Through non-conference play, Florida fans were all looking around, wondering if the Gators had been bamboozled when it landed Boogie Fland. For all the hype of a potential lottery pick, Fland had looked at times like a player who barely belonged in the Big South Conference, let alone the SEC.
But on Saturday against Tennessee, Fland had his breakout performance of the season, and the Gators responded in kind by blowing out their second straight ranked opponent.
Boogie Fland scores 23 points in easy win over Tennessee
In between the win over Georgia and the opening tip-off against Tennessee, Fland got a haircut and looked like a different person.
He also looked like a brand new player on the court.
Fland was 9-13 from the field, including 3-6 from three. He also had four steals and five assists as he was able to shake off some early foul trouble to score 23 points, a season high.
Florida was just a 4.5-point favorite coming into the game, but that wound up looking like one of the most foolish lines of the day by the time it was all over. It was a 26-26 game with four minutes to go in the first half, but a massive run made it 41-28 at halftime, and Florida never looked back.
Despite being unranked, analytics still love the Gators, and Saturday showed why. Florida was 13th in KenPom coming into the game, and that feels like it could go up when those rankings get reset. So much of what has ailed the Gators from breaking into the land of the elites in 2025-26 has been the lack of shooting from Fland and Xaivian Lee. Most experts have said that if those two could ever start hitting shots, Florida can beat anyone in the country.
The version of Florida we saw on Saturday validated those analytics, and this version of Fland raises the ceiling of a team that looked like they would get bounced in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament to a team no one should be shocked by if they wind up back in the Final Four.