Mike White implementing a more structured offense
GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Mike White has seen some improvement from his side the last two practices.
"I think we’ve got a little more increased buy-in, in terms of all the things we have to get better with," Gators head coach said on Friday. "Freshmen have been a little bit better. Have to get a little bit better today.”
Florida fell to 6-3 on the season prior to the exam break- falling to Butler 76-62 on the road. Despite the score, White saw some improvement on the offensive side of the ball, but cautions his side that they still have a long way to go.
"We haven’t made it offensively. We’re not there," said White. "We had some [turnovers against Butler] that were unforced. Just got to make a shot. Got to step up and a make a shot. Got to make the front end of a one-and-one. Got to make free throws. But we had some 3s that, when we shot them, there wasn’t anyone around us. Several. We’re not the best shooting team, but we’ve got to shoot it better than we’re shooting it."
Florida struggled not only from three-point range but also from the charity stripes in their loss against the Bulldogs - shooting at 23% and 25% in the first half respectively. But there were some positives in the game.
Although not consistent, Florida's ball movement did show some improvement in the loss, however, the Gators still need to work on its transition offense.
"I know going into the Butler game we were in the 16th percentile in transition offense. Of our transition offense opportunities, we were turning the ball over 25% of the time," stated White. "‘Why don’t you play fast, why don’t you play fast? We’re so talented, play fast.’ Oh my goodness. We’d be leading the nation in turnovers.
"We’re still trying to find that happy medium. We’ve decided to play a little slower lately. But we also wanna get better at transition offense every day in practice cause we wanna get better in every aspect."
The Florida offense has been under the microscope since the first game of the season. The Gators rank No. 157 in the country by shooting at 43.5% this season, however, has seen that average go up to 47.5% the last three games.
According to White, the staff decided to completely "revamp" the offense after three games. Florida has gone 4-1 since the change.
"We cut our losses," he said. "We’re getting better with what we’re doing right now, which is what we should’ve started doing July 1. We gave our guys a lot of freedom offensively. We were running a lot of freelance, old-school passing game where there aren’t many rules or set calls. It's about screening for each other, using screens, reading screens, so on and so forth. When the lights were on, with a bunch of young guys and on TV, we didn’t respond well to that amount of freedom.
"As I’ve said a few times to friends and family, it was like watching six year olds in a soccer game. We all know how that looks — with everybody chasing the ball."
The problem never presented itself in practice. White told reporters that his side were back-cutting, were unselfish screeners and were curling. He was able to see a cohesive unit each practice, however, it always changed under the lights. It just wasn't translated, so they decided to make change.
"We decided we needed to add a whole lot of structure quickly," explained White. "We could hold more guys accountable in terms of spacing and where the ball should go and who is screening, who is coming off a screen. But that stuff takes time. We have to continue to improve on what we’re doing.”
"He watches film every day so he knows what’s best for us, so I feel like he’s trying to help us just find more motion for everybody, get touches, score," said sophomore Keyontae Johnson. "And just open up everybody’s game instead of being stagnant and just playing like stiff and watching one person do stuff.”
A loss hurts any competitor, but the loss to Butler could help the Gators take steps forward.
“A lot of their players played off two feet, which coach has been saying, so it showed what Coach White has been talking about, what he’s been trying to get us to do," said Johnson. "Butler did it, so it made Coach White’s point of view more reliable for us to focus on.”
The optimism level has never been higher in Gainesville.
"High as ever," said Kerry Blackshear. "This entire week off, I think, has been good for us because we've been able to like get back to the drawing boards and like have time to work on us and not have to think about another team necessarily. I think the competition level has been probably the highest it's ever been. Everybody is communicating, everybody is focusing on getting better. I think when you combine that with the experience that we've already had as a team, I think there's a level of growth that's going to allow to make a big jump in these next couple of weeks."
