Three stats Florida Basketball needs to improve upon for the new campaign

Last year was a decent one for Florida Basketball, who went 24-12 and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three seasons.

But the Gators were bounced in the first round of the tournament and haven't advanced past the Sweet 16 since 2017. In order for the Gators to make a deeper run in 2024/25, the following are three stats that need to be better this season.

Keep Opponents Off The Foul Line

One of the most obvious stats that Florida struggled defensively last season is the fact they gave up 79.2 points a game, 331st in the country out of 362 teams.

Among the reasons Florida couldn't keep teams from scoring was the fact they kept sending teams to the free-throw line.

Last year, Florida committed a foul on 24.3% of possessions, 192nd in the country. As a result, opponents scored 20.1% of their points from the free-throw line.

That was 243rd in the country.

Defensive Rebounds

Last year, Florida was an elite offensive rebounding squad, ranking in the top ten in the country. But for as great as they were at collecting their own misses, Florida was far from elite on the defensive side.

At a rate of 73.7%, the Gators were a mid level defensive rebounding team last year, coming in at 146th in the country.

From Downtown

One of the hallmarks of Todd Golden's final squad at San Francisco was his insistence on three-point shooting. His 2021/22 squad was 18th in the country in three-point shots attempted, averaging 27.1 three per game.

But since arriving to Florida, shooting from deep hasn't been a point of emphasis. Like defensive rebounding, the Gators aren't terrible in this area but could be much better.

Last year, Florida was 146th in the country in three-point shots attempted at 22.6 per game, making 34.5% of them to rank 147th in the country. The end result is that Florida was 267th in the country when it came to the percentage of points coming from three, with just 27.3% of their points coming from downtown.