Florida Gators shocked by Texas Southern

The No. 20 Florida Gators lost at home to the Texas Southern Tigers by a score of 69-54 Tuesday night.

After a hot 6-0 start to the season, the Gators have lost two straight games. On the other hand, the Tigers picked up their first win of the season and now sit at 1-7.

To say everything went wrong for the Gators is an understatement, honestly.

“A couple of days ago, we weren’t good in practice, and yesterday we were really bad. It was the first time we had a lengthy meeting after practice about how we performed in practice, it was the first tough practice in terms of just being completely out of character,” head coach Mike White said after the game. “Obviously as a staff, we had some concern coming into this one… This is not who this team is, this is not who this program is. We were thoroughly out-played, out-coached, out-everything, I told Johnny he did a great job. I thought their frontcourt was amazing, their bench was great, they doubled us up on the glass, and we were thoroughly outplayed.”

The Tigers took a 16-15 lead with 11:30 to play in the first half, and they didn’t look back. The shots kept falling, and that wasn’t the case for the Gators.

Gators woes against

It starts on the glass. The Tigers had 46 rebounds on the night, which doubled the Gators’ total rebounds (23). Fourteen of those were on the offensive side of the ball for the Tigers, and they capitalized.

Preseason first-team All-SEC Florida forward Colin Castleton did not have his best game. He had just five boards, which led the Gators, but he was unable to contend with Texas Southern’s forwards John Walker III and Brison Gresham who combined for 20 rebounds.

Outside of Castleton, the Gators lack in size, and the Tigers dominated the glass all night.

Another problem was the three-point shooting. The Gators simply are not a three-point shooting team, yet they continue to chuck the ball up from beyond the arc. They finished 5-24 (20.8%) from range.

Not that it mattered, but the free throw shooting wasn’t much better as the Gators went 7-16 (43.8%) from the line.

Nothing seemed to work for the Gators while it felt like the Tigers couldn’t miss. The Tigers hit 54.4% of their shots while the Gators went just 21-55 from the field, which is a lackluster 38.2%.

Brandon McKissic is Good

The only bright spot from tonight’s loss was Gators guard Brandon McKissic who shot 66.6% from beyond the arc and had 15 points. When he touched the ball, good things happened, but he didn’t get the ball enough.

He did a nice of job of moving in transition and getting open for his teammates. His shots were falling, but his teammates were ice cold.

Final Thoughts

This was supposed to be a game where the Gators were supposed to be able to use its depth, and head coach Mike White attempted to do so early on by bringing in forward CJ Felder, guard Elijah Kennedy, and forward Tuongthach Gatkek. Apparently, this wasn’t the game to do so.

This game falls on the ice-cold offense. It was a lackluster effort, and not one player can take over a game like Tre Mann could a year ago. This team has no identity on offense, and that’s going to pose a serious issue with SEC play coming up later this month.

Notes:

• The Gators used their third different starting lineup combination of the season, starting grad transfer guards Brandon McKissic and Phlandrous Fleming Jr. alongside each other for the first time as Tyree Appleby came off the bench.
• McKissic led the Gators with 15 points, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range, but the rest of the team went a combined 0-for-18 from beyond the arc.
• Texas Southern posted a 46-23 rebounding margin and scored 42 of its points in the paint, including 17 second-chance points.