Too many self-inflicted wounds as Gators drop 84-80 decision to TCU
- Franz Beard
- Nov 27, 2025
- 5 min read
The numbers to remember about Florida’s 84-80 loss to TCU in the Rady Children’s tournament in San Diego: 26, 1-14 and 19. As in 26 personal fouls, 1-14 in 3-pointers not shot by Urban Klavzar and Tommy Haugh and 19 turnovers.
The fouls were epidemic. Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee fouled out; Rueben Chinyelu and Haugh both had four; Klavzar had three. The Gators sent TCU to the foul line 33 times where the Horned Frogs made 24. In the second half, TCU was almost automatic – 15-17 – so whenever the Gators fouled it was like giving the Horned Frogs two easy points. While the Horned Frogs got to the line early and often in the second half, the Gators shot only six free throws (made five).
The Gators finished the game 8-29 from the 3-point line. Klavzar, who finished the game with a career-high 20 points, went 4-7 from deep. Haugh, who matched Klavzar with 20 points went 3-7. Everybody else threw up enough bricks to qualify for a union card.
The turnovers were converted into 22 TCU points, eight points in the first half, 14 in the second.
It was the turnovers that bothered Todd Golden the most.
“I thought we did a horrendous job taking care of the basketball,” Golden said after the 10th-ranked Gators (4-2) played their poorest game of the season. “Played well enough at points to get ourselves a 10-point lead with 15 minutes to go, even without playing that well, to be honest. But we were valuing the ball and making good decisions. The last 15 minutes of the game, we did a terrible job that way, and I thought our defense was really poor in the second half giving up 57 percent from the field.”
Calling the defense poor is probably giving it more credit than deserved. After holding TCU to 13-33 shooting in the first half, the Horned Frogs were 15-26 in the second. Try 15-21 if you erase the oh-fer from the 3-point line. TCU couldn’t land a three in the second half, but it’s not like threes were necessary.
TCU simply beat the Gators off the bounce, got into the lane and made a lot of easy 2-point shots. Think back to Arizona in game one. The Wildcats did the same thing.
In the immortal words of the late, great Yogi Berra, “It's like déjà vu all over again."
As unhappy as Golden was with the turnovers, he was nearly as upset with the way the Gators executed their half court defense.
“I thought we had some really poor mental execution of the scout,” Golden said. “We got cut by [Jace] Posey a number of times. He’s a guy that we thought we made it pretty clear what he’s best at, which is rim pressure and cutting – a guy that hasn’t taken a three – and he killed us. We got cut a couple other times, missed some block-outs late. Just did some things that are controllable, and those are the areas we try to focus on. Again, it goes back to the turnovers and not being tough enough limiting their opportunities in the second half.”
Between the turnovers, missed threes and shoddy defense, the Gators missed opportunities to put the game away. The Gators held a 44-39 lead at the intermission but after giving up the initial two of the second half, they went on a 9-2 run for a 53-43 lead with 15:14 left in the game.
Over the next 5:01, TCU outscored the Gators 17-6, taking the lead at 60-59 on a turnaround jumper in the paint by Jayden Pierre. In between the two Alex Condon free throws that gave the Gators a 10-point lead, Florida missed a pair of threes, committed two shooting fouls and turned the ball over three times.
The Gators had a mini-run in them when they outscored TCU 7-1 for a 74-68 lead with 5:29 to go. Klavzar accounted for five of the points on a three from the corner off a Micah Handlogten offensive rebound and a pair of free throws. Condon dunked off a pass from Haugh with 5:29 to go.
Florida seemed in control once again, but once again the Gators couldn’t get stops when they needed them. TCU outscored the Gators 9-0 over the next three minutes for a 77-74 lead with 2:43 to go. Three layups and three free throws did the trick.
The Gators seemed defenseless to stop the Frogs in the paint and if they weren’t giving up layups, they were fouling which TCU turned into points at the line. During that run the Gators went 0-2 from the 3-point line, turned the ball over twice and committed two shooting fouls.
Even with all those issues, this was a game the Gators could have pulled out but winning at crunch time means taking care of the basketball, playing some defense and making some shots. TCU committed a shot clock violation and a walking violation but the Frogs went 5-6 from the foul line in the last 13 seconds. The Gators, meanwhile, turned the ball over twice, committed four fouls including one offensive and one flagrant, and 1-4 from the 3-point line.
Shall we say Golden was not amused?
“We just had some egregious decisions and some plays where we simply don’t value the ball very much,” Golden said. “Again, talking to the team, that was kind of what we addressed. We’re going to be able to determine and dictate how this season goes to an extent, but the first things are obviously we need to do a better job taking care of the basketball. That can’t be a thing for us for the rest of the year.”
When the Gators take care of the ball, play some defense and make shots down the stretch, they are as good as any team in the country. Perhaps better.
However, when they play as poorly as they did against TCU, they’re in for some tough stretches, which Golden told them post game.
“That was the message: we’ve got to do a better job taking care of the basketball,” Golden said. “We’ve got to understand that for us to be our best, we’ve got to be a gritty, hard-nosed, tough team that doesn’t allow a team to shoot 57 percent on us in a half. It’s got to be who we are, and if we’re unwilling to execute those things it’s going to be a tough year. It’s going to be up and down depending on how we shoot the ball, and that so far has obviously been an issue for us.”
Game notes: Despite a size advantage, the Gators were outscored in the paint, 44-34. Florida came into the game the nation’s No. 1 rebounding team but the Gators managed only a 31-28 advantage … Florida hit 17-26 of its 2-point shots (65.3 percent) but just 45.5 percent overall (25-55) … Haugh had 20 points, five rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot … Klavzar was 6-8 shooting overall (4-7 from the 3-point line) and 6-6 from the foul line … Chinyelu scored 13 and pulled down nine rebounds, Fland had 12 points, two assists, one rebound, blocked shot and three steals … Condon had eight points, eight rebounds and a career-best eight assists.
The Gators will face Providence (4-3), a 104-83 loser to Wisconsin, at 3 p.m. Friday on FOX.
Time to start Urban at the 2 in lieu of "The Brick Layer" from the Ivy League. I honestly believe I could do better than 1 for 22 from the 3-point line even though I am old.
The officiating was horrible. The Gators don't have multiple players fouling out from game to game. I think this must be the same crew that calls Gator football games.