SUNRISE, Fla. – As the post-game handshakes and well-wishes were exchanged late Saturday afternoon, the announcement boomed through the public-address system. The Most Valuable Player of Florida’s 80-70 win Saturday over George Washington in the Orange Bowl Classic was senior guard Xaivian Lee. 
 
A few minutes later, Lee was positioned on a riser in the media interview and was asked about his initial thoughts about earning MVP honors. 
 
“Honestly,” Lee said. “My first thought was, ‘They have an MVP for this?’ ” 
 
Sure, they do and Lee, the Princeton transfer, was the clear-cut choice after pouring in 24 points, draining four 3-pointers, grabbing six rebounds and handing out four assists over his 36 minutes. He finished six of 10 from the floor, four of eight from deep and eight of 10 at the foul line. 

You could see his confidence grow with each bucket, each winning play. 

 

“Obviously, basketball is about making shots,” Lee said. “I’ve tried to let it come, so to do it in a win is nice.”

 

And on the heels of his 19 points in the loss Tuesday night against fifth-ranked Connecticut, Lee is putting some distance between himself and the rocky eight-game start to his UF career when he shot 24.7% overall and 21.1 from deep. Not the ideal debut at his new venue. 

 

“I never bought into it,” GW coach Chris Caputo said of the poor early returns of Lee on scouting reports. “You could see him getting more comfortable.”

 

Ditto, Lee’s teammates. 

 

“We’ve always known what he can do,” said junior wing Thomas Haugh, a teammate of Lee’s during their Pennsylvania prep school days. “Never a doubt.” 

 

Haugh was pretty good Saturay, also, in posting 19 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore point guard Boogie Fland had 10 points and five assists, while junior forward Alex Condon offset a five-point game by grabbing nine boards and dishing seven assists, as the Gators (6-4) used a 50-point, 67%-shooting second half to build a 20-point lead on the way to snapping a two-game losing skid.

UF coach Todd Golden, however, didn’t do a lot of gushing over a performance that included a stifling 77.8% from inside the 3-point line that offset yet another poor one (22.2%) outside it. His complaint, though, had nothing to do with another ugly day from the 3-point line, where Gators not named named Lee combined to go 2-for-19. No, Golden’s focus was on same of the things that have bitten the team in its four defeats this season.
 
“As I told the guys, we’re never going to be disappointed with a 10-point victory, [but] I do think we have a lot that we need to continue to improve upon, a lot in the areas that we say doesn’t require much talent,” Golden said. “I feel like we’re trying, but we have not been consistent enough. It’s really important for me and for ‘X’ and his teammates, over the next couple weeks, prior to and through the break before SEC play, to tighten up in those areas.”
 
Specifically, he was talking about some careless turnovers and some 50-50 plays that went the way of George Washington (8-4), which scored 25 points the last eight minutes of the game and twice cut the UF lead to eight inside two minutes remaining. 
 
“[We] just weren’t able to mentally hold ourselves accountable enough to finish possessions defensively and get shots on the rim on the offensive side,” Golden said. “We can’t be content being up 20 at that point. I kind of sound like a hard-ass, but we’ve got to win that game by 25 for me to be satisfied with our performance. We gave them life and let them back in the game a little bit. It wasn’t what I was expecting the last 10 minutes.” 
 
What he would have liked to have seen would have more closely resembled the first 10 minutes of the second half, which was a major upgrade from a first half when the Gators shot just 36.7%, surrendered 16 points in the paint and led by just three, 30-27, at the break. The talk in the halftime UF locker was about those things that don’t require talent.
 
They showed up instantly in the second half. 
 
The Gators went on an 11-0 rip out of the gate to surge to a 14-point advantage. The Revolutionaries, out of a timeout, momentarily stopped the run with a bucket, but Lee answered with his first of two 3s in the period to keep his team on task. 
 
GW went on a 9-0 blitz to draw within 11, but back-to-back-to-back dunks by Haugh, Fland and Haugh again had the Gators back up 19 with inside seven minutes remaining. That’s where the coach wanted to see some killer instinct.
 
Instead, what Golden saw the balance of the game was not his team at its best. 
 
“Whether down 10, up 10 or down 20, that shouldn’t change [the approach] in our program,” Golden said. “Our guys know from the amount of conversations we have on a daily basis how important that is to us. We’re trying to be a championship team, so we have to hold ourselves to that standard for 40 minutes.”

While Golden and the Gators work on that standard, it’s something of a comfort to see Lee working back to the high bar he set for himself in the Ivy League and brought with him to Gainesville. 
 
“I always try to keep my confidence high, despite whatever is going on,” Lee said. “But it’s been tested the last couple weeks.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.