Florida coach Mike White said something at Saturday’s postgame press conference that made me realize just how far removed this team was from last season’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight run.
Following UF’s 69-66 loss to Texas Tech in Dallas in the second round of the Big Dance, he paused a bit and pointed at Chris Chiozza and Egor Koulechov sitting at his left.
“If all 13 of my guys were as tough as these two,” he said. “We'd still be playing.”
It was the story of the season, where Florida’s mental fortitude was about as inconsistent as it’s scoring. And it’s only going to get worse next year.
I’ll say it now. I believe the Gators will not be good in 2018-19. They’ll make a postseason tournament, but they won’t attain nearly the same level of success as they did two years ago. I don’t even think they’ll make it further than the second round next year, if they even make it.
When you look at what the future holds for UF, it’s easy to see why.
It will be without both Chiozza and Koulechov, two of Florida’s three leading scorers. Chiozza has been the only player to consistently deliver the defensive performances White was looking for from his team. On the offensive end, the senior point guard was known for both his passing ability and limited turnovers. He ranked sixth in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio. You can’t replace what he brought to the team, especially when he recorded 11 assists and no turnovers against St. Bonaventure on Thursday in the first round.
And while the Gators only had him for one year, Koulechov has helped fuel Florida’s scoring effort, averaging 13.8 points per game.
Mix those two departures with the possibility of Jalen Hudson leaving for the NBA draft -- mock drafts have him anywhere from a late-second round pick to undrafted -- the team’s scoring will go down the drain.
Sure, the Gators will still have KeVaughn Allen, who finished the season averaging double digit scoring figures, but he has taken a major step back in terms of finding his confidence. While he showed flashes of the offensive production he had last year, Allen oftentimes took a backseat to Hudson, Koulechov and Chiozza.
Meanwhile, when Florida needed more players to improve and add depth to the roster, only forward Keith Stone really stepped up his game. The redshirt sophomore took strides this season, increasing both his scoring and his effort on the boards to quickly earn a spot in the starting lineup.
But with just two, possibly three, proven players returning next year, I don’t see the Gators being that good. Some of those close games from this season, like the 77-75 win against Missouri on Jan. 6, could have easily gone the other way if it wasn’t for players like Chiozza and Koulechov.
So unless more players start showing improvement and prove they can partially fill the void of some of Florida’s departing stars, don’t expect too much next season.
Follow Jake Dreilinger on Twitter @DreilingerJake and contact him at jdreilinger@alligator.org.
Guard Egor Koulechov ended his only season at Florida as the second-leading scorer with 13.8 points per game.
