Takeaways as Florida is Shockingly Eliminated from SEC Tournament

Despite being in a rich vein of form, the SEC’s regular-season champs went down in the conference tournament semifinals. The Vanderbilt Commodores snapped the Florida Gators' 12-game win streak on Saturday in Nashville, besting them 91-74. 

Florida struggled from the jump, and trailed for double-digits for a large portion. While four players did finish in double figures in scoring, self inflicted mistakes and poor offense led to beatdown from the Commodores.  

After watching the contest between the two, here are three takeaways from the Gators first loss since late January. 

Woeful Battle Along the Perimeter

The 3-pointer has played a key part in Florida’s surge into the top four teams in the country. The efficiency on offense began skyrocketing, and the defense was able to limit quality 3-point shots the other way. 

However, the opposite happened against Vanderbilt. The Commodores had six players hit threes. The offense as a whole shot 47.6 percent from deep and nailed 10 triples in total. 

Then, for the Gators' offense, it rarely found the bottom of the net from behind the arc. Xaivian Lee finished 1-for-5; Urban Klavzar only took one 3-pointer; Isaiah Brown shot 0-for-3, Thomas Haugh shot 1-for-4 and Boogie Fland was 1-for-3.   

Combine both, and you get what happened on Saturday. 

Turnover Problem Persists

For the second straight game, Florida could not take care of the basketball. It committed double-digit turnovers against the Vanderbilt defense, totaling 14. 

Those 14 turnovers provided the Commodores with 24 points on the other end. It also broked the game up for Florida by limiting any chance at grabbing momentum and consistently making it difficult to put together back-to-back quality possessions.

It was not just a one-person problem, either; several Gators contributed to the careless basketball on display. Six Gators committed at least one turnover. Alex Condon finished with five turnovers, Lee with three, Rueben Chinyelu with two and Haugh, Brown and Fland each recorded one. 

Lee Reverts to Non-Conference Form

Lee had been superb for the Gators during their 11-game win streak. He took care of the basketball, got everyone involved on offense, and held his own defensively. 

That evaporated on Saturday. The former Princeton guard ended the game 2-for-8 and 1-for-5 from three. Moreover, had three turnovers, which put him second on the team on the day in a category he would rather not be. 

While he was not the only one to dip in performance, Lee's overall play impacted the game in the wrong way.