Gators punched hard by Vandy
- carltonreese1306
- 5 hours ago
- 5 min read
What did not work for Kentucky, worked beautifully for Vanderbilt in a 91-74 thrashing.
By Carlton Reese
NASHVILLE — The Vanderbilt Commodores showed up at Bridgestone Arena Saturday for a fight while the Florida Gators had come prepared for a scrimmage. The Vanderbilt game plan was nothing new – the Kentucky Wildcats tried it on Florida the day before: hammer, mug, flop, anything to bait the Gators into abandoning their discipline amid the supreme hope the men in stripes kept the whistles to a minimum.
What did not work for Kentucky, worked beautifully for Vanderbilt in a 91-74 thrashing. Where the Wildcats failed to make any shots and capitalize on UF’s shoddy performance, Vanderbilt made everything, and most often without a contest. Simply put, the Gators were bulldozed on Saturday and their defense was about as strong as one might expect against an actual bulldozer.
Florida is a big, strong, physical team that one would expect to deliver blows of its own, but not on this day. For whatever reason, Vandy threw its weight around and into Florida at will, while the Gators’ reaction was more frat boy pledge than Big Boss Man – “Thank you, sir; may I have another?”
“The physicality they played with bothered us, and that’s usually what we do,” coach Todd Golden said.
At no point in Saturday’s game did the Gators look like they had the will to slog through another heavyweight bout, absorbing blows then have to come back the next day and do it all over again. The fight was in Vandy, not Florida.
“They made an effort to be really physical from the jump,” Gator center Alex Condon said. “I know on some of those elbow catching plays, I was getting elbowed in the back. They tried to out-physical us – credit to them, they did a good job. But, it’s fuel to the fire for us. It’s not the worst thing in the world to have a little wakeup call this time of year.”
“They had a great game plan to be a little pest on us, and it worked,” Thomas Haugh said. “Teams are going to look at that come tournament time and we have to not let it happen and not get flustered.”
It’s not that Florida played poorly like it did the day before against Kentucky; it’s that Florida had no big boy response to the blows inflicted Saturday by the Commodores. Florida’s game plan may have had a little to do with that, especially defensively where the Gators’ sole goal was to keep the Vandy sharpshooters from getting clean looks on the perimeter. To that end, Florida succeeded: Tyler Tanner managed to take just one 3-point attempt while Duke Miles and Tyler Nickel were just 2-for-9 combined from long range.
The problem was in consciously allowing the Vanderbilt big men to take those shots. On that end, coach Todd Golden’s game plan blew up in his face: AK Okereke made three of five 3-pointers, Devin McGlockton went 3-for-4, and Jalen Washington made his only attempt, all with defenders nowhere in sight. It’s hard to answer physicality with physicality when you simply allow the big guys to drift out to the perimeter and take uncontested shots you believed they wouldn’t make.
“We wanted to live with their frontcourt shooting 3s and see if we could survive that way, and they took advantage of it,” Golden said.
If Friday’s win over Kentucky was a cautionary tale for the Gators, Saturday’s loss to Vanderbilt was a bullhorn directly into the ears of Florida’s players: Take the fight to the opponent, and for goodness’ sake protect the basketball. The Gators turned it over 14 times to Vanderbilt which converted those into 24 points against just 14 points off turnovers by the Gators. It’s an act Todd Golden must clean up before the NCAA Tournament starts next week.
“My biggest disappointment of the past two days was just our ball security,” Golden said. “We can’t be a team that just gives up offensive possessions. You’re not giving yourself a chance to win with those ball security issues. That’s giving them 20 points in transition free looks. They’re too good of a team and they’re going to take advantage of that every time.”
When Urban Klavzar sank a short jumper in the lane to put Florida up 14-12 at the 13:06 mark, the Gators offered little resistance from that point. The Commodores tore off an 11-0 run via two offensive rebound that led to two points, four Florida offensive rebounds that led to no points, and two UF turnovers that led to five Vandy points. Down 23-14, at the 8:29 mark, Florida would never get closer than five points of Vandy and trailed by double digits almost the entire way.
The only question at halftime with Florida trailing 47-34 was what adjustments Golden would make to turn this thing around. That is one of his finer qualities: making the astute adjustments when they’re needed most. But Vandy let it be known right away it wasn’t going to allow Florida back in it – just 22 seconds in, Okereke drilled a 24-footer on the opening possession to stretch the lead to 16. There was no fight in Florida.
The next 58 seconds brought fouls on Condon, Rueben Chinyelu and Xaivian Lee, setting the tone that meant any Florida physicality would be met by the strong arm of the law.
And now we close the book on the 2026 SEC Tournament for Florida that saw two bad performances from a team that looked unbeatable heading to Nashville. Now, the Gators look a bit softer and less sure of themselves than they did a week ago. And perhaps the loss to Vanderbilt served up the proverbial “wake-up call” that coaches like to claim after a bad loss.
In last season’s title run, the SEC Tournament is where Florida flexed its mighty muscle to show the world it was the favorite to win it all. This year, the SEC Tournament is where Florida showed its vulnerability, its mortality in the face of a team that shows up with billy clubs and ninja stars.
The game plan to beat Florida is out there for all to see. Golden sees it as well, and that’s where he shines brightest – reverse engineering from the opponent’s perspective to fine tune his own machine. The track record is there.
“We get back tonight, take tomorrow off and probably watch the selection show together,” Golden said. “We’re not going to be reactive in regards to when we’re winning that we don’t practice hard and just go with the flow, and as soon as we lose we’re going to change everything. Part of what makes our program what it is, is our consistency, so we’re not going to change a lot. We’ve got to to get back to defending and taking care of the ball.”
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