Crimson Red Sports

UF gets first blood as Gueye loses the opening tip.

Well, we are starting off on the wrong foot with too much dribbling & passing.


 :facepalm:

Nice stagger screen to get Cooper loose for 3.

Bama by 3 at the half.   #+

With all due respect, MD, how else do you move the ball around looking for an open shot?

These last 3 halves have been the best three consecutive halves this team has put together in a quite a while.

With that said, Florida will make more buckets in the 2nd half.  We still need to play better.

Agreed. But I'd say all around this team is still improving as evidenced in the last couple of weeks. They are limited in what they can do so the only way to progress was to get more from Jacobs. Obasohan's play lately has been a nice addition. Lets hope it continues--more offense from different players.   

Well that lead disappeared in a hurry, and we're deep in foul trouble.  Not good!

11:15 Gueye misses a pair at the line.

3 players in double figures. Randolph has 5. Not much from the rest.

Randolph just got tripped. No foul. UF by 8. 4:37

The refs completely changed this game in the first 5 minutes of the half.

 :(   

Excessive dribbling and passing leads to turnovers and/or results in taking a bad shot because the clock shot is down to 6 seconds or less. We have done that all year except in the UT game yesterday. It makes a difference.

 :dog:

If a player does not have a shot he has only 2 options, pass or dribble. HTH  Maybe you've seen then passing up a bunch of open shots. I have not.

They'll get to work on that in the NIT. I'm sure CAG would rather be drawing up plays with 5-2 ball screens, quick hitters, elbow sets, etc. But he has been kinda busy trying to get them to quit putting their big feet on the line on foul shots.

^^^THIS^^^

I've said before that I don't think the refs intentionally change the outcome of games (in most cases).  But this is one of the most frustrating things about basketball.  You can have one play where the guy blocks the shot and clobbers the guy across the face (UF vs. Randolph) and it is called a held ball/jump ball, then you have another play where the defender doesn't even touch the other guy and it is called a foul on us.  There is just way too much interpretation required of the officials.  Some times it works in our favor, sometimes it does not.  There are too many gray areas/judgement calls within the rules IMO.  I will be the first to admit that I don't fully understand all of the nuances within the rules, so that could be part of the problem.

Well the part I watched what I could, I thought we were playing good. I see the finished score and not so good. I still believe in the Big Dance. RTR!

After watching this happen time after time this year, I think I see what our problem is in games like this.  I think our defensive intensity just wears us out.  Some people on here have said it before, but I saw evidence of it with my own eyes today.  There was one play after UF got the lead in the second half when they took a 3 point shot that was off the mark.  We had 3 guys standing there at the rim to get the rebound.  Not a single one of them jumped.  Then Mohawk dude from UF comes flying in there with a lot of energy, jumps up, gets the rebound, then puts in the hole.  Our guys looked exhausted the last 15 minutes of the game.  Maybe they need to spend some time with CSC during the next 6 months.

We don't deserve to go to the Big Dance IMO.  The ugly losses to teams like Auburn knock us out of consideration.  The losses to UF, Ole Miss, LSU, and UT are respectable and could have been overcome.

We don't want to be like Oklahoma State when they didn't earn their chance to play LSU in the BCS NCG a couple of years ago.  I love UA, but this team did not earn a ticket IMO.

Now let's go win the NIT this time.

Great effort by the team.  Florida caught fire, and we couldn't keep up.  Perhaps call a time out to stop the momentum before Florida has the lead, then it's too late.

We're solidly on the bubble folks.

You still think we have a chance?  I guess we could still make it if some of the other teams don't do well.

We did not play bad today. We played hard and shot the ball well for most of the game. Florida just played better. Florida has a team full of scorers. They also play the best defense in the league. When we had the lead we were shooting over 60% from the field. You can not keep that up.

