The No. 1 Florida Gators open their season Monday in Tampa with a heavyweight test against No. 14 Miami in the Orion180 Tip-Off Classic, and it’s not exactly a clean runway into the year.
Florida is coming in with the preseason No. 1 ranking, but the early warning signs have already popped up in two preseason scrimmages. The biggest concern? The Gators’ perimeter shooting, and right behind it, the kind of bench production that has helped make them a national title contender over the past two seasons.
That depth has been a calling card for Florida. The Gators have usually been able to lean on strength in numbers, no matter the lineup combination or position group.
This preseason, though, the reserves haven’t delivered enough. Florida’s backups have been outscored 61-7 against Baylor and Stetson.
Isaiah Brown is one of the bench pieces off to a rough start. The guard hasn’t made a shot in 25 minutes across the two scrimmages, going 0-for-4 from the field, 0-for-2 from deep and 0-for-2 at the line.
Urban Klavzar, the reigning SEC Sixth Man of the Year, has had a mixed preseason of his own. He struggled badly against Baylor, missing all seven of his shots in 20 minutes. But he bounced back against Stetson after Boogie Fland was ruled out with an undisclosed illness, moving into the first five and finishing with a team-high 24 points on 8-for-14 shooting and 6-for-12 from 3-point range.
Florida has also needed more from Alex Lloyd and AJ Brown. Lloyd didn’t play in the first scrimmage, then scored two points on five shots against Stetson. Brown appeared only against Baylor and added three points off the bench.
In the frontcourt, newcomer Domen Petrovic looks like the only reserve forward who has made a real impact so far. He played against Stetson and contributed two points and four rebounds.
The Gators still need one of Viktor Mikic, Arturas Butejevas or Jones Lay to step up and give them dependable minutes behind Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu.
The shooting issue has shown up in another way, too. Across both preseason games, only one Florida player has hit a 3-pointer, and that was AJ Brown.
If the Gators want to get the season rolling the way they expect, they’ll need more from the players outside the starting five when they face Miami on Monday.
In Other News...
Florida Faces A Tricky Oklahoma QB Situation After Major Shakeup
Oklahomas offense is heading into the Florida game with a new voice in the booth after the Sooners fired offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle following a disappointing Week 9 showing. Head coach Brent Venables has moved quickly to steady things by naming Jason Witten as the interim offensive playcaller, a notable shakeup with the Gators now preparing for a team that is trying to regroup on the fly.
Even with the change on the sideline, Venables plans to stick with senior John Mateer as the starting quarterback against Florida. Mateer has had an inconsistent season, but he came out of the South Carolina game with a solid performance, which gives Oklahoma at least one familiar piece as it tries to sort out the rest of its offense before facing the Gators. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Freshman Justin Williams Is Suddenly In Position To Matter
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Jon Sumrall said Williams could be in line for more snaps as injuries have thinned the receiving corps, turning a young depth chart into a more immediate opportunity. Florida also has other freshmen and first-year transfers making progress in practice, which gives the staff some options as it tries to patch together production now while also building for what comes next. [Read more 🡒]
Florida Suddenly Faces A Bigger Problem Than Just Losing To Georgia
The loss to Georgia did more than dent Floridas playoff path. It left Jon Sumrall looking for signs that his team can absorb a gut punch and keep moving, because the next stretch will tell him plenty about where this group really stands. Sumrall said the Gators have to own the defeat and turn quickly toward the games still in front of them if they want to keep a nine-win season within reach.
That task is made tougher by what comes next, with Oklahoma, Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Florida State still on the schedule. Florida no longer has the luxury of dwelling on what happened in Jacksonville, and the bigger question now is whether the Gators can respond with the kind of emotional toughness that keeps a season from slipping away. [Read more 🡒]