By Andrew Weitzen, April 8, 2025

Go Gators!

We were the best team in the tournament. Watching Houston and Duke play, I thought we would beat either team by ten or more. Houston had no offense. Duke was slow. Our front court and backcourt were both better than either team had.

To beat Florida, Houston needed to play perfect for four quarters and Florida needed to make mistakes. Houston played a perfect first three-quarters. Houston could not keep that up for the whole game. No one can. When teams play that intensely, they get tired. The mind is the first thing to go, then the legs.

The players know when they are better than their opponent. The players know if they can shut down the other team if they play hard enough on defense. The players know whether or not the other team can stop them from scoring. When you know you can stop the other team from scoring and you can score when you need to, teams often do not play with urgency until the end of the game.

The way a weaker team beats a stronger team is to keep the game close and get lucky at the end. That almost worked for Houston. If they hit a three on their final possession, that would have worked.

The way a stronger team beats a weaker team is how the Florida teams won in 2006 and 2007. The stronger team takes a ten point lead with a quarter left to play. They do not let the weaker team close the gap.

The way you come back to win close games is to get stops, score, and hit free throws. This is how North Carolina State with David Thompson beat UCLA with Bill Walton. You hold the other team scoreless for the last two minutes of the game. You get buckets. The other team fouls. You hit your free throws.

In this tournament, Florida was the strongest team. Unlike the 2006 and 2007 teams, this Florida team let themselves get behind, knowing they could get back in the game. During crunch time, Florida exerted their dominance, shutting down University of Connecticut, Texas Tech, Auburn, and Houston, and scoring as needed. This is risky. Florida could have lost any of those games.

The biggest problem in this game with Houston was the coaches' fault. You have to punish the double team. When you pass out of the pressure, you have to take the ball to the basket. The coaches needed to tell Condon and the other bigs, when you get the ball in the paint after the double team, immediately turn, take the ball to the basket, and shoot and rebound.

See this example. Condon has to turn and shoot here. https://youtu.be/-EGj85DdQTw?si=3PzKw6d0heuVTfDR&t=936 This happened all game. The Gator bigs passed up easy buckets. When they shoot here, they would break the double team. This would free up Clayton. They game would have been an easy win.

Punish the Double Team

Pass Out of the Pressure

Turn and Shoot!

Dribbles Out??