After the bowl game on New Year's day, the football season for the Florida Gators will officially have come to an end. Now, it is time for the Gator Nation to shift their sights to the next big sport on campus -- men's basketball.
It's no secret that men's basketball and football are the two most popular sports on campus, but the former doesn't get too much attention when the football team is having a comeback season with a SEC Championship appearance. No need to fret, I'll get you caught up faster than the holiday break will fly by.
Quick overview.
The Gator basketball team is 7-3 as of Sunday, Dec. 20.
The three losses of the season have been to teams ranked in the AP top 25 (Purdue, Miami and the No.1 team in the nation at the time -- Michigan State).
Florida's leading scorer and rebounder is Dorian Finney-Smith averaging 14.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.
.
This is the new head coach Mike White's debut season with a brand new coaching staff that he brought over with him from Louisiana Tech (yep, that is the same Louisiana Tech where Jeff Driskel left for after last season).
Who to know.
As already mentioned, Dorian Finney-Smith is leading our team in his final season. However, there are a lot of new faces on the team this season and old ones that are making an impression.
John Egbunu is a transfer from USF playing his first season for the Gators. He is the second leading scorer on the team averaging 11.3 points per game.
Egbunu brings height with his 6'11" stature to a team that doesn't have a whole lot of big guys.This is the guy that you can expect to see blocking shots and slamming the ball into the basket.
Devin Robinson is a sophomore forward and is right behind Egbunu averaging 11.2 points per game. So far this season he has had three double-doubles and is shooting 75 percent from the free throw line.
Pros and cons.
Pros: The biggest pro of the Gator basketball team this season has been their defensive game. These guys can keep ranked teams' offenses from pulling away and leaving them with a huge deficit. They have also showed that they can play fast and hard -- especially with two of the fastest point guards in the NCAA (Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza).
Cons: Shooting the ball. This is the whole point of basketball, but the Gators have been experiencing some shooting woes so far this season. If they can fix their shots to go in at a higher percentage than the 41.5 percent that they are shooting now, this team could become elite.
Only time will tell what is in store for this athletic team, be sure to come out to some of their games this season in the O'Dome as you know it seeing as they plan to renovate it starting next year.
