Ashes, Ashes, The Gators Fall Down
by mlmintampa on Feb 25, 2009 4:10 AM EST
in Basketball
5 comments
For much of Tuesday's game, Florida stuck with LSU. But, like every game this season against a legitimate opponent, the Gators could not maintain their pace and lost in Baton Rouge 81-75. Florida (21-7, 8-5) is now 2-5 in conference road games and has not defeated a ranked team on the road since Kentucky in 2007.
LSU (24-4, 12-1) clearly was the better team going in, but Florida's inability to slow Marcus Thornton (32 pts, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and the rest of LSU's offense was inexcusable. I say the rest of LSU's offense, but it was really just three guys. Thornton, Tasmin Mitchell (12 pts) and Garrett Temple (21 pts) accounted for all but 16 of the Tigers' output. If Florida cannot stop three guys with five defenders, what hope is there for the remaining three games?
The Gators had balance with Walt Hodge (16 pts), Alex Tyus (15 pts), Chandler Parsons (12 pts) and Nick Calathes (12 pts) all in double figures. Calathes, who was 4-11 shooting, had 7 boards and 6 assists on what was considered an off night for him.
UF is now looking down the barrel of an NIT bid. A team only gets so many chances and now the Gators are in serious jeopardy of missing a bye in the SEC Tournament. The Gators have an oppertunity to play the SEC Tournament essentially at a home court, as the tournament is in Tampa. But it seems as if the Gators do not or cannot understand the sense of urgency needed right now.
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a little harsh
They were beaten by a better team last night – there’s a reason LSU is 12-1 in the conference, they are clearly better than everyone else. We hung tough with them and didn’t kill ourselves with silly turnovers, etc. We did leave ourselves with little room for error though, so we must win both remaining home games now and a win in Starkville wouldn’t hurt either.
ahhhh you never know
UGA won the tourney last year and they didn’t have a BYE.
I also agree that we need to win one of “those games” but think that a win at Starkville against a recently struggling MSU team is more realistic than against a red hot LSU team that had won 9 in a row….in Baton Rouge….on Fat Tuesday.
Just Not That Good.
They’ll need to win a couple more games before the tourney to get me to buy back in…
Yep. You're being too hard on them.
They gave what they had, and played well for about 32 minutes in a hostile environment, on the road, against the SEC’s best team. And they lost by a handful. Of course, then again, they always lose that way. And never — okay, rarely — win the close ones.
This season is disappointing but keeping things within context, there’s not much to complain about w/r/t this one loss. Maybe we could complain about Donovan’s recruiting or whatnot, but he’s had a rather extraordinary challenge losing his entire championship team, then losing Speights and Jai Lucas off the ’08 team. And Dan Werner has been a total bust. Sh!t happens.
Orange and Blue Hue: The World through GATOR-colored Glasses -- http://www.orangeandbluehue.com
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