Florida Gators Basketball: Positive Takeaways From Loss To Gonzaga

1. Florida Should’ve Won

Generally speaking, the team that wins is the team that should have won. True as that may be, this was one of the rare exceptions; the Florida Gators should’ve defeated the Gonzaga Bulldogs, and there’s only one reason they didn’t.

Forget about any defensive lapses, unnecessary fouls, or disappointing efforts on the defensive glass; Florida lost because it was awful from beyond the arc

The Gators shot 2-of-19 from 3-point range, which is a statistical anomaly for any team—proficient from distance or otherwise. Considering this was a five-point loss, it stands to reason that even going 4-of-19—21.1 percent—would’ve been enough to win.

In other words: the Gators were a historically bad shooting performance away from securing a victory over the No. 11 team in the country on a neutral site.

That’s more encouraging in the sixth game of the season than it is disappointing.

It’s undeniably concerning that Florida is capable of going this cold from distance, but that’s a manageable flaw. The Gators went 4-of-15 from distance against Florida Gulf Coast and 5-of-21 against Belmont, but it also hit eight 3-point field goals in each of the other three games.

The 3-point shooting and free throw shooting may even out to an extent, but Florida would take a couple of more threes for a handful of missed ones any day of the week.

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The end result may have been underwhelming, but Florida proved to the selection committee that it can compete with Top 15 competition.