424: FBH: Gators Roast Hogs For SEC Championship

0:00Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing victory lane. Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side. Race to Chamba Casino dot com. Let's Chamba. Don't purchase necessary VTW group void. We're prohibited by law CT and C's 21 plus sponsored by Chamba Casino. Hello and welcome to Florida basketball hour. I am Neil Blackness Saturday down south on this episode Eric Fawcett gettercountry.com basket under review. You know the sights. You know the sounds. You know the man. It's going to be joining us. We're going to talk for us 111 to 77 win over Arkansas last night in the Odo Gators Clutch at least a share of the SEC Championship with the victory. Obviously, Florida we can win on the tiebreaker in the standings of our Alabama having beaten Alabama pretty senselessly in Gainesville as well. But the SEC doesn't have a tiebreaker format. So in that scenario, if Florida loses two games this week in Alabama wins

1:04to Alabama is also the SEC champion. If Florida wins Tuesday night against Mississippi State, Florida wins the SEC title outright regardless of what happens moving forward. Florida is the guarantee to be the one seed in the SEC tournament. They cannot lose the one seed by virtue of their head to head win over Alabama. So that's kind of the basic general background of where the I guess SEC title race, whatever you want to call it, you know all that is that Florida has won the SEC championship. As you saw, they cut down nets and they've never been feddy. There were speeches. But technically, Alabama can still win the SEC championship at least until Tuesday night. The way that SEC tiebreakers rule Florida will be the one seed in Nashville by virtue of their head to head win over Alabama. I thought as we welcome in Eric,

2:08I thought given the stakes, given the opponent and the quality of the opponent, given sort of the atmosphere, it was the biggest home win for Florida in in a very long time. You know, I argued 2014. I thought about that today. I still think that like I think 2017, they had a win over Kentucky similar type of atmosphere and scenario situation, game day in the house. But this game felt bigger and also Florida could win a championship on their home floor and and and they did putting up, you know, arguably their most impressive performance in the golden era in in the process. Yeah, like the only thing that would would hurt the case. I suppose it's just the fact that I'm just still not sure how good I think Arkansas is. Not sure how good I think the SEC is. But whatever the case, I'd be it's hard to

3:09look at the atmosphere that was in Gainesville, the fact that it was with college game day there. And not just like college game day was there, but it just it really felt to have the the last game day before conference season or conference tournament start. It really did feel like kind of all eyes around the Gators. All eyes on this game and for it to just be a game with zero drama and just an absolute beat down. Yeah, it's hard not to say this one for me. Anything probably earlier than than 2014 you are challenging my personal memory or or just like, you know, I don't claim to be an expert on stuff too much earlier than than that. But yeah, it's just for for a game to still matter so much to Arkansas. Yes, it was important to the Gators. They wanted to seal the the SEC regular season title. But like Arkansas could have really used a game like that to get up a seed hopefully for them or they would hope that'll game like that would would boost them

4:13up a seed matter greatly to them. Obviously they if they win that game suddenly the SEC race becomes very, very interesting. And it was just you know, it looked like a buy game. Like if you just saw the Gators win 111 to 77 and it's never close. And the garbage time started at the under four of the first half. You would say like, oh, yeah, this was the Gators playing Bethune Cookman, not Arkansas. Actually, Bethune Cookman's pretty good this year. I think it floored a play. It was played Bethune Cookman. I don't know if they would have beaten them as bad as they just beat Arkansas. So yeah, it's just pretty monumental. And I also lastly would like to say and I have said this in to a lot of people to a lot of coaches and a lot of different leagues. Like if you if there's a tie at the top of a regular season title and one team through the tie breakers has been decided to be the number one seed like that team is what like I'm not into this like sharing regular season title. And there's good friends of mine or teams that I work with that have claimed regular season titles by by tying for first but losing the tie break. Yeah, get get out of here. So I would

5:16I would have said that if the Gators are on the the wrong the wrong side of that too. So I am glad that the Gators got down the nets had a party. This wasn't like a hey, well, you know, let's see how the tie breakers shake out, especially given how it's still, you know, so unlikely, especially with the Gators about to play a Mississippi state team that's just putrid to the point of I'm not even sure how much we're going to talk about that game on this on this podcast. So yeah, just in all out, all out beat down. And I just certainly in my time ever watching watching the Gators. I can't remember just an absolute party like that. And it was I'll also say while I continue to round on. This was like in these games that have one million stoppages and teams commit one billion fouls. And there's a million reviews oftentimes it can just completely take the energy out of a building, particularly in a blowout because it's just like there's there's no tension. There's no suspense. And the crowd in Gainesville almost used the opportunity of these topages just to like

6:18get louder and fill in the space. And I just thought that was miraculous because this is a game that we everyone could have been just kind of waiting to be over kind of just waiting for the party to to start with the win. And it still was like as loud as possible when they're reviewing whatever with nine minutes left in the second half when the game is all but decided. So really impressed with the crowd that was there as well to kind of still make it feel special in a game that was there's a chance that there was literally an hour and 20 minutes of garbage time in real time. And could have just been quiet. Could have been just like let's just like run out the clock let the Gators win by a bunch. But the crowd really made it like feel special like for us that were watching the broadcast. You know, Neil, I know you've been your at most home games. I think you've probably been at every game that Dan Schulman is called, which is just a couple, but like Dan Schulman for ESPN. You know, I'm a Blue Jace fan Toronto Blue Jace watch a lot of Blue Jace baseball. Dan Schulman, we are very lucky to have him calling games in sports net in Canada. So I hear him a lot through the summer.

