Playing at home in front of an energetic Gainesville crowd the Florida Gators were never tested against the North Florida Ospreys coming away with a decisive 99-45 win that saw them over double up their opponent. Entering Saturday’s game North Florida was always going to be in tough against a much bigger Gators team but when it was announced they’d be without their leading scorer Josh Harris it seemed they’d have little chance at keeping this game competitive and that’s what ended up happening. With the win the Gators improve to a perfect 12-0 on the season as they head into the holiday break and with their final non-conference game coming at home against 1-10 Stetson who has been one of the worst teams at the division-1 level this year it looks as though they will head into SEC play undefeated.
Career Day
After leading the Gators with 22 points against North Carolina you knew that Will Richard was going to be playing with confidence but he took things to another level against North Florida finishing with a career high 26 points on 9-12 shooting to lead the way. Most of these points came in the first half and it’s entirely possible that he could have increased that total even more if not for the score getting so lopsided to the point that he had an early end to the game to allow his teammates to get more minutes. Going 6-8 from three Richard’s stroke looked as pure as it ever has during his time at Florida and it was great to see the coaches drawing up some different actions to get him clean looks. Walter Clayton and Alijah Martin have gotten much of the national press related to Florida’s early success but this is the second consecutive game that Will Richard has been the leader offensively which shows how many weapons the Gators have.
Rebounding Domination
Let’s get right into a stat that will knock your socks off–Florida had 65 rebounds to North Florida’s 25. That’s right–the Gators had a +40 rebounding differential, one of the most dominant performances on the glass you are ever going to see at any level of basketball. This shouldn’t have come as a surprise given just how undersized the Ospreys are as much of their center minutes are played by players that are 6’6” and 205 pounds, the kind of players that are on the wing for most SEC teams. Due to this it was an absolute bludgeoning on the glass every time a shot came up with the Gators getting second, third, fourth, and fifth chances seemingly every time down the floor. Another shocking stat is that the Gators had three players with triple doubles–Alex Condon (12 points, 10 rebounds), Sam Alexis (14 points, 12 rebounds), and Thomas Haugh (10 points,10 rebounds), with two of those players coming off the bench. North Florida didn’t stand much of a chance in this category, and Florida was more than happy to assert their size in the paint.
Extra Minutes
Given the blowout win the Gators were able to play seven players off the bench and give many of them extended minutes. You saw what Sam Alexis and Thomas Haugh were able to do, but fans were also treated to a longer look at freshman Isaiah Brown who impressed with 7 points and 4 rebounds. A player that a lot of fans are itching to see more of is Slovenian point guard Urban Klavzar and he showed just why his talent is so tantalizing with 6 points and a pair of assists–both of which were flashy passes creating wide open looks for teammates. Florida hasn’t played their bench much this season as they’ve tried to really run up scores in order to improve their efficiency numbers in the NET Rankings, so this was a rare opportunity for some of their depth pieces to get good minutes.
Final Thoughts
This was a good old-fashioned beatdown that will leave the Gators feeling great as they enter the holiday break. Florida didn’t just simply use this game as an opportunity to flex their muscles from a size standpoint as they also experimented with a switching scheme that completely confused North Florida and held them to 23% shooting from the field and it was great to see the Gators do more than just coast. The Gators will get a quick break before finishing their non-conference slate against Stetson, and then it’s on to league play against an SEC that is historically strong.