Florida basketball: Gators drop to 0-2 in SEC play with tough home loss
By Will Thomas
Florida basketball looked exactly like the Gator hoops team we’ve been stuck with for the past few years. Slow and inefficient offense, bad shooting, and just unable to get a rally going and put a team away.
With their tough loss to Texas A&M last night, Florida is now 0-2 in SEC play with a lot of questions that need to be answered soon.
Before we get into the negatives from last night and why the Gators lost, let’s look at some of the positives.
Trey Bonham had an outstanding night, with 21 points, four rebounds, and four assists. He also shot the ball well going 4-7 from deep, and 8-13 from the field.
Colin Castleton, despite a slow start, had a huge impact down the stretch with 14 points, five rebounds, and two assists.
The Gators also shot the three-ball better than they had over their past few outings. They made 7-19 from long range, which is a 36.8% rate. While that isn’t a great number out of context, seeing Florida start to find some rhythm from deep was good to see.
Now, to the bad.
The Gators turned the ball over 20 times.
20.
That’s twice as many as the Aggies had. What’s more alarming about that stat is that 20 is also the number of field goals the Gators made.
Generally speaking, turnovers and shots made should not be equal numbers.
Credit where credit is due, A&M did a great job of blocking the Gators’ passing lanes and picking the ball off. That said, 20 turnovers will almost never result in a win.
Trey Bonham, who we already said had a great scoring night, was responsible for seven of those turnovers.
The Gators also let multiple Aggies have their way offensively. Wade Taylor, Julius Marble, and Tyrece Radford all finished with 17 points.
Florida also let A&M haul in 13 offensive rebounds, compared to UF’s six. Giving the opposing team second chances is a surefire way to put yourself at a disadvantage.
Despite some of the positive takeaways, the Gators still have a lot of work to do if they want to be competitive in the SEC.
Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.