Florida forward Thomas Haugh (10) dunks against UConn guard Solo Ball (1) during the first half of an NCAA basketball game, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
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Florida guard Boogie Fland stood in front of the team’s bench Tuesday night, the ball in his hands and the Madison Square Garden crowd buzzing. The Gators had just forced a turnover and only trailed Connecticut by three points with 9.4 seconds remaining. But instead of setting up a final play to tie the game, Fland was called for a five-second violation, a mistake that ended up leading to a 77-73 UConn victory.
Afterward, Florida coach Todd Golden said he and his staff looked at the replay in the locker room and found that the referee blew his whistle at 4.6 or 4.7 seconds.
“I’ve been around the game a long time — to get a call like that where it doesn’t even get to five seconds, usually they give you an extra second, to be honest,” Golden said. “Just a really, really tough pill to swallow.”
Golden is becoming accustomed to disappointment this season. The Gators are 5-4 and have the same number of losses as last season when they went 36-4 and won the national championship. It is a frustrating start for a team that was third in the preseason Associated Press poll.
Still, UF’s record is deceiving. The Gators have lost by six points or fewer to three of the top five teams in this week’s AP poll. They lost their season opener 93-87 to No. 1 Arizona in Las Vegas, lost to No. 3 Duke 67-66 last Tuesday on the road and then lost to No. 5 UConn a week later. They also fell 84-80 to unranked TCU on Nov. 27 in a tournament in San Diego.
The past two games may have been the most difficult to handle, although they also showed Florida can play in tough environments against national title contenders. Against Duke, UF led 66-64 with 35 seconds remaining when Fland made a 3. Duke guard Isaiah Evans then connected on a 3 on the other end for a one-point lead. The Gators got the ball back but Fland committed a turnover with four seconds remaining and Duke hung on for its 22nd consecutive victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Florida faced another challenging environment Tuesday night. While Madison Square Garden is not UConn’s home court, it may as well be considering tens of thousands of fans live within driving distance and Huskies’ supporters always pack the arena, which the school refers to as “Storrs South.” Most of the crowd was rooting for UConn, but the Gators led by a point with eight minutes remaining and stayed close the rest of the way.
Florida held a 40-28 rebounding edge and grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, but the Gators only managed six second-chance points and made just 4 of 15 3-pointers. Point guard Xavian Lee led UF with 19 points and committed no turnovers in 38 minutes, but he made just 1 of 7 3’s. Forwards Thomas Haugh and Alex Condon, returners from last season, had 18 and 14 points, respectively.
“We put ourselves in some really tough spots to prepare ourselves for the rest of the year,” Golden said. “Obviously we wanted to win one of these. The great thing for us is we’re through the toughest part of our schedule. That’s not a knock to anybody we’re playing moving forward, but we don’t have a top five team left on our schedule right now moving forward.”
Indeed, the Gators close their non-conference slate with four non-major programs in George Washington, Saint Francis, Colgate and Dartmouth before opening SEC play at Missouri on Jan. 3.
So far, UF’s frontcourt has excelled with Haugh averaging a team-high 18.6 points and 7 rebounds per game, Condon averaging 15 points and 9 rebounds and center Rueben Chinyelu averaging 10 points and 11.2 rebounds. UConn coach Dan Hurley called Haugh “one of my favorite players in recent memory” and considers him a first team All-American, while Condon was named to the preseason AP All-American team and is among the best players in the SEC.
Lee and Fland, the Gators’ starting guards, have struggled at times, though, and are a downgrade from last season when UF’s three leading scorers were guards in All-American Walter Clayton, Alijah Martin and Will Richard, all of whom are now on NBA rosters. Fland, a sophomore transfer from Arkansas, is averaging 12 points per game but shooting just 39.3% from the field, including 23.8% on 3’s. Lee, a senior transfer from Princeton, is averaging 9.6 points per game and shooting 26.3%, including 20.3% on 3’s.
On Tuesday, Golden said he was “proud” of Lee for playing his best game since arriving at UF, but the coach acknowledged that “we need him and Boogie to play well together” if the Gators are going to reach their expectations.
“I think once they get that backcourt comfortable and play together more, they’re as good as anyone we’ve played or watched on film,” Hurley said.
Although UF is just one game above .500, it is 15th in analyst Ken Pomeroy’s rankings and third among SEC programs, only trailing Vanderbilt (No. 8) and Alabama (No. 13). Five other conference schools are in the KenPom top 30 in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas and Auburn. Florida will play those teams a combined nine times during the conference schedule, giving the Gators plenty of chances to get some major victories and contend for the league title, no matter what their record says today.
“I’m a pretty positive guy,” Golden said. “We’re close. We’re right there. If we can get five percent better over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be pretty good in SEC play.”