LAS VEGAS – They’re initial go-round together was as lopsided as the final score. 
 
Florida’s Oct. 17 scrimmage against Florida International in Gainesville ended with a 101-59 win for the home team. In the Gators’ first live action against a different opponent, Thomas Haugh, in his new role at the wing position, played splendidly, as did guard Urban Klavzar and center Micah Handlogten off the bench. UF point guard Boogie Fland, the transfer from Arkansas, was outstanding in his live UF debut, finishing with 13 points, five assists, no turnovers and four steals, and looked very much at home running Coach Todd Golden‘s up-tempo offense. 
 
As for Xaivian Lee, the Princeton transfer and other half of the remade UF backcourt, his UF launch was unlike Fland’s. Lee, an 1,100-point career scorer and outstanding ball-security playmaker in the Ivy League, missed his first eight shots. He finished with five points and four turnovers.  
 
“Wasn’t great,” Lee admitted. 
 
Which made his bounce-back response in the Oct. 24 scrimmage against 17^th-ranked Illinois at Orlando all the more impressive. 
 
Fland was held out against the Illini for precautionary health reasons, putting the 6-foot-4, 180-pound Lee on the ball for nearly the entire game against an outstanding Big Ten foe. He hit an early 3-pointer to get comfy and then fed Alex Condon in transition for a picturesque lob dunk. Lee hit a huge (and long) late-clock 3 in the second half that helped his team rally from six down with just over five minutes to go for a 96-86 win. His final stat line: 17 points, five 3s, eight assists and one turnover in 33 minutes. 

“Phenomenal,” Fland said of Lee’s performance. “He did everything. He controlled the pace of the game, controlled us on offense and made plays on defense. It was an all-around game for everyone, and him.”
 
Added Lee: “Boogie didn’t play, so I kind of had to take on a little more responsibility, but I thought we played pretty good overall. Definitely, stuff to work on, but I thought it’s always good to play against another top team and see how we stack up against a talented roster.”

Which brings the Gators, who enter the 2025-26 season ranked No. 3 in the nation, back to square one with their backcourt. As in, how will the duo fare with Fland healthy and back on the ball alongside Lee at the shooting guard spot? Together again. Against another marquee foe in the 13^th-ranked Arizona Wildcats. On the neutral court at beautiful T-Mobile Arena here on The Strip in college basketball’s biggest season-opening tilt Monday night.

 

[Read senior writer Chris Harry‘s “Pregame Stuff” setup here]

 

Gator Nation, as well as college basketball fans, wondering how the new-look Fland/Lee Florida guard tandem – the heirs to departed (but never-to-be-forgotten) Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin combo – will mesh with arguably the best returning front line in the nation will get some very early answers. All amid the target-rich pressure that comes with being a reigning NCAA champion.

 

The Florida coach will get some answers, also. 

 

“It’s a new team,” said Golden, now 40, who last April became the youngest head coach since Jim Valvano in 1983 to win a national championship. “We have a great kind of comfort blanket [with] the returning front court, and we have our new guys on the perimeter. They’ve played pretty well so far, but Monday night’s a new challenge. I’ve never been under the lights with those guys yet, so we’ll see what that looks like.”

 

It looked pretty nice Saturday morning when the Gators, the day after flying cross-country, had a spirited, high-level practice at UNLV’s facility. They ran it back Sunday afternoon at T-Mobile in anticipation of facing what figures to be an outstanding Arizona squad that has back three starters from a team that reached the Sweet Sixteen last season and bulked up with a top-five freshman class that includes a pair of McDonald’s All Americans. 

 

The Gators, of course, have a ton of championship experience in their four bigs of Condon, Haugh, Handlogten and Rueben Chinyelu, which naturally puts the new guys, Fland and Lee, under the microscope. 

 

Fland, the 6-3, 185-pounder and former McDonald’s All American from Bronx, New York, averaged 13.5 points on 38% shooting overall and 34% from 3, to go with 5.1 assists and nearly two steals a game during an injury-marred freshman season with the Razorbacks. He originally planned to jump to the NBA, but had second thoughts in the evaluation process and became a late entry into the portal. The Gators pounced. 

“I wasn’t planning on coming back to college, but then I met with Coach Golden and it kind of changed my mind,” Fland said.

Next he met Lee, who averaged 16.9 points, shot 44% overall and 37 from distance, to go with 5.5 assists in his final season with the Tigers, with whom he was the singular focus of opposing defenses. With Florida, Lee is just another talented, skilled weapon to play through. 

“I was looking forward to playing off the ball,” Lee said. 

So, it’ll basically be two point guards in the backfield. 

“We want them to play free,” … “They’ve had enough time to gel. The chemistry is there. They communicate well together. Now, it’s a matter of going out and doing it against somebody else.”  

 

Both players were among the nation’s best as far as assist-to-turnover ratio, which combined with UF’s expected high offensive rebound rate should bring about an extremely efficient offense. 

 

Worth noting: The Gators finished No. 2 in the country in offensive efficiency last season, so the bar there is already high. 

 

“I feel like there’s a lot of people out there questioning [the new backcourt] or whatever, but I think we’re going to be pretty good,” Lee said. “Everybody talks about our front court. I think our backcourt is pretty good, as well, and I’m excited to just go out there and show that. I think we have good chemistry on and off the court, and I think it will show when we play.” 

Fland, who underwent hernia surgery over the summer and had a tremendous rehab, figures to be among the fastest players in the league (if not the nation), but he also is an elite on-ball defender, with length and quickness to harass. It’s an underrated part of his all-around game. 
 
“Just being competitive and loving the game,” Fland said of his commitment to guarding. “I feel like some people say they love the game, but don’t play both sides. That’s just my take on it.”
 
Now, with their unveiling, will come the public’s take on the new-look Gators, who as the most recent team to raise the trophy will represent one of the biggest games on every opponents’ schedule. 
 
Golden believes his guys (the ones back and the ones added to the fold) are built for the challenge. 
 
“I think our team is pretty well-rounded and has a really good understanding what it takes to be good,” Golden said. “I think our role allocation is in a good spot. I imagine there is going to be a [question] or two that pops up. Maybe it’s Monday night, maybe it’s the first couple weeks of the season that we’re like, ‘All right, we need to figure this issue out to be the best we can be.’ “
 
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu Find his story archives here.