Three Takeaways from Florida's First Loss at Home Against Auburn in 30 Years

The Auburn Tigers upset the Florida Gators on Saturday for its first win in Gainesville in 30 years.

The Auburn Tigers upset the Florida Gators on Saturday for its first win in Gainesville in 30 years. | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The Auburn Tigers upset the No. 16 Florida Gators on Saturday in Exactech Arena, 76-67. Florida looked outclassed in most areas, especially on the offensive end. This win for Auburn also ended a long homecourt winning streak for the Gators, who had not lost in their home arena in 375 days, and marked the Tigers first win in Gainesville in 30 years.

“Any time you lose you are disappointed, but we had been playing pretty well,” Gators head coach Todd Golden said. “I don’t think we played great, but I first want to credit Auburn. I thought they took the fight to us today.”

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Free Throws Becoming a Problem

A thorn in Florida’s side on offense this season has been their conversion at the free-throw line. Entering the matchup with Auburn on Saturday, the Gators were 13th in the league in free-throw percentage. 

Those struggles continued in the contest, too. 

The Gators shot 16-for-27 against the Tigers. Those 11 misses cost them the game, losing by nine points. What hurts even more is seeing the players who missed them. Thomas Haugh missed three, Rueben Chinyelu missed three, Boogie Fland missed two and Xaivian Lee missed two. 

Florida cannot afford to miss the amount of free throws they have this season, which is the message Chinyelu shared after the game. 

“I think it's just unacceptable, just missing free throws. It's called free for a reason,” Chinyelu said. “We're going to work on that and make sure we're much better for the next game."

No Backup Plan for the Offense

The blueprint is there for opponents. Stop the frontcourt, and the Gators will struggle to find points. Yes, Haugh poured in a game-high 27 points, but he was the only one in the frontcourt to provide a meaningful impact on offense. 

Alex Condon scored only one point and had four turnovers. Chinyelu added only 10 points and seven rebounds. Micah Handlogten supplied two points in 11 minutes. 

When keeping these four quiet on both the glass and on offense, the Gators have few avenues to score. They showed again on Saturday that they are the worst 3-point shooting team in the conference, which takes away one scoring avenue for the offense. 

Golden touched on what can be learned with how Auburn stopped Florida’s offense down low. 

“We gotta find ways to counteract it and do a better job of taking advantage of being wide open on the perimeter and wide open in the middle of the floor,” Golden said. 

Condon Heavily Disappoints

Despite being a preseason All-SEC player, Condon looked anything but that. He was outmuscled down low routinely against the Tigers, and it showed in the box score. He finished with only one point on the day and had four turnovers and four fouls in 37 minutes. 

Those turnovers are what Golden noticed, too. 

“Where his game disappointed me was the four turnovers,” Golden said. “You’re not going to score it every night. You’re not going to be great that way, but you can’t turn the ball over four times when you’re a guy that we run the majority of the offense through. He just got outplayed tonight."

Condon is a crucial cog in the offense for the Gators, which is a partial reason they stumbled on Saturday. He made zero baskets against the Tigers' defense and shot 0-for-2 from deep. 

Furthermore, the Australian native has not been able to get the 3-point shot going this season, which is impacting the offensive spacing. He has just two made triples in conference play on 18 attempts. 

Florida needs more from Condon if they are going to push to defend their title.