Shooting guard Xaivian Lee and the Gators look to get back on the 3-point track Sunday against Miami.
Gators' Plan to Fix Shooting Woes: Keep Shooting
Sunday, November 16, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Alijah Martin, Florida's prized transfer acquisition last season (anyone remember him?), went 0-for-6 from the 3-point line to start his UF career. The Gators went a collective 5-for-26 from deep (that's 19.2%) in their 2024-25 season opener, but still pulled away in the second half for an easry victory over South Florida.
Through the '24-25 season's first three games, UF's collective 3-point output showed 19 makes in 73 attempts (26%). Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard (anyone remember them?) were a collective 10-for-37 (that's 27%).
Small sample sizes, obviously.
Three games into the '25-26 season, the Clayton/Richard/Martin-less Gators sit at 21.1% from the 3-point line (19 of 90) and are a little bewildered at those shooting numbers, but in no way down on the players taking the shots. The number of long-range misfires – on mostly good shots – from returnees Thomas Haugh (31.3%) and Urban Klavzar (21.4), as well as those of transfer guards Xaivian Lee (20.7) and Boogie Fland (16.7), might be somewhat surprising, but in no way discouraging.
Ask the coaches or players. They believe they have the answer to solving the early shooting struggles.
"The only way to get out of a shooting slump is to shoot the ball," said UF assistant and director of player development Taurean Green said after leading players through one of several extra shooting sessions last week. "So, shoot it! Please!"
Those will be the marching orders Sunday night when the 10th-ranked Gators (2-1) take on cross-state foe Miami (3-0) at VyStar Memorial Arena in a nationally televised ESPN broadcast and the first meeting between the two programs in six years.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
UF is coming off a 78-76 down-to-the-wire defeat Tuesday of rival Florida State, a victory fashioned despite going 6-for-31 from the arc. Instead, the Gators leaned into their defense and rebounding dominance. The Hurricanes don't shoot a lot of 3s, but they have post and perimeter threats that can get to the rim, so the Gators' size and length needs again to be a factor.
That said, improving on the 6.33 treys per game – Florida's current average – would make things a lot easier. For context, UF averaged 9.75 on the way to the national championship last season.
Sharp-shooting backup guard Urban Klavzar(7) has hit just three of 14 attempts from distance, but this make with a minute left in the FSU was a huge and gave the Gators a four-point lead.
"The shooting hasn't been what we want so far; by the team and, obviously, from me," said Lee, the transfer from Princeton who is six of 29 thus far. "But we have to keep shooting. That's what they keep telling me; that's what we keep telling each other. [When] you get open looks, we need to take them. We make shots every day in practice, so it's not something we're really worried about. The fact that we've been so competitive without making shots is a testament to how good we're going to be when they start to fall."
Point taken. Give Lee credit. He hasn't seen the ball go in, but he's doing other things to impact the game in a positive. Against FSU, he finished with seven rebounds and a team-high five assists.
At Princeton, he shot 36.6% from the arc last season. In UF's closed preseason scrimmage win over Illinois, currently the nation's 14th-ranked team, Lee made five of 11 from deep on his way to 17 points.
Coach Todd Golden signed Lee out of the portal to be a scorer. The plan hasn't changed, but that doesn't mean the current situation hasn't been addressed.
"We're a very transparent program, and I don't think dancing around any sort of shooting slump or trying to band-aid it is the solution," Golden said. "I think when you have some issues or you're not achieving as well as you want, you got to stare it right in the face and attack it. I think our guys are doing that. I think our staff is doing that. We're going back and we're evaluating everything that we do."
Regarding the former (his "guys"), the fans that might have mingled around the post-game scene at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center a little longer the last couple games saw UF players (Lee and Fland, included) staying after the games to get up extra shots. They followed with extra shooting sessions with Green and other staffers at the practice facility. Clearly, they care about their craft.
"It's one of the biggest shooting slumps of my career, but I'm really not that worried about it," Lee said. "When I shoot 'em, I think they're going in. They haven't yet, but I'm confident they will."
Meanwhile, don't forget about the weighty expectations hovering over the program and how every opponent on the schedule has Florida circled as a season-making opportunity against the reigning NCAA champs.
That would be a very different-looking version than the OGs that raised the trophy that April.
Charting the Gators: 3-point shooting comparison
Here's a look at how Florida started the 2024-25 season from the 3-point line (on the way to the NCAA title) compared to the '25-26 team.
Opponents
3P-3PA
Pct.
Outcome
2024-25
South Florida (at Jacksonville)
5-26
.192
W 98-83
Jacksonville
7-24
.292
W 81-60
Grambling
7-23
.304
W 86-62
Totals
19-73
.260
Record: 3-0
2025-26
No. 13 Arizona (at Las Vegas)
7-27
.259
L 93-87
North Florida
6-32
.188
W 104-64
Florida State
6-31
.194
W 78-76
Totals
19-90
.211
Record: 2-1
Klavzar, the most experienced returning UF guard from that team, made some huge shots during the championship season, mostly in Southeastern Conference play, but saw very little of the floor in the postseason. Fland was at Arkansas recovering from hand surgery. Lee, by way of the Ivy League, played two games (that's it) against power-conference teams during his last two seasons at Princeton and both were against Rutgers. It's a trio that's a long way from the guards they had to replace.
Miami will be Florida's third power conference opponent in four games, making the Gators one of only two teams in the country (Alabama the other) to schedule so ambitiously out of the gate. The shots (the makes, specifically) are going to be tougher.
"I think for a lot of us, staff included, we're playing with a little bit of pressure, right? The circumstances have changed for everybody and I think for [the players], it's a mental toughness thing and it's kind of pushing through and pouring into process over result," Golden said. "If we continue to focus on that, we're going to be in really good shape because, fundamentally, when we evaluate these games, I think we're doing a lot of good things and I don't want them to be so caught up or wrapped in the result of a shot where their stressing about it 15 minutes after a game. But I think their head and hearts are in the right place."
Todd Golden Media Availability 11-13-25 Todd Golden Media Availability 11-13-25
Thursday, November 13
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