Amidst another tumultuous week, No. 4 Florida basketball will try to turn its focus back to the court when it hosts Texas on Saturday before a sold-out crowd at the O’Connell Center (4 p.m., ESPN2)
The Florida Gators (15-2, 2-2 SEC) had their 16-game home win streak snapped with an 83-82 loss to Missouri on Tuesday night. Then, on Thursday, reports surfaced that Florida assistant/player development coach Taurean Green was accused of sexual assault in a Title IX complaint filed by a UF athletics staff member.
Florida coach Todd Golden, himself the subject of a Title IX investigation based on allegations of sexual harassment and stalking, came out in support of Green on Friday and said he will remain on staff coaching with the team.
“It is not ideal, but at the same time, I think we’ve done a pretty good job this year of staying the course and keeping winning the main thing with the way we’ve played and the way we’ve performed,” Golden said. “So, I believe we will continue to do that on a day-to-day basis.”
Here are three storylines to watch for UF’s matchup with the Longhorns:
Can Florida basketball avoid foul trouble and defend the 3-point line?
After forward Thomas Haugh, guard Alijah Martin center Rueben Chinyelu fouled out last Saturday against Arkansas, Chinyelu fouled out again against Missouri, while Haugh picked up four fouls, all in the first half.
“Tommy’s got to do a better job,” Golden said. “At the same time having a guy pick up four fouls in three and a half minutes, someone like him, has had foul trouble at some points but never that, is something that we just got to make sure we don’t allow to happen again.
“That game was called much tighter in the first half than some of these other games we played, and so we got to adjust and make sure that we don’t allow it to happen again.”
Missouri went to the free throw line 29 times against UF on Tuesday, after Arkansas made 35 trips to the foul line last Saturday. The Tigers also burned Florida from the 3-point line, going 11 of 29 (37.9%) from beyond the arc. Texas is shooting 38.8% from 3-point range on the season with 8.2 3-pointers made per game.
“We have to take away the 3-point line a little bit better,” Golden said. “We haven’t done a good job that way in the games we’ve lost in the league, so we have some areas where we can improve, and we have to take a jump.”
Can Florida basketball play with physicality and urgency from the opening tip?
Florida trailed by 16 points in the first half against Missouri as the Gators came out lacking both focus and physicality for the first 20 minutes. The Tigers wound up grabbing 15 offensive rebounds against UF, including 11 in the second half.
“We were not the ones delivering the blows on Tuesday night,” Golden said. “We were the ones receiving it. We were being reactive instead of proactive – and just caught up with us. And I thought for the first time all year, really, we did not come out hair on fire with the way we played.”
Texas enters the game with a rebound margin of plus-2.7, compared to plus-12.0 for Florida.
“We simply can’t allow it to happen again where we don’t come out playing like the more mentally and physically tougher team,” Golden said.
How will Florida basketball handle Texas’s top three scoring threats?
The Longhorns boast a high-powed offensive attack led by 6-foot-6 swingman Tre Johnson, who leads the SEC in scoring at 18.7 points per game and has made 39-pointers on the season. But Johnson, who scored a season-high 29 points to open the season against Ohio State, isn’t the only Texas player capable of lighting it up. Texas guard Jordan Pope (13.3 ppg) scored 42 points in a game against New Orleans and forward Arthur Kaluma (14.1 ppg) scored 34 points in a game against Auburn.
“They have very good talent, very good scoring talent,” Golden said. “All five of their starters are guys that can really hurt you. For me, obviously Johnson is a guy we’ve got to lock up, I think that’s very important.”
Prediction
Florida 77, Texas 71: Florida hasn’t lost two in a row at home since Golden’s first season, when the Gators dropped back-to-back games to eventual national champion UConn and Texas A&M. It’s hard to imagine UF coming out with a lack of urgency for a second straight game, especially in front of a sold-out crowd.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Three storylines to watch for No. 4 Florida basketball against Texas
