For the first 10 minutes of their college basketball opener Monday night in Las Vegas, the Florida Gators looked like the reigning national champions.

Their weave offense met little resistance from Arizona. Dribble and hand off, screen and roll, drive and lob. The third-ranked Gators were beautiful to watch — five layups, three dunks, plus a set of three-pointers.

Florida led by 12 and seemed destined for a statement win to start their title defense.

Nothing would come that easily for the rest of the game.

No. 13 Arizona, inspired by freshman Koa Peat's 30-point debut, outplayed Florida's big men and survived two Gator rallies to win 93-87.

Before the game, Florida coach Todd Golden said that, win or lose, there would be lessons to learn. The first might be how quickly the Gators' motion offense came undone.

Florida led 32-20 on 67 percent shooting. A 60-point half seemed realistic.

But after a timeout, Arizona's defenders began stepping up on each handoff, forcing the UF ballhandler to dribble away from the basket and reset the offense. With their rhythm disrupted, the Gators' shot selection suffered. Layups and dunks became forced threes and a shot clock violation.

And while the Wildcats defense delivered chaos, 18-year-old Peat was cold-blooded on offense. Pull-up jumpshots and left-handed layups in traffic turned a double-digit deficit into a four-point halftime lead.

New backcourt struggles

The reversal of fortunes was particularly hard on Florida's new backcourt of Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee.

The Gators lost four guards from last year's national championship team. Fland and Lee, talented transfers from Arkansas and Princeton, respectively, are expected to set the same  winning pace.

Let's consider Monday night a work in progress.

Fland and Lee combined to score Florida's first nine points, but then often ran themselves into trouble in the teeth of Arizona's inside defense or missed their open looks from distance.

Together, they misfired on 18 of 26 shots. Two misses with the outcome still in doubt hurt the most.

Trailing 88-83 after Micah Handlogten's three-point play, the Gators stole the inbounds pass and Thomas Haugh scored on a tip-in of his initial miss. 88-85.

On the very next inbounds play, Fland stole the ball. With 44 seconds left, he had time to set his feet and take the measure of his three-pointer from the left corner. He didn't come close.

With 15 seconds left and Florida trailing 91-87, Lee had his chance from the same left corner. Same result.

The Gators play North Florida in their home opener Thursday night at the O'Connell Center in Gainesville.

Quotable

Thomas Haugh on Koa Peat's big night:
"I think our bigs, as a group, we know we need to be the best front court in the nation this year. We can't let somebody like that come out here and score 30 points on us. It's not acceptable, and it won't happen moving forward."

Todd Golden on Peat
"I thought Koa Peat did a really good job in the one-on-one iso situations finishing. We sent him to line too many times; he had 12 free throws."

Golden on Arizona's Jaden Bradley (27 points)
"Jaden Bradley stepped up in the second half. I thought we did a poor job keeping him from getting downhill, going to his right hand. [He] made some tough finishes, and then, similar to Peat, we sent him to the line 10 times."

Golden on the second-half comebacks
"I was proud of our group. We went down eight, nine, something like that with about two minutes to go and new team, raucous environment. I thought our guys did a really good job staying together. I thought Tommy [Haugh] did a great job leading down the stretch, keeping everybody together. And listen, we're in a tough spot. We had a chance to tie the game with 30 seconds to go, and then we had another opportunity, one possession later with another wide open three to cut it to one. So I'm super disappointed we lost, but the reason why we played this game was to give ourselves a really good opportunity to get a quality win."

Golden on the essentials
"We're a high-floor program. We rebound well, we take care of the ball, and that's going to usually give us a great chance to win, and we were deficient in both those areas tonight and we're walking out here with a six-point loss." 

Stat Leaders

Points: Haugh 27
Rebounds: Handlogten 12
Assists: Lee 5
Box score

2025/26 Schedule and Results

All times Eastern

ARIZONA 93, GATORS 87
Record: 0-1

NORTH FLORIDA
Nov. 6 (Thur) Time: 8 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN+

FLORIDA STATE
Nov. 11 (Tue) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN

MIAMI
Nov. 16 (Sun) Time: 8:30 p.m.
@ Jacksonville
TV: ESPN

MERRIMACK
Nov. 21 (Fri) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Gainesville
TV: SEC/ESPN+

TCU
Nov. 27 (Thur) Time: 3 p.m.
@ San Diego, Calif.
TV: FS1

PROVIDENCE or WISCONSIN
Nov. 28 (Fri) Time: 3 or 5:30 p.m.
@ San Diego, Calif.
TV: FOX

DUKE
Dec. 2 (Tue) Time: 7:30 p.m.
@ Durham, N.C.
TV: ESPN

UCONN
Dec. 9 (Tue) Time: 9 p.m.
@ New York
TV: ESPN

GEORGE WASHINGTON
Dec. 13 (Sat) Time: 2:30 p.m.
@ Sunrise, Fla.
TV: ESPN2

ST. FRANCIS
Dec. 17 (Wed) Time: 6:30 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN

COLGATE
Dec. 21 (Sun) Time: Noon
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN+

DARTMOUTH
Dec. 29 (Mon) Time: 6 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN

MISSOURI
Jan. 3 (Sat) Time: 8:30 p.m.
@ Columbia, Mo.
TV: SEC/ESPN

GEORGIA
Jan. 6 (Tue) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN

TENNESSEE
Jan. 10 (Sat) Time: noon
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: ESPN or ESPN2

OKLAHOMA
Jan. 13 (Tue) Time: 9 p.m.
@ Norman, Okla.
TV: ESPN or ESPNU

VANDERBILT
Jan. 17 (Sat) Time: 2 p.m.
@ Nashville, Tenn.
TV: ESPN or ESPN2 or ESPNU

LSU
Jan. 20 (Tue) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Gainesville
TV: ESPN2

AUBURN
Jan. 24 (Sat) Time: 4 or 4:30 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: ESPN or ESPN2

SOUTH CAROLINA
Jan. 28 (Wed) Time: 9 p.m.
@ Columbia, S.C.
TV: SEC/ESPN

ALABAMA
Feb. 1 (Sun) Time: 1 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: ABC

TEXAS A&M
Feb. 7 (Sat) Time: 8:30 p.m.
@ College Station, Texas
TV: SEC/ESPN

GEORGIA
Feb. 11 (Wed) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Athens, Ga.
TV: ESPN2 or ESPNU

KENTUCKY
Feb. 14 (Sat) Time: 3 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: ABC

SOUTH CAROLINA
Feb. 17 (Tue) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN

OLE MISS
Feb. 21 (Sat) Time: noon
@ Oxford, Miss.
TV: ESPN or ESPN2

TEXAS
Feb. 25 (Wed) Time: 7 p.m.
@ Austin, Texas
TV: ESPN2 or ESPNU

ARKANSAS
Feb. 28 (Sat) Time: 8:30 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: ESPN or ESPN2

MISSISSIPPI STATE
March 3 (Tue) Time: 8 p.m.
@ Gainesville, Fla.
TV: SEC/ESPN

KENTUCKY
March 7 (Sat) Time: 4 p.m.
@ Lexington, Ky.
TV: ESPN or ESPN2

SEC TOURNAMENT
March 11-15
Nashville, Tenn.