In their first true road game of the season, the Florida Gators were bested by the Duke Blue Devils, dropping the defending National Champions to 5-3 on the season, and improving the college basketball blue blood to 9-0.
Neither team played flawlessly, Duke shooting just 45 percent from the field and Florida only responding with a 37 percent FG effort of its own.
However, after the game, Gators head coach Todd Golden was looking for answers as to why his team suffered the 67-66 loss, and he didn't blame any of his players' performances.
Todd Golden blames home-court advantage in loss to Duke
The game took place in Cameron Indoor, the legendary home court of the Blue Devils, and the arena is known for being one of the loudest places to play in all of college basketball.
"I told our guys, to win in a place like Cameron [Indoor], you’ve got to outplay Duke by 10 points because you’re not going to get any 50-50 calls," Golden said after the loss. "Things aren’t going to go your way, and we certainly had a little bit of that tonight."
He went on to say that he thought his team played well, despite suffering the one-point loss, further emphasizing the fact that he wasn't blaming his players; he was blaming the venue and, yes, the officials.
While home-court or home-field advantage is a well-known leg up in all sports, it doesn't excuse a poor shooting performance, and it certainly doesn't excuse simply outfouling your opponent.
In the matchup, Duke was called for 14 fouls while Florida was called for 16 (not a huge difference, but could hypothetically prove what Golden was saying. However, the Gators also committed one more turnover than the Blue Devils, and earned a minimal two blocks (in comparison to Duke's 11).
The only stat lines where Florida did actually outperform Duke were off the glass and at the charity stripe, earning 24 rebounds while the Blue Devils only came down with the ball on 22 occasions and shooting 75 percent on free throws, while Duke only shot 63 percent.
The road ahead doesn't get any easier as the Gators are set to play the No. 5 UConn Huskies on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in the Jimmy V Classic. The two top-25 teams are scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.