NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The game was tied at eight early Tuesday night. Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack missed a 3-pointer. Florida center Rueben Chinyelu grabbed the rebound and quickly tossed the ball to Boogie Fland about five feet away on the baseline. 
 
Fland, the Florida point guard, took one quick dribble then let fly two-handed pass that sailed over the Sooners’ retreating defense and into the hands of forward Alex Condon, who’d raced down the floor and posted near the circle. The 6-foot-11 Condon caught the ball, turned and laid it into the basket to put the Gators in front. 
 
On the very next possession, Fland picked OU guard Tae Davis clean in the halfcourt and went coast-to-coast for a layup, forcing the Sooners to call a timeout. 
 
The Gators not only never trailed again, within minutes the game turned into road blowout victory. 
 
“He’s definitely playing freer,” UF coach Todd Golden said of Fland afterward. 

In his last two games (wins at OU and home against No. 21 Tennessee by a combined 41 points), Fland averaged 19 points, 4.5 rebounds, 6.0 assists 3.0 steals and just 1.5 turnovers. Heck, go ahead and throw in the first two Southeastern Conference games — a two-point loss at Missouri and 15-point home rout of No. 18 Georgia when Fland combined to go 4-for-20 and 0-for-9 from the 3-point line. Fland didn’t shoot it great, but he totaled nine rebounds, 13 assists and played sticky defense.
 
The “freer” Fland (yes, with that new haircut) is looking more and more like the playmaker Golden and his staff envisioned when they plucked the late-transfer addition out of the portal in May. Fland’s comfort on the court and in running the offense have the 19th-ranked Gators (12-5, 3-1) playing their best basketball of the season, just in time for Saturday afternoon’s road date against 10th-ranked Vanderbilt (16-1, 3-1), which has equaled its best start of any season in the program’s 126-year history. 
 
[Read senior writer Chris Harry‘s “Pregame Stuff” setup here]
 
So, what does “playing free” mean, anyway? 
 
“Not thinking too much,” Golden said. “Just playing basketball.” 

Fland’s take: “For me, it means playing with confidence. Just being myself.”

 

Hey, Urban Klavzar. What about you? What does “playing free” mean in Slovenian? 

 

“Just playing your game,” said Klavzar, the sharp-shooting backup guard. “Both ends of the floor.”

 

During their three-game SEC winning streak – over No. 18 Georgia, No. 21 Tennessee and on the road at Oklahoma, which was unbeaten in eight games on its home floor, by an average margin of 19.3 points – the Gators, to a man, have not only played a “freer” version of their game, but done so within the confines of the team and what it does best; as in rebounding and defense. That was not the case in the league opener at Missouri, where UF was uncharacteristically ineffective on the boards, but the Gators clearly learned a lesson in that 76-74 defeat. 

 

“We’re not always going to shoot the ball great,” Condon said of the UF team that not only is far from “great” at shooting, but ranks last among all 79 power conference teams at 27.9% from the 3-point line. “That’s why being a tough, high-effort team is a non-negotiable for us. It should always be one of our intangibles.”

 

That certainly holds true for Saturday’s house call at historic Memorial Gymnasium, where a sell-out crowd and outstanding opponent will be jacked up for a visit from the reigning NCAA champions.

The Commodores suffered their first loss of the season Wednesday, falling 80-64 at unranked Texas. Their normally crisp offense – led by the outstanding guard tandem of Tyler Tanner and Duke Miles – was limited to a season-low in points and just 36.7% from the floor, including 37.7% from the 2-point area, where they were hitting at a 61.7% clip through 16 games. 
 
Vandy shot right at its 3-point season percentage of 36%, but was playing from behind virtually the entire game. In fact, the Commodores had trailed just 22-plus minutes through their first 16 games. Against the Longhorns, they chased the score for nearly 35 minutes. 
 
“We’re not used to losing, so we have to see how we come back,” said Vandy coach Mark Byington, whose offense checks in at No. 10 in overall efficiency. “What’s up next? We’ve got the defending national champions in an early game [and they’re] playing probably as well as anybody in the country.”
 
And playing free, but also to their strengths. It may have taken a brutal non-conference slate to figure some things out – losses to unbeaten Arizona and one-loss Duke and Connecticut, each on unfriendly floors – but maybe, just maybe, the current brand of basketball UF is playing (as in scoring 93.0 points, defending at 74.3 and rebounding at a plus-14.7 margin over the three-game streak – is who the Gators are. 
 
“Probably not the best idea to play great teams early on in a year while we get new players comfortable and get guys in the program that are playing new roles comfortable,” Golden said. “It took us a little bit to get through some adversity dealing with some confidence issues, but I feel like we’re getting there.”
 
Freedom, after all, can be liberating. 
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.