Defending champion and No. 10 Florida trying to shake an early season shooting slump

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Long after the court cleared and the crowd scattered, Florida guards Boogie Fland, Xaivian Lee and Urban Klavžar were getting up shots.

From the top. From the elbow. From the wing. No one told the trio to put in extra work after Florida’s last game. They knew it had to be done.

The 10th-ranked Gators (2-1) rank next to last in the country in 3-point shooting, hitting a paltry 21% from behind the arc this season. Only Fordham ranks below the Gators among 355 Division I teams.

Coach Todd Golden isn’t ready to panic, but he has to be a little concerned as Florida prepares for a stretch that includes games against Miami, No. 4 Duke and third-ranked UConn.

“Our whole team’s in a slump shooting the basketball,” Golden said. “We can be better than that, and I’m confident we will be.”

It starts against the Hurricanes (3-0) on Sunday night in Jacksonville, a neutral-site matchup that will feel more like a home game for the Gators. Florida can only hope the change in venue leads to different results from long range.

The team hit 6 of 32 (18.8%) from distance against North Florida last week and 6 of 31 (19.4%) against Florida State on Tuesday. The Gators were slightly better in a season-opening loss to Arizona in Las Vegas, finishing 7 of 27 on 3s.

Still, it’s a three-game trend for the defending national champions.

“It’s the beginning of the season,” Fland said. “We know we’re not hitting right now, but once we start hitting, then we’ll play better.”

Golden’s message to his guys: Keep shooting.

“I don’t think dancing around any sort of shooting slump or trying to Band-Aid it is the solution,” Golden said. “When you have some issues or you’re not achieving as well as you want, you got to stare it right in the face and attack it. I think our guys are doing that. I think our staff is doing that.”

One potential problem Golden pointed to is how much pressure the Gators are under, especially with his starting backcourt of Fland and Lee – two guys who had nothing to do with last year’s title run.

They were thrust into an unenviable position of trying to replace Walter Clayton, arguably the best playmaker in school history, and fellow guards Alijah Martin and Will Richard.

“We have put ourselves in a position where we have a big target on our back and we have a lot of expectations going into every game,” Golden said. “A big part of our natural progression moving forward is to be able to absorb and handle that and continue to play with some freedom.”

Florida may have had a breakthrough against the Seminoles. Fland hit two treys in the second half to spark the Gators’ comeback, and Klavžar drained a 3 from the corner with 59 seconds remaining that pushed the lead to four.

Nonetheless, Fland, Lee and Klavžar returned to the court an hour after the victory to grind. The only player on Florida’s roster shooting better than 25% from 3-point range is small forward Thomas Haugh (5 of 16).

Fland (2 of 12) is in his first season at Florida after playing at Arkansas as a freshman. Lee (6 of 29) is a senior transfer who lit up the Ivy Leage the last two years. And Klavžar (3 of 14) played sparingly off the bench in 2024-25. The entire team is 19 of 90 from beyond the arc.

“These guys care a lot,” Golden said. “They put a lot of pressure on themselves. There’s a balance there of caring a lot but not allowing it to affect your next shot or your next play. We’re still working through that. Fundamentally, we’re doing a lot of good things as a team. If we can flip that shooting a little bit, we should be in pretty good shape.”