#3 Ohio State visits #5 Florida

Alright, here's my take on the game...

Basically this was the best game that this unit has ever played. Green was on shooting the ball, he was a little careless with the ball and didn't really run the offense that well, but he made a lot of plays. Corey Brewer provided all the energy that we needed. He looked really good and was the key player of the game. He energized the entire crowd and continues to prove why he's one of the best defenders in the nation. Humphrey was the unsung hero, he was struggling with his shot, but had 3 layups and was very good penetrating and dishing. Chris Richard played solid, he kept his big body between Oden and the rim. What can you say about Horford that his statline doesn't say. He played very tough defense on Oden and had a gutty double double. Noah played pretty good and really energized the crowd, he was very good at getting everyone else involved. Walter Hodge was a pest on defense for the OSU guards and was very effective in running the offense when we took Green out. Dan Werner played his best game as a Gator having 5 big points in the first half when OSU was starting to get the momentum.

Horford was definitely injured and you could tell. He didn't run down the court all the time on offense, when he normally is the first or 2nd guy down there and he limped around a little bit, but with the adrenaline and the crowd noise, I bet he forgot about his injury and just fought through it.

The refs biased? There was a lot of fouls they should have called Oden on where he raped a driving Brewer or Horford/Richard downlow and there wasn't a call. I would say the refs certainly let both teams play and grind it out and it was probably pretty fair for the most part. I didn't have a very good view of a couple of the shot blocks, but Horford was going crazy on 2 of them that they should have been goaltending(1 when he was getting ready to check in. Of course I was mad on a couple of calls, but then there were a couple that was like wow we got a break.

The crowd was absolutely ridiculous. It was the largest crowd in Odome history and there was a lot of standing room. Even the alumni seemed to realize how important this game was and they stood a lot of the game(they normally sit the entire game and don't make much noise). They impacted the game. My favorite chant was with 4 minutes left in the game, the student section chanted Greg Oden, then pretended to bowdown to him.

 

I assume you were at the game and did not have the luxury of instant replay. There were 2 foul calls on Oden where he clearly did not make contact (Hunter actually should have got the reach-in on Noah). On the other end, the announcers were even saying how Oden was getting pushed around by Horford and Richard. Regardless though, it did not affect the outcome beacuse the Gators were executing great and the OSU guards just kept jacking and missing threes.

 

<div class="quote_poster">XSV Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I assume you were at the game and did not have the luxury of instant replay. There were 2 foul calls on Oden where he clearly did not make contact (Hunter actually should have got the reach-in on Noah). On the other end, the announcers were even saying how Oden was getting pushed around by Horford and Richard. Regardless though, it did not affect the outcome beacuse the Gators were executing great and the OSU guards just kept jacking and missing threes.</div>

There were also several plays where he raped Corey Brewer/Taureen Green driving and Horford/Noah when they were taking it in without a call. Overall the game was officiated pretty good in my mind. Most of Oden's shots were just missed because of him only having 1 hand and probably fatigue trying to run up and down the court to keep up with Noah and one legged Horford.

Well I'm just judging by what I saw and from previous games where it always seems like the Gators can't be physical without getting calls, while the other teams are physical. Maybe it wasn't like that this game, but that's just what I am accustomed to seeing.

The Gators showed how you can beat Ohio State and you do that by going right at Oden. Sure he will get his fair share of blocks, but he'll pick up fouls and since he is still only a freshman he can get out of place at times to give an easy dunk to the man he's guarding. Also it wears him down and he gets fatigued.

The Gators needed this game badly to remind everyone that they were still on the basketball map. If they lost this game, their confidence would have gone pretty low after losing to Kansas and Florida State earlier in the year.

 

The Gators showed why they won the championship Saturday. When their offense is clicking, there is not a single team in the nation that can beat this team. Horford gave them a big lift inside and Green was lights out from beyond the arc.

The rest of the nation better watch out, because Florida is back!

 

<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Unfortunately I missed the game, but thanks for the recap guys. Based on Gators post, it sounds like the way to neutralize Oden is to increase the pace of the game and force him to run up and down the court. I'm sure he's not conditioned after being out with his injury, and dealing with better overall talent at the college level.

It will be interesting to see if he hits the rookie wall this season, and how he deals with the hectic schedule during March Madness.</div>

It also doesn't hurt to have 2 big bodies like Horford and Richard that you can throw at him. Especially Horford's ability to run the court and put the ball on the floor. (although he wasn't as good as he normally is running up and down). Once Ohio State started to fall behind in the 2nd half, they just stopped going to Oden and decided to jack up 3's. Oden was tired and wasn't getting that good of positioning against our players, but he had some pretty big stretches without even getting touches. That is probably the main reason for Oden's lack of stats. He didn't get many touches in either half. Even with how he struggled, you could tell that he is going to be a very good player. He made some nice moves, but missed the shots because of the hurt hand. He will get plenty of blocks, but as shown at the end of the game, when he gets 4 fouls he doesn't really go up to block shots. Taureen Green and Lee Humphrey both had finger rolls in his eye at the end of the game.