GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Every Florida player will be booking barber appointments Sunday.
 
OK, so that’s an exaggeration, but there can be no overstating how the new-look Boogie Fland impacted the Gators during their 91-67 smashing Saturday of 21st-ranked Tennessee in their Southeastern Conference meeting at Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center. 
 
That Fland’s spectacular, stat-stuffing game of a season-high 23 points, including a trio of 3-pointers, five assists and four steals came beneath his new, closely cropped hairdo almost surely was coincidental. The happenstance, however, wasn’t lost on his teammates or home crowd following the best all-around performance of the season from both. 
 
“I think everyone is going to say it’s the do,” Fland said. “We’ll see.”
 
Fland, the transfer from Arkansas, came into the game shooting just 38% from the floor and a team-worst 19.0 from the 3-point line, including 13 consecutive misses over the previous four games. He started by clanging his first two shots, but then dropped nine of the remaining 11 and practically took over the game in the final three-plus minutes of the first half when the Gators (11-5, 2-1) seized momentum. 
 
The 23 points eclipsed his season-best of 18 in the win over Florida State back on Nov. 11. 
 
“I think he looks great,” UF coach Todd Golden said of more aerodynamic version of Fland, who helped hand UT its most lopsided defeat since getting pummeled by 30 here last Jan. 7 when the Vols were ranked No. 1 in the nation while also hanging the most points on a UT team in 70 games, dating to the 2024 SEC season. “I think he looked great before, but I think he looks clean. Sometimes, these things can be mental. Just gave him an opportunity to kind of start fresh, and he played fantastic.”

If not for Fland’s breakout performance, junior center Rueben Chinyelu would have dominated the post-game chatter after scoring a season-high 17 points and grabbing 16 rebounds against an opponent notorious for its toughness and prowess on the glass. The 6-foot-11, 265-pound Chinyelu hit eight of his 12 shots and thoroughly outplayed his UT counterpart, 6-11, 243-pound Felix Okpara, who finished with three points and one rebound. 
 
UF, as a team, out-rebounded UT 41-30, including 12-6 on the offensive end, where the Vols came in ranked first in the nation, with the Gators one notch behind. 
 
“As good a performance as I’ve seen in a long time,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of Chinyelu’s individual afternoon. “He got where he wanted, got it where he wanted it and totally dominated the game from an inside perspective. They have a national championship front line, we all know that.”
 

Rueben Chinyelu gets his eighth double-double of the season (most in SEC) 🔥

He is the first Florida player with 15+ PTS and 15+ REB against a ranked SEC opponent since Udonis Haslem in 2002 😤 pic.twitter.com/EtrTgRc40e

— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) January 10, 2026

 
It didn’t show up last Saturday at Missouri, but it sure did on this Saturday. So did the rest of the Gators, who followed up Tuesday night’s drumming of No. 18 Georgia with a second straight victory (and even more complete performance) against a ranked opponent. 
 
Junior backup guard Urban Klavzar hit three 3s on his way to 15 points. Junior wing Thomas Haugh had 13 points, going 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, while junior forward Alex Condon had 11 points and seven rebounds, with senior guard Xaivian Lee tallying 10 points to give the Gators six players in double-figure scoring. Tennessee was led by NBA lottery-pick-in-waiting forward Nate Ament’s 17 points, but the Vols (11-5, 1-2) turned the ball over 18 times leading to 30 points, including a brutal 18-6 discrepancy in the first half when UF seized control. 
 
UF shot 48.4% as a team, including nearly 58% after halftime, and limited its turnovers to just 10. The Gators also took advantage at the free-throw line by dropping 20 of 25 (80.0%). 
 
But it was their willingness to match Tennessee’s renowned physicality from outset that proved the difference. Chinyelu, obviously, was the tone-setter. 
 
“We just know that they play physical,” Chinyelu said after his sixth game this season with at least a dozen boards. “They rebound the ball, [so] just knowing that it’s going to be a fight out there, knowing that we’re ready for the fight, we go to war and everybody was ready for that moment.”

Tennessee led 21-19 when Haugh got loose on the baseline for a dunk that started a personal run of seven straight points. The score was tied at 26 when Fland nailed his first 3-pointer, snapping a streak of 15 straight misses dating to the Dec. 21 game against Colgate. Ninety seconds later, Fland drained another, then quickly added a steal and run-out layup that rocked the building and forced Barnes to call a timeout to stop the run. 
 
It didn’t work. Fland got a steal after the stoppage and fed Klavzar for a 3. After another UT miss, Fland scored the half’s final bucket when he got into the Vols’ front line and rolled in a jumper and flexed to the crowd, giving the Gators a 22-7 run over the final 6:37 – including the last 10 points of the period – and a 41-28 lead at the break. 
 
Fland had 10 points on 4-for-6 from the floor and had his offense in a tremendous rhythm late in the period.
 
“Feel like it was big. It was a step in the right direction,” Fland said of his floor game. “The little slump, it tests you mentally, but you got to be ready for basketball, the ups and downs that are going to come with it, and with life in general. I feel like I battled through it.” 
 
Seven minutes into the second half, after Fland’s third 3-pointer, the Gators led by 24 and were never remotely in danger. If anything, the sight of their point guard finally hitting 3-pointers (Lee dropped a couple, as well) made them look awfully dangerous. 
 
“If we start to make some shots, we’re going to be able to run away from some people,” Golden said. 
 

Something about getting fresh cuts at Florida bc Boogie Fland has officially found a rhythm pic.twitter.com/avmnAkCIBf

— Ryan Hammer🔨 (@ryanhammer09) January 10, 2026

And run away from the Vols they did, with their point guard looking much more streamlined along the way. The cut, Fland said, even has name. It’s called “John,” as in Johnuel (pronounced “JOHN-well), which is Boogie’s given first name.
 
Coming soon to a hair salon near you: A Gator ducking inside and saying, ‘Gimme the ‘John,’ please.”
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.