Three Takeaways from Florida's Dominant Win Over LSU

The Florida Gators downed LSU for its fifth-straight win since losing its SEC opener.

The Florida Gators downed LSU for its fifth-straight win since losing its SEC opener. | Kyle Lander / Florida Gators on SI

The No. 16 Florida Gators extended their winning streak to five games Tuesday night, dismantling the LSU Tigers, 79-61, in Exactech Arena. 

Unsurprisingly, Gators center Rueben Chinyelu continued his dominance in conference play while head coach Todd Golden also received a major boost from a pair of bench players against the Tigers. 

“Really systematic win for our program, I'm really pleased,” Golden said after the win. “I don't think there's one thing we did exceptionally well, but we did a lot of things well. And I think this LSU team is really good…really proud of our guys and the way they performed tonight.”

Chinyelu Up Among the Best Rebounders in Program History

Rebounding has been a major point of emphasis since Golden took over, having been among the best teams in the category yearly over the past few years. 

However, Chinyelu has taken the level of rebounding for the Gators to the next level. Over his last four games against SEC opponents, Chinyelu has totaled 59 rebounds, including a 16-rebound performance against the Tennessee Volunteers and Tuesday's 21-rebound performance in the win over LSU. 

that's our @sec player of the week 🤝

📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/bgDCfPxenY

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) January 21, 2026

His physical presence on both ends has proved to be overwhelming for nearly every opponent this season, and it showed again on Tuesday, grabbing 11 offensive and 10 defensive rebounds against the Tigers. Moreover, he had more offensive rebounds (11) than the Tigers had total as a team (seven). 

Golden singled out Chinyelu’s work on the glass following the win over the Tigers, saying it is easy to see his growth in that area and how physically demanding it is on the opponents, having to go against him every possession. 

“Yeah, I think you're seeing a guy that’s continued to grow and get better in real time. And he's impacting the game tremendously,” Golden said. “You're physically competing against this guy on every possession, and you're looking out there, and the guy's playing great with his hands on his knees, and on every free throw, and just kind of looking for air.”

With his stat line, he became the sixth player in school history with multiple 20-rebound games and the first in over 50 years, and the first Gator since David Lee in 2005 with four consecutive double-doubles. 

Gators Starting to Get Bench Production

It has not always been the case, but Florida’s bench is slowly starting to resemble last year’s efforts. 

A key factor in that is the emergence of sophomore guard Isaiah Brown. Since the start of SEC play, Brown is playing 13.3 minutes per game and averaging 6.5 points and 3.2 rebounds in those minutes, while shooting 40 percent from deep. He has also been providing a strong defensive effort when on the court. 

“Isaiah has obviously been fantastic over the last couple weeks, and 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.”

In addition to Brown, the other player supplying the energy from the bench is junior guard Urban Klavzar. In the same span as Brown, he is producing 10.8 points per game and shooting 40 percent from three in 21.3 minutes per game. 

Urb with the tre 👌👌

📺 ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/eEK1K1itoU

— Florida Gators Men’s Basketball (@GatorsMBK) January 21, 2026

Klavzar hit a career-high five 3-pointers in the win over the Tigers, finishing with 18 points.

“[Klavzar]’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…”

3-Point Offense Coming Around

There is still much room to grow for the Gators behind the 3-point line, but the offense in this area is slowly ramping up production. It has made nine 3-pointers each in the last two games against Vanderbilt and LSU. 

Two players improving the offense in this department are Brown and Klavzar. Brown connected on the two triples he took against the Tigers and knocked down two more in the contest versus the Commodores last weekend. Meanwhile, Klavzar only logged one 3-pointer in Nashville, but posted five in the demolition of the Tigers. 

Four of them came in the second half.

“I think we're finding it every day more and more, so it's gonna be very good for us,” Klavzar said. “When you shoot the ball that well, it's tough to beat us."