Florida basketball: The one stat that is killing the Gators so far

Florida basketball is 4-3 on the season after their loss to Wake Forest last night, in a game that they should have been able to close out.

While it does seem like Todd Golden has himself a roster good enough to make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, there are significant areas they need to clean up if they want to be a legit threat late in the season.

Through just seven games, we can already identify one stat that is killing Florida and flipping some of these close games away from them.

The Gators are near the bottom in the SEC when it comes to turnover % and turnover % forced.

Florida basketball: Take care of the ball

The stats being used here come from CBB Analytics.

When it comes to how often the Gators turn the ball over, there are just three teams in the SEC who turn it over more than Florida does.

15.2% of UF’s possessions end up in a turnover, which is not a good number if you want to win against teams like Wake Forest and Baylor.

With injuries and Zyon Pullin’s suspension, Florida hasn’t really had a consistent starting five yet this season. Hopefully, as the team gets more comfortable with each other, that number will go down. It won’t fly in conference play.

Defensively, the Gators are only better than four SEC teams at turning their opponents over. Florida forces a turnover on 14.8% of possessions, which is not just in the bottom tier of the SEC, but in the country as well.

Causing havoc and disrupting an offense’s flow is crucial, especially in the college game. If the Gators can’t make other teams uncomfortable and force them to play outside of their game plan, it will be hard to keep up in the conference.