The Good, the Bad and the Ugly From the Gators Season Opener

The season opener for the Florida Gators is in the books and let's see how things look out of the gate

Let's dive into some takeaways from the Gators season opener against USF / Morgan Tencza-Imagn Images

Overreactions are normal at the beginning of each season in every sport. People love to put too much stock into certain areas of a team while being very pessimistic about other parts. It’s normal. 

The big thing is knowing when to be level-headed and reasonable about what you're seeing at the start of the new season. Still, though it’s fun to be over reactionary. 

So, I’ll tell you the good, the bad and the ugly from game one of the Florida Gators 2024-25 campaign. 

The Good: Walter Clayton Jr. Is Still That Guy

Walter Clayton Jr. entered this season with big expectations placed upon him. He was named Preseason First Team All-SEC in the summer after a dazzling debut season in Gainesville and is, once again, expected to be the go-to guy on offense in 2024-25. 

Surprisingly though, the senior only contributed nine points in the first half of Monday’s game against South Florida. Both Alex Condon and Will Richard entered halftime with more points.

But Clayton Jr. could only stay quiet relative to expectations for so long.  

Upon exiting the locker room, Clayton had nine points. By the end of the game, he left with 29. The volume scorer shot 6-for-7 from the field and 1-for-2 on 3-pointers over the final 20 minutes of this game and was perfect from the line, making all seven of his attempts. 

It was a great night for Clayton Jr., who already looks like he is in midseason form. If this is what the Gators will be getting from him each night, then watch out for this team come March. 

The Bad: Lack of Playmaking Profile

The lack of playmaking was very evident in the first half of this game. A lot of the time, the Gators were trying to play one-on-one, isolation basketball to get their points and it just wasn’t working. It was very clear that the Gators were missing that playmaker they had last year in Zyon Pullin. 

Having a guy like Pullin – who knew how to not turn over the ball while still making the right passes – is important, but it doesn’t seem like the Gators have someone similar to him right now. They have options in Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin and Denzel Aberdeen who can become close to that. However, none of them showed it last night as the highest assist number from this trio was Martin with three assists. 

It’s great that they had six different players with assists as well, but if all only have one or two, then you’re just putting yourself in a harder situation on offense. There are going to be nights where the refs whistle isn’t in their favor, which was one of the key parts of how their offense functioned in that second half and how will they respond to that? That will be something to watch moving forward. 

The Ugly: 3-point Effort on Both Ends of the Floor

Probably the biggest overreaction to game one of the season for the Gators is the 3-point display on both offense and defense. 

On offense, the Gators were abysmal from deep. As a team, they shot 5-for-25, which is just 20 percent. Also, the Gators only had three players hit a triple while everyone else that played went 0-for-10.

A majority of those misses came from Martin though. His night from deep was something he will be hoping doesn’t happen again as he was 0-for-6 from downtown. 

As for the Gators' opponents, they knocked down 13 of their 27 attempts. That is way too many given up and way too big of a difference. Hopefully, this is just a one-off for the Gators because better teams will be way more punishing if this becomes a habit. 

In the end, it’s great the Gators came out on top for their sixth straight season-opening win, but the performances in certain areas will need to improve before they get their first real test against Wake Forest at the end of the month.