Three Takeaways From Florida's First Loss At Home Against Auburn In 30 Years

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Auburn Tigers upset nan No. 16 Florida Gators connected Saturday successful Exactech Arena, 76-67. Florida looked outclassed successful astir areas, particularly connected nan violative end. This triumph for Auburn besides ended a agelong homecourt winning streak for nan Gators, who had not mislaid successful their location arena successful 375 days, and marked nan Tigers first triumph successful Gainesville successful 30 years.

“Any clip you suffer you are disappointed, but we had been playing beautiful well,” Gators caput coach Todd Golden said. “I don’t deliberation we played great, but I first want to in installments Auburn. I thought they took nan conflict to america today.”

Here are 3 takeaways from nan loss.

Free Throws Becoming a Problem

A thorn successful Florida’s broadside connected discourtesy this play has been their conversion astatine nan free-throw line. Entering nan matchup pinch Auburn connected Saturday, nan Gators were 13th successful nan convention successful free-throw percentage. 

Those struggles continued successful nan contest, too. 

The Gators changeable 16-for-27 against nan Tigers. Those 11 misses costs them nan game, losing by 9 points. What hurts moreover much is seeing nan players who missed them. Thomas Haugh missed three, Rueben Chinyelu missed three, Boogie Fland missed 2 and Xaivian Lee missed two. 

Florida cannot spend to miss nan magnitude of free throws they person this season, which is nan connection Chinyelu shared aft nan game. 

“I deliberation it's conscionable unacceptable, conscionable missing free throws. It's called free for a reason,” Chinyelu said. “We're going to activity connected that and make judge we're overmuch amended for nan adjacent game."

No Backup Plan for nan Offense

The blueprint is location for opponents. Stop nan frontcourt, and nan Gators will struggle to find points. Yes, Haugh poured successful a game-high 27 points, but he was nan only 1 successful nan frontcourt to supply a meaningful effect connected offense. 

Alex Condon scored only 1 constituent and had 4 turnovers. Chinyelu added only 10 points and 7 rebounds. Micah Handlogten supplied 2 points successful 11 minutes. 

When keeping these 4 quiet connected some nan solid and connected offense, nan Gators person fewer avenues to score. They showed again connected Saturday that they are nan worst 3-point shooting squad successful nan conference, which takes distant 1 scoring avenue for nan offense. 

Golden touched connected what tin beryllium learned pinch really Auburn stopped Florida’s discourtesy down low. 

“We gotta find ways to counteract it and do a amended occupation of taking advantage of being wide unfastened connected nan perimeter and wide unfastened successful nan mediate of nan floor,” Golden said. 

Condon Heavily Disappoints

Despite being a preseason All-SEC player, Condon looked thing but that. He was outmuscled down debased routinely against nan Tigers, and it showed successful nan container score. He vanished pinch only 1 constituent connected nan time and had 4 turnovers and 4 fouls successful 37 minutes. 

Those turnovers are what Golden noticed, too. 

“Where his crippled disappointed maine was nan 4 turnovers,” Golden said. “You’re not going to people it each night. You’re not going to beryllium awesome that way, but you can’t move nan shot complete 4 times erstwhile you’re a feline that we tally nan mostly of nan discourtesy through. He conscionable sewage outplayed tonight."

Condon is simply a important cog successful nan discourtesy for nan Gators, which is simply a partial logic they stumbled connected Saturday. He made zero baskets against nan Tigers' defense and changeable 0-for-2 from deep. 

Furthermore, nan Australian autochthonal has not been capable to get nan 3-point changeable going this season, which is impacting nan violative spacing. He has conscionable 2 made triples successful convention play connected 18 attempts. 

Florida needs much from Condon if they are going to push to take sides their title.

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