UNF Basketball Thread: 2015-16 Season

[ProjectMaximus]

^I am logged in through xfinity but can only see the UFC fight and League of Champions soccer match. I guess you have to actually have Fox Sports Midwest to be able to watch (channel 421 or something)?

If you go to Fox Sports Go and login using your cable account, you can access.

They are hurting right now. Down 13 with 5 min to go.

Nope. I'm logged in and all that's available to me is UFC: Velasquez vs Werdum and Bayern Munich vs Olympiacos

[spuwho]

Interesting strategy. SLU is intentionally fouling to keep UNF out of the threes and forcing the Ospreys to the line.

Too little too late I am afraid.

[spuwho]

Game over.

UNF 57 - SLU 70

It was neck and neck until 5 min left. Seems the Ospreys panicked a little. The SLU defense on Dallas Moore really broke up the pattern.

[spuwho]

UNF 81 Hartford 60

Still struggling with the threes, but did better on the boards.

Next is St Francis Brooklyn in the Brooklyn Hoops Classic on Saturday.

[ProjectMaximus]

Good victory!

[spuwho]

Here is a time lapse video of the gym and scoreboard upgrades that just wrapped at UNF Arena.

https://www.youtube.com/v/7X1_LHaLcnI

For anyone who asks, it was paid for by your state education taxes, good budgeting and increased revenue from the men's basketball program. I know we have some sensitivities on scoreboard funding around here. 

[spuwho]

UNF 78 - St Francis NY 65

Big victory up in Hartford CT for the Ospreys.

Now back to Jacksonville to play Division III Trinity Baptist before heading over to Baton Rouge to play #22 LSU and then right up to Dayton to play the Flyers, who have been red hot. 

Tough road schedule coming up!

[ProjectMaximus]

Good win. If they want a shot at an at-large bid, they gotta win these games coming up.

[spuwho]

UNF 80 - Trinity Baptist 72

UNF continues chilly shooting.  Division III Trinity kept it close until UNF could break out a small lead in the second half and then held on.

They are going to have to shoot way better when they travel to LSU. 11-28 from 3pt land tonight but they missed a lot of shots in 2pt range.

Trinity had alot of turnovers in 2nd half and that helped.

[spuwho]

In what has to be one of the wildest games ever, UNF lost to #22 LSU.   119-108.

UNF woke up from the chilly shooting and was unconscious from 3 point range. Both Beech and Moore had 31 points.

UNF was leading by a healthy margin at halftime and LSU faithful were freaking out.

Then LSU freshman Ben Simmons went on a tear for the ages as he scored 43 points and LSU had a 71 point second half to finally beat the Ospreys.

LSU knew UNF was trouble for them.

http://www.nola.com/lsu/index.ssf/2015/12/what_the_lsu_players_johnny_jo.html#incart_river_index

It was the biggest output by an LSU player since Shaquille O'Neal.

You gotta give those Ospreys credit, they came to play!!

[ProjectMaximus]

I watched the second half. I am a little concerned that this will be a problem for the team anytime they face a Power Five/Major Conf opponent. They can shoot lights out all they want but clearly playing big man, inside ball trumps that when done well.

Anyway, I'm sure they'll continue to grow and learn from this and hopefully dominate the A-Sun.

[spuwho]

Louisville went to a large frontcourt to defend the threes. But it took a sophomore off the bench athletic enough to make a difference.

Illinois went inside to try to take advantage of the size difference, but they had a young frontcourt that couldnt defend the three very well.

Saint Louis ran a perimeter defense intended to push the 3pt shooters farther out. This forced UNF into an inside/outside game and caused alot of turnovers for UNF.

LSU tried to defend the three but in post game interviews the players said they were playing UNF close and had hands in their faces and they were still making them. It took Ben Simmons inside game to make the difference. No one on UNF could stop him.

[Downtown Osprey]

When you score 100+ points in a college game you should be the team coming out on top.

This is becoming a trend against the bigger boys, the lack of defense is sometimes painful to watch. In each of these games UNF lost, they had control at one point and let it dwindle away. It's like they forget what defense is in the second half.

On the bright side, they aren't getting rocked by these teams, and Beach played an incredible game last night. Simmons will get the praise nationally (well deserved) but that was one hell of a performance by Beach. Swoop!

[spuwho]

UNF 71 Dayton 86

UNF was down 38-35 at the half but allowed Dayton to go on a 12-2 run to open the second half and they couldn't recover until 6min left in the game. After that they matched them point for point.

