Scouting Report: Florida Gators

BRamseyKSR

Florida enters today’s game with a record of 12-6 overall, 8-5 in the Southeastern Conference. The Gators have battled a lot of adversity this season between two different Coronavirus pauses and the scary incident involving Keyontae Johnson back in December. In total, they have missed six games due to Coronavirus and cancelled four games following Johnson’s collapse. Despite all of that, Florida finds themselves in fourth place in the SEC. Coach Mike White has done a great job of keeping this group together and plowing through a lot of less than ideal circumstances.

The Gators feature one of the most efficient offenses in the conference ranking second in field goal percentage (46.5%), first in free throw percentage (75.1%), and third in three point percentage (35.5%). Since inserting Tyree Appleby into the starting lineup against Kentucky back on January 9th, Coach White has turned up the pace offensively. The lightening-quick Appleby has now started 11 consecutive games and gives Florida an extra ball-handler while allowing Tre Mann, a very good three point shooter, to play off of the ball more.

Kentucky put the clamps on Florida in their first meeting of the season down in the swamp, defeating the Gators 76-58. Florida has been bringing the defensive intensity recently holding high-powered offenses like Georgia and Auburn to 63 and 57 points respectively while winning two straight. The Gators full-court pressed Kentucky for much of the game back in early January and you can expect to see more of that man-to-man pressure defense tonight.

Tip-off is scheduled 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time later on today as the Gators travel to Rupp Arena to take on the Wildcats. The game will be on CBS.

Top 10

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Personnel

Starters

#22 Tyree Appleby: 6’1″ 170 lbs, Junior Guard

10.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.2 apg

Combo guard. Very quick! Stay between him and the basket. Capable shooter, but he is more aggressive driving it. No right hand drives! You can go under the ballscreens with him some to help stay between him and the basket. We will adjust if he makes a couple. Get the ball stopped in transition when he is pushing it. Shade to his right hand and take it away in transition. Get a hand up to contest if he shoots it from the perimeter. We want to be there to contest the obvious catch-and-shoot, but then bounce back and guard the right hand drive. Make him shoot the step backs off of the dribble if he takes a 3. Go dig the ball out of the post off of him and then closeout with your hands up. No layups! No right hand drives!

#1 Tre Mann: 6’5″ 190 lbs, Sophomore Guard

14.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 3.6 apg

Combo guard. Very quick. Aggressive off of the dribble. Very good shooter. No 3’s!!! 31/81 from 3-point range. Need to have high hands on the perimeter and pick him up a couple of steps beyond the 3-point line to take away the 3’s. He will shoot them from deep. Get out there and take them away! Get over the ballscreens and handoffs. Chase him off downscreens and get over the flares. Need to be tight on him when he doesn’t have it to take away the catch-and-shoot 3’s. Tighten up to him as the ball is driven towards you. Very aggressive off the ballscreen. We need to give a good hedge to try and get him to go away from the basket. Break his rhythm when he is bouncing it. Need to take away the pull-ups off the dribble. Stay between him and the basket. No right hand drives!!! Be willing to switch if we need to. Make him score with you between him and the basket. No 3’s!!!

#10 Noah Locke: 6’3″ 203 lbs, Junior Guard

10.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 0.8 apg

SHOOTER!!! NO 3’s!!! 108 of 166 shots have been 3’s. Have to be there to take away the catch-and-shoot 3’s. Be tight on him at all times! Tighten up to him as the ball is dribbled towards you. DO NOT HELP!!! Absolutely no help off of him. Your only job when guarding him is to take away his 3-point attempts. You have to pick him up outside of the 3-point line and be tight. He will shoot them from deep. Really looking to squeeze them off. Chase him off downscreens and get over the flares. Find him in transition. If you get switched on to him you have to get out and take away the 3. If he isn’t dribbling then you aren’t close enough. He is shooting about the same percentage from 3 as from 2. Make him drive it. He will drive it right. Not thinking about passing. Wants to shoot jump shots if he gets inside the 3-point line. Contest the pull-up jumpers. NO 3’s!!!

#4 Anthony Duruji: 6’7″ 220 lbs, Junior Forward

5.9 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 0.6 apg

Versatile 4-man. Wants to face up and play on the perimeter more than in the post. Capable shooter. 10/34 from 3 but we want to be there on the catch. Give a hard contest to the catch-and-shoot 3’s. You should be able to close out to him to take away the 3 and then bounce back to guard the right hand drive. Need to have good, sound closeouts. No right hand drives!!! He really wants to drive it right. Stay between him and the basket. If he does catch it inside he is going to score with his right hand over his left shoulder. Also be ready for him to face up to try and drive it right. Physical. Have to box him out! He really crashes the glass hard when a shot goes up. BOX OUT!!!

