Chomping At Bits: Billy Donovan, Halftime And Missouri's Artificial Turf

Recap of last night’s thrilling baseball game against Bethune-Cookman. Little known fact. Bethune-Cookman has a dash in it and they are proud of it.

Big Meh. The SEC Championship Game is played on the exact same surface (assuming that they are installing field turf to replace some older style of plastic). Plus, any conference which allows a basketball court like Vandy’s to be used can’t really be all that concerned over the playing surface its teams have to endure.

I was completely deflated to learn of Yeguete’s injury though. I have felt for quite some time now that he is THE most valuable player on the team (literally most valuable, not best player). In case you haven’t noticed, the Gators have a size problem, and with Young’s recent struggles on the glass (5 boards per game in conference play this season – less than that over the past few weeks) we are going to get massacred underneath. And if the threes aren’t falling, there aren’t many teams we can beat. Period. Who is going to fill the rebounding void? Murphy? Larson?

I’m afraid we’re in trouble.

I think there’s a couple of safe bets.
1.) Boynton and Beal will continue to play huge minutes. Since the loss at Kentucky, Boynton has played 141 of 160 possible minutes. He has 10 games this season where he played 30 minutes or fewer, 5 of those coming in SEC play. He has played at least 33 minutes in each of the four games since the loss to Kentucky, including 35 against Tennessee and 39 against Alabama. Beal has been the team’s iron man all season, averaging 34 minutes/game. In the last four games, he’s played 148 of 160 possible minutes and played at least 36 minutes in each game. Neither has shown any adverse signs from the increased minutes, in fact, both appear to be peaking (Boynton at everything, Beal defensively). Still, those minutes are adding up very quickly, and the schedule will compress for the SEC tourney before opening back up for the NCAAs.

2.) The 4-guard set is going to be featured as the primary reserve set. Young and Murphy both have serious foul issues, and on top of that, Young isn’t healthy. Prather and Larson are not reliable reserves, so Donovan can only turn to Rosario and Wilbekin. Wilbekin will probably get the majority of the reserve minutes until Rosario is effective again, but as long as Rosario is able to dress out, I think he’s going to be the second man off the bench, regardless of the situation. To make things even weirder, troubling interior teams like Kentucky may force Florida to play Prather at center along with the four guards giving Florida essentially a 5 guard set (every time Larson has played for more than 10 minutes, he’s committed at least 3 fouls). Expect that lineup to post a horrifying +- against any team with a player over 6’7".

take a look at this article and notice the three injuries listed in one game played at missouri. Their playing surface was appalling last year, so I hope they are actually changing to something better. Even the commentators that game were ripping on missouri pretty hard. Tough to argue with 2 season ending injuries within minutes of each other. If you watch the replay on either it is very apparent.