GAINESVILLE — Coach Todd Golden isn’t convinced Auburn provided a blueprint to beat Florida.
Florida’s lackluster first-half effort for a sold-out home crowd was surprising. The Gators’ shooting struggles were not. If the combination is repeated, beginning Wednesday night at South Carolina, Golden will be disappointed.
“We’re really consistent in our approach,” he said Tuesday. “Our guys are ready to go, and they compete the right way. We’re not gonna change up too much of what we do. We just can’t let it happen again.
“If it happens again, then I think it’ll be something that we have to kind of pinpoint and try to address if there’s one specific thing that we can do differently.”
On Saturday at the O’Connell Center, Auburn took the fight to Florida (14-6, 5-2 SEC), beating the nation’s top rebounding team 19-13 on the boards to build a 43-28 halftime lead before holding on for a 76-67 win.
A reality check accompanied the unceremonious end of a five-game winning streak at the O’Dome, where the Gators had won 16 straight.
Given their 3-point shooting woes, the Gators have to capitalize on advantages elsewhere. Florida’s dominance under the basket and small forward Tommy Haugh’s All-America-caliber play had been enough, and could be again at struggling South Carolina (11-9, 2-5).
UF’s plus-15.4 rebounding margin leads the nation. The high-flying 6-foot-9, 215-pound Haugh, who averages 17.4 points and 6.7 rebounds, is among four SEC players in the top 15 in both categories.
Yet, Florida shoots just 28.5% from 3-point range, better than just six of 361 teams nationally and worst in the power conferences.
Preseason All-America Alex Condon’s confidence dip was evident during his one-point, four-turnover performance against Auburn. The Tigers left open the 6-foot-11, 230-pound junior at the 3-point line, where he missed both his attempts to leave him 6-of-42 on the season (14.3%).
“When somebody’s not guarding you, I think it can kind of messes you a little bit,” Golden said. “I need to do a better job is giving him the right plan when that happens. I could be wrong. I don’t think that’s a good formula for guarding a really good player after you have a little bit of time to prepare for it.”
Condon spent the offseason pushing to improve his outside shooting to raise his NBA draft stock. If he can approach his 32.8% clip from last season, the Gators could be hard to beat.
At the same time, 20 games into the season, the Gators have established a track record and an identity, while revealing their warts. Golden still remains confident the nation’s preseason No. 3 has the talent and time to reach its goals.
“I think this team’s in a good spot,” he said. “There’s obviously a game or two that we wish we would have won. We’ve proven over the last three or four weeks that we can win a lot of games against really good teams – winning five straight Quad 1 games in a row. This team still has a high ceiling, and and we’ve got to make sure we continue to have a high floor.
“This team is still capable of everything that we wanted to do at the beginning of the year.”
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com