GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The most anticipated Florida basketball season in years started with eight missed shots. 

It got better from there, but not nearly good enough for a team saddled with gargantuan expectations.

Kerry Blackshear Jr., the god-send graduate-transfer from Virginia Tech, tallied a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds in his orange-and-blue debut to carry the youthful, sixth-ranked Gators past a stubborn and veteran North Florida bunch, 74-59, in the season-opener for both teams Tuesday night at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. Sophomore guard Noah Locke chipped in 14 points, freshman guard Tre Mann added 11 more, and rookie classmate Scottie Lewis had nine points, five rebounds and two assists off the bench, as UF tipped off the season with its highest ranking since the reigning NCAA-champion Gators of 2006-07 began that campaign as the nation's No. 1 team. 

"What did I like?" Florida coach Mike White said, repeating the first question put to him at the post-game dais. "I liked that we won." 

Oh, he went on to point out some good (Blackshear and some unselfish ball movement), as well as some bad (a dip in intensity in the second half, several silly fouls, a few missed layups), but as openers go the overall product probably wasn't completely unexpected given the Gators (1-0) were breaking in a team with six new players: Blackshear and five freshmen.

"It's all about the reps," Blackshear said. "I was excited to be out there with them, and I think they're going to get much better."

They need to, what with rival (and recent nemesis) Florida State due in town Sunday and riding a five-game winning streak in the series. 

The Gators certainly got better early against the Ospreys, out of the Atlantic Sun Conference, after starting the game an ugly 0-for-8. UNF, with four returning starters from a team that fell one win shy of the NCAA Tournament last spring, held an 8-5 lead about six minutes in before Florida took off on runs of 16-0 and 27-7 to lead by 15 with less than three minutes remaining in the half. Along the way, Blackshear hit his only 3-point attempt of the game, freshman center Omar Payne had a couple buckets and three offensive rebounds, with Locke nailing a 3-ball and Dontay Bassett knocking down a pair of free throws in the final minute to send the Gators to the locker room up, 39-22. 

UF scored the first six points of the second half, and 10 of the first 12, to lead by 24 with 16 minutes to go, but was done playing its best basketball of the night. 

From there, the Gators were outscored, 34-25 the rest of the way, and allowed the Ospreys (0-1) to shoot 46 percent for the second period and bury seven of 15 shots from the 3-point line (46.7 percent). Five different UNF players hit 3s, with a couple left wide open via defensive breakdowns, with guard J.T. Escobar leading his team with 15 points. 

"Communication was good in the first [half], then we lacked in the second," Payne said. 
 
UNF twice cut the lead to 13 points; once just inside four minutes remaining and again with 1:23 left. There wasn't much drama with regard to the outcome, with Florida forcing 19 turnovers and converting them into 26 points. 

Nine of the 10 Gators who checked into the game scored, but sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard had a tough offensive night (2 points, 1-for-7 shooting, but 4 assists and no turnovers), sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson (7 points, 7 rebounds) played just three first-half minutes due to foul trouble, and freshman point guard Ques Glover went 0-for-4, with a pair of missed point-blank layups. 

Overall, UF shot just 42 percent and made only three of 15 shots from deep (20 percent).

"Three of 15?" a wide-eyed Mann shot back. "What?"

Given the shooters on this team, that's not who the Gators are. 

"There may be days where we go 0-for-10, I mean who knows?" Locke said. "We've just got to stay locked in defensively. We're a team that relies on defense. We pride ourselves on defense. I feel like that's what's going to win the game. Lock in defensively and then shots will come."

White said afterward he wasn't sure if he would have preferred a lights-out performance in the first game. He certainly didn't expect one. Rarely are teams at their best in November. Coaches, instead, strive to be there in February and March. 

"I think we'll have a really good feel for what we have in the next month or so," White said, contrasting his team to UNF, with seven of its eight top scorers back and a bunch of upperclassmen who understand their roles and are on point defensively. "That's not us, right now. We're more talented than that team, but hopefully that's us in a couple months." 

With preferably a better version rising up in a few days (as in Sunday).