Florida basketball: The beginning of the season has been anything but “Golden”

Florida basketball has not been a great product over the past few years. Stagnant offenses and early exits in March have plagued the program, and fans have been left dreaming about the Billy Donovan era and fun, exciting basketball.

First-year coach Todd Golden came in with an analytics-based approach, and fans were excited to see what he could do for the program.

But the beginning of the 2022-2023 season has been anything but “Golden” for the Gators.

The year got off to a shaky start when the Gators had to fight hard the whole game to beat Kennesaw State in game two and then lost to FAU in their next matchup. An awesome comeback win in Tallahassee helped to steady the ship, but the Gators have drastically slowed down.

They’ve lost four of their last five games, with their only win over that stretch coming against Ohio, and scoring no more than 63 in those losses.

With the “analytics-driven” approach that Golden brings, you would hope that Florida could rank respectably in most stats across the NCAA. But the Gators are way down the list for multiple stats that can swing games.

For example, UF’s assist-to-turnover ratio is 0.99. That’s 224th in the country. They turn the ball over more than they assist baskets. That won’t win games at your local YMCA.

Alongside that assists/turnover ratio, the Gators are 132nd in the nation in turnover margin, which sits at 1.1.

I don’t think I need to explain to any of you why these turnover stats are bad. You just can’t be careless with the ball and expect to succeed in the SEC.

Two other areas that the Gators need to improve on are their scoring offense and scoring defense.

Offensively, the Gators sit at 136th in the nation, scoring 74.2 points per game. A large reason for this number being as low as it is, aside from the turnovers, is the Gators’ inconsistency from three-point range. Missed shots and turnovers don’t help you score a lot of points.

Defensively, Florida sits at 118th in the country, allowing 66.6 points a game. This wouldn’t be the end of the world if the Gators could score the ball effectively, but as they’ve gotten past the easy part of the schedule, they struggle to score 70.

If Golden and the Gators want to make a run at the tournament and be a threat in the SEC, they’ll need to fix a lot of things in a short period of time.

Keep up with Florida football at Hail Florida Hail.