7:20Calling Blue Jace games and in in everyone knows who's a baseball fan and in baseball broadcasts. It's almost like two guys are like recording a podcast, especially in a blowout because there's just like there's only so much game to talk about and you have to fill space. So I'm very used to like Dan Schulman in kind of like podcast host baseball mode where he's just got to like fill space in a game that doesn't matter. And like I got flashbacks to that on on Saturday because there was just garbage time from five minutes left in the first half where like did Schulman's got to like get as much as much time as possible out of like how fishing stories. And he's just got to like he just has to milk that for all these words. And I mean, Schulman did an incredible job, which is tough to do in some blowouts. But that was just that was what this game turned into was like Dan Schulman in baseball mode having to just fill an hour of dead time because this game was just just irrelevant for the second half. Yeah, can't can't speak enough to the beat down. Well, let's talk about it a little bit. I thought like and you know I missed a lot of the

8:26celebration because really most all of it they were sort of setting things up and bringing ladders out and and all of that and you know the assistant SID came up came over and told us that like cow would be up pretty soon. And so like he wasn't going to wait for the celebration in like they got a charter flight to catch and I was like well I want to talk to cow like you know I want to hear what he has to say because cow won't make cronin cows not going to like he's going to talk to you anyway he's not going to give you one and a half minutes and like be pissed and leave. And I mean he was great and he kind of like I thought he made two really fascinating points and you know they're not you know this isn't like the secret to basketball this is going to be two jogging but you know he complimented the scout which Todd Golden did later and he just said like

9:27Florida did kind of two things that really bothered Daria Sakef Jr who had his worst gaming college at least from a field goal percentage and assistant turnover perspective and he still like had 17 points and six assists and only committed three turnovers and like wasn't bad by any search of the imagination but was frustrated by Florida's length and athleticism and cows said first of all like it was the first time since the Houston game that someone really committed to denying him the ball once he got rid of the ball and he said Florida just did a great job of you know fighting around screens and kind of chasing a cuff around and really making him work just to get the ball back and then he said you know everybody tries to force Daria's to his left he said it's another thing to be able to execute it and he said you know Florida and he again referenced Houston and said like other than Houston and he said part of the Duke game because Arkansas made a big rally in the

10:32Duke game and actually led that game late he said nobody had really done that so I mean it's kind of a testament to something that Eric has been talking about I don't know you correct me if I'm wrong I really think since November you've been kind of saying like Florida team has a chance to be like really fantastic defensively and actually has been playing fantastic defensively and you know I know Florida scored 111 points or whatever it was but it was defense like they got down 1611 and then they just clamped down I think Arkansas went to for their next 13 and you know it was it was 1611 Arkansas and in five minutes of game time later it was 3322 and Arkansas was dead they were just done well and you can see and this is this has been kind of something that has happened to Calipari even kind of throughout his career even going back to some of his really good Kentucky teams is when they are a team that is so transition reliant things can really snowball quickly

11:35because once they start allowing points then they can they can't get out and run and then if they can't get out and run then they take bad shots or turn the ball over and then the other team scores and transition and like things can really snowball against the team that is so transition reliant and that's what I feel kind of happened and I also feel like when the ball was out of Darius Acuff Sands I know he was getting the overrated chance all night which I understand is the the role of the student section like I still think Acuff is is really really good dare I dare I say properly rated but you know who might be a little overrated is well I don't need to say they're overrated but like I really do think that like Malik Thomas is a really good player but he's kind of like a play finisher and when it got to trying to create on his own wasn't totally there really impressive game by Billy Richmond who's been playing really good as of late but like you know outside of that you know the the the front court just not being able to handle Florida's physicality

12:41on either end and I also just I just like don't really remember the the front court being used as as offensive hubs where I actually thought that that would be a decent opportunity for Arkansas but it just seemed like if it wasn't in Acuff Sands it was getting out to DJ Wagner who was again none of these guys were on their own terrible but just you know DJ Wagner Malik Thomas and just trying to create on their own is just not not good enough to hang with a Florida team that was playing out of their minds like which is not you can still be not bad and not up to that caliber and I feel like that was that was the case and we had a pregame zoom for our Patreon subscribers which is super fun whenever we do those really good basketball discussion as always and one of the things we talked about was just like yeah just how reliant Arkansas is on Acuff and I think I said that I thought he was going to end with 22 points but on not great efficiency I forget when he left the game he certainly wasn't playing down the stretch

13:42I mean he still played you know 34 minutes so it's all like he didn't play it's on but yeah you did see a bit of what you said he still was 17 and 6 I'm not very good efficiency so the Gators did a did a great job but yeah what's what's next after him offensively is just not good enough and then the fact that Arkansas doesn't have the kind of biggs that Calipari has been known for like they don't have any of these NBA shop blocking lob catching biggs they don't have the Oscar Shibuya monster yeah again I think Brazil's good player I think you and okay but they're also just not like you eat right away and I I joke that Florida would play would have you know not beaten the Thune Cookman by more maybe joking a little bit but that's one thing when you look at Arkansas like outside of a cuff and Richmond they don't they don't look like a Calipari team and that is not to say they're not like there's some talented players that are not those two but Arkansas from the opening tip was just like oh man their front court is really small next to Florida's they are not very they're not super athletic and you know you you even mentioned on the pregame

