COLLEGE STATION, Texas – In time, "BuckyBall" may take the Southeastern Conference by storm. On Saturday night, though, upstart Texas A&M and its gimmicky brand of full-court basketball met its match against a program still only 10 months removed from conquering the college basketball world.
Florida not only solved A&M's 94-foot pressure game, but the 17th-ranked Gators released some defense of their own in turning one of the nation's highest-scoring teams into a brick-chucking mess, with the end result an 86-67 road wipeout win at sold-out Reed Arena.
The victory was UF's third straight, its ninth in the previous 10, and broke a tie for first place in the Southeastern Conference, with the Gators (17-6, 8-2) assuming sole possession of the top spot.
It's is the first time, in fact, Florida has been alone atop the league standings since claiming its last SEC regular-season crown in 2014.
"This was a great environment [with] two teams that have played really, really well playing for pole position in this league," Florida coach Todd Golden said after
Three of sophomore backup guard Isaiah Brown'sfive field goals were dunks.
winning a fourth straight on the road, something the program had not done since 2017. "I thought our guys did a great job for 40 minutes defending, rebounding, taking care of the ball and playing with great poise. Led to a commanding victory."
Forward Thomas Haugh scored all but one of his game-high 22 points after halftime, but the game was basically decided during a first half when UF suffocated A&M (17-5, 7-3) into 17.1% shooting, including a stretch of – and this is truly unbelievable – 23 consecutive missed shots. The Aggies made just six of 35 for the period and one of 14 from the 3-point line, where they came in leading the league at 37.6%.
Center Rueben Chinyelu tallied his SEC-leading 14th double-double of the season with 10 points, 15 rebounds and two blocks, and was the biggest problem for an undersized A&M team that clearly was affected by UF's size and activity in the post. Backup guards Isaiah Brown and Urban Klavzar hopped off the bench to score 12 and 11 points, respectively, with guard Xaivian Lee good for 10 points and three assists.
The Gators shot 45.6% for the game and doubled up the Aggies 48-24 in points inside the paint.
But it was the damning UF defensive digits – or abjectly awful A&M shooting, depending on what bench you were sitting – that proved the determining factor. The Aggies came in averaging 92.0 points per game for the season, including 85.9 in SEC play.
Center Rueben Chinyelu (9) had eight points and eight rebounds in the second half on his way to a SEC-leading 14th double-double.
"The game is not as bad as we think or how we feel," said Aggies coach Bucky McMillan, in his first season in the SEC after a successful, head-turning five-year stint at Samford playing his frenetic style of pressing and shooting 3s. "You ask, 'How can you say that?' Well, we came out and literally could not make a shot in the game. Even the ones we should've made – and they played great D – we just could not take the lid off the basket."
The misses came early and, obviously, often.
Aggies guard Marcus Hill hit a driving layup at the 18:09 mark to give his team a 2-1 lead. Their next field goal came at the 7:40 mark (nearly 12 minutes later), but here's the rub: A&M only trailed 13-5 at the time because the Gators had six turnovers and uncharacteristically were getting outworked on the glass, surrendering 12 offensive rebounds (but no second-chance points, obviously) through the first 13-plus minutes.
"That's not normal for us to get punked on the glass like that," Brown said. "We turned the tables."
Klavzar hit a couple 3s over the final five minutes to help stake UF to a 30-19 lead at the half. For the Aggies, being down only 11 after such a miserable shooting performance must have felt like being down a bucket.
Urban Klavzar (7) dropped three triples on five attempts against the Aggies.
But then came a 22-5 run by the Gators to start the second half, courtesy of 10 consecutive makes – off several press breaks on the way to 21 transition points for the night – that opened a 28-point lead for the visitors, at 52-24, with just over 14 minutes to play. The closest the Aggies got, despite hitting eight second-half 3s, was 17.
UF turned the ball over against A&M's presses and traps only nine times for the game, but only three times over the final 24 minutes. Point guard Boogie Fland had just nine points and four assists over 32 minutes, but was outstanding beating the pressure (with only two turnovers), often using his speed to do it solo, and getting the Gators into the halfcourt.
"Our ability to not only take care of the ball, but really advance it and attack in transition led to a lot of runouts and dunks for us in the second half," Golden said. "And I thought our guys did a really good job of playing fast, but not in a hurry."
The only intrigue over the game's final minutes came when A&M's chatty guard Rylan Griffin took exception to a drilled 3-ball by Haugh and getting a stare down from the UF star.
At the other end of the floor, Griffin charged Haugh from behind and threw a shoulder into his back; a play that had nothing to do with basketball. Furious, Haugh implored Golden to ask for an official's review, which resulted in a Flagrant 1 foul on Griffin with 4:25 to go.
Golden wanted a Flagrant 2 and the accompanying ejection, given the blindside attack on the likely favorite for SEC Player of the Year.
"I never talk crap to anybody," said Haugh, who went five of 12 from the floor, hit two of four 3s, dropped 10 of 13 at the free-throw line and also grabbed seven rebounds. "You really have to do something to get me riled up."
The Gators have won their last three games by 47 at South Carolina, by 23 at home against No. 23 Alabama and now by 19 on the road against an A&M squad that started the day in first place in the conference.
It might be this team, not just Haugh, that is getting riled up.
