Shooting slump drags defending national champion Florida out of college basketball poll

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Defending national champion Florida shot its way out of the AP Top 25.

The Gators dropped out of the men’s college basketball poll Monday, two days after losing at Missouri to open Southeastern Conference play. It was Florida’s fifth loss — one more than it had last season — and was the team’s latest display of lackluster shooting and less-than-ideal playmaking.

The Gators (9-5, 0-1 SEC) failed to hit double-digit 3-pointers for the 12th time in 14 games and shot a paltry 26% from behind the arc in a 76-74 loss to the Tigers. Florida now ranks 354th in the country in 3-point percentage (28%) heading into Tuesday night’s game against No. 18 Georgia (13-1, 1-0).

“Obviously, shooting has been our biggest issue and continues to be,” coach Todd Golden said Monday. “When you shot-make, it covers up a lot of your deficiencies, and we have not been able to mask those warts so far this year.”

It’s been an ugly blemish. Air balls from guards and big men, and no clutch buckets like those Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard made look so easy while carrying the Gators to the NCAA title in 2025.

Florida’s starting backcourt, Boogie Fland from Arkansas and Xaivian Lee from Princeton, have been disappointing transfers. Although both have done some good things with the ball in their hands, Fland is 12 of 60 (20%) from 3-point range and Lee is 24 of 90 (26.7%) from distance.

“We trust those dudes,” leading scorer Thomas Haugh said. “Boogie had seven assists the other day and one turnover. Obviously, he didn’t make shots, but he was still on the court making winning plays. He’s going to knock down those shots. Xaivian is starting to hit some shots now here, too. Obviously, to win games you do need to make some shots like that.”

Fland has missed 23 of his last 27 shots from behind the arc, including a 30-footer that would have won the game at Missouri.

“I don’t think taking away freedom is necessarily the best way to build confidence,” Golden said. “I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, don’t take that shot.’ If they’re open shots, we want our guys to take them. That’s where our program’s at.

“We’re playing with pretty good purpose offensively, and we feel like he’s capable and just hasn’t been doing it.”

Fland shot 36.4% on 3s as a freshman at Arkansas last season before having surgery on his right thumb. He’s yet to return to form and now could be shooting with shaky confidence.

Lee has been much better of late, hitting 11 of his last 26 from 3-point range after missing 51 of his first 64. Florida is hoping Fland can work though his slump, too.

“If he can lift that up and shoot the ball at a 33% clip from deep, we’re going to be pretty dang good,” Golden said. “I’m still confident in him. I know our staff is. I think the team is. But as we’ve said, you got to go do it. Once he does, hopefully it’ll take some of the pressure off and he can just kind of take off from there.”

Golden won’t put much stock in falling from the Top 25. He points to Florida still being ranked 15th in KenPom analytics and losing five games — all away from home — by a combined 17 points.

“We’re close,” Golden said. “I don’t think we’re necessarily dealing with confidence issues in terms of, ‘Are we a good team or are we not a good team?’ We know we’re a good team, but we got to go out and just finish one or two of these.”

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