Three things for Florida Basketball to improve upon against Jacksonville

Florida takes on Jacksonville at 8 PM
Florida Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. (1) penetrates against South Florida Bulls guard Kasen Jennings (13) during the first half of an NCAA men’s basketball matchup Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]
Florida Gators guard Walter Clayton Jr. (1) penetrates against South Florida Bulls guard Kasen Jennings (13) during the first half of an NCAA men’s basketball matchup Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union] / Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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Florida Basketball will take the court once again tonight at 8 PM as the Gators will take on the Dolphins from Jacksonville University. Florida is coming off a 98-83 victory over USF while Jacksonville knocked off Trinity Baptist College 78-65.

Florida is favored in this game by 21.5 points, so in theory, this game shouldn't be close. But there are three areas the Gators can improve upon from their effort against USF.

526. SEC Network. 11/7. Team. Florida +21.5. 8 PM. 1-0. 2308. 1-0

Three Point Shooting

If someone had told you ahead of the USF game that Florida would shoot 5/25 from three-point range, odds are, you would have guessed Florida's offense had a bad night and scored under 80 points.

However, even with the poor showing, Florida still put up 98 points on the night as they were able to exploit the interior of USF's defense.

Florida had good looks from downtown and going forward, as Florida faces better interior defenses, they will need to be able to hit some open shots from range.

Pass The Ball

Related to the lack of shooting from deep, Florida was forced to lean on drives to the basket to score their points. The end result was Florida only had 10 assists on 33 made baskets.

That ratio of only having an assist on 30.3% of made baskets is 256th in the country this year. Last year, the worst team in the country in this category had a percentage of 35%, so this is an area Florida wants to improve upon.

Defensive Rebounding

For as great as Florida is in offensive rebounds, they were mid-pack last season in defensive rebounding, ranking 146th at a rate of 73%.

Against USF, Florida's defense rebounding wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great as the Gators brought down 72.2% of USF's misses.

If Florida puts up a similar number against Jacksonville, we would shudder to think what that number could sink to against SEC play.

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