Sophomore guard Isaiah Brown, in locking up the eighth spot in the UF rotation, had a breakout performance in the Gators' upset road win Saturday at Vanderbilt.
Brown Didn't Waste This Chance
Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – A little more than eight minutes into the game Saturday, backup guard Isaiah Brown took a pass in the left corner from Xaivian Lee. The 6-foot-5 sophomore had an open look at the basket, with his Vanderbilt defender basically daring Brown to take the shot.
Apparently, that was the scouting report.
"Don't guard him!" Brown heard a coach shout from the Vandy bench. "He can't shoot!"
Brown, taking a dare from the dis, set his feet and launched a lefty 22-footer that banged through the cylinder, then pointed a finger in the Commodores' direction.
Isaiah Brown points to the Vanderbilt bench after drilling the first of his two 3-pointers in Florida's win Saturday.
"It just boosted my confidence," Brown said. "I loved the fact they doubted my skill, but also loved that my team had the belief in me to be out there."
And, boy, has Brown awarded that belief. New-found belief, in fact. Last month, when Florida played marquee games against Duke and UConn, he did not play. In the road take-down of 10th-ranked Vandy, the team's fourth straight win, Brown scored a career-high 14 points, including a pair of 3s, went 6-for-6 from the free-throw line and grabbed four rebounds. The bouncy, effervescent kid who wears No. 20 did his damage in a career-best 20 minutes and on his 20th birthday.
It took a couple months but Brown, the Orlando product who goes by "Zay", has seized his opportunity and carved out a spot in the team's eight-man rotation – in the thick of the Southeastern Conference season, no less – and is contributing significant and productive minutes to a group currently playing as well as anyone in the country. Now, it's about maintaining the consistency that put Brown in this position, with the next opportunity Tuesday night when the 16th-ranked Gators (13-5, 4-1) take on LSU (13-5, 1-4) at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center as they look to win a fifth straight league game and stay atop the SEC standings.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
The victory in Nashville was UF's biggest of the season, especially with its conference ramifications. It also was the team's third during the win streak over a ranked opponent (the fourth was a road win at Oklahoma). The Gators were their normal strong-rebounding selves, but also sensational on offense. In fact, UF ranks No. 2 nationally in offensive efficiency over its last 10 games.
Now, the Gators must maintain the level of play amid a midseason awakening by the so-called national experts who suddenly are talking about the defending national champions – the ones who lost five of 13 games to open the '25-26 campaign – with compliments akin to what was shoveled their way during the preseason.
As Nick Saban might say, beware of the "rat poison."
"We can't relax," Golden said. "For the first time all year we're in a position where we're finally starting to get praised. People are starting to say, 'Hey, team of the week, Florida. Hey, this team might be championship level.' We just can't feed into that."
It only makes sense that the likes of Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon and reigning SEC Player of the Week Rueben Chinyelu – three battle-tested veterans who were pivotal in winning the NCAA title last season – won't let that happen.
And Brown will do his part, as well.
"We each have to focus on trying to get 5% better every day," he said.
"Zay" Brown and his left jumper.
That math tracks for Brown. He came into the 2024-25 season as the coaching staff's hand-picked favorite to step into the eighth spot in the rotation. Instead, freshman CJ Ingram outplayed him during the preseason and got the first crack.
But Ingram, like many collegiate rookies, struggled early and did not hold his spot in the rotation for long. The coaches looked at freshman Alex Lloyd and third-year sophomore transfer Alex Kovatchev, also. Brown, meanwhile, mostly watched. And worked.
"When you're fighting for the seventh, eighth, ninth spot, it's really important you're in the gym on your off days, you're in the gym off road trips when you don't play much and that you just stay ready," said UF associate head coach Korey McCray, who tutors the backcourt players. "When his opportunity came, he produced."
Brown re-established himself by performing more consistently at practice and making positive things happen when given limited minutes in games. He didn't try to do too much.
Just his job.
"We kind of just said, "Listen, we're going with this guy in league [play], and he's answered the bell, man," Golden said of Brown, who is averaging 6.2 points and 2.8 rebounds through five SEC games. "He's a very physical young man. He's a great athlete. Like, he makes one of those wow plays every game where just, like, 'Holy crap! How did he do that?' "
Example: In the first half at Vandy, point guard Boogie Fland drove into the paint and missed a jumper, but Brown sprinted to crashed the glass from the left baseline, elevated above the pack, controlled the ball with his right hand and directed it hard through the basket.
Brown had an equally jaw-dropping dunk in traffic during the road win at OU four nights earlier. That's what a team-best 41-inch vertical jump can do.
He had those physical attributes heading into the season, of course. Brown just had to pair them with some changes to his daily routine and – just calling it like it is – take a look in the mirror relative to the level of maturity it takes to succeed at this level.
Isaiah Brown (20) with the tomahawk dunk at Oklahoma last week.
"The past month or so I've been able to showcase more consistency and a lot of trust has been built up in practice," Brown said. "You can't continue to live in childish ways. I needed some days, some weeks to kind of grow up."
Teammate AJ Brown, Isaiah's older brother, is red-shirting for the Gators this season, but had a front-row seat at Vanderbilt for the breakout show put on by his kid brother.
"I was so proud of him," AJ said. "Usually, you get presents on your birthday. He gave one to himself."