14:48zoom that a cuffs maybe not as tall as he's listed out but you know he's still stronger whatever but he also doesn't you don't look at him and you're not like wow that guy is good because he is physically dominant which has been the case for a lot of Calipari guards so yeah that's maybe we're speaking a little bit more to what Arkansas is as a team but whatever the case may be I don't think there is talented is what you'd expect and they were just a just a horrible like Florida's just an absolutely horrible matchup for them when everything goes through a cuff and boogie fan can be so good on the ball and Florida can just keep everything out in front of them with their length and Florida can just absolutely dominate them size wise in the front court like every every category everything that could go wrong for Arkansas Florida is built to do and something that I didn't really hear discussed at all is like hey there's still a chance these teams play each other again there's a chance that Arkansas finish a second the gators are first and maybe they're destined to be I at this point you know I don't even know why I think the next best team is in the SEC but you know the gators could play Arkansas again and if so I just think

15:50that's an absolute nightmare for Arkansas the gators are just perfectly suited to just dominate them yeah I mean and like I agree and you know Malik Thomas like the way he gets going really the way Arkansas gets going is that they make three's early like they make three's or they don't have to make a ton the whole game they're not Alabama right but they made 13 they shot 26 against Alabama okay Alabama doesn't guard anybody but they made you know nine seven of which came in the first half and they're win over Vanderbilt there's another game I'm Missouri they made eight of 18 they shot 14 in the first half right and I think that opens the floor for them and that's how they then they space you and then you're toast because either you're chasing or you're closing out on shooters and Florida was just like we're gonna run you up the line and Malik Thomas you're not getting them up like his two attempts game in the second half he didn't make one well he's shooting 40%

16:53right and like he has to have that to kind of thrive um and you know again like if they if Malik Thomas is taking twos on you we're trying to finish over length like I think you live with right um Billy Richmond is really good uh he was a little less efficient in the second half when they they stopped switching him really a little more and and kind of stuck Tommy Halk on him more when Tommy was in the game um and I think I think that worked um but you know he also drove past Halk on the first possession of the game so but it was a better match up than when they switched in Richmond it's just really quick um but I think you know to Tarex Point like if you can get them out of their transition game and Florida did that by not really turning over the ball in the first half at all um they're you can guard them in the half-court when you're as big and physical as Florida because a cuff is big and strong right I mean Dame Lillard is six one two

17:56hundred and you can see those comparisons um but but I think you know Florida just they just never let either of those two freshman guards get going and there's really not like Billy Rich and becoming a third option probably raises Arkansas's ceiling to like the elite eight um at least in my opinion um depending on their draw like but if they play somebody like Iowa that doesn't turn the ball over they're in trouble Eric like that was kind of one of my like larger external takeaways from this game is let's be very careful with Arkansas when we got pick our bracket on Florida basketball hour because there's going to be a match up if somebody doesn't turn it over and you can't get buckets easy buckets on them like you're toast and then the flip side is like Arkansas yeah I mean they shoot 57.3% on twos they shot 42% against Florida Florida does that to everybody that's part of why Florida so good defensively but I think you know the flip side is

19:00what would be the other ingredient for Arkansas being in a lot of trouble in March it would be like a team that can just absolutely punish them for not defending drives well like in Florida Xavier Lee could have scored 25 I felt like like he got into the paint whenever you wanted to and honestly like I don't know like and it's I'm not criticizing the staff too much when they went by 34 but I might have just been like why aren't we driving more like I thought there were some possessions where Florida settled a little bit um and they scored 111 so you know if somebody can get into the paint they're 288th and 2.0 defense and there's a reason for that it's just that Thomas and Acuff can't stay in front of people like I just um you know I don't I don't think it's going to be interesting it's going to be their super match up oriented whereas what I think is happening with Florida over the last couple weeks with Irby

20:05Claves are making 44% of his threes um I mean he's up to 19 points per 40 minutes according to CBB analytics um faucet probably has his catch and shoot numbers they're preposterous uh like Florida now because they're making threes um you know I think they needed to make a few more I've always said 33 or 34% but like there's an argument that this Florida team is a little more match-up proof than last year's was when the NCA tournament starts I haven't convinced myself of that yet but I do think you could at least argue it just because Florida's going to beat people up on the glass and they're going to get extra possessions in March so it was like what do you do with those extra possessions and like you needed more competent guard play but it's hard to find like styles that are going to give Florida trouble um and yeah so I'll throw that to faucet

21:06and lastly just say that you know man I agree that there is not I don't know who the second best team in the SEC is either but we did a long film study on Arkansas patreon.com sort of slash Florida basketball art Florida BB hour go to patreon.com slash Florida BB hour and subscribe you're gonna get all this stuff uh these film studies and as we move into March all that stuff is at the patreon it's not on the podcast like we just they mean we he's at basketball under review slapping glass gator country um you know I've got a ton I am the like lead hoops writer at Saturday down south we have a lot of stuff going on and it's just easier for us first of all on our own time to go to patreon and put stuff up and that film study was so illuminating because it was like there's a lot of stuff Arkansas does really well but there's also flaws with that team um and like it played out that way like I and in many ways Terry take up juniors underrated because they still don't run a lot of great stuff