#12 Colin Castleton: 6’11″ 231 lbs, Junior Forward

12.9 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 0.9 apg

Skilled post. Excellent footwork around the basket. Plays with his back to the basket. Sets a lot of ballscreens and rolls to the rim. Very good on the roll. You need to recover to him as quickly as possible to take him away on the roll. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Need to wall up and be physical on his left shoulder. Make him score it back into you with his right hand. Stay between him and the basket. No drop steps! Shooting nearly 60% from the field. Take away the dunks and layups and make him score over you. Be physical with him. Do your work early and make him catch it off the block. His percentages will go down if he has to make moves further from the basket. Dig the ball out of the post off of Lewis or Duruji if you can. BOX OUT!!!

Bench

#23 Scottie Lewis: 6’5″ 189 lbs, Sophomore Guard

9.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.7 apg

Extremely athletic and long. NO RIGHT HAND DRIVES!!! Once the ball hits his hands he wants to try and blow by you going right. Capable shooter, but we want to closeout a step short and bounce back to guard against the right hand drives. We must have disciplined closeouts. He is just 10/30 from 3 so we can closeout short. Stay between him and the basket. I’d rather let him make a couple of 3’s than get smoked repeatedly going right. You can help off of him when he doesn’t have it, but you need to be aware of him cutting to the rim. Don’t get back cut. Get back in transition and get the ball stopped if they throw it ahead to him. Really flies to the offense glass from the perimeter. Have to box him out!!! Very good defender. Looking for steals and blocks. Protect the ball. NO RIGHT HAND DRIVES!!! No layups!!!

#5 Omar Payne: 6’10″ 230 lbs, Sophomore Forward

4.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 0.4 apg

Very long, bouncy forward. Looking to score around the basket. Will ballscreen and roll. They will throw it up to him on the roll. Wants to dunk it. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Be physical and get him off the block. His percentages go down significantly the further off the block he catches it. Do not help up off of him and give up a dunk. Excellent offensive rebounder. BOX OUT!!! Bad free throw shooter. Foul if you are beat. No And-1s.

#0 Ques Glover: 5’11″ 182 lbs, Sophomore Guard

2.8 ppg, 0.8 rpg, 0.6 apg

Backup guard. Small and very quick. He is looking to drive it right. No right hand drives!!! If he shoots it from 3 just throw a hand up to contest. Give him a step or two to guard against the right hand drive. We will adjust our closeouts if he makes a couple. Closeout short and take away the right hand drive. Stay between him and the basket and make him finish over you. You can hop under the ballscreens when they are set for him. Help off of him and dig the ball out of the post when he doesn’t have it and then closeout a step short. No layups!

#15 Osayi Osifo: 6’7″ 225 lbs, Junior Forward

2.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 0.4 apg

Extremely athletic, bouncy forward. Looking to dunk everything. Will ballscreen and roll and try to catch the lob. Right hand, left shoulder in the post. Make him score with you between him and the basket. Looks to slip some ballscreens. Very active on the offensive glass. BOX OUT!!!

Offense

Without preseason SEC Player of the Year favorite Keyontae Johnson, Coach Mike White has resorted to playing a three guard lineup and pushing the tempo more than his teams typically do. That has been even more true during the second half of this season with Tyree Appleby entering the starting lineup. Instead of running as much Princeton-Chin action as they have in the last couple of years, they are spreading the floor and setting a lot of ballscreens.

Most possessions begin with some sort of high ballscreen for Tre Mann or Appleby. Noah Locke is always spotted up ready to shoot and Scottie Lewis is very dangerous in closeout situations. The Tre Mann/Tyree Appleby with Colin Castleton high ballscreen is their best offense right now. We need to try and give a good hard hedge to these ballscreens in order to get Mann/Appleby moving away from the basket and give time to recover to Castleton on the roll. As always, we can very willing to switch.

After their initial high ballscreen to start the possession they will just flow into 4-around-1 Motion. Colin Castleton, or Omar Payne when he is in there, will be the 5-man on the block. Florida doesn’t set a lot of off-ball screens, but they do a good job of cutting without the ball and that is where they get movement within their Motion.

