SEC Tournament takeaways: What Florida needs to do to rebound in the NCAA Tournament

The Gators left Music City earlier than expected in the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee. After narrowly escaping Kentucky’s comeback efforts in the quarterfinals, the Gators met their match one step away from the SEC Championship game, where they have found themselves the last two seasons.

Florida fell to Vanderbilt 91-74 in the semifinals to make an earlier-than-expected exit. As it turns its focus now to the NCAA Tournament, here are four areas Florida must improve on from the tournament to make it back to the national championship.

“A lot that we can improve upon over the next couple days before we get ready for the NCAA tournament,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said. “Our goal at the beginning of the year is still in front of us in terms of being able to play for a national championship."

3-point shooting:

Heading into the SEC Tournament, the Gators had rebounded from their early-season 3-point shooting woes. Since Feb. 1, Florida shot 37% from beyond the arc, good for No. 78 in the country. It was a drastic improvement from UF’s woeful 29% 3-point shooting through Jan. 31.

But the Gators’ struggles from 3-point range came back to bite them over the past two games. In total, UF shot 8 of 37 from deep, a 21.6% rate. 

“We're still confident in our shots,” junior forward Thomas Haugh said after the Vanderbilt loss. “We need to clean that up in practice and we'll get back to it next week."

Florida’s top 3-point shooters struggled to get going from deep over the two-game run. 

Haugh, a 33.3% shooter from deep, only hit 1 of 9 attempts. Further, junior guard Urban Klavžar (39.9%) only connected on 1 of 4 attempts, and sophomore guard Isaiah Brown (35.4%) went 0 for 6 from beyond the arc.

While Kentucky did not fare much better from deep (5 for 23 on Friday), the Commodores were on point, hitting 10 of 21 3-pointers Saturday. Six of those makes were from senior big men Devin McGlockton and AK Okereke.

“You have to tip your cap a little bit,” Golden said. “We wanted to live with their frontcourt shooting threes. They took advantage of it. They knocked it down. When we tried to switch defenses, they had answers.”

Turnovers:

Struggles in the turnover battle are nothing new for the Gators. Early in the season, Florida constantly ran into trouble taking care of the ball. In its loss to Texas Christian University, it committed 19 turnovers to TCU’s nine. 

However, this was an issue Florida had gotten somewhat under control until the tournament. Against both Kentucky and Vanderbilt, the Gators failed to limit their turnovers and to force them on the other end. 

In the matchup with Vanderbilt, UF forced just two turnovers in the first half while committing nine. They ended the game with 14. Against Kentucky, it ended the game with 18 turnovers to the Wildcats’ 12. 

Both contests were well over Florida’s average of 11.9 turnovers per game. 

Furthermore, teams have been able to convert on Florida’s giveaways. The Commodores scored 24 points off turnovers while the Wildcats had 18, doubling up on Florida’s nine.

“They had 20 points off of our turnovers in the first half, and they're just too good of a team to play that way and expect to win,” Golden said.

In both contests, junior Alex Condon and senior Xaivian Lee struggled the most to hold onto the ball. Against the Wildcats, they each had three. In Saturday’s game, Condon had five while Lee again had three. 

Foul trouble:

Discipline has not been Florida’s strong suit this season, as the Gators have averaged 17.7 fouls per game. That trend continued in Nashville, as Florida struggled with foul trouble in both contests.

Against Kentucky, the Gators committed 19 personal fouls as Haugh, junior center Rueben Chinyelu and sophomore guard Boogie Fland all had three fouls, and senior center Micah Handlogten committed four.

However, Florida was saved by a similar issue on the Wildcats’ side. Kentucky found itself in more trouble with Mouhamed Dioubate recording five fouls, and Brandon Garrison and Otega Oweh each picking up four. 

But in the matchup with Vanderbilt, that wasn’t the case as the Gators committed 20 fouls to the Commodores’ 19. Vanderbilt’s tough, but more controlled defense, led to a more physical matchup in which Florida was unable to contain itself.

Further, with the added intensity of Saturday’s contest, Golden received a technical foul, his second of the season. That helped the Commodores grow their lead.

Free throw shooting:

With the physicality of these two contests, the Gators had plenty of opportunities from the free-throw line. Despite that, UF’s success varied from the charity stripe.

Over the tournament, the Gators hit 41 of 56 free throw attempts, a 73.2% mark. While that total exceeded UF’s 70.9% rate from the line this season, Florida’s ability to capitalize on easy points was well behind Vanderbilt. The Commodores hit 21 of 23 chances from the line, a sparkling 91%.

While some UF players, like Haugh (17 of 20), were on point, others struggled to find their groove. 

Against the Wildcats, Fland missed both of his free-throw attempts, and Lee went 3-for-6 from the stripe. Meanwhile, Condon went 0 for 2 from the line against the Commodores.

Especially during a stretch where the Gators were cold from the field, every point matters, and Florida fell short in adding crucial tallies from the line.

Contact Ava DiCecca at adicecca@alligator.org. Follow her on X at @avadicecca24.

Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X at @maxbernstein23. 

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