22:10offensively and he just you know because he's so tough and good at getting into the pain and he's such a great passer they get shots right um anyway that that's kind of those are my oh hello it is Ryan and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day couldn't we just to make up for things like sitting in traffic doing the dishes counting your steps you know all the mundane stuff that is why I'm such a big fan of chamba casino chamba casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime anywhere with daily bonuses so sign up now at chamba casino dot com that's chamba casino dot com you know what I could really go for right now literally anything that comes in a McDonald's carton rapper or bag or a McDonald's cup yes any of those items you do it we've got your cravings covered now stop in for the flaky

23:12of fish the crispy snack wrap or a large fries for just $2.99 limited time only price and participation may vary cannot be combined with any other offer bar arching thoughts go to patreon and subscribe no better time to do that now than now you're muted brutal brutal yeah it was like into the patreon page so yeah like the thing about the the patreon especially when it comes to that absolute sprint between selection Sunday and the Thursday or Friday whenever Florida will end up playing it's just so busy for a number of reasons which means like me and Neil will will get together for some kind of preview or well I a preview not some kind of preview but there's gonna be just lots of times where when we have chances to do content it'll be solo so it also means there's gonna be a lot of content because when Neil wants to do something that he's thinking about about the game previewing he'll do it when I do

24:15I'll do it Neil filled out brackets I filled out brackets like or a bracket so like you'll see our picks kind of independent of each other so it's not just the the Florida stuff so and of course this is yeah this is when we kick it into high gear we know a lot of you will subscribe all year long which is amazing I honestly think some of the offseason content is is the best I know it's some people's reaction that it's like oh well I'll subscribe once the season starts but like when it comes to the transfer portal when it comes to the dog days of the offseason when you don't have any other content and we're putting it out consistently there's there's great value there but this is obviously a great time to join and that will be the first place even anything that comes onto this free podcast feed it'll go to the patreon first so when you're just itching for stuff right away then the patreon's a great way to get it first there will be great discussion in the comments on both the gators the matchup and I'm sure everything else to do with the NCAA tournament so

25:16really great time to join and ensure that we continue to do this type of content you know when you were talking about is Florida more like matchup proof I think they absolutely are because I think last year you look at the fact that the gators had some turnover problems in the back court and you're like okay well like who can turn these who can turn these these guys over um you looked at some teams that could possibly do it and you did see in the NCAA tournament there was some some some shaky moments with teams that could turn the gators over in the back court there was some situations where it's like okay like Florida doesn't like struggle to guard but like they're really bad at guarding actions the really bad at guarding stuff off the ball um some team that does that could really push them you can't really push them and then there was like okay well like we know that when when push comes to shove it's Alex continent the five and and how could the four so that's still really good but this they they are a little bit undersized and some teams that have some more below the rim kind of bangers um they could give they could give the gators the problem um Texas tech probably beats the gators

26:18eight times out of 10 or whatever you want to say um so we we saw even while the gators were winning the championship last year they had some clear deficiencies that they're not deficiencies just you know no team is perfect to call address wall but like yeah there's just there's going to be some matchups that were tougher for them there's also some matchups that were very good for them like we saw against Maryland which like Maryland was a good team gators handled them with ease um where I look at this team and the fact that size it like opposing size is obviously never going to be a problem um that's something that um uh like there's no there's no there's no team that that who who has a front court that's going to like scare the gators yes some could maybe play um play them tight um but like you're not like concerned Florida has the elite stopper at point guard that they didn't have last year when it was Walter Clayton so you know boogie fland is is kind of makes you less scared of those opposing guards all season long he's handled those guys um just kind of like generally speaking i feel like this team is much better

27:21defensively so there's not a lot of matchups there the only thing that really could scare you is like with uh how could the three sometimes there have been smaller guards that could give them problem and for like 90 seconds i guess we didn't see that with uh with Arkansas where they went right at him um maybe you're a little concerned if with how is avian lee guards and his lack of physicality but there's so few teams that actually try to pick on it and punish it so and the other thing too is because the gators aren't great in half court offense and just bludgeon people like their offense all season long has kind of been like good defense agnostic like it doesn't matter if the other team is good or bad defensively Florida just does their thing and gets offensive rebounds and like they we've seen them play good defenses and they just they miss their shots and they get off into ruins and score and if they play bad defenses then yeah then they suddenly have a little bit more juice off the bomb they're able to make things happen so we've kind of seen it all year long that it doesn't really matter how like there there's some teams that have really bad defenses that the gators have not been able to really take advantage of and really score a ton

28:25but at the same time when they played good deep good defenses they still are relatively efficient so they it doesn't really matter the quality of the defense they're going against and coercely the gate there's there's not a lot of offensive teams that are kind of built to give the gators trouble so I kind of do feel like I'm not saying the gators are unbeatable we have seen they are beatable this regular season and still the lack of shooting could could hurt them but just yeah generally speaking I don't see I don't yeah I don't see them having the same kind of matchup issues um I think they're still like yeah there's still questions of like yeah maybe they won't shoot the three well enough and that'll that'll hurt them totally that could absolutely happen but it's not necessarily going to be like a matchup thing um there's certainly ways that the gators you know could could the gators play so badly offensively that they can't stay in a game like against I don't know like like Auburn like sure that could happen but like look at look at what Auburn has been since that game I don't think it was like Auburn was a bad matchup for the gators I

