Lander's Layup Line: A Gators Team Evolving Right in Front of Us

This year's Florida Gators men's basketball team is putting the country on notice as they keep coming together as a group

Watch out for the Florida Gators / Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

Gainesville, Fla. – From the start of the season to now, there are clear signs that the Florida Gators are evolving. From defensive performances to players pouring it in offensively, things are changing for the better. 

Now, now, let me temper myself. These signs I’m noticing aren’t indicating we are the perfect team already and should be crowned national champions. What I am trying to say is that this team is proving that they have the qualities to be a dangerous team in March. 

They have two of the most dangerous scorers in the SEC. Not too many teams will have the defensive talent on the court at one time to stop both starting guards for the Gators. 

For example, when Walter Clayton Jr. is having a quiet night offensively, the Gators can easily turn to Alijah Martin, who also happens to be Steph Curry when he wants to like he did in their most recent win (Sorry, not sorry about saying it even if he disagrees).

Then, there’s the level of maturity and unselfishness of this team. 

In their win over Southern Illinois, the Gators dished out 25 assists. That’s the most since last December when they beat Grambling State. There were also three players who had four or more assists in the win over Southern Illinois. Not too many teams will have this level of teamwork and it’s something head coach Todd Golden praised after his team’s win over Southern Illinois. 

“It says a lot about the way your team plays with each other.” Golden said. “When you have that assist to turnover ratio as a team, 25 assists is really, really hard to do and obviously you need some pretty good perimeter shooting for that to happen, but also when you take care of the ball with only six turnovers all night. That was what, as a staff, we were really pleased about after the game.”

Furthermore, Martin had a chance to break his career high in points recently yet, he opted for the assist to Thomas Haugh so that he could set a new career high in scoring. 

“Nah, I wanted to make the assist,” Martin laughingly responded when he was told he could’ve gotten his career high against Southern Illinois. 

Not everything is about the offense though. It’s why everyone says defense wins championships. 

The Gators' defense has only given up more than 70 points in two games so far. It happened in game one against USF and three games ago against Florida State. 

However, there is one thing they need to clean up and that’s the inconsistent runs they have during games. They’re happening with too much regularity and it opens up a path for their opponents to get back into the game like what happened against Florida State near the end of the game. 

This team has a chance to be great though. They’re deep and have multiple guys they can go to when the offense is in a rut. The biggest thing now is going to be putting together a complete 40 minutes. That and consistently shooting from deep like they showed against Southern Illinois is their last evolution. 

Should they reach that evolution, watch out America.