First Coast college basketball roundup: Ospreys defensive woes at the heart of recent slide

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The North Florida Ospreys are scoring at their usual high rate, leading the ASUN with 83.5 points per game.

But UNF (7-8, 0-2 ASUN), which beat South Carolina and Georgia Tech in November, has lost four games in a row (including their first two ASUN games) and five of its last six, and the reason is defense — where they are last in allowing 85.6 points per game.

“It’s defending … we don’t believe in it, we don’t care about it, we have no pride in it,” Ospreys coach Matthew Driscoll said bluntly after a 96-64 loss to Lipscomb at UNF Arena on Saturday. “I can’t say inexperience because we have enough guys with experience. To their credit [Lipscomb] they whooped us in every single phase you could whoop us.”

Sophomore guard Jasai Miles (center) had 17 points and six rebounds in North Florida’s opening ASUN game of the season on Jan. 2 against Austin Peay.

The Ospreys have given up 90 or more points in eight of their last nine games. They’re also last in field-goal percentage defense (47.9), ninth in 3-point percentage defense (35.9) and ninth in rebounding margin (minus 3.9).

Most of the damage is being done inside. In the last five games in which UNF has given up 90 or more, opponents are shooting 55.2 percent on 2-point shots and are outscoring the Ospreys by an average of 16 points in the paint — although that figure is skewed a bit with the sixth-ranked Florida Gators’ 48-10 advantage in their Dec. 21 game.

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“I don’t think our guys are doing the little things we need to do in order to be successful,” Driscoll said. “We’ve gotten away from it for whatever reason.”

Sophomore guard Jasai Miles, who had 10 points against Lipscomb, was even more candid.

“At times we get too caught up playing individually it’s evident on the court,” he said. “We have 16 [conference games] left. We’re going to get it right.”

UNF also had the dubious distinction of having the first opposing…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/first-coast-college-basketball-roundup-101255130.html

Author : The Florida Times-Union

Publish date : 2025-01-06 10:12:00

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