Florida basketball falls to Arizona to open season, still figuring lineup, roles
Eight months ago, you’d be betting against fate if you thought Florida would lose how it did to No. 13 Arizona on Monday.
During their national championship run, the Gators repeatedly chewed away at opponents’ leads. And when they needed a decisive shot, Walter Clayton Jr. was always open somewhere. There hasn’t been a bigger big-shot maker in recent college basketball history.
So if No. 3 Florida learned nothing else in its 93-87 season-opening loss in Las Vegas, it no longer has the same knockout punch. At least not right now. Which might be exactly why Todd Golden’s squad was the first reigning national champion this century to face a ranked team to start its next campaign.
“The reason why we played this game was to give ourselves a really good opportunity to get a quality win,” the coach said after the game. “I don’t think anybody is going to hold this loss over our head, moving forward, and I do think it gives us a great opportunity to teach our team.”
After an offseason in which Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard departed for the NBA — Florida’s core backcourt last year — the Gators’ primary unknown was their replacements. High-profile transfers Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland seemed to be about as good an immediate fix as a coach can produce in modern college athletics.
Neither shot better than 33% from the field Monday night, combining for 23 points, and Lee struggled mightily with his selection, going 5-of-17. More pressingly, Florida clawed back from a nine-point deficit in the second half to draw within three, only for each to attempt — and miss — identical corner 3-pointers in the final 45 seconds. (The Gators finished shooting 25.9%, for that matter.) Either could grow into Florida’s closer, but Arizona served as a measuring stick, and neither was tall enough for Golden’s title-or-bust ride.
“We had some uncharacteristic turnovers and just made some plays that just weren’t winning plays,” Golden said, though his guards wouldn’t have needed the fall exam had Florida’s frontcourt held up its end of the offseason hype. Rarely does a reigning champion bring back the entirety of its frontcourt (for a moment of serenity, Florida fans, think ‘06). Even better, Florida had two legitimate SEC Player of the Year contenders in that group.
With Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon solidifying at small and power forward, Golden shifted to a three-big starting lineup to put his best players on the court at once. The premise is sound to the ear. But only three national champions since Florida’s mid-2000s repeat have trotted out similar lineups. College basketball is a game of pace, with every champion since the COVID-19 pandemic ranking in the top 50 in adjusted tempo, per KenPom. With a bigger lineup, it’s simply harder to create the fast-break advantages Florida consistently capitalized on last year. Thirteen of Florida’s 87 points on Monday came on the run.
Not to mention, Arizona outrebounded that vaunted frontcourt 41 to 32, in large part because of freshman Koa Peat, who finished with 30 points. His greater effect was working Condon and center Reuben Chinyelu into foul trouble, keeping them on the bench in the closing minutes, though they wouldn’t have been the difference. Condon finished with 11 points, and Chinyelu, four — an early mark against Florida’s lineup test.
“We could have done a better job on the glass,” Golden said. “That’s been a calling card for us, getting all our bigs back, [and] we lost the battle on the glass.”
While early polling, Haugh led Florida in scoring with 27 points, showing the growth needed to become one of the Gators’ primary offensive options. How far Golden’s team will go hinges on the junior forward’s transition from the post to the wing. But even he, despite the performance, gave his best Tim Tebow impression.
“We know we need to be the best front court in the nation,” Haugh said. “We can’t let somebody like that come out here and score 30 points on us. It’s not acceptable, and it won’t happen moving forward.”
Yet the tabula is still extremely rasa. In a sport where wins over top-ranked teams mean much more than losses to them, Florida can sustain itself through some early-season bumps. If anything, the Arizonas of the world — on a “neutral” court in Las Vegas, nonetheless — serve as a good punching bag for Florida to build itself back up, even if the result was uninspiring.
Some more inexplicable gut-clinching performances may loom, too, with No. 6 Duke and No. 4 UConn on Florida’s All-Star non-conference tour. But as the transfer portal grows, November and December are for figuring things out.
“We’re a high-floor program. We rebound well, we take care of the ball, and that’s going to usually give us a great chance to win. And we were deficient in both those areas tonight, and we’re walking out here with a six-point loss,” Golden said.
“I was proud of our group.”