How Florida Bench Guards Isaiah Brown, Urban Klavzar have Impacted Gators' Win Streak

The Florida Gators already had a strong starting five on the hardwood, and now their bench has slowly sprung to life over the past few weeks, with two players in particular providing the energy.

Sophomore Isaiah Brown and junior Urban Klavzar have turned up their performances in several ways since the start of SEC play, giving head coach Todd Golden two names he can count on off the bench.

Brown is coming off the best two-game stretch of his career. Averaging 17 minutes per game against the Vanderbilt Commodores and LSU Tigers, Brown is scoring 11 points per contest and grabbing 4.5 rebounds while also shooting 80 percent from deep.

His efforts on the glass have not gone unnoticed by his head coach either.

"He's continued to give us really strong minutes offensively, but really defensively on the glass,” Golden said on Tuesday. “I feel like he's given us a big lift. He was plus-16 in 13 minutes tonight. That’s hard to do.”

Florida Gators guard Isaiah Brown is in the midst of the best stretch of performances in his career. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

As for his numbers since the start of the conference schedule, Brown is averaging 13.3 minutes per game and producing 6.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and shooting 40 percent from three in his time on the court.

While the numbers are not popping off the paper, Gators starting point guard Boogie Fland highlighted the impact Brown is having off the bench for the team.

“Playing hard. Playing aggressive. Playing with effort,” Fland said. “Doing whatever we need him to do. He’s just going out there and having fun.”

Brown’s best outing came in the upset victory over the Commodores. He posted a stat line of 14 points, four rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal. Moreover, one thing that is not showing up in the stat sheet is his putback dunk over a Vanderbilt defender.

In Klavzar’s case, it is his 3-point shooting making the biggest impact. He is connecting on 37.3 percent of his triples this season, providing the offense with a necessary weapon behind the arc.

More importantly, Klavzar has improved in SEC play. He is knocking down 40 percent of his 3-pointers against SEC opponents. Additionally, he has made at least three 3-pointers in three of the last five games and netted a season-high five triples against the Tigers on Tuesday on nine attempts, which resulted in strong praise from his head coach.

“Urb's been really good in league play,” Golden said. “He's settled into the role that we hoped he would this year, just being that little spark plug off the bench, being able to come in and make shots and give a little offensive lift. When a guy has the ability to step up and hit big shots on the move like that, it's a weapon.”

Florida Gators guard Urban Klavzar has taken advantage of his elevated role this season. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

Golden touched on the fact that Klavzar is taking advantage of the open minutes at the guard position following the departure of former Gators Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Will Richard.

“Last year, it was a little difficult for him to break into rotation,” Golden stated. “He only had three NBA guys in front of him, and once those guys got out of the way, he started playing a little bit and doing some good things.”

The contributions from these two, alongside center Micah Handlogten, have supplied Golden a meaningful punch off the bench during the opening part of the conference schedule, and they are going to be important as the Gators get into the thick of it in the SEC.

“Yeah, it's been a huge part of why we've been better over the last couple weeks,” Golden said of the importance of the bench contributions on Tuesday. “When those guys are playing well, it allows us to keep that pretty consistent eight-minute rotation, which has worked really well for us in these last couple weeks.”

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