Pack the Paint: Auburn Exposes Florida’s Biggest Flaw

No. 16 Florida’s loss Saturday to Auburn was not just the program’s first home loss to Tigers since 1996, but also a blueprint for future opponents on how to guard the Gators. 

Auburn coach Steven Pearl devised a defensive strategy that the Gators had not seen before in Saturday’s matchup: crowd the paint and make the Florida backcourt shoot. 

The Gators are shooting 3-pointers at only a 28.5% clip this season. During their five game winning streak, Reuben Chinyeku and Thomas Haugh had dominated in the paint offensively. The pair averaged 32.2 points and 18 rebounds per game during that span. 

In response, the Tigers flooded the paint with two to three defenders every time Haugh, Chinyelu or Alex Condon got a touch down low. This dared the Florida backcourt to make 3s and allowed the Tigers to be in prime box out position for missed shots. 

The Gators responded to a 46-28 deficit with a minute left in the first half and tie the game 56-56 with 8:09 to play through turnovers and letting Haugh (who had a career-high 27 points) take over by driving downhill. However, Pearl stuck to his game plan, let Florida shoot all game and was rewarded in the end.

“It’s a long season, and it starts with me,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “Anytime you get to a point where you think you got things rolling a little bit, and the moment you feel like they’re on the right track, you get punched in the mouth, and that’s what happened to us today. Again, credit to Auburn.”

Florida had wide open looks from 3, but Boogie Fland, Xaivian Lee and Urban Klavzar went a combined 4-for-15 (26.7%) from distance. The Tigers also won the defensive rebound battle, 24-22, an impressive feat against the No. 1 rebounding team in the nation. 

With Auburn’s success Saturday against Florida, SEC coaches will most likely play the defending champions the exact same way. Until Florida can get out of its shooting slump, there is no reason for defenses to stress about guarding the perimeter. That is going to make it harder on the frontcourt to rebound and score with extra defenders down low. 

However, if Florida can ever break the ice from deep, defenses are going to have to adjust. If the wide open 3s that Auburn allowed Florida to take start to splash, then the double and triple teams in the paint will have to become less frequent. 

For the Florida backcourt, efficiency is more imperative than ever. Lee, Fland and Klavzar have an opportunity to respond Wednesday against South Carolina. 

“I think we were getting a little ahead of ourselves here seeing the media start to respect us as a team again,” Haugh said. “Everybody started saying, ‘The Gators are back, Gators are back.’ This is going to definitely motivate us going forward. We got pounced here at home and that just can’t happen going forward.”

Category: Feature Sports News, Gators Men's Basketball