‘Hard to beat anybody’ when No. 5 Florida misses shots
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida coach Mike White walked through the basketball facility Thursday carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and an ink pen in the other.
Given how the fifth-ranked Gators have played recently, the need for both was obvious: Late nights ahead and new ideas to draw up.
Florida (5-3) has lost three consecutive games, including two in three days to unranked opponents at home. It’s a significant slide that has White reassessing everything about his seemingly overrated team.
“None of it’s been shocking,” White said. “We’re just a very average defensive and rebounding team, and when we’re not making shots, it’s hard to beat anybody.”
If the Gators don’t end their losing streak Saturday against No. 17 Cincinnati in New Jersey, they almost certainly will become the second team this season to fall out of The Associated Press Top 25 in a week after a top-five ranking. ThenNo. 2 Arizona did it last month. “We can’t panic,” White said. Definitely not, but White also rattled off a list of improvements the Gators need to make quickly:
Fewer mental mistakes on both ends. More drives in hopes of getting to the free-throw line. Faster pace of play. Improved perimeter defense. Heightened awareness in regards to help defense.
At the top of the list: Better shot selection.
Florida made 16 of 64 shots (25 percent) from 3-point range during the three-game slide, including a 2-of-19 performance in a 65-59 loss to Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday night.
Egor Koulechov, a graduate transfer from Rice who was lighting it up three weeks ago, has missed 15 of his last 18 shots from behind the arc.
“No way I saw this coming,” White said. “We’ve tried to hammer the point home, especially in the past 48 hours: ‘Let’s make sure your first shot is a really good one.’”
Florida’s tailspin started in Portland, Oregon, on Nov. 26. The Gators led top-ranked Duke by 17 points with 10 minutes remaining when defensive lapses and missed shots became the norm.
The Blue Devils rallied for a three-point victory, and White’s team hasn’t been the same since.
The Gators delivered a lackluster effort in a 17-point loss to rival Florida State on Monday, a performance White called “the epitome of soft.” Players, coaches and fans expected a rebound performance against Loyola-Chicago two nights later.
Instead, it was more of the same File, Ron Irby / AP
Florida’s Egor Koulechov (right) shoots over Loyola of Chicago’s Donte Ingram. Florida made only 25 percent of shots in the game.
even though the effort was much improved.
“Just going up from here,” forward Keith Stone said. “We have to go into practice with a better mindset, be positive and learn from this. We didn’t come out with no energy, no nothing.”
Florida has defensive help on the way, but senior center John Egbunu won’t be ready to return from a torn knee ligament for at least another month. And there is no guarantee Egbunu will be back to normal after taking nearly a year off.
“Making shots masks a lot of stuff,” White said. “Maybe our guys didn’t wholeheartedly believe when we’re scoring over 100 and we’re giving up 100 that we’re not actually playing to our capability. Maybe our guys were a little bit overly comfortable with that.”
The nets aren’t bigger, the goaltenders aren’t smaller and yet scoring is up significantly around the NHL. Through the first two months of the season, goals are up more than 12 percent from the same time a year ago, including a whopping 14 percent increase on the power play and a 38 percent spike in short-handed goals.
“That’s what the league wanted,” San Jose Sharks defenseman Marc Edouard-Vlasic said. “The league has done everything in their power to make there more goals out there, and that’s exactly what’s going on.”
The uptick can be credited to a concerted crackdown on slashing by issuing more penalties and a league-wide move toward younger and more skilled players. The current pace of 6.01 goals per game would be the highest since 2005-06, when a series of rule changes were put in to open up the game and get more scoring to attract new fans.
“Teams try to go for it more,” said New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, whose goals-against average is 2.66, nearly 13 percent higher than it was at this point a year ago. “Most teams are trying to go for it, have this fast hockey, leave the zone quickly and it opens it up.”
Deputy NHL Commissioner Bill Daly said general managers are pleased with the current pace, which has lasted beyond the typical highscoring October as defenses settle in for the season. Stricter enforcement of slashing was designed to reduce hand and wrist injuries, though it has had a positive effect on offense with defenders unable to whack at puck carriers’ sticks in an effort to stop them.
“I do think that has created certainly more room for our players to be offensive,” Daly said. “I think over time, clearly since we increased the standard for hooking and holding and interference (in 2005-06), slashing has become a way to defend and an effective way to defend, and I think this year it’s a less effective way to defend.”
Players have noticed, even if some are frustrated at the varying degrees of what rises to the level of a slashing penalty. Every referee is watching closely.
“The last five years, you could do so much more with your stick and probably now lots of players are afraid to use their sticks,” Los Angeles Kings forward Jussi Jokinen said. “I think everybody wants to see more goals, so scoring being up, I think it’s good.”
Everyone except maybe the goaltenders may think so, but it’s not like they’ve been terrible. Four goalies who have played at least 20 games have a save percentage of .930 or higher.
“The goaltenders, they haven’t been any better than they are right now and some of them are still getting lit up pretty good,” said Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz, who has the league’s leading goalscorer in Alex Ovechkin.
Certainly the emphasis on slashing has helped players such as Ovechkin, Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau and New York Islanders star John Tavares, who can do wonders with even a few extra inches of space. Columbus Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson, who scored 10 goals in his first 15 games, said slashing is on everyone’s mind and “guys are not getting (their sticks) up into the hands as much as they used to.”