2005 Florida Gators Basketball Preview

2005 Florida Gators Team Preview

The toughest competitor Kentucky will have in the SEC-East will be the Florida Gators. Last season the Gators finished two games behind the Wildcats and won a NCAA Tournament berth. At the end of last season the team, that led the SEC in scoring, lost three starters and a total of 45.7 points of offense per game! The task for making up those points will be left mainly to sophomores, which will be difficult. But a bigger question for the Gators, as it is for Kentucky, concerns leadership? Especially since the Gators, unlike their conference counterpart, have also seen a rash of players recently transfer to other schools.

The leadership task will probably have to be handled by the starting sophomores-- guard/forward Corey Brewer, guard Taurean Green, and forward Al Horford. With 7.4 points per game Corey Brown is the leading returning scorer for Florida. As a swingman he’ll need to shoot more often; his 51.5 field goal percentage and 43.6 three-point percentage from last season bode well for higher totals this year.

Tauren Green is the man designated to take over for high scoring point guard Anthony Robertson (17.5 PPG). Although Green (3.9 PPG) will need to up his point totals, that’s only half of his challenge. He’ll also have to improve on his accuracy which is a good 8 percentage points below Robertson’s. The up-tick for the Gators with Green is on ball handling skills, where he’s proven to be a more dependable passer and better ball defender than Robertson. Point guard is his to lose.

Al Horford plays forward with a tough, mix it up style, making him a dominant inside man. He ripped down an average of 6.5 rebounds per game in his rookie season; he above anyone else has the qualities to bring this team together.

The Florida Gators will be better defensively this year; in order to swamp the Wildcats they’ll need to find points from second-year players who are being asked to mature quickly.

For more info on the 2005 Gators check out the official Florida athletic site.