Albany's Coach Provides Blueprint For How To Beat Florida
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Will Brown's 16th-seeded Albany men's basketball team played No. 1 overall seed Florida surprisingly close on Thursday, and with Pitt set to battle Florida in a round-of-32 matchup on Saturday, the Great Danes' coach joined The Fan Morning Show on Friday to give the guys an idea of how the Gators can be beaten.
Brown believes that Saturday's game will hinge on Pitt's offensive efforts more than it will on what they do when Florida has the ball.
"I don't think there's going to be much of an issue with Pitt being able to guard Florida," Brown said. "I really think Pitt's issue is going to be what they do offensively, and how they attack Florida."
He feels that Pitt is going to have to do more on offense than simply attack the basket successfully in order to take down Florida.
"Pittsburgh is a half-court, grind-it-out team," Brown said. "So I would imagine that this is going to be a half-court fistfight, in my opinion. I think the team that can find ways to score the ball easiest is going to win. I think Pitt's going to have to make some jump shots to beat Florida. Florida's tremendous defensively."
He explained that Florida's defensive pressure will make it hard for Pitt to go its normal route of slowing things down, and that the key for the Panthers will be to balance controlling the pace with aggressively attacking Florida's press.
"What happens at times is when you play pressing teams, even if they don't get you to turn the ball over, they're trying to speed you up," Brown said. "And maybe you have certain guys taking shots that aren't necessarily good shots for them, because they're playing faster than they normally do, and they're out of their comfort zone… you don't want to take those quick jump shots and get Florida's athletes going up and down and playing a faster pace ... I'm sure Jamie [Dixon] is going to want to make this a fistfight in the half-court and try to grind it out."
The interview can be heard here:
Will Brown 3-21
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