Busting Brackets
Fansided

Florida Basketball: Are 2019-20 Gators already doomed with early struggles?

By Brian Rauf

DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 23: Head coach of the Florida Gators shouts against the Michigan Wolverines in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 23, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
DES MOINES, IOWA - MARCH 23: Head coach of the Florida Gators shouts against the Michigan Wolverines in the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 23, 2019 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 4
Next
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – MARCH 14: Noah Locke #10 of the Florida Gators dribbles the ball against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 14, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – MARCH 14: Noah Locke #10 of the Florida Gators dribbles the ball against the Arkansas Razorbacks during the second round of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 14, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

Lack of cohesion

It is also worth remembering that it’s still very early in the season and it will take time for teams to come together. We’ve seen extremely sloppy play from virtually everyone (just ask Kentucky and Evansville) and those struggles are even more pertinent for teams breaking in a large number of newcomers.

This is the case for the Gators. Only three players in their nine-man rotation were on the team last year and, while Kerry Blackshear Jr. is experienced and Mann and Lewis are extremely talented, they’re not used to playing together. They all have to build that familiarity and trust with each other and, as White pointed out following the UConn loss, the coaching staff has to do the same thing.

"“As a staff we’ve got to do a better job of finding a way to get these guys going, continue to go through that trial-and-error process.”"

dark. Next. Biggest takeaways from past week

That trial-and-error process has certainly yielded more errors than successes to this point, but the Gators are still determining how this group works best together.

They still have some time to find a groove before panic will really start to take hold in Gainesville but, if they want to improve sooner rather than later, White will look at revamping his offense and will get his team out in transition more.

Home/Florida Gators