Defensive breakdowns costly as Gators drop opener to Arizona

Tommy Haugh scores two of his 27 points (UAA Photo)

LAS VEGAS, Nevada – A lot of people have said it, but John Wooden is generally credited with that time honored adage, “Defense travels.”

Quite obviously, Florida’s defense took a detour on the way to T-Mobile Arena Monday night. Despite shooting 20-30 from the foul line, 7-27 from the 3-point line and committing 15 turnovers the 3^rd-ranked Gators scored more than enough points to beat 13^th-ranked Arizona.

There was just one teensy problem and that was down at the defensive end of the floor where the Gators couldn’t get stops, gave up 49 percent shooting and fouled so much that Arizona went to the foul line 38 times.

“It was our defense that was the issue,” was the understatement by Florida coach Todd Golden after the Gators dropped their season opener, 93-87.

Arizona played well enough and deserved to win this game, but it’s not like the Wildcats did it completely on their own. It’s not that the Gators were willing conspirators, just that they didn’t make plays when they were needed most, more often on the defensive end but also when there were shots to be made in the final 2:20 of the game. Florida trailed 85-76 at that point but with 43 seconds left they had a chance to tie the score at 88-88 when Boogie Fland came up with a steal on an Arizona inbounds pass and had a wide open 3-ball from the corner.

It clanged off the rim.

With 15 seconds remaining and Arizona ahead 91-87, Xaivian Lee could have cut the margin down to a single point, but like Fland’s shot, it hit the iron and missed the net.

“We had a chance to tie the game with 43 seconds to go and then we had another opportunity one possession later with another wide open three to cut it to one,” Golden said. “So I’m super disappointed that we lost, but the reason why we played this game was to give ourselves a really good opportunity to get a quality win. 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 before we play North Florida on Thursday.”

Jaden Bradley, who scored 27 points, hit a pull-up jumper from about 15 feet out with 2:41 left in the game for an 83-76 Arizona lead. That was the last time the Wildcats scored from the field. Against a physical Florida press, the Wildcats kept getting to the foul line where they went 10-11 in the final 2:20.

While Florida struggled to make a three from the field, Arizona calmly stood at the stripe and kept knocking down free throws that extended the lead. For the game, the Wildcats were 31-38 from the line.

“You can’t send a team to the line 38 times,” Golden said. “A good team – any team – to the line 38 times and you expect to give yourself a really good chance to win.”

Arizona is a very good team that is going to hang around the top ten all season. The Gators should be a much better team than they showed Monday night. They played the first 10:06 of the game like the team everybody expected, carving out a 32-20 lead with 9:54 left in the first half.

At that point, it looked like the Gators were going to win in blowout fashion, but the shots stopped falling and the defense went AWOL. Florida scored only 16 points the rest of the half while Arizona lit the Gators up for 30 for a 50-46 lead.

That the Wildcats were able to hang 50 on the Gators without loading up on 3-pointers had to be particularly troubling to Golden. Arizona launched only four threes in the first half, landing two of them. The second of the threes was an off-balance desperation heave from Ivan Kharhenkov with 3:53 remaining. Florida’s Urban Klavzar was all over Kharchenkov who found the bottom of the net from 25 feet out for a 42-41 lead, the Wildcats’ first since the game was 4-2 in the first two minutes.

Arizona scored 26 points in the paint in the first half, six on 3-pointers, four on short jumpers and 14 at the foul line. The Wildcats outrebounded the Gators 21-12 and outscored UF 10-4 on second chance points.

The Wildcats attempted only one 3-pointer in the second half (a miss), but they continued to pound away on the inside where they scored another 24 points. The only non-paint points were Bradley’s 15-footer with 2:41 left and 17 free throws in 22 attempts.

When Bradley wasn’t either getting to the rim or making shots from the foul line (he was 9-10), freshman Koa Peat ate the Gators alive. The 5-star freshman forward finished the night with 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists, a blocked shot and three steals. That he was so effective caused Florida’s Tommy Haugh to shake his head.

“I think our bigs as a group know we need to be the best front court in the nation this year,” 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.”

Haugh had plenty to do with keeping the game close enough that the Gators might have been able to pull out a win. He had the best scoring night of his collegiate career with 27 points to go with four rebounds, two assists, a blocked shot and a steal. He hit 7-13 shots overall, 1-4 from the 3-point line and 12-14 from the foul line.

In the final 2:20 Haugh had two brilliant plays, each one that brought the Gators to within three points of the Wildcats from what was once a 9-point deficit. It was his steal of an Arizona inbounds pass and tap-in of his own miss with 29 seconds to go that brought the Gators back to within three, 88-85, with 43.4 seconds to go. He brought the Gators back within three again – 90-87 – with a thunderous dunk with 29 seconds left.

It was a mixed bag for Florida’s other three bigs. Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu started along with Haugh but the combined for only 15 points and nine rebounds between them. They didn’t block a single shot.

Condon finished with 11 points on 4-9 shooting overall, 0-1 from the 3-point line. He was 3-6 from the foul line. He had eight rebounds, four assists and two steals but he turned the ball over six times and fouled out with 2:20 left in the game. Chinyelu had perhaps his worst game as a Gator, finishing with four points on 2-6 shooting and one rebound. His five fouls included a flagrant early in the second half.

Micah Handlogten came off the bench to deliver the best game he’s had since before the broken leg at the 2024 SEC Tournament championship game. Handlogten hit all five of his shots from the field to finish with 11 points and 12 rebounds, six of which came on the offensive end. With the Gators down 88-80 with 47 seconds left, Handlogten came through with a 3-point play. Powering up through three Arizona defenders trying to roof him, he put the ball in the basket, drew the foul and made the shot. Less than four seconds later, Haugh stole the inbounds pass and scored to make it a 3-point margin.

Florida’s front line combined for 53 points on 18-33 shooting overall, 1-5 from the 3-point line and 16-23 from the foul line.

Contrast that to the backcourt. Starters Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland combined for 23 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists and four steals. They turned the ball over only twice. Lee had 14 points, six rebounds, five assists and a steal, but he was 5-17 overall from the field, just 3-11 from the 3-point line and 1-2 from the foul line. Fland scored nine on 3-9 shooting, 0-2 from the 3-point line and 3-5 from the foul line.

“Xai is a really good player,” Golden said. “I think he’s going to integrate himself into our system and get really comfortable. Obviously wasn’t very efficient shooting the ball tonight. Made some good plays tonight, five assists to two turnovers. The area that we really need him to step his game up is on the defensive end … The guys that we’re replacing (Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard) were really big fiscal defenders and I think that’s going to be an area where to be the best he can be for us and to continue to lift our program will be something that’s really important. But he’s a special offensive player, and, you know, I think he is a guy that we can play off of over the course of the season.”

Urban Klavzar came off the bench to score eight points including 2-6 from the 3-point line. He also had one rebound and one steal. Freshman CJ Ingram hit his first 3-point attempt but missed the next two. He blocked a shot and had an assist.

Assessing Florida’s overall performance, Golden said, “I thought we had some uncharacteristic turnovers and just made some plays that just weren't winning plays is the best way I can say it. We ended up with 15 turnovers. We had nine in the second half. We didn't shoot the ball great. 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.”

This game in many ways was reminiscent of Florida’s win over South Florida in the season opener last year, also of the loss to Kentucky in the first SEC game. Both those games left plenty to be desired, particularly on the defensive end. And, despite scoring plenty (98 against South Florida, 100 against Kentucky), the Gators could have played so much better.

Both those games led to teaching moments that helped the Gators advance to the point they were the hottest team in the country when it counted most. Can this game do the same thing?