The Florida Gators have been one of the hottest teams in the country over the first four games of the 2025 college basketball season.
As the Gators continue to pick up steam- only one thing stands on their mind: defend their National Title. Over the last week, Florida has picked up wins against their perennial in state rivals, taking down Florida State on Tuesday, before calming the Hurricanes of Miami on Sunday night.
With a team that’s been so hot to open the season, it actually comes as a surprise that their two high profile additions this past off-season are offensive non-factors. Two new faces made their way to Gainesville this summer, as Arkansas G Boogie Fland and Princeton’s sniper G Xavian Lee made hail to the Gators. During his true freshman campaign as a Razorback, Boogie Fland averaged 13.5 PPG and 5.1 Assists, securing a consistent role for Coach John Calipari’s squad after a minor injury to Johnell Davis.
As for Lee, the 6 foot 4 senior cemented himself as one of the best shooters in college basketball over the past two seasons, with him averaging 16.9 PPG, 6 Rebounds, 5 Assists on 43.9% shooting (36.6% 3PT).
Alas- it’s been a less than ideal start from deep for both of these talented shot callers through the first four games of the 2025-26 season, as they’ve totaled a combined 8/51 from deep. During the Gators’ win over the Miami Hurricanes last night (Nov. 16), Lee and Fland finished the evening at 0/10 from beyond the arc.
Throughout post game media-Florida Head Coach Todd Golden made it evidently clear that he has not hit the panic button on his marquee transfers just yet.
“He’s {Xavian} pretty fortunate to play for a guy like me. I’m not worried about the shooting, I concern myself with things that don’t require talent like defending, rebounding and taking care of the ball. He had five rebounds tonight, five assists and three steals, he did alot of things to help us win.” Coach Golden stated. “My message to the team after the game was we didn’t get a made three from Lee or Boogie tonight, they we’re 0/10- just imagine how good we’re going to be when these guys start hitting some shots…I think our ceiling is very high, and I think our floor is very high, for us to beat a team like Miami by double figures without getting any three’s from them is a pretty outstanding effort.”
With that being said- I’m sure the pressure is on for Boogie Fland and Xavian Lee to start heating up offensively. During the Miami win, Slovenian Urban Klavzar was automatic from deep, recording 15 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist, going 4/8 from the field (4/7 from 3).
Coach Golden was more than excited to give praise to Klavzar with this quote post game:
“I’m really really happy for this guy to my right {Klavzar}, he stepped up huge for us last year in conference play when we were dealing with injuries, he was great in exhibitions, but has had a slower start to the season…The Urban Klavzar you saw tonight is the guy we know we have on our roster. He stepped up and hit some big shots in some moments tonight that allowed us to run out of here with a pretty big win.”
Florida’s next opponent serves as a tuneup game, as they prepare to host 1-3 Merrimack on Friday November 21. Will this game be the spark that reignites the fire in these stars? Only time will tell.
