The Gators’ equipment manager may have gone from sacrificial lamb to the GOAT.
PublishedJanuary 17, 2026 6:03 PM EST•UpdatedJanuary 17, 2026 6:03 PM EST
- Copy Link
If you are a Florida Gator fan, or a college basketball fan in general, there is no doubt you tuned into this afternoon’s tussle between the Gators and Vanderbilt Commodores.
The defending national champions traveled to Nashville to take on the top-ten ‘Dores with a spot atop the SEC on the line.
If you follow SEC basketball though, you probably realized that a few of the numbers of the Gator players looked a little off.
READ: Florida Is Now A Basketball School
There was a reason for that.
Whoopsies!
Looks like the equipment manager made a boo-boo, and as a result, some of the key players for the Gators had to don generic, nameless jerseys.
Keeping with the theme, if you’re even a casual Gator basketball fan, then you are presently aware that guard Xavian Lee — one of the victims of the equipment manager folly — has been woeful for large stretches of the season.
The Princeton transfer has been abysmal from the three-point arc, and it’s magnified by the fact that his transfer backcourt mate, Boogie Fland, has been on fire since chopping his dreads off to start SEC play.
Apparently, all Lee needed was a jersey number change, because the slumping guard broke out in a massive way to help guide the Gators to what is perhaps their best win of the season so far.
How. Do. You. Do?
That is a step-back, fadeaway three to take the lead with the shot clock winding down on the road against a top-ten team.
The Gators’ equipment manager may have gone from sacrificial lamb to the GOAT, and there’s no question what Xavian Lee has to do going forward.
If Lee doesn’t step on the floor against LSU on Tuesday wearing number 99, then he has failed himself, his teammates, and Gator Nation as a whole.
Conversely, you know that the equipment manager is breathing a huge sigh of relief.
That would have been a brutally long flight back to Gainesville had the Gators not pulled out the win.
Thankfully for our nameless hero, Xavian Lee decided to have the game of his life at Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday.
Neither he nor Lee will ever have to pay for a drink on University Ave again.
