Florida basketball: Tyree Appleby is proving Mike White didn’t know what he was doing
By Will Thomas
Florida basketball has had some good players put on the orange and blue through the down years they’ve had recently.
With Todd Golden coming in this season, we saw a few of those guys transfer out of the program and look to get a fresh start elsewhere. Keyontae Johnson, after his collapse and two-year break from basketball, is doing great things at Kansas State and had the Wildcats in the top ten.
But one that’s a little more surprising and under the radar is Tyree Appleby, who is now at Wake Forest playing point guard. Tyree had his moments in Gainesville, but he was never able to put together a consistent string of great play.
Now that he’s in Winston-Salem, however, he’s playing as well as anybody in the country and is proving to us once again that Mike White just can’t coach.
Wake may be on the bubble of the NCAA tournament, but they’re not even in consideration for the tourney if not for Appleby. He’s scoring 18.7 points per game, grabbing 3.4 rebounds, and dishing out 6.2 assists per game, which is sixth in the nation.
He had his best game of the season last night against North Carolina in a Demon Deacons’ win.
He scored 35 points, had 11 assists, and grabbed seven rebounds. Talk about doing everything for your team. A lot of his success comes from his own playmaking ability and basketball IQ, but it’s worth acknowledging that Mike White’s system was holding him back.
In his last year at UF, he shot 36.4% from the field, which is about seven points worse than his clip this year at 43.1%. White’s offense was dysfunctional, and he just couldn’t get his guys open shots on a regular basis.
Appleby also averages 2.5 more assists per game this year than he did in Gainesville, as the offense flows better and isn’t stagnant like White had for Florida.
Are players able to improve on their skills and see jumps on the stat sheet like this without a coaching change? Sure. But if you watch Appleby, he’s the same player he was at Florida. Quick with the ball, has eyes up looking for a pass, and is a confident shooter.
The difference is that now he doesn’t have Mike White holding him back.
Tyree has become one of the most fun players to watch in college basketball and should have the support of every Gator fan as his season continues.
Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.