GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No one left the O'Connell Center thinking Florida's 85-68 exhibition-game defeat Tuesday night of Stetson was a performance worthy of a team ranked No. 1 in the nation. The Gators' coach included. Todd Golden, in fact, pointed a finger at himself for the team's mostly uninspired performance.
"The exhibition season is unique because we're trying to balance preparing the right way for Stetson, but at the same time making sure we're ready to go for the beginning of the [regular season]," Golden said, adding that probably didn't spend enough time breaking down the Hatters' crisp offensive sets in what served as his team's final preseason tune-up. "You can tell, fundamentally, that we hadn't practice it quite enough and our communication was really poor. You kick yourself a little bit, like, you want to play better."
The Gators, no question, shot better than they did in their brick-fest loss to Baylor nine days earlier in Jacksonville. Urban Klavzar, starting for point guard Boogie Fland (illness), poured in 24 points and dropped six of 12 from the 3-point line. Denzel Aberdeen was right behind with 22 points on 4-for-5 marksmanship from deep, plus four rebounds and three assists.
The 17-for-26 overall and 10-for-17 from deep was quite the contrast to their tandem 3-for-24 combined performance (0-for-15 from the arc) against Baylor on a day the team shot just 34% overall.
"We've been working so hard since the summer," Klavzar said. "It was nice to see the ball go in."
Added Aberdeen: "Me and Urb were not going to miss that way again. We were going to step up and hit shots, but it also had to translate to the defensive end. Do that, we'll be fine."
Guard Urban Klavzar buried six of 12 from the arc against the Hatters on his way to a game-high 24 points.
Against the Hatters, picked to finish near the bottom of the Atlantic Sun Conference, not much translated to defense, where the Gators were anything but fine. While Stetson may have shot just 40% for the game, the Hatters battled the home team close on the glass (UF 40-36), including 16 boards on the offensive end, scored 28 points in the paint and 10 second-chance points.
Florida shot 51% for the game, but led by just two at halftime, by five with 11 minutes left and just seven inside four minutes before scoring the final 10 points to make the final margin a little more palatable.
"I just think that's the reason why we have these exhibition games. Not trying to take it as a bad thing, but there are things we have to work on and do from here on out," Aberdeen said. "Now, it's the regular season. There are no more practice games, if you want to call them that. We have to step it up. We've got a real good team coming up."
That would be the 14th-ranked Miami Hurricanes, who return an outstanding core (with some terrific transfer adds) to a team that won 26 games last season and is expected to contend in the Atlantic Coast Conference. UF plays UM in the 2026-27 season opener for both teams Monday night in Tampa.
A performance like anything the Gators have put on tape in their three preseason outings (a closed scrimmage against North Florida, plus the two exhibitions) won't do.
UF needed to lean into its five starters (all played at least 29 minutes). Forwards Alex Condon (15 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 blocks) and Thomas Haugh (14 and 7) had similar numbers. Center Rueben Chinyelu chipped in six points and eight boards.
Center Rueben Chinyelu (9) chases a floater by Stetson guard Thiago Sucatzky during Tuesday's action.
"Our starting group was pretty good, not perfect. A lot of things that we can kind of nitpick at," Golden said, before stating the obvious. "Clearly, I don't think our bench is anywhere near good enough."
Not right now, it's not.
Stetson's reserves outscored UF's 28-4. Baylor's reserves did a 33-3 number on Florida's backups. That's a 61-7 difference in bench points in the Gators' two exhibition games.
Just where the depth comes from will certainly will be a point of emphasis in the coming days, along with plenty of other things Golden and his staff focused on (as opposed to doing a deep dive into Stetson's offense) over the last few days. The next few days loom large. Larger, actually.
There are no more exhibitions.
"We're worried about next Monday, that game," Golden said. "A lot."