Florida plays the best half court defense I have seen. MD said we dribble and pass to much. What I saw was a defense that forced our offense well outside the three point line and challenged very shot. Florida has good enough guards to nutralize our guards which is our strength. They beat us down low. They had 12 second chance points to out 5. They scored 24 points in the paint to our 16. Bonyton only scored 16 points but it seemed like 30. He put the Gators on his back when we got the lead and we could not stop. He was defended but he made tough contested shot after shot.

Sometimes you have to give the other team  credit. Florida is a very good team.

I do not think we will get an NCAA invitation. Maybe the NIT will be better for us. I think we would be a tough out for anyone in the NCAA Tournament so I expect to win the NIT.

If we do not get in they better not put Kentucky or Tenn in. That would not be fair at all.

Good summary.  #+

I know Missouri is in, but I don't really understand why.  They are the #6 seed in the SEC tournament, and they are in ahead of 2-5?  That does not make sense at all.  They must have played a monster OOC schedule and won them all soundly.  If true, this bodes well for any SEC teams that do make it in.

I just looked at their OOC schedule.  :eyeroll:  :dunno:

I understand the RPI and bad losses verse good losses but all that stuff should apply to teams that don't play in the same league. Missouri, Kentucky, Tenn do not deserve to be in ahead of us. We finished 2nd in the league tied with UK. We beat UK head-to-head and we make it further in the conference tournament. We finished ahead of Missouri and Tenn in the regular season and in the tournament. We beat Tenn 2 out of 3. Missouri beat us in the first SEC game of the year. That was a long time ago. Our SEC resume is better than theirs.

Only Ole Miss and Florida should be in ahead of us from the SEC.

I totally agree.

I know you would like to laser in on one thing as being the root cause of our ills. A couple guys harp on our running the shot clock down before they shoot. Others may point at foul shooting. The officiating has perturbed some (this one we have no control). Our sometimes abysmal shooting percentage. Hell, one AH on here keeps singling out one player as the source of our problem. But the fact of basketball is that it is a combination of these negatives, and a whole host of other issues which contribute to mediocrity. Couple that with the multitude of negatives and positives our opponent is experiencing on any given day and you've kinda gotta realize---"That's the way the ball bounces."

Here is why Missouri makes the Big Dance:

Regular Season

SOS=33 (Alabama is 92nd)
RPI =34 (Alabam is 60th)
23-10 regular season record (Alabama 20-11)


Let's be honest, Missouri deserves to go to the Dance much more than Bama.

Let me be honest. Missouri finished 6th in a weak SEC. To confirm that was not a mistake they lost on Friday of the SEC Tournament. HTH

Agreed.  Make playing a whole season of SEC games worth more than just a bye in the conference tourney.

Let's be really honest. If Alabama had the season Missouri had and Missouri had our season, you would be saying Missouri deserved to go to the Big Dance over Alabama, right? I await your unbiased answer.

 :eyeroll:

It hasn't been that long ago that the Selection Committee only bothered evaluating the last couple weeks of a teams season. I guess they first took the teams winning over 20 games on the year and then scrutinized the last few games of the regular season and the teams performance if they played a conf. tourney. That put the "hottest" teams on the court for the NCAA Tourney. The non-conference wins by Missouri would have not weighed much, nor the silly Bama losses.  They changed this not to get the best teams on the floor for the big dance, but to assure competition worthy of TV revenue in December.   

As I said in my post on page 2. I understand the RPI and bad losses verse good losses but all that stuff should apply to teams that don't play in the same league. There is too much common ground between league teams to disregard an 18 game season and conference tuornament.

BTW, Missouri can't win away from home!

Teams in the SEC East have an inherent advantage because that side is stronger than the West, so they tend to have a tougher SOS and higher RPI.  Last year it was Georgia that got in over Bama, even though we beat them, twice I think.  Missouri beat Illinois and VCU at neutral sites, TN beat Wichita State, Xavier and U Mass.  Bama beat Villinova, but had bad losses in December against fairly mediocre teams.

