Florida opened the year with the nation’s preseason No. 1 ranking, but Sunday’s exhibition against Baylor gave Todd Golden and the Gators a quick reminder that rankings don’t score points.
The defending national champion had its veteran core on the floor and showed flashes of what makes this team so dangerous. Florida piled up 26 offensive rebounds and took 20 more shots than the Bears.
Still, the Gators walked away with an 82-76 overtime loss, and the biggest problem was obvious: the bench was nowhere close to Baylor’s. Florida was outscored 33-3 by reserves.
Golden wasn’t about to turn the exhibition into a crisis. He leaned into the lesson instead, with Florida now turning its attention to a season opener against Miami in Tampa.
“Pretty grateful it’s not November 2 right now,” he said.
The Gators do have plenty to lean on. Florida returns four starters and brings back an experienced frontcourt headlined by All-America candidates Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu. That group looked the part against Baylor, even if the game went sideways in other spots.
Chinyelu followed up a school-record 19 double-doubles from last season with 13 points and 15 rebounds. Haugh led Florida with 19 points and five rebounds before fouling out late in overtime. Condon added 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists, though he had an off night at the line, missing five of six free throws.
The shooting numbers told the rest of the story. Florida hit just 34.7% of its shots overall, made only 4 of 29 from 3-point range and finished 22 of 35 at the free-throw line.
The backcourt had its own rough stretch. Boogie Fland is back for his second season, and the Gators also brought in veteran shooting guard Denzel Aberdeen, who had transferred to Kentucky after the national championship season before returning to UF. The 6-foot-5, 190-pound Orlando native started his career in Gainesville in 2022 and came back to help a guard group that also includes reigning SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavzar.
Aberdeen scored 15 points but went 3-for-17 from the field and missed all 10 of his 3-point attempts. Klavzar didn’t find it any easier, finishing 0-for-7 overall and 0-for-5 from deep, as Florida continued to battle the same three-point issues that bothered it a season ago.
“Get an opportunity to figure some things out and learn from your mistakes,” Golden said.
Even after the loss, the AP preseason poll still put its faith in Florida. The Gators drew 47 of 59 first-place votes, with Duke second at 10 and Illinois third with two first-place votes.
In Other News...
Baylor Has A Special Teams Weapon Getting National Attention
A Baylor special teams standout is drawing national notice in a place teams usually hope never to think about much: the punters role. Senior Palmer Williams has been named to The Sporting News Midseason All-America Second Team, another sign that his leg has become one of the more reliable weapons in the country and a steady asset for the Bears as they move through the season.
Williams is currently leading the nation with a 51.4-yard punting average and is on pace to top the Big 12 for the third straight season, which helps explain why he has already picked up multiple preseason All-America honors and landed among the finalists for the Ray Guy Award. For Baylor, having that kind of field-position edge matters in tight games, and Williams keeps giving the Bears something every opponent has to account for. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Heads To Baylor With One Problem Fans Can't Ignore
Kansas is heading into its Big 12 matchup at Baylor still trying to clean up the issues that showed up in its loss to Kansas State, where Lance Leipold pointed to a lack of physicality and too many missed tackles. The Jayhawks were gashed for 359 rushing yards and never found much rhythm offensively, which makes this trip even more important as they try to steady things against another conference opponent.
Baylor arrives with some questions of its own after a loss to TCU, and the Bears have had their own offensive line concerns to sort through. For both teams, this is more than just another league game on the calendar. It is a chance to show whether the problems from last week were a one-game setback or something deeper that still needs fixing. [Read more 🡒]
Jalen Pitre Update Gives Baylor Fans A Reason To Exhale
Baylors NFL contingent had a mixed Week Six, with several former Bears dealing with the usual wear and tear of a long season while still finding ways to make an impact. The cleanest update came on Jalen Pitre, who came away with a non-severe AC joint and shoulder injury and is expected back soon, which should ease any concern for Baylor fans tracking the health of one of the programs most reliable pros.
There was less encouraging news elsewhere, though, as Tyquan Thornton remains sidelined after ankle surgery. Even so, Baylor alums continued to show up around the league, with Josh Cameron, Terrel Bernard, James Lynch, Ross Mastick and Jon Weeks all turning in notable contributions or steady work in their respective games, a reminder that the Bears NFL pipeline still has plenty of life in it. [Read more 🡒]