UNF has got to pick up their second half defense coming out of the locker room.  Of their losses, they allow teams to go on these big runs and can't stop or respond. Last year, they always seem to go cold on offense early in the second half. In the A-Sun they always recovered, but against the power conferences, they don't.

4 Dayton players were in double figures.

Next game is at home vs Coastal Georgia

Coverage: ESPN3
7:00 PM ET, December 12, 2015
UNF Arena, Jacksonville, Florida

[spuwho]

Driscoll mentions that Beech is getting scouted by several NBA teams.

Per St Augustine.com:

http://m.staugustine.com/sports/college/2015-12-10/energetic-driscoll-working-encore-unf#gsc.tab=0

Energetic Driscoll working on encore at UNF

By BRENT WORONOFF

brent.woronoff@staugustine.com


Whether he's recruiting, pacing the sideline or speaking to the St. Johns County Sports Club, North Florida men's basketball coach Matt Driscoll is a ball of energy.

Driscoll didn't pace when he spoke to the club Thursday afternoon at The Corner Bar in St. Augustine, but he did hint at a local recruiting effort, and he wasn't shy about promoting UNF's games. Both of those duties have become easier since the Ospreys won the Atlantic Sun Conference and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history last season.

The A-Sun tournament championship game made a YouTube sensation out of UNF's crazy, dancing band member, Stephen Putnam, and helped put the Ospreys on the national radar. A boisterous student section fits Driscoll's personality perfectly, and the highest demand ever for Ospreys season tickets proves the seventh-year coach is on the right track.

"We had 6,155 fans (for the A-Sun championship game in the 5,800-seat UNF Arena)," Driscoll told the club Thursday. "That was larger than the fire marshal wanted, so we sent him on a cruise."

In the offseason, UNF added a million-dollar state-of-the-art video scoreboard over center court, a 40-foot LED scorer's table and the UNF Cool Zone — 44 premium seats on the floor that cost $1,000 a game. The seats are selling and all of the additions were supported by sponsors, which have been much easier to find now that the team is winning.

"No one said basketball could survive in Jacksonville, but when you win people are going to come out," Driscoll said.

When it comes to winning, Driscoll sounds like Vince Lombardi.

"Coming close isn't what it's all about," he said. "Moral victories are non-existent in what we do."

At UNF, he's managed to build a winner with few resources. He took over a team in 2009 that went 8-22 the previous year and led it to a 13-18 mark in his first season. Last season, the Ospreys went 23-12 with a 12-2 conference record. They also knocked off Big Ten power Purdue and duplicated that feat in this year's season-opener with a 93-81 win at Illinois.

Driscoll has a 102-103 record in his six seasons at the Jacksonville school, including 6-4 so far this season.

"We're going in to win every game and make our guys understand that winning is what it's all about," he said.

And he's doing it with high-character players, such as Ponte Vedra High School's Beau Beech, who made the A-Sun academic honor roll in 2012-13.

Beech is averaging 16.4 points per game, is third in the nation in 3-pointers made with 35 and eighth in 3-point shooting percentage at .538. The 6-foot-9 swingman hit 8 of 12 from 3-point range on the way to a 31-point performance last week in a 119-108 loss to LSU.

"He's 6-9 and he shoots peas. He's got a chance to go pro," Driscoll said. "The Celtics, Spurs and Hawks have come out to watch him. He's going to be UNF's all-time leading scorer for a year. And then [junior guard Dallas Moore] is going to pass him."

The Ospreys are the No. 1 team in the nation in 3-pointers made (281) and fourth in 3-point shooting percentage (.459). They always have four players on the floor who can shoot from beyond the arc and they get their shots off as quickly as they can, so they have been unaffected by the new 30-second shot clock, Driscoll said.

"We have athletic dudes who run and dunk and jump," he said. "We're really talented, really, really fun to watch. And our tickets are $10 a game. That's less than a movie. And the popcorn is pretty good too."

After promoting, he focused on recruiting. Without naming names, which would be a recruiting violation, Driscoll said he has prioritized another St. Johns County player who would be a perfect fit for UNF.

"In two years we lose 100 percent of our scoring," Driscoll said. "So we need your [player]. We're trying not to be Vanilla Ice. He had one hit, 'Ice, Ice Baby.' We ain't trying to be one and done."