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Florida Basketball: Three stats Gators must improve to beat Vanderbilt

By Benjamin Henderson

Feb 1, 2023; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators forward Alex Fudge (3) celebrates against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 1, 2023; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators forward Alex Fudge (3) celebrates against the Tennessee Volunteers during the first half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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After beating Tennessee last week, it looked like the Florida Gators had a real shot of making the NCAA tournament. After back-to-back losses to Kentucky and Alabama, the hopes for Florida basketball are not as high any more.

Today the Gators take on the 12-12 Vanderbilt Commodores and there are three key areas Florida basketball has to improve upon in order to avoid the upset.

Florida Basketball: Defend downtown

When Florida’s defense is at its peak, it is funneling opponents into the paint and allowing Colin Castleton to have a block party. Against Kentucky and Alabama, that memo never got passed on.

Florida has held opponents this season to 31.8% from three point range, good for 72nd best in the country. Not elite, but it gets the job done. Kentucky shot 45% from three in a low possession game and Alabama shot 44% after shooting a staggering 15-34 from three point range.

If Florida can’t defend the arc, their block party does no good.

Florida Basketball: Crash the glass

Another troubling stat for Florida basketball the last three games has been defensive rebounding. The Gators are ranked 165th in the country at collecting opponent misses, getting a defensive rebound 74% of the time.

Their last three game this number has sunk to getting a defensive rebound on 68% of opponent misses. To give an idea of how bad that number is, if that was Florida’s season average they would be ranked 343th out of the 363 teams that play D1 basketball.

Someone besides Castleton has to help out with rebounds.

Florida Basketball: Pass the ball

We have pounded this stat before and we are going to keep pounding this stat. Florida is 200th in the country in assist per made basket. The Gators are only being credited with an assist on 50.1% of their made shots.

In other words, play continues to be too stagnant and the ball movement to find easy shots just isn’t there.

Worse, the Gators only had an assist on 40% of their made shots against Alabama, a rate that would be the 6th worst in the country if it was the season long percentage.

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