Records: Florida 1-0; USF 0-1
Notable
* Behind 29 points from Walter Clayton Jr. and 25 from Will Richard, the No. 21 Gators opened the season with a hard-fought neutral-court win vs. South Florida. UF used a 13-0 second-half run to open up a 14-point lead with 6:47 to play.
* It marked the first time UF had two players with 25+ points since Jan. 22, 2019 (KeVaughn Allen 31, Noah Locke 27).
* Clayton has 16 20-point games as a Gator and Richard has eight.
* Florida picked up its sixth straight season-opening win, also improving to 3-0 in season openers under Todd Golden.
* The Gators overcame a hot-shooting Bulls team that went 13-for-27 from beyond the arc. While UF shot just 5-for-25 from long range, it went 28-for-38 from 2-point range and 27-for-33 from the free throw line. The Gators also converted 5 of 7 old-fashioned 3-point play opportunities.
* Three players made their Florida debut, including starters Rueben Chinyelu and Alijah Martin and reserve Sam Alexis.
* The Gators bounced back from a 13-point first-half deficit after trailing 36-23 at the 6:13 mark of the first half, as UF used a 10-0 run to claw back into the game. It marked UF’s ninth comeback win of 10+ points under Todd Golden.
* Largest comeback wins under Todd Golden:
* 19, 11/18/22 at Florida State
* 18, 3/16/24 vs. Texas A&M (SEC Tournament)
* 13, 11/4/24 vs. South Florida (at Jacksonville)
* 13, 3/4/23 vs. Georgia
* 12, 3/4/23 vs. LSU
* 11, 2/17/24 at Georgia
* 11, 1/14/23 vs. Missouri
* 10, 1/31/24 at Kentucky
* 10, 12/5/23 vs. Merrimack
Head Coach Todd Golden
On USF’s strong 3-point shooting and offensive attack…
“We were really poor defensively in different segments of the game tonight, which was disappointing that way because we’ve been better throughout practice and through our scrimmages. First of all, before I give further [comments], I want to give a lot of credit to this South Florida team and their program, obviously playing under some really difficult circumstances. I thought Coach [Ben] Fletcher and their staff did an incredible job preparing them for tonight. That’s a really good team. They have great perimeter shooting, they have great play-making, they have some big bodies inside, they seem to really enjoy playing together. I saw a lot of care amongst their team. Again, just commending their effort under such tough circumstances. They’re really good, and I think they’ll continue to be really good over the rest of the year. They put pressure on us in the first half, and I did not think that we handled it very well. Part of it is just figuring out being out in a real game for the first time with some new guys. I think our transition issues happened in the first half when Walt was out of the game…They’re fast, and they get out and were getting downhill on us, and I think we were a little surprised by that. But I was proud of the way we rallied, obviously being down 13 in the first half. Obviously, a weak-minded team might not be able to come back the way we did. But I credit South Florida for the way they played offensively.”
Senior G Walter Clayton Jr.
On what didn’t go well defensively early…
“Our ball screen coverage. They’re a ball-screen-heavy team, run a lot of off-action on the back side to get those guys occupied and then let their guards go to work. We were trying to ice them to the side and let their guards get out of that trap, so that put us in rotations and got them open shots, and they were knocking them down.”
On what sparked the run after going down 13…
“Just telling each other to keep on going. We’ve been in those situations a couple times last year, and I say it all the time, basketball is a game of runs. You’ve just got to be able to withstand their run, overcome it and get back to doing what you’re doing. I think that’s what we did.”
Senior G Will Richard
On overcoming USF’s hot 3-point shooting early on…
“Like Walt said, we were getting out in rotations, stuff like that. A lot of their stuff came out of transition, so once we keyed in on those two areas, we were able to slow the game down for us and get back in that rhythm.”
