Gators try to rebound from loss to Zona in home opener tonight

(Photo by Chris Spears)

It is not uncommon for an otherwise very good defensive team to get lit up by a team that has one of those shooter’s coma nights when it seems that everything they throw up from behind the 3-point line finds the bottom of the net. A season ago that happened when the Gators lost their SEC season opener to Kentucky. With Kobe Brea hitting 7-9 from the 3-point line and the other Wildcats chipping in with another seven threes, Kentucky lit up the Gators for 106 points.

It was a wakeup call for the Gators, who became one of the best defensive teams in the country in going scorched earth all the way to the Final Four where they won the NCAA title over Houston in an epic defensive struggle.

Monday night in Las Vegas, the Gators gave up 93 points to Arizona in losing their 2025-26 season opener. Arizona didn’t go bombs away on threes. In fact, the Wildcats made only two and took only five shots from behind the arc. Zona scored 50 points in the paint, six from the 3-point line and six on 2-point jump shots from midrange outside the paint.

The other 31 points came from the foul line where the Wildcats grew elbow weary launching 38 free throws. The Gators struggled with their defense in the paint for sure. There is no defense for free throws.

Back in Gainesville Tuesday and Wednesday, Todd Golden used practice as a learning lab to correct Monday’s defensive deficiencies.

“I thought one of the biggest correctable issues defensively was just defending without fouling,” Golden said prior to practice as the Gators prepared for tonight’s home opener with North Florida at the O-Dome (8 p.m., SEC Network +. “We sent them to the line 38 times, and it's an area where you're gonna give up some free throws to that team. They only shot five threes. We obviously did a great job limiting their 3-point attempts. So when they're playing inside the three [point line] and trying to rim to the basket, we're going to give up some free throws, but I think we fouled four non-rim 2-point shooters. You can't give free free throws up in a game like that. So, the physicality was an issue. I think defending without fouling is something that we gotta address moving forward."

The final 10 minutes of the first half were particularly bad for the Gators. The first 10 minutes were like a clinic. Florida hit 12-19 shots and held a 32-20 lead with 9:54 remaining in the half. The Gators were executing on both ends of the court and the largely pro-Arizona crowd at T-Mobile Arena sat in stunned silence.

Then came the collapse at both ends of the court. In the final 9:54, the Gators made 4-13 shots and scored only 14 points the rest of the way. Arizona, on the other hand, lit up the Gators for 30. The Wildcats hit 10-15 shots including 2-5 from the 3-point line and 8-8 from the foul line.

“I like to make these kind of football analogies down here in the south, but we played great complementary basketball early on in the game,” Golden said. “You know, our transition offense was on point. We were organized. We were sharing it. We were executing the half court. We were putting a lot of pressure on them getting two feet in the paint, you know, finding guys on rolls, just getting the shots we wanted. And I thought defensively, we were playing with good physicality, forcing them to miss shots and get them out of transition. And then that flipped a little bit, to Arizona's credit, I mean, which we knew was going to happen. They started executing a little better, started getting closer to the rim, made us play against a set defense.”

Despite the lack of offensive execution the final 9:54, the Gators still scored 46 points in the first half. They scored another 41 in the second and this was on a night when Florida’s shooting was erratic to say the very least.

The Gators scored 87 points. They could have scored more. They should have scored more.

“I think we had some offensive issues,” Golden said. “We took some bad shots. We were a little bit disorganized offensively. I thought when we were organized we executed a lot better.”

There at the end of the game, the Gators found themselves down nine points, but they had a chance to tie the game at 90-90 when Xaivian Lee missed a 3-pointer from the top of the key. The Gators could have cut deficit down to a single point a couple of minutes later but Boogie Fland’s three from the corner also missed.

“I thought, you know, even being down eight or nine with a minute and a half to go, we stayed the course,” Golden said. “We kept fighting after a bad turnover, and found a way to get ourselves a chance to tie with 30 to go, and then another chance to cut it to one with 15 seconds to go, 17, whatever it was. So we stayed the course, thought we kept fighting, battling and just fell a little short.”

Defensively, there were some things to like. The Gators defended the perimeter well and they ran the Wildcats off the 3-point line. Arizona scored too easily in the paint, but the place they scored the most was at the foul line. Arizona went 17-22 from the foul line in the second half. The Wildcats were clutch in the final 2:20 when they hit 8-10 to close out the win.

Losing was obviously not on Golden’s game plan, but this loss did provide him plenty of teaching moments.

“You’re playing a really good team in a place they’re a little more comfortable than you are, and we got off to a great start and just were not able to play really well for 40 [minutes],” Golden said. “So the thing that I'm most excited about is there a lot of correctable errors. This wasn't necessarily a thing, where we're like, man, we played great, and we actually played really well, and we just got beat.”

How well the Gators respond to the teaching moments will be seen tonight against North Florida. A season ago, the Gators rebounded from the loss to Kentucky by blasting Tennessee, 73-43. Expect the Gators to play defense like a school of piranhas.

ANTICIPATED STARTING LINEUPS FOR FLORIDA-NORTH FLORIDA

Florida (0-1): Alex Condon (6-11, 230, JR); Rueben Chinyelu (6-11, 265, JR); Tommy Haugh (6-9, 215, JR); Xaivian Lee (6-4, 185, SR); Boogie Fland (6-3, 185, SO)

North Florida (0-0): BJ Plummer (6-6, 189, FR); Mason Lee (6-7, 200, RSO); Dalton Grayman (6-7, 233, GR); Kent Jackson (6-2, 169, SO); Kamrin Oriol (6-3, 187, SR)