29:26think the gators did not play well so yeah still it still may be ceiling questions like Florida doesn't have Walter Clayton bailing them out like they had last year when they had bad matchups so I don't feel like the upside is the same as last year necessarily but I do feel as though there's there's not going to be any real matchup issues um that would like scare you a ton we're even last year they see we all had Yukon winning and um the first you like we all we all had the give the Florida versus Yukon matchup in our brackets or most of us did and I think we even saw like oh that could be a challenging matchup for the gators there's just no way I see any of the eight nine teams or or without even there's seven 10 if the gators are too see um no like there's just none of those teams I think oh that this could be a bad matchup so I think just that point even just right there kind of illustrates the the difference between last year and this year and and the fact that there's not these these at again not saying the gators can't lose to it seven seed but there's not it's it's not like oh here's a matchup that is that is clearly challenging yeah I left uh

30:31David Barrett's coming up there talking about how you know can't guard fast small forwards maybe an overstatement on can't but yeah certainly struggles more with that like the emergence of Isaiah Brown has certainly helped I mean he was plus 21 in the first half yesterday uh and he's another guy that like again like Florida kind of drove the ball whenever they wanted to and you know once brown hit a three like just starts attacking closeouts and Florida was uh Florida's four best drivers you know um Xavier Lee Tommy Hauke, Fland and Zebra were 19 of 24 from two yesterday I mean that's that's really good I don't know I don't know what to do like and and again like a lot of that is Arkansas's defensive deficiencies but still I mean the gators are kind of they're just playing at

31:32such a higher level now and a lot of it is like well they've made some shots so defenses you know half it's getting harder to just sag in the paint um and you know hey good for them they're gonna need all that I think uh in March but the antidotes that we're working much earlier in the season are are certainly less uh effective now which which contributes to Florida uh being matchup proof maybe we'll do a patreon on on Isaiah Brown and kind of his emergence I don't know that might might be something that uh you get at patreon.com in the next um you know a couple weeks here I did want to say that since it's March now um there is a bracket contest at scusley for March badness over at my bookie um they're gonna give out quite a bit of money um through through their bracket contest a hundred thousand dollars is what they're giving out a hundred grand that's real cash it's all up for grabs um they're also celebrating a hundred thousand followers on instagram with another

32:35ten thousand dollars in prizes if you go over and follow them head to mybookie.ag use the promo code Neil 500 and you'll get your first bet covered up to 500 bucks courtesy of signing up uh because you listen to Florida basketball and if your bet misses you just activate the bet back bonus and you can run it back without losing any money March badness only comes once a year go to my bookie .ag check those guys out um certainly glad that um they are sponsoring us as we head into the month of iso the month of Walter quid in junior whatever you want to call it um it is finally upon us and I and I will say like um award season is super fascinating to me and the SEC somebody asked me last night that I think Florida would sweep the awards and I said I don't know I'm going to ask Eric on the podcast kind of where he is on some of these awards and I didn't I should have checked how many starts a marialin has um because I'll start there like I think

33:36I think erby clavs are kudwin six man of the year but I also think that like the reality is if a marialin has less than nine or if he has nine starts or less he's going to win um and should um but if he's over nine starts now then you know he would not be eligible for SEC rules and then it could go to clavs are who I think would make the most sense. SEC player of the year is tougher I have been advocating maybe more than I even feel journalistically comfortable doing so uh for for Thomas Halk winning the award he is um the the highest rated player in offensive the highest rated really candidate um in defense of viscency by a ton um and his defensive performance rating is 1.6 over liberan violence it's 2.1 over darius a cuff juniors at evan mia if defense matters then how should win going away he's also one of four players in

34:36college basketball with a true shooting percentage of 60 percent or higher averaging 20 points per 40 minutes or more in quad one game so in big games Tommy Halk actually plays at a higher level than liberan phylon and darius a cuff juniors some of that you could say is because of his teammates anyway i've made the case for Tommy Halk i will say that you know i still think a cup's going to win i think the media is going to vote for him um i do not think that if Halk won it would be wrong i think that he is the more complete player right now doesn't mean i think he'll be a better pro either um but i do think how you guard should matter um and excuse me i think i think uh that would be my take on that i and i you know don't have a real strong case uh a real strong take on coach of the year other than it's starting to look like tod gulms just gonna win because the other

35:38candidates for coach of the year have kind of fallen off um and like Sean Miller's early season wasn't good enough and i do think maybe we should talk a little about the Texas game um but we don't have to i mean other than like it was impressive the floor to help because i think they're really good offensively and florida just stop them for eight minutes and won the game um but there's my my two cents staying on task on awards Eric um i was just looking at the history of the award um i what what of my i don't know deficiencies as a person um you can be the judge i like i i i just like don't really care about awards in a lot of ways and people have probably heard me like i've maybe like intuited that by listening to our show for some of years now i'm just gonna like say it but like i i sure i i enjoy some of the arguments at times so but like just i i had to like go back and look at who won player of the year just because the the question i had i was

36:41gonna ask you and i'm like i should probably just like check instead of trying to see off the top of your head if you know but just kind of historically in the league um has it been best player on best team or has it been super productive guy or or whatever the the case may be so i do see that you know it was jenni broom in 2020 or last season it was Dalton connect the year prior brann and miller the year prior um one thing is really interesting is herb jones one in 2020 2021 going back to your like guarding should um should matter um probably a good uh a good vote for or you know it's good to see her word jones winning so that was pretty big um yeah like it's it's always such a challenge to me like what like what darius acuff is doing is truly remarkable to me um just because i don't feel like he's getting the best support don't feel like he's getting the best

37:42actions ran for him and still finding a way to put up massive productive numbers um i i know it's like also one thing i kind of do like and i know this is again semantic which is part of the reason i don't always um part of the reason i don't always love just like awards because so many leagues will say um you know there's going to be so many leagues that are like most valuable player as opposed to like most outstanding player or whatever the case may be the semantic arguments of like you know what the MVP is so i actually do really like that the SEC has um um you know player of the year it's not like most valuable because someone could certainly make an argument that darius acuff is most valuable to his team because man if if he wasn't on Arkansas but um yeah whatever the case would be it's it's kind of interesting to see in some of the history that there's a little bit of a mix of like best player on best team but also um not exclusively so you can kind

38:44of take it a little bit of a way um i you know i'm big big alabama like i i respect a lot what they're doing people know that i still just like don't see labaren phylon in the mix as much i would say it's going to be halk or uh um uh or or acuff um you know even to see vander build kind of dropping off tyler tanner is is out of the picture um i i do think there's a compelling argument for for both um and it is just also a tough situation for halk where to some extent when your team is this deep what was halk ever going to be able to do to like separate him to be that absolute star in the kind of same way as a as as an acuff or alabaren phylon um and also on i'll also say on the the coach of the year thing um one area that i wish i really like i delivered this take or before the season but i don't think i was strong enough and i really wish i delivered the take

39:45stronger all these coaches sucked in the transfer portal every single sec coach sucked and i'd also even say like i mean we can argue by like i don't want to say florida sucked i still like it's not she kind of crazy that florida still didn't do necessarily great in the portal and are still good but there's a lot of teams that could just completely mismatched it so i think all these coaches deserve like like many of these coaches deserve a slap on the wrist because these rosters were all built horribly everyone did poorly in the portal and a lot of these coaches the styles of player just ask in the league in my opinion like i just i i'm really disappointed in the scc this year at a lot of the coaches so like i don't like i don't care like like sure like i i hope it's golden um but like i i just look at what some of these other teams have done and it's just utmost roster mismanagement and i feel like again i i did kind of mention it in the preseason i was like yeah like i just i don't think i would have built like i i feel like all of these teams didn't do very well in the portal but i kind of like said it like that i i i really should have said it with

40:46my whole chest i thought these coaches all the terrible in the portal and now it's so some of people who remember that will remember that i said it will like no it's not full revisionist history i said it i didn't believe it strong enough but um yeah that's just like i i don't feel like any of these coaches and the other thing too is i still think it's very impressive i know i talk about all the time that alabama is it all in the mix for the top of this league given that their roster is just not that good there's also no way in hell a lot of people would ever vote for for nato it's given the the bety-aco situation and and there there will be some ventuals so for that reason i i think it will be golden um i just you know i i just looked down the look down the the rosters for a lot of these teams that wasted so much money on so many players that are not good enough really poor work so i'm i'm gonna say this is uh this is this is a in addition to to handing out coach the year award i think that the league should just give a a a great to the league of coaching and the SEC deserves a D um minus for for coaching this year on a whole whatever the dean of coaches is for

41:50the SEC or whatever that that that fraternity is of coaches they need to they need to all look in the mirror um and then i guess in terms of like sweeping awards um i i forget like does yet because again i just like i i to be honest i just like don't care enough to vote awards um is there a freshman of the year because i guess that would be one that uh that would keep the gators from from sweeping uh just not yeah they don't have to me yeah yeah so that would be uh so i i forget the original one is like oh the gators could sweep or whoever mentioned the comment that the gators could sweep awards uh yeah the uh they don't really have a contender here for freshmen yeah these are great takes i actually talked to ebony ecawa about like how i think the state of mississippi like just deserves a complete f in college basketball for like the roster builds that christ jans and kris beer did like the kris's failed spectacularly and like i will say i was right about all miss and called it like and i'm glad when we had our our ballot this year i think we had all miss like 12 and a lot of people are like why'd you put them 12 and i said i have them 12

42:50because kris beer's the coach like i wanted to put them 15 i thought that that roster made no sense um i thought malik d is your best player and you did basically nothing to help him um like a j store a ball dominant guard who likes to play on the same side of the flora's dia was like how does that help him it just makes your spacing bad um and doesn't get the ball to dia who you should be playing through because he's such a great passer anyway like and then you know miss state who doesn't have nearly the ini allable miss but you know some of the the players they got like how are the how is any of that compliment early to josh hubbard um and you know it sucks that we'll have a march madness without josh hubbard because that guy's awesome make he's so fun and great florida's gonna play him Tuesday josh pride gonna go for 30 and florida's gonna win by 30 you know and that's how bad miss state is so uh yeah i mean it's funny to me like i i think florida

43:54did fine in the portal like xavian lee has adjusted um he's playing with him himself boogie flan has been really good defensively for the most part all season um there's been i thought the texas game actually was kind of a weird one for him defensively i didn't think he played particularly well uh in that game defensively and actually kind of got beat off the bounce by guys that shouldn't beat him off the bounce and it had some weird plays where he got far away from train on mark and like that couldn't have been the scout and um you know anyway i didn't think he played particularly well in that game but i thought he was good when he played last night um on that end very good uh yeah i mean you know trying to think of who had a good mic white had a good roster build then an idea of how they wanted to play um and they used their NIL on smart guys like they probably spent a little over market value and i'm not speculating faucet and i usually aren't speculating when we talk about what someone spends they probably

44:56spent a little over market value on like Jeremiah Wilkinson but it's been worth it like he's been really good like uh smurf milliner they got for about what market value is those are the two i know for sure and he's been really good you know i don't know what they spent on canon kitchens i guess probably more than milliner um and he's been pretty good right like they hit a lot and they had an idea of how they wanted to play which for a mic white team as everyone knows i'd be good for them good for him for figuring out that he needed to do something different because George is pretty good i think they're gonna get to the second round um i don't know if they'll win in the second round i think they're classic round of 32 mic white team though and you know but but yeah just so many funky to bad roster builds so eric and eric did i can describe to this when we were debating where to put people in our preseason poll um vanderbilt's another team i thought had a nice roster build like they just weren't big enough um but you know nonetheless the point is

46:00eric was like i don't know about their roster build i don't know about their right and so this is something that i wish he had beat his chest about it bork as it looks really smart it really looks it looks super smart now uh game time side kicks is our other sponsor we're not going to preview miss state very much because we've gone like 45 minutes and it's super fun to do that i have a game time side side kicks uh mug here you know you can see this one's a national champion one um i have a couple others that are smaller um but yeah go to game time side kicks.com if you spend 60 dollars they give you a free kuzi as well they sponsor all our game previews um florida clinch and outright scc championship at home against miss state i did want to talk a little bit okay david says they get an a plus on the portal yeah i mean retention is part of roster build so of course you know they deserve full credit for their roster retention and i thought passing on desmond claude as it turns out i agree with that like you know that was smart they got spooked by his

47:05parents and desmond claude would not have helped this team and in fact he would have made things much worse uh and who knows if that personality would have made things worse too because for mall accounts you know that i've heard boogie fland has been a great teammate has really just been somebody that actually people gravitate towards as opposed to like why isn't he hitting shots now they're saying why isn't he hitting shots but he's done everything that this staff has asked him to do um you know so that's kind of the report on him uh yeah let's close with the kentucky rematch i think it's no longer like desperation station for kentucky because they'd be Vanderbilt yesterday uh and really waxed them pretty good but i will say that like if kentucky wants to not be on the eight nine line they might want to beat florida and rob and like how motivated are the gators in that game

48:06does florida have to win that game to get a one seed um yeah no it's an intriguing it's an intriguing one and it stins all average in senior day yeah i think it will be big for kentucky um both for the reason you kind of like first mentioned when um uh just like the fact that right now kentucky is somewhere on that seven eight line would they like in the ante double a tournament but you even look for their ability to go um to go win a uh or to make a little bit of a run in the sec tournament like they are right in the absolute blender of the sec because um behind the gators who have somewhat ran away with the top to maybe win the league by multiple games like arkansas third right now at eleven and five and texas a and m one two three four five six seven eight ninth at nine and seven like and and kentucky's right in in there and ten and six like right now like you know like third is in play for kentucky but also like ninth like that that game is almost

49:08certainly going to have uh pretty big um implications for kentucky in the sec standings so um yeah it's gonna matter a lot to them and yeah they so i i expect yeah the very very motivated kentucky team um one that has been um not particularly consistent um even with not even just from a kind of win lost standpoint i actually feel like they're um um like their win loss inconsistency is like almost a little bit overrated like still they're worse losses to Auburn at 40 and yes Auburn hasn't been playing great in the midst of that but like it's not like kentucky has dropped a terrible one even going back to whatever one thought that they were awful in non-conference play for losing the great point. Zaga, Louisville, Michelle say however just their inconsistency within games has been very notable and we saw that when kentucky played the gators where um they were really bad to start and they kind of brought

50:08their way back and that's been a lot of the situations even when kentucky's won they dig themselves a hole um they they climb back out of it but yeah they're they're inconsistency there has been been huge and that has been ultimately what has what has costed them um and uh yeah so that's uh so but yeah just overall i think kentucky is going to be uh yeah it's going to be a huge one for kentucky i don't it's it's so hard to say what's like must win for the gators to get a one seed or or whatever because and and this is one of the problems i kind of have with general bracket talk and it is also kind of hard to do for someone in our situation coming from a Florida angle as we speak is so much of like comments on our stuff on the patreon or or when we're talking or people responding will be like oh well like you know the gators win this win this win this and they are um they're going to be a this seed and it's like maybe but things don't happen in a vacuum so it's kind of impossible to say like there is a chance that Florida loses this game and it would be like

51:11the difference between them being uh getting a one seed or not because they go and win the rest of the way and other teams in the big 12 or lose but there's also a chance that it it ultimately doesn't mean anything so it is it is really difficult to say right now what is must win but you you think about a road game with kentucky and then you think about what the gators will be dealing with in the SEC tournament as the presumed one seed um they're probably not going to play a high value game until the semi finals um and the finals and even then that neutral site game in the semis could be with a team that's like in the 25-ish range in kenpum which again is still a valuable game but it's not the kind of marquee stuff that these big 10 and big 12 teams will be getting and the ones that that Florida's trying to catch so um yeah it's i it's it's it's it's hard to just describe oh this has must win to be a one seed oh this is doesn't matter there'll be a two seed it's it's so difficult to say but if i if i like had to say i still the way i look at it feel

52:16like the gators will need things to kind of break their way to be a one seed so if i had to say sure whatever yes this is a must win if the gators want to be a one seed um i don't feel strongly about that take but i i don't want to you know don't love to be in the mushy middle with takes on this podcast i will if i if i had to say then sure yes must win for the gators if they want to be a one seed and even then who knows yeah i think those are i think that's pretty right i i think Florida they're i don't think that they're path to the one seed like i think it would do them better to win it rough than like to win a high value game a quote unquote high value game in the s c tournament semi final which right now by the way would be like the winner of vendor bill texas a and m now there's still two games the place of the seeding can like come up a beating Vanderbilt on uh semi away floor uh in the quarter final i don't know like maybe that helps a little bit because Vanderbilt's predictives

53:18are so good still um but like i don't know if right now there's a scenario where Kentucky plays Missouri in the quarter final and then Florida we get a rematch with Missouri in the s c semi final or have to play Kentucky third time in the s c semi final and i don't know if that helps Florida because i honestly am not convinced that the committee watches power five tournament games that occur on saturday um or sunday anymore like i'm just not convinced of that anymore and i think um you know so that's kind of why i think this week like winning it rough maybe more for florida's one seed chances now look if florida loses the s c quarter final maybe they lose a one seed as a is a result of that and maybe that game matters more than an s c semi final does but that's kind of my take on it i posted resume metrics today i actually was wrong on wins about bubble i used the torvik lab number uh which is six and the insia lab number apparently is different for some reason um not i i'm gonna say not your fault when this morning i saw multiple um high profile national

54:22media types using the wrong the wrong web so uh thank you you you were not i will say like you one or not the only one and two there's a good chance you saw pretty much all of college basketball media using the wrong one away so that is uh that is a a i'm glad you know i didn't you you noted the correction but yeah it's not it was not a foolish one for you i think you have been led astray by the national media types who we have been uh you know i'm i'm always happy to talk about their practicality dismisses yeah i mean i think roco miller's the best one and i guess if i had listened to his entire field of sixty-eight uh bragg recent bracketology with lucas who were actually i think they're the best two they probably would have explained to me that the insia lab is different than the torvik lab and i looked at the torvik lab so that was the mistake i made but for us wins about bubble by the way it went from like thirteen to six in torvik this week because they want at texas and they beat arkansas so like for no and because Georgia keeps winning and is now like at least for now a quad one win for florida in the home game and the road game um so like having two

55:26quad ones over Georgia actually meant that florida went from i think you saw all the posts last night that were like florida grafts it's tenth quad one win and then the new net came out today and florida got another quad one win because george was up to thirty in the net um it's all very very weird um i'll just uh just uh oh sorry just jump in for you oh no please go yeah i just feel like we should i i know we're probably guilty of just like soldering on while giving terms um while being yeah wins above bubble which is like kind of like wins above replacement in baseball or other sports but it is like it is a stat that i feel like is only getting increasingly used by the committee they talk about it more and more openly and most bracketologists including roco including luke where sorry i don't know what roco thinks i know lucus is like it like if you had to pick a single metric that the the tournament would be seated by most bracketologists would say that web is is the one um whether or not like obviously i don't

56:26think ever anyone ever wants a purely metric driven one but i would also say if you were to look at past years and the bubble um and say like which teams just to whatever your eye who deserves to be in and who deserves to be out i like the web matches common sense the most so anyways that's the metric the kneel is referencing and i think it's a smart one to be referenced because i do think the committee is appears to weigh it a lot more heavily than people realize and they probably weigh the predictives like ten palm like torvik which we all reference a lot um i think that it's it's it's probably reference a little bit too much and and what the like uh like kneel is is is referencing is a good a good one to look at yeah i mean thank you that that actually is super helpful i'm sure for our listeners and and just to add one more piece of context to that like the last the last four in the last two years like has correlated directly to web directly so like when in fact when the committee was pressed on

57:30like north carolina last year they're like well wins above bubble and you know that's how they had sprained away i'll team with one quadrant one win getting into the field um we'll see what all house we'll see hail high estate i'm watching you i know your web is higher than Texas A&M right now i just point that out because Texas A&M hosts Kentucky this week on what presumably barring a brazos county judge ruling differently will be rishana geese last home game in college station and you know Kentucky going on the road and facing a desperate team has not been a great scenario for Kentucky all year but Kentucky to Eric's point like they kind of don't have bad losses and like their metrics are finally improving so like i don't know i kind of expect them to take it to A&M a little bit um on their whole floor but um if A&M loses that game they go to 19-11 and their web is behind some super desperate bubble teams like could the scc slip from 11 teams in presumably

58:32this week to nine i think that's very possible um i think that's very possible because i think A&M is they're teetering on the edge of dead and you know Auburn they're gonna have to win that win out this week they've got to beat Alabama and Tuscaloosa are they're done so now if they beat Alabama and Tuscaloosa the committee is gonna probably put a 17 and 14 team in the field and not feel bad about it because they'll have a win at florida win at Alabama win over st johns a blowout win over incy state like at that point you know anyway Auburn's gonna be a crazy mystery and it's all cuz Bruce Pearl retired like weeks before the season started and so like they were locked in on this schedule of death that Bruce Pearl had um which no first year coach would ever agree to anyway um again all these things are for another day but the gators wax Arkansas 111 to 77 coaches share of the scc championship he's Eric faucet i'm noble acting go gators keep it

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