Last night Florida Basketball was tested in a way they hadn't been all season. They were taken to the brink by North Carolina in the Jumpman Invitational, but in the end emerged with a 90-84 victory.
The win moves Florida to 11-0 for just the second time in program history. The following are three observations from the win.
Don't forget about Alex Condon
The headlines for Florida this season are going to center around Walter Clayton and Will Richard, and for a good reason. Richard had a game-high 22 points to counterbalance an off night from Clayton, who was just 4-15 shooting with four turnovers.
But if you want a sneaky candidate for game MVP, Alex Condon might have a case. While he only had nine points, Condon also had ten rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.
One of the massive moments in the game came with six minutes left when Florida was losing by two and missed a pair of free throws. Condon retrieved the rebound and found Clayton to tie the game back up.
Offensive rebounding continues to take Florida far
Florida is 11th in the country in points per game, but they are not really a great shooting team. The Gators are averaging 47.2% on the year, which is 68th in the country.
However, one of the hallmarks of the Todd Golden Era was Florida's ability to pull down offensive rebounds, and that was on display once again.
Florida entered the game 4th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage and kept that going with 16 offensive rebounds against UNC off of 39 opportunities.
Florida was able to exploit their size advantage as UNC's tallest starter was 6'8" while Florida started both Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, both 6'10" or taller.
That was not a "neutral" court
If one were to look up the NET rankings after this game, it will count as a neutral court win for Florida and as of now will count as a Quad 1 win.
But between the refs, the announcers, and the fact that the crowd was probably 95% in favor of UNC, that was far from a neutral court game.
Semantics of the NET ranking aside, it was a good experience for Florida to have to face a hostile crowd in a tight matchup before SEC play starts.