Gators need to value the ball
GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Turnovers.
The Gators turned over the ball 16 times against Kentucky. The Wildcats scored 20 points from them.
“Just putting ourselves in position that we don’t need to (be careless with the ball),” Mike White said Tuesday. “We played a little bit rushed. It got loud, they’re defending at a high level, we have a couple empty possessions and we had too much trying to do it our own, just trying to go make a play. It was a little bit out of character. Again, your opponent often has a lot to do with that.”
“Just thinking about like, some turnovers happen but understanding that time and score’s very important, moment shifts are very important, live ball turnovers lead to transition defense issues," said Kerry Blackshear. "So just understanding the domino effect that turnovers have, it just really allows us to take a step back and like think about the ones that we can control. And if we can control the ones we can, I think it gives our defense the best chance and I think it allows us to get more shots up, too.”
The Gators ultimately lost to the Wildcats 65-59 and still have some work to do to make it into the NCAA Tournament - since nothing is guaranteed yet.
In the last few games it seemed like the Gators had made strides in their ball movement, however, last Saturday, Florida decided to take shots instead of finding that extra pass - which led to a seven minute drought in the second half.
“Some ill-advised shots are for sure (coming to mind)," said the Gators head coach. “A minute and a half into the second half and we took a crazy one. About a minute later, we took another crazy one at the top of the key. And we had another three or four throughout the second half. Those are empty possessions. And often are two in some series like live-ball turnovers, really, against a team that’s that good in transition offense. It was a huge key to the game and we continue to struggle with sometimes trying to get my shot, unfortunately.”
White hopes his team can return to what he saw just one week earlier.
“We had had a good four- or five-game stretch where we were really sharing it, really moving it,” he said. “Again, it’s hard to really move it against really good defenses, particularly the defenses that extend a little bit. LSU does some of it as well. That said, we’ve got to do a better job moving forward. We’ve got to do a better job against LSU moving the ball and taking the best shot they give us, regardless of who that person is on our team, and we’ve got to be OK with that.”
The Gators will hope to clean things up before facing off against LSU on Wednesday night. Tip off is set for 9 p.m.