East powers(G'town for Macklin), transferred and ressurrected their careers at their respective schools. Macklin more of a 5 and Curt more of a 4 but we'll still probably see them matched up in the post a few times on Sat. That's not the only coincidence, Patric Young was a highly touted prospect(RSCI 19) known for being a nasty dunker from a private school in Jacksonville, sound familiar?(See Judge, Wally). Young is even putting up similar #'s as Judge did as a FR, basically 3 pts and 3 boards per game, although Young is getting a little more PT than Wally did(15 MPG to 11). Clearly though, ALL indications are that Wally won't be seeing the floor in this matchup

- We control the all-important, some may some decisive adorableness factor here based on the mere fact that Tyus gets major time for them(Bald dreads ain't cool bro)

- I'm expecting yet another grinder here, both teams with plenty of athletes to throw at you, but still struggling to really find a rhythm offensively. I do believe Pullen and Kelly will make plays for us down the stretch that will prove to be the difference 64-60 Cats

[Underdog Wildcat]

Bilas weighs in on the KSU Cats and Gators, probably not as insightful as _FAN's, but hey, it's something to do.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/notebookweekendwatch101217/dec-17-19

[CNS]

Bilas weighs in on the KSU Cats and Gators, probably not as insightful as _FAN's, but hey, it's something to do.

http://espn.go.com/ncb/notebook/_/page/notebookweekendwatch101217/dec-17-19