LSU vs Florida Basketball: Behind enemy lines with Gators Wire

There are a multitude of factors that have led to the team’s struggles over the last month. One of them is simply tougher competition and one of the Gators’ two marquee wins (Florida State) doesn’t look that impressive anymore. But if I had to pinpoint one on-court factor that’s causing the team to struggle, it’s definitely the offense. It looked strong in the first few games, but it’s not moving the ball as well as it did earlier in the season and there is no player on this team that can take over a game on offense right now.

As mentioned above, this team really doesn’t have many fearsome shooters. It mostly relies on points in the paint and transition buckets off turnovers. But if there’s one player with that kind of offensive potential, I’d go with guard Myreon Jones. The Penn State transfer has had an up and down season, but he’s scored in double figures in both SEC contests so far and made 50% of his shots and shot 42.9% from three in the loss to Auburn.

It will certainly be a challenge, but luckily for the Gators he will be matchup up against UF’s most athletic player in forward Anthony Duruji. He has a tremendous vertical and wingspan which makes him a stellar rebounder and solid defensive player, as well. This will probably be his toughest defensive matchup of the season to this point, though.

I expect this game will play out fairly similarly to Florida’s first two conference games against Alabama and Auburn. It was competitive at one point in both of those games, even leading the Crimson Tide at the half. I expect the Gators to come out energized in front of the home crowd looking to avoid an 0-3 start to conference play, but LSU’s talent will make it difficult to maintain that.

It’s tough to call a game against the NET’s No. 4 team a must-win, but that’s certainly how it feels for the Gators. It’s been a brutal start to SEC play with three Quadrant 1 games in a row, and Florida desperately needs to avoid another loss. With that being said, I don’t have a lot of confidence in this team right now. LSU is averaging nearly 80 points per game and has a lights-out defense. I expect UF to battle hard at home, but I see something like 75-65 in the Tigers’ favor when it’s all said and done.