TAMPA, Fla. – The wildly partisan and overwhelmingly orange-and-blue crowd inside Benchmark International Arena was not privy to the in-game conversation TNT sidelines reporter AJ Ross had with Prairie View A&M coach Bryon Smith midway through the first half Friday night.
Smith's team, the NCAA Tournament Southeast Region 16-seed, was getting pulverized in the paint and was staring down a 30-point deficit. He was asked what it would take to slow down the top-seeded Florida Gators.
Smith went right to the top.
"We need some help from the Lord," he said.
As it turned out, divine intervention was not in the cards. The Gators, clearly hellbent on redirecting themselves following last weekend's humbling and lopsided loss to Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, put seven players in double-figure scoring and set a handful of program single-game NCAA records in an overwhelming 114-55 defeat of the overmatched Panthers.
Florida's front-line players turned into cheerleaders from the bench late in Friday's rout.
Thirteen different UF players scored, led by sophomore point guard Boogie Fland's 16 points on a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor to lead seven teammates into double figures. The Gators (27-7) shot a tournament-record 64.3% for the game, including 10-for-22 from the 3-point line (45.5%), and finished with a tournament-record 29 assists and only seven turnovers. The 59-point victory margin not only was a UF record, but marked the second-largest in NCAA Tournament history.
Only Loyola's 69-point defeat of Tennessee Tech in 1963 was bigger.
No, it wasn't a SEC opponent, but it was an impressive bounce-back from the 91-74 blemish of six days earlier in Nashville, Tennessee.
"When you [lose] you've got to take some things from and find ways to improve and I think we did that this past week," UF coach Todd Golden said. "Our guys were really attentive at practice. They did a really good job of focusing on the areas that we, as a staff, thought we needed to improve upon. We played with great intent and when we do that, we're pretty tough."
With the win, the Gators (27-7) moved on to face 9-seed Iowa (22-12) in the tournament's second round Sunday at 7:10 p.m. The winner will advance to the "Sweet 16" next week in Houston.
Junior center Rueben Chinyelu, with 14 points and 13 rebounds, set a team single-season record with his 19th double-double. Junior forward Thomas Haugh threw in 14 points, with junior forward Alex Condon right behind with 13. Guard Urban Klavzar had 11 off the bench, with guard Xaivian Lee tossing in 10 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, to go with five assists and no turnovers. Reserve center Micah Handlogten tallied 10 points, nine rebounds and three assists.
All 12 scholarship Gators who played scored, as did 7-foot-9 walk-on center Olivier Rioux, who flushed his first career dunk with just over a minute to go, sending the arena into a tizzy.
RUEBEN DOUBLE-DOUBLE 🚨🚨
this marks his 19th which breaks the Florida record for most double-doubles in a single season pic.twitter.com/TAy5AGsvmD
— Florida Gators Men's Basketball (@GatorsMBK) March 21, 2026
As the final seconds ticked away, it was all smiles on the Florida bench, which was a far cry from the faces worn the last time the Gators took the floor.
"That wasn't us," Chinyelu said of the Vandy loss. "Just coming off that, just knowing that in order to proceed to the next round, you have to fight for the game, taking care of the ball, playing with each other and just making good decisions. I think we emphasized that and [doing] what we do, come out and play our game. Whenever we do that, we're better."
Dominant, actually.
Point guardBoogie Fland (0) hit all six of his field-goal attempts Friday, including a pair of 3-pointers.
The game actually started a little weird. The Panthers (19-18) were coming off Wednesday night's First Four play-in win over Lehigh and playing their sixth game in 10 days. The Gators scored the game's first seven points, but barely six minutes in Prairie View hit its fifth 3-pointer of the game to tie the score at 15-all.
"It was addressed in a timeout," Golden said. "Once we did a good job of guarding the [3-point] line we knew it was going to be tough for them to finish over us at the rim. Our guys did a great job of executing that defensive plan once we started guarding the line better."
How good? How 'bout three "kill shots" – runs of 10 points or more – before halftime.
After that fifth Prairie View 3, the Gators scored the next 18 points. After the Panthers scored four straight, the Gators padded on 10 straight of their. And following one more Prairie bucket at the 4:48 mark, UF scored the half's final 17 points, finished off by an Isaiah Brown slam-dunk with 30 seconds to go that made the score 60-21.
So, a 45-6 run to end the period. And a 38-0 advantage in paint points through the first 20 minutes.
"We had to get back to who we are. I felt like we lost ourselves, not controlling what we can control," said Fland, who along with his teammates appeared to have found themselves. "That's why you saw the joy back on the court."
Gator Boys | Through the FireGator Boys | Through the Fire
Wednesday, March 18
SEC Tournament: Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Todd Golden Postgame Press Conference 3-14-26SEC Tournament: Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and Todd Golden Postgame Press Conference 3-14-26
