Florida tops Florida State in nail-biter despite persisting offensive woes

Rivalry games are messy. Florida coach Todd Golden emphasized that before facing Florida State on Tuesday night. But even then the box score shouldn’t require a parental advisory.

Six of 31 from deep, 18 turnovers and a 68.8% clip make up just a few quantifiable measures of how much No. 10 Florida’s offense has regressed from its national championship-form a season ago. And those numbers aren’t outliers compared to either of the Gators’ first two games.

So Florida winning 78-76 against an in-state rival seems like magic. With the look of a man dazed by some form of sorcery, Florida State coach Luke Loucks disagrees.

“Todd has this thing rolling,” he said. “It’s one thing to see it on film and another thing to see it in person.”

While mucky — and this team can’t be described any other way — the Gators presented a trend that’s become aptly clear. Florida doesn’t lose to inferior opponents under Golden, especially its former in-state bully. When Florida State guard Robert McCray V scored 29, the Gators held FSU’s best shooter Lajae Jones to three. When Florida State pulled ahead to open the second half, Florida muscled its way to a 14-2 run.

The chomps may have looked more like yawns at times, but no team was better prepared to win a fist-fight than Florida, something the Gators couldn’t say prior to Golden’s arrival.

“We know the rivalry,” forward Thomas Haugh said. “We knew coming in that we were going to give them our best game, they were going to give us their best game, that’s how it is.”

This perennial early-season meeting has been marred by abrupt shifts in dominance. In ye olden days of Billy Donovan, Florida rattled off five consecutive wins. But in his departure came the rise of Leonard Hamilton’s elbow-throwing, board-devouring perennial ACC contender, and the Noles won a series-high seven straight games.

Yet under Golden, Florida has repeatedly beaten Florida State in the same skull-crushing manner once required to live in Tallahassee. Three of the last four years, the Gators outrebounded (by a liberal seven per game) and outshot the Seminoles. Starting three bigs this season, the Gators throwing their weight around Tuesday was no surprise. A 22-rebound differential, though, provides some inspiration in a warped showing, even if that duct tape won’t keep this offense together forever. That’s especially notable considering four of Florida’s starters played at least 32 minutes.

“If we’re getting into the chunk of our schedule, I’m not sure we want to be playing these guys 30 minutes,” Golden said. “[But] as we continue to try to find ourselves and get really comfortable, we’re going to rip the guys that we feel really confident in.”

Among Florida’s long-distance runners, Haugh has ascended into an offense-inducing slot — though that might not be beneficial. The 6-foot-10 forward has led Florida in scoring each game this season, and had another 20 on Tuesday. The issue is that he’s clearly not on the same level as the distributors Florida’s attack could lean on, like Zyon Pullin and Walter Clayton Jr., in its last two campaigns.

While guard Boogie Fland showed traces of capability, scoring a season-high 18 as one of Florida’s few vaguely competent shooters, the Gators have an offense with no identity. Florida had only seven fewer turnovers than field goals. When the ball successfully reaches a spot-up option’s hands on the perimeter, Gainesville’s O’Dome transforms into a chapel for mass. Frantic ups and downs, a scattering of chance sighs as this sermon on shooting ineptitude continues. With a quick scan, no preseason top-three team has opened a campaign shooting below 25% from deep in at least the last decade. Florida’s sporting 21.1, which is the second worst of any currently ranked team. (Yikes, Michigan State.)

The signs of this collapse were always there, just cloaked by the air of Golden’s offensive prowess. Florida doesn’t have a player on its roster who shot better than 38.8% from deep last season (min. 100 attempts). That man, Ohio transfer AJ Brown, hasn’t played this season. Florida’s starting lineup, while rebound-friendly, isn’t geared to create the spacing its shooters had last year. Those like Fland and guard Xaivian Lee — neither of which having shot better than 37% from 3 last year but both playing 35 minutes on Tuesday — aren’t benefitting from the pressure to create their own shot.

Miami will be the next test for the Gators’ faltering scheme, facing off in Jacksonville on Sunday. Despite the storm of concern in Gainesville, Golden isn’t worried it’ll travel up the road. And with another gutsy win on the resume, maybe he shouldn’t be.

“I think hopefully this will give some of our guys a little confidence who are playing some new roles in our program,” Golden said. “We’ve got some time. These guys are young.”