NASHVILLE — Florida boarded the plane out of Colombia, Missouri, after its SEC opener and knew that something had to give. The most disappointing team in the country label loomed over the Gators after their 9-5 start and it didn’t appear to be going anywhere, unless they figured this out.
The pieces appeared to be there for this Florida team, but something wasn’t clicking. It had six players in its rotation that contributed to a National Championship a season ago, but it appeared to be far from a contender to win the whole thing. Todd Golden’s team was on the verge of losing its spot in the AP Top 25 and had an identity crisis of sorts.
“We initially tried to be like last year’s team,” Florida center Micah Handlogten–who was a piece of Florida’s national championship run last spring–told HoopsHQ. “We kind of realized that something had to change if we wanted to get over that little hump.”
Florida wing Thomas Haugh says that with the dynamic of this group having a number of returners and a high level of preseason expectations, there was a desire to keep the idea of back-to-back championships in the back of his head. He says there’s always pressure in college basketball, but that embracing a game-by-game approach and the reality of this being a different team rather than being weighed down by expectation changed things for this group.
If it held it too tight, it realized that it would have to pay. Handlogten believes that Florida learned a lesson after that early-January loss to Missouri. That version of this Florida team wanted to fire on all cylinders offensively, but it had to humble itself. Star guards Walter Clayton, Will Richard and Alijah Martin were no longer in the picture. Those were the team’s three leading scorers a season ago. Thus, this Florida team had to find a different way to do this.
The answer, as Handlogten notes, was for this group to embrace a defensive identity and get out in transition. Florida sophomore guard Isaiah Brown simplifies it to Florida playing defense, getting rebounds, taking care of the ball and being consistent at the things it already knew it was good at. Sounds easier said than done, but Florida hasn’t made the change in emphasis look all that difficult. It’s run with it, as Brown tells HoopsHQ.
Florida is No. 1 in the SEC in KenPom’s defensive efficiency metric, No. 1 in opponent effective field goal percentage, No. 1 in opponent two-point percentage and No. 2 in the SEC in tempo. As a result, it’s in the midst of an 11-game winning streak and has gone from disappointing to a likely one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
“They’re the hottest team in the country,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington says. “I know they’re playing for a 1 seed. I think they’re deserving. They’re one of the best teams in the country.”
The easy-to-see change in this Florida team hasn’t come in the form of an emphasis point as much as it has an increase in good guardplay. Its frontcourt has never been considered anything but one of the SEC’s best, but its expensive backcourt of Arkansas transfer Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee didn’t meet expectations in non-league play. It appears as if they’ve turned a corner, though.
Fland is averaging 11.8 points per game in league play relative to the 11.6 he averaged in non-league play, but is notably doing it on 46.2% shooting rather than the 44.1% from the field that he averaged prior to January. Lee is perhaps the more drastic example here.
The Princeton transfer averaged 10.8 points per game on 26.8% shooting against power-five opponents in non-league play. Now, he’s turned a new leaf in league play and is shooting 41.6% from the field on his way to 11.6 points per game.
Lee and Fland’s play may not correlate directly to Florida’s results on a game-by-game basis. But, their emergence appears to have changed the dynamic of this Florida team. Since league play began, Florida is 16-2 and has picked up nine quad-one wins as well as four quad 1A wins.
The two losses still stick with those within this program. More than any other team is brought up in Florida’s locker room after its Friday win over Kentucky at the SEC Tournament, Auburn and Missouri’s names are continuously brought up.
“It lit a fire under us,” Haugh told HoopsHQ in regard to the Auburn game. “We knew that we had a squad the entire year, but after that game, we started putting together wins and started feeling good.”
Handlogten says he believes Florida’s loss to Auburn was more of a slip up than anything after it entered the day on a five-game losing streak, but didn’t negate the idea that it still contributed to the rise of this Florida team. The emphasis on what’s gone wrong sparks this Florida team to strive for more than it’s already done.
Perhaps that’s how Handlogten is able to so confidently put down the indication of a question that insinuates there could be pressure that comes with a winning streak like Florida possesses these days. Perhaps that’s why it can take a second to appreciate how it’s bounced back from adversity. Perhaps that’s why this group of winners has stayed winners rather than falling into the traps that complacency had set out for it.
“It’s been so much fun going out there, embracing it and having fun winning,” Florida big man Reuben Chinyelu told HoopsHQ. “Us playing together and enjoying each other’s success, I think that’s something that is tied to our success. We want to see everybody winning and we enjoy it, you can even see when we’re playing. Everyone is happy for each other, so that’s something that I’m thinking about. That helps to keep us rolling.”
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