It was all Florida over Jacksonville from the tip on Thursday as the Gators came out for their home opener and controlled the Dolphins for a final score of 81-60. With the victory the Gators extended their home opening winning streak to 34 straight years, something they’ll be looking to continue for years to come. As we saw in Florida’s season opener against South Florida the Gators are spreading the wealth offensively and are getting production from up and down the lineup and the versatility made them tough to guard as the Dolphins simply couldn’t keep up. Guard Robert McCray was excellent for Jacksonville with 20 points, but the Gators did a good job of slowing down his teammates and making it so they were never threatened. Florida improved to 2-0 on the season and will now shift their focus to Grambling State.
Leading The Way
Alex Condon was a breakout pick by fans and media alike entering his sophomore season and he showed why on Thursday with a team leading 23 points on perfect 7-7 shooting. Condon was getting it done from everywhere on the court starting with some easy points on the interior with his post moves before stepping outside and going 2-2 from three which electrified the O-Dome. Defensively he also chipped in with two blocks, coming from his patented weakside rotation to swat away layup attempts. Last season Condon played largely center, but now he’s getting the opportunity to play at the power forward spot which allows him some size mismatches that he’ll be able to take advantage of in a similar way that Tyrese Samuel did a year ago. With a young frontcourt the Gators were banking on Condon being ready to play a huge role and it looks like he’s confident in doing so.
Pass-First
Everybody knows Walter Clayton can score, but he came back to Florida for one more year to prove he could be a playmaker and after he was looking for buckets in Florida’s season opener against South Florida it was clear against Jacksonville that he was looking to be a distributor. Clayton took just 8 shots (going for 9 points), but he didn’t play poorly by any means–he was simply looking to get his teammates involved as much as possible. Fans in attendance were shocked at some of the shots he gave up in order to look for his teammates, but it was his plan all along to move the ball and be a distributor and it turned into more points for his teammates. Clayton ended with the game with 7 assists, something he has only done twice before in his college career. Truthfully Florida would like him to be more aggressive than he was on Thursday, but this was the type of game where he could experiment more as a passer and not be worried about the outcome. Of course, he still had one highlight scoring play–a monster dunk over a Jacksonville defender late in the second half that will be all over social media.
Defensive Changes
Last season the Gators were an extremely conservative defensive team and they didn’t have a lot of success, leading them to change things to be much more aggressive in the offseason. We saw that on full display Thursday as the Gators were flying around in passing lanes and pushing the Dolphins’ catches further from the rim, amounting to 10 Florida steals–with 6 of those coming from Alijah Martin. This looks like an effective schematic change for the team after last season’s defensive problems, and it will be something to watch for as the Gators move on towards some of their more challenging opponents.
Final Thoughts
Entering the season the Gators were clear about wanting to be much better on the defensive side of the floor and finding their identity in getting stops and that’s exactly what they did on Thursday. Everything started on the defensive end and they got energy from their ability to force missed shots and turnovers and it feels like this was the first time we saw the Gators really playing the style they want to play this season. They’ll have another chance to really put the clamps on their opponent in a buy game scenario in Grambling State before seeing rival Florida State.