Yes, the committee has been emphasizing playing tough non-conference games in the Fall, even if you lose those games.  But I agree they should take a closer look at conference records and place a bit less emphasis on non-conference.  First, you cannot predict how good your opponents will be when you schedule.  Second, teams develop and get better by the time conference play rolls around.  And third, head-to-head conference competition in the Spring is a better indicator of where a team is by the time March rolls around than Fall play against different opponents.  Unfortunately, that does not appear where we are at.

Bama is a better team than TN and should get in over TN.  Even though they had some big wins early, Missouri did not seem to improve during the year.  Buy hey, they're Missouri, they're from "basketball country," or at least border Kentucky and Kansas.  I cannot say that Bama is better, though, as MO beat us pretty handily @ MO.  But that's academic, as MO seems pretty much in.  Ole Miss moved ahead of Bama by getting into the SEC finals, which is at least reasonable, although they played Vandy and not Florida.  They also beat Bama head-to-head at Miss.  Let's see how they fare today.

Anyway, it depends on how many SEC teams get in.  We got Florida, Missouri and Ole Miss definitely ahead of us.  Really, the SEC should get more than 3 teams, and Bama should be the 4th.  Other conferences get more than 3, the Big East, Big 10, ACC, PAC12,  Big 12, Mountain West and Atlantic 10 get more.  Heck,the Big East gets 8 and Big10 gets 7, but they never seem to do anything in the Tournament, relative to their numbers.  The SEC isn't that far behind in basketball.  Talk about your East Coast bias.

This discussion amazes me and all the excuses and & other reasons given for having the Tide in the NCAA Tourney. We had a devastatingly poor performance in our non-conference schedule, which some posters try to gloss over as either not that important or trying say it is overrated. Folks, if we do not lose to Tulane and Mercer, we might make the Big Dance. If we do not choke against Tennessee and get embarrassed by AUBURN, we probably make the Tourney. If we win all 4 of those games, we DEFINITELY make the Tourney. Look no further than Tuscaloosa to determine why we miss out on the Big Dance.

Updated info:

Mercer:
RPI  141
SOS 284

Tulane:
RPI  179
SOS 225

Auburn:
RPI  254
SOS 127


Instead of scheduling Tulane & Mercer, let's try to schedule 2 someone's from this group:

K. State
Butler
Wisconsin
Okla. State
Arizona
Michigan
Memphis
Notre Dame
Marquette
Syracuse
VCU


I think we will see an upgrade in our non-con schedule and a better team next year, assuming the big men we have signed stay with us and Engstrom returns healthy.

 :clap:

I have a question about officiating.  In the game it was obvious the FL player was getting upset with the tough defense from MG.  Why, when the FL player lowered a shoulder and threw an elbow at MG was he given a warning if I understood the announcers?  Why wasn't he called for a foul, especially with the elbow?  Also, I know Bama gets away with a few, but too me it looks like FL sets many moving screens.  In the two games I watched vs UF, it seems that they got the benefit of the officiating in both games.   Also, I still think Bama shoots better when the take the open shot when they have it as opposed to looking to pass first and think about the shot.

LOL. You are hanging next years hat on Engstrom? I guess that should not surprise me since you are so "star struck" with Steele. I hope you'll agree that offense is our problem, not defense. So the 3 points that Engstrom brings to the table will be offset by the 3 points that leaves with Steele's graduation. I hope this helps you! :huge eye roll:
 

Apparently, you did not comprehend the post. I was referring to the addition of our 2 big men signees and Engstrom, which would give us a better inside game and some desperately needed depth under the basket. Basketball is a team sport which requires many different types of players for the team to be successful.


 :duh:

LOL. If I were to make a list of what needs to happen to bump the Tide up a level next season, Engstrom might be referred to around #30. It would probably be something about wishing him good luck at North Alabama. JMHO

The RPI and SOS should carry a lot of weight when comparing teams from different leagues. As I have said there is too much common ground between league teams when they play an 18 game season and a conference tournament.

There is no East and West in basketball any longer. Begining this year each school plays the other 13 schools once. Each team plays 5 other schools twice. We play the barn, LSU and Miss St from the old west and UGA and Tenn from the old east. We were seeded strickly by conference records and not by east and west in the SEC Tournament this year.