Side Ballscreen & Roll: Florida has been so effective off of the ballscreen this season because they are good in all three phases: their guards can shoot behind the ballscreen, the can attack off of the dribble, and they are good at getting it to the roll guy. The best way to guard them is definitely to hard hedge which is what Olivier Sarr does here. Tre Mann has to take a dribble away from the basket and ends up all the way out at the half court logo which is great for us. However, Sarr is just a little late recovering onto Colin Castleton rolling to the basket and he is able to get the pass for a dunk. We have to recover with a lot of urgency to try and take him away on the roll. Also in this situation, Davion Mintz could have come all the way in to help on the roll. We aren’t as worried about Tyree Appleby shooting it and would rather make Mann throw that long pass all the way to the corner.

Backscreen to Ballscreen: Due to so many teams trying to hard hedge their ballscreens, Coach White has come up with some different ways to try and make it hard for the defender to get all the way out there to hedge. Here the ball screener sets a backscreen, which forces his defender to help back towards the rim just a step, before running into the ballscreen with Scottie Lewis. This is just terrible defense by #23 for Auburn. There is no resistance on Lewis at all and he is able to just come barreling off of the screen to his right hand for an easy layup.

Cross Screen to Side Ballscreen: Similar to the clip above, they will also cross screen into a ballscreen to try and occupy the ball screener’s defender. Olivier Sarr should have just switched onto Tre Mann because Devin Askew got hung up on the screen. However, Sarr retreats too early and Askew hasn’t recovered yet which allows Mann to pull up for a wide open 3. This is deep, but it is still a pretty high percentage shot for him. TAKE IT AWAY!!!

Stacked High Ballscreen: On this possession Florida starts with a stacked flat ballscreen with one screener coming out high and the other around the free throw line. Tre Mann comes off of the first screen to his left and his defender gets off balance. Seeing this, Mann stops and comes back off a ballscreen to his right and his defender gets caught going under the ballscreen so Mann settles behind for an easy 3. DO NOT GO UNDER!!! You have to stay tight to Mann at all times, break his rhythm as he is dribbling it, and take away his 3’s.

Chin 3-side: They will still go to some Princeton-Chin action when they need a bucket. They generally go to the 3-side, meaning after hitting the forward at the elbow the guard will cut to the side of the court that already has guys at the wing and in the corner creating a “3-side.” Two guys come together with one popping out to the wing and the other cutting to the basket. From that point they will get into a side ballscreen and play off of it. The ball gets swung back to #0 Ques Glover who is replacing to the top of the key. Glover is a non-shooter. We don’t want to foul him due to a bad close out like Davion Mintz does here.

Chin 3-side: Here is another look at them going to the 3-side. This time they set a staggered double screen for Noah Locke coming out of the corner. After getting the ball he gets a ballscreen from Colin Castleton and is able to turn the corner going to his right because there is no hard hedge from Isaiah Jackson. We have to keep these guys from driving it right!!!

Defense

Florida is looking to create some havoc on the defensive end. They are primarily a man-to-man team and they are looking to get pressure the ball as much as possible and get into the passing lanes. Part of the reason they are able to be so aggressive on the perimeter is due to being one of the elite rim protecting teams in the country. Florida enters today’s game ranked third in the country with 6.2 blocks per game. So, even if you are able to break the pressure on the perimeter you will have a hard time scoring at the rim. Kentucky turned the ball over 14 times in the first meeting leading to 14 points off of those turnovers. Florida was only able to block four shots though.

The Gators applied a full court man-to-man press against the ‘Cats the first time around. You can expect them to do more of the same in this one to try and prey on the guard play of Kentucky. They won’t necessarily trap a ton, but they will just turn up their pressure defense to the full court and try to get a few easy baskets off of it. This next clip is the type of pressure we say in our first meeting.

Keys to the Game

Take care of the ball. Florida’s defense is predicated around forcing turnovers. We have to value the basketball and try to get a shot each time down the court. Limit live ball turnovers. 11 or fewer turnovers today!

No 3’s for #1 Mann or #10 Locke. These guys are excellent shooters. Mann is really good shooting off of the dribble while Locke is one of the best catch-and-shoot guys in the country. Take them away from 3! Limit their attempts. No more than three made 3’s combined for them.

NO RIGHT HAND DRIVES! They really, really want to drive it right. We have to be disciplined in our closeouts and focus on not giving up a right hand drive. Do not let #22 Appleby or #23 Lewis drive it right!

SCORE!!! Our defense was excellent in our first meeting holding them to 58 points. That same effort would be great, but we need to continue to execute on the offensive end too. 75+ points will win this one.

@BRamseyKSR