Kicking off the first night of the college basketball season with a thriller, the Florida Gators ultimately fell to the Arizona Wildcats by a score of 93-87. After the Gators got the initial jump and stretched their lead to double digits midway through the first half, Arizona was able to quickly jump back into the game before building a lead of their own that they never relinquished. Florida did make a spirited comeback attempt in the final minutes when it looked like the game was all but sealed, even having a three-point attempt from Boogie Fland to tie after he stole his second consecutive inbounds pass, but it clattered out and the Gators lost their opportunity. While there is no shame in losing to a strong Arizona team in a Las Vegas environment that had a crowd heavily favoring the Wildcats, there will certainly be a number of things that Florida will be looking to clean up moving forward.
First, The Good
Moving from the frontcourt to the perimeter, Thomas Haugh started the season with a bang finishing with 27 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals, taking advantage of smaller defenders that were tasked with guarding him by constantly cutting and getting touches around the rim where he could use his length to finish. There were some moments where his perimeter skills showed some room for work as he struggled to dribble around more agile defenders and he missed some passing reads, but as an individual scorer he did well to leverage his size and use it to convert around the rim. Defensively, he was tremendous on the wing where his foot speed was more than enough to keep up with any Arizona wing, and his length off the ball caused all kinds of chaos. Down the stretch he ended up playing more in the frontcourt as the Gators had some foul trouble and general issues with their frontcourt, but it looks like Haugh at the “3” will continue to be a Florida focus moving forward.
Now, The Bad
Graduating Walter Clayton, Alijah Brown, and Will Richard might have suggested the offense might take a step back, but the biggest issue on opening night was Florida’s massive struggles on the defensive end, particularly when it came to pick and roll coverage where Arizona repeatedly got anything they wanted–often layups right at the rim. Just how easy was it for Arizona to get to the rim? Well, on a night where they scored 93 points, The Wildcats took just 5 total three-pointers, hitting 2 of them. Only taking 5 threes in a game is unheard of in the modern college basketball game, especially for a team as talented offensively as Arizona, and if going into this game you heard that they only took 5 threes you probably would have expected that they got boatraced. However, it was the opposite–and Arizona’s ability to get to the rim whenever they wanted was the story of this game, and there are major elements that Florida needs to work on moving forward. Guards Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland did not do a good job of steering the ball handler around the screen, and the drop defenders were nowhere near active enough impacting the ball or making sure the roll couldn’t get behind them. This resulted in freshman Koa Peat having one of the best debuts college basketball has ever seen with 30 points and 5 assists, while guard Jaden Bradley also had a career night with 27 points and 5 assists, mostly all coming out of the pick and roll.
First Look
With rosters changing so much year to year, the opening game of the season is always an interesting opportunity to see new players and see what their strengths and weaknesses are. Xaivian Lee was the leader among first year Gators with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists, showing some of the electricity he is known for with some crafty dribble combinations and step back threes. He did struggle to finish inside and was poor in pick and roll coverage–two areas that were issues at Princeton, and something he’ll need to continue to work on. Boogie Fland finished with 9 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals, and while he had some great moments on the defensive end, much more was expected from his pick and roll coverage after he was really good in that area at Arkansas. Freshman CJ Ingram also got into the game and went 1-3 from deep, and even got on the floor in some of the final minutes due to foul trouble and was trusted to guard in some big possessions. Transfers AJ Brown and Alex Kovatchev didn’t see the floor, nor did freshman Alex Lloyd.
Final Thoughts
Florida did not play particularly good basketball, yet still found themselves with an opportunity to tie against a strong Arizona team–and that will have to be the positives that the Gators take away from this game. While Thomas Haugh was excellent, the Gators need more from the transfer guards as well as Alex Condon, and this will have to be an early wakeup call which is the exact reason you play big games like this early in the season. Offensively there were some nice moments for the team and there are things to build on there, but defensively the Gators have a whole lot to shore up, and that starts with the pick and roll.