The NCAA committee should review the entire body of work when comparing teams from different leagues. There is no way to know how Alabama and Oregon stack up so you use computer information of the RPI and SOS to try and compare them. When you play in the same league why use computers. We all know computers do not work in football. An 18 game season and a conference tournament is a good indicator on who the best teams in the league are.

I do not think I saw any SEC game this year when the officals were consistant. I think the college game is ready to go to the internation wider lane. That will open up the lane and stop the shoving matches under the basket.

The refs have not learned to look for the semi-circle under the basket when calling charge fouls either. If the defender is in the circle that is automatic defensive foul. They miss it all the time.

I agree we shoot better when we put the shot up direct off a pass or off the dribble. If we think about it we rarely hit the shot.

Exactly, so why the heavy reliance on computers in picking the brackets.  I guess my point was that the selection committee should pick the best teams from the conferences, as demonstrated in conference play, instead of this skewed* formula.  If computers don't work well in football, they work even less in basketball, with so many teams out there, and with more variability in team play from game to game.

I'm not saying Bama deserved to be in, just that the selection process leans heavily towards the northeast and midwest.  There is a lot of bias in the process.


* 8  Big East teams and 7 Big 10 teams but only 3 SEC teams is what I mean by skewed (a few years ago the Big East put in 11 teams but did nothing in the tournament).  In the past 7 years, the SEC has had three championships, 1 for the Big East, 2 for the ACC, 1 for the Big12, and zero for everyone else.  The Big10 has one champion since 1990, 6 for the SEC, 8 for the ACC, and 4 for the BigEast. 

 
I have to disagree on some of your points. We have to have strength-of-schedule factored into the equation. No way picking the best teams from each conference would be fair or even a good idea. The SEC has historically been a weaker BB conference than the ACC & Big Ten. How do you determine the best teams in a conference? Conference records are deceiving since you can have 3 really good teams in the SEC but have 5 really good teams in the ACC, as an example. Using number of championships won is skewered since so many teams play in the NCAA Tourney. I would like to know how well conferences have done say in making the Sweet 16, Elite 8, & Final Four.


 :think:

I don't have a link but I looked up the last five years by BCS conference:

Conference         Sweet 16      Elite 8      Final 4     Winner

ACC                       9                5              4           2
Big East                  13              8              4           1
Big 10                     13              3              3           0
Big 12                     11              9              4           1
Pac 10                    6                2              1           0
SEC                        8                7              1           1 

 #+ for pmull for the work of finding this stat. I was kind of wondering the same thing. I still think if we had a Wimp Sanderson again he would slap these guys in shape and get things going.  :jump:, RTR!

Good stuff pmull. I went back to 1990 on Final Four teams to come up with some interesting numbers. I did not count every single team from a conference such as the Colonial conference, Big West, or conferences which no longer exist.


ACC=21 appearances
Big Ten= 16
SEC=14
Big East=10
Big 12=10
PAC 12=9


The SEC hung in there pretty well with the ACC & Big Ten.

 :clap:

Sweet 16 and beyond (2007-2011)

ACC: 8 teams, 12-6, .667

Big East: 11 teams, 16-10, .615

SEC: 8 teams, 8-7, .533

Big 12: 10 teams, 10-9, .526

Big Ten: 10 teams, 8-10, .444

Pac-12: 9 teams, 5-9, .357

These numbers do not include 2012 when Florida reached the Elite 8 and Kentucky won the Championship.

I think these numbers show the SEC is holding their own at the top of the league. The SEC is getting snubbed because over the last few years in the Big East-SEC Challenge and some other early season games we have not done well in the bottom half of the league.

Year after year sports reporting (mostly in the Northeast) says the SEC is down and the Big East is the greatest. But as the above #s show, that is not the case even when the SEC is disadvantaged with less team participation in the NCAA Tourney.

 >:(

I think you have nailed it. The ACC and maybe Big Ten & Big East are deeper with good teams. Think of SEC football compared to all the other conferences, same thing.


 :clap: