travisduncan
Gator Fan
The Gators could not have been seeded any better.
1) They play their first two games in Tampa, allowing Gator Nation to create a homecourt advantage.
2) They were seeded a 2 seed despite consecutive losses to Kentucky and some early season head scratchers.
3) They play in the weakest regional in the bracket.
And finally they have a favorable road to Houston.
First up is UC-Santa Barbara at 6:45 p.m. ET on TBS this Thursday. You can see the full bracket here.
UCSB won the Big West Tournament for the second straight year to clinch a bid. The Gouchos aren't going to blow anyone away.
UCSB went 8-8 in the Big West regular season, and 18-13 overall. Their best victory came against UNLV early this season. They are led by Big West Tournament Most Valuable Orlando Johnson who is averaging 21.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
It's hard to imagine that the allowed 65.8 points per game in Big West play will be able to stop the Gators potent offense.
Donovan's squad hopes that Sunday's performance against Kentucky was less about ability and execution and more about fatigue and looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament.
"I always think fatigue is a major factor," Billy Donovan said after Sunday's 70-54 loss.
"It was a major factor I think for both teams because I felt Kentucky got off to a hot start shooting, but I really thought that that would subside as the game wore on. And it's really difficult to really shoot well for three straight days, for both teams. And I don't think it was very pretty offensively, it certainly was not for us."
"I thought we struggled. I thought we had some things around the basket we weren't able to finish. I thought we missed a lot of lay-ups. The biggest part was I didn't think that we were strong enough and physical enough around the basket."
Conference Tournament losses just aren't the same as regular season losses and certainly not from Donovan's point of view.
He again reiterated on Sunday "we've got bigger things ahead of us."
Of course in both 2006 and 2007, the Gators won the SEC Tournament and 10 and 11 straight games on their way to consecutive national titles.
Should the Gators advance past the second-round they will meet the winner of Michigan State-UCLA.
I give the edge to Michigan State in this situation, mostly because of experience, and the real talent level of Kalin Lucas, Delvin Roe and Draymond Green. The Spartans have under performed and while it's sentimental to think Tom Izzo always gets the best out of his players in the tournament, the bottom line is this team is talented.
Both UCLA and Michigan State are not going to attack the Gators offensively the way Kentucky does, and I really think as long as the Gators can get stops, play solid defense their own offense is so strong it takes care of itself.
UCLA ranked 137th overall in points per game in Division-1 , but had some nice victories along the way, including against BYU, Arizona and St. John's.
I see the Gators into the Sweet 16 where they could face either St. John's/Gonzaga or BYU/Woffard.
St. John's would be the team out of the four which would concern me more. The Red Storm have experience and play great defense, and have wins against Duke and Pitt this season.
BYU can put up points, and beat the Gators last season, but they lack size. If Florida could limit Jimmer Freddette's numbers, the Gators can have their way inside, either by penetration or in the post.
The ironic thing about the entire Southeastern region, with the exception of BYU, is there exists no team whose offensive outweighs there defense-and that includes Pitt who could await the Gators in the Elite 8. Butler and Kansas State are all defense first type of teams this season.
-John Calipari was none too happy about Florida receiving the No. 2 seed, while the Wildcats defeated UF in consecutive games.
Check out the video here where he discusses his displeasure with the Selection Committee.
-A few national analysts questioned the Gators No. 2 seed, which prompted Tournament Selection Committee Chair Gene Smith to respond by saying "Florida is an outstanding basketball team, well coached. They played a very good overall schedule, had some quality wins."
He added,"So when you stack them up against the teams in the top quadrant, we call it, they rose to the top. We felt like they deserved to be a No. 4 seed. They had strong strength of schedule, overall four, non conference strength of schedule of a seven. We felt they deserved to be at the top of the seed list. The No. 2 seed is a very strong seed."
"Kentucky is a very good ballclub. But when it came to the votes, they slid a little bit. Also keep in mind, when I mention Florida, it was to a particular question. You look at Kentucky's full résumé compared to everyone else, we feel real comfortable with their seed."
-NCAA Tournament Facts:
Eight No. 2 seeds have lost in the second-round in the last two years.
27 of the past 40 Final Four teams were either No. 1 or No. 2 seeds.
1) They play their first two games in Tampa, allowing Gator Nation to create a homecourt advantage.
2) They were seeded a 2 seed despite consecutive losses to Kentucky and some early season head scratchers.
3) They play in the weakest regional in the bracket.
And finally they have a favorable road to Houston.
First up is UC-Santa Barbara at 6:45 p.m. ET on TBS this Thursday. You can see the full bracket here.
UCSB won the Big West Tournament for the second straight year to clinch a bid. The Gouchos aren't going to blow anyone away.
UCSB went 8-8 in the Big West regular season, and 18-13 overall. Their best victory came against UNLV early this season. They are led by Big West Tournament Most Valuable Orlando Johnson who is averaging 21.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
It's hard to imagine that the allowed 65.8 points per game in Big West play will be able to stop the Gators potent offense.
Donovan's squad hopes that Sunday's performance against Kentucky was less about ability and execution and more about fatigue and looking ahead to the NCAA Tournament.
"I always think fatigue is a major factor," Billy Donovan said after Sunday's 70-54 loss.
"It was a major factor I think for both teams because I felt Kentucky got off to a hot start shooting, but I really thought that that would subside as the game wore on. And it's really difficult to really shoot well for three straight days, for both teams. And I don't think it was very pretty offensively, it certainly was not for us."
"I thought we struggled. I thought we had some things around the basket we weren't able to finish. I thought we missed a lot of lay-ups. The biggest part was I didn't think that we were strong enough and physical enough around the basket."
Conference Tournament losses just aren't the same as regular season losses and certainly not from Donovan's point of view.
He again reiterated on Sunday "we've got bigger things ahead of us."
Of course in both 2006 and 2007, the Gators won the SEC Tournament and 10 and 11 straight games on their way to consecutive national titles.
Should the Gators advance past the second-round they will meet the winner of Michigan State-UCLA.
I give the edge to Michigan State in this situation, mostly because of experience, and the real talent level of Kalin Lucas, Delvin Roe and Draymond Green. The Spartans have under performed and while it's sentimental to think Tom Izzo always gets the best out of his players in the tournament, the bottom line is this team is talented.
Both UCLA and Michigan State are not going to attack the Gators offensively the way Kentucky does, and I really think as long as the Gators can get stops, play solid defense their own offense is so strong it takes care of itself.
UCLA ranked 137th overall in points per game in Division-1 , but had some nice victories along the way, including against BYU, Arizona and St. John's.
I see the Gators into the Sweet 16 where they could face either St. John's/Gonzaga or BYU/Woffard.
St. John's would be the team out of the four which would concern me more. The Red Storm have experience and play great defense, and have wins against Duke and Pitt this season.
BYU can put up points, and beat the Gators last season, but they lack size. If Florida could limit Jimmer Freddette's numbers, the Gators can have their way inside, either by penetration or in the post.
The ironic thing about the entire Southeastern region, with the exception of BYU, is there exists no team whose offensive outweighs there defense-and that includes Pitt who could await the Gators in the Elite 8. Butler and Kansas State are all defense first type of teams this season.
-John Calipari was none too happy about Florida receiving the No. 2 seed, while the Wildcats defeated UF in consecutive games.
Check out the video here where he discusses his displeasure with the Selection Committee.
-A few national analysts questioned the Gators No. 2 seed, which prompted Tournament Selection Committee Chair Gene Smith to respond by saying "Florida is an outstanding basketball team, well coached. They played a very good overall schedule, had some quality wins."
He added,"So when you stack them up against the teams in the top quadrant, we call it, they rose to the top. We felt like they deserved to be a No. 4 seed. They had strong strength of schedule, overall four, non conference strength of schedule of a seven. We felt they deserved to be at the top of the seed list. The No. 2 seed is a very strong seed."
"Kentucky is a very good ballclub. But when it came to the votes, they slid a little bit. Also keep in mind, when I mention Florida, it was to a particular question. You look at Kentucky's full résumé compared to everyone else, we feel real comfortable with their seed."
-NCAA Tournament Facts:
Eight No. 2 seeds have lost in the second-round in the last two years.
27 of the past 40 Final Four teams were either No. 1 or No. 2 seeds.
