Florida Gators

STORRS, Conn. — Practice at the Florida facility ended Saturday afternoon at 1:45, leaving players about 90 minutes to kill before heading to the airport for the first road trip of the 2019-20 season. 

Less than 10 minutes later, sophomore guards Andrew Nembhard and Noah Locke were launching shots with managers on rebound duty. Freshman guard Tre Mann grabbed assistant coach Jordan Mincy and headed for the women's gym on the other side of the building to have a court to themselves. 

Those three Gators (and several others) do this every day, and yet the team, on the whole, has not shot the ball well to start this young season. Neither the coaches nor players, however, are overly concerned because of what they've seen daily, whether it's Locke squaring up from deep or Mann swishing his effortless release, during practices the last couple months. 

"The shots will fall," Nembhard said. 

Sunday would be a good time for that to happen, as No. 15 UF (2-1) takes on Connecticut (1-1) at raucous Gampel Pavilion in the first game of a cross-regional home-and-home series. The Huskies, after going 16-17 last season, are in something of a rebuild mode in the second year under Coach Dan Hurley, but also have four of their top five scorers back and put up 89 and 87 points in their first two games, despite their best players getting off to icy starts. 

So which team is going to heat up first? 

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]

The trio of Nembhard, Locke and Mann combined to make just 10 of 43 field-goal attempts (23.2 percent) and six of 25 shots from the 3-point line (24.0 percent) in the ugly loss to Florida State a week ago and Thursday night's escape act against Towson. It's no wonder the offense has appeared so disjointed at times, when one of the elements that is a supposed strength of this team — shooting — is looking like a liability, instead. The Gators put a greater emphasis on getting the ball inside, with forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. getting more post touches in the Towson win than the loss to FSU, but for the whole offense to be affective, for the defensive floor to move, more outside shots (especially 3s) have to go down. 

"We're still searching with playing fast and playing slow. I don't think we're an incredibly fast team. I don't think we've been really efficient in transition offense, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to push it and try to develop that part of our game," UF coach Mike White said. "I don't know that we're going to be a pound-that-thing-inside-every-possession team, but we're trying to get good at it, and trying to get good at driving it, trying to get good at shooting it, drawing fouls — the whole thing. We don't want to be one-dimensional. We've been one-dimensional for a while. But as we go through this process, we understand we're going to take some lumps and some learning lessons as we continue with some trial and error." Experimentation is tough to do on the road, especially against a solid opponent that was thoroughly frustrated with its last outing. UConn thumped Sacred Heart, 89-67, in its opener, but then got whipped Wednesday at Gampel by St. Joseph's, which shot 53 percent in the first half — including 10-for-21 from distance — and built a 27-point first-half lead, had tallied 52 by the break, and left town with a 96-87 victory.

"That was trash, the other night," Hurley told reporters Friday. "I can't guarantee you the outcome on Sunday, but we will not show up like punks again."

Ouch. 

The Huskies' two most dangerous scorers, guards Christian Vital and former McDonald's All-American Alterique Gilbert, combined to go 10 of 40 from the floor, with Vital a cold 3-for-12 from deep. Not exactly in character for a pair of veteran players whose ability to put the ball in the goal has been their calling card. 

If Vital and Gilbert are going to get it going Sunday they'll have to do so against a UF defense allowing less than 61 points per game, just 38.8 percent shooting, and 31.4 percent from deep. Conversely, Florida will be facing a defense that's allowing 81 points a game and let an opponent come into its building and hang 96 on the scoreboard. If that's any indication of how the Huskies are going to guard, the Gators will have some looks at the goal.

UConn is on notice. Florida is searching. Something, or someone, has to give.

For the Gators, maybe it's just a matter of getting away from home for a bit.

"Road trips are where teams bond and build their chemistry a lot because you're out here against everybody in the gym," Blackshear said. " We're excited."