GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The debut of the Mike White era at Florida was a success, with Florida easily handling Palm Beach Atlantic 89-42 in an exhibition opener in the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

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The Gators trotted out a high-tempo offensive approach, running the floor throughout the contest and getting back defensively to clog the passing lanes.

GatorBait.net takes a look at what White's Florida team looked like in their exhibition debut.

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What It Looked Like

Florida's offense much more closely resembled the dribble-drive-motion offense that Kentucky plays than the style Billy Donovan employed in Gainesville.

With several capable guards, Florida made passing quickly a point early, though post penetration with passing was an issue throughout the game. In particular, the point guards had trouble with their distribution on entry passes, racking up 15 first-half turnovers.

Despite the sloppy showing, the goal is clear. Florida wants to run, run and run some more. The high-octane approach was far more successful on the defensive end, where the Gators presented problems with their length and sheer depth.

In the debut, 16 players saw action for Florida, including 12 in the first half. White rolled in nearly hockey-style line changes at times, allowing his players to spin their wheels, grab a breather and then get right back out there.

The pressing defense resulted in a ton of steals, with the Gators racking up nine in the first half and finishing with 18.

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Strengths

Defense: The approach defensively was to create chaos, and Florida generated a lot of steals running and chasing back. With such a back-and-forth game, the length gave the Sailfish issues.

3-Point Shooting: With a number of open looks, Florida was able to shoot a good percentage from 3-point range, led by freshman KeVaughn Allen and sophomore Devin Robinson. Both flashed smooth strokes, while DeVon Walker, Brandone Francis-Ramirez, Dorian Finney-Smith and Chris Chiozza also chipped in a few from downtown.

Depth: Though there was some dropoff in spots -- John Egbunu to Schuyler Rimmer at center the most notable -- Florida was legitimately able to roll 10 men deep without a problem and without it changing the style at all.

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Weaknesses

Entry Passes: The point guards were not particularly effective passing into the post. Early on, both Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza looked like they were forcing things, rather than movement off the ball and passing opening up clear passes into the post.

Free-Throw Shooting: One of the team's real Achilles heels a year ago, the Gators were not sharp in the debut. A 3-10 effort in the first half got things off to a sloppy start, and Florida finished 10-27 (37.0%) at the charity stripe.

3-Point Defense: While the overall defensive effort from the Gators was strong, the Sailfish had a lot of open looks from 3-point range due to poor rotations. They couldn't take advantage, going just 3-16 (18.8%) from beyond the arc, but it's certainly an area Florida will have to clean up.

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Player Highlights

Three players really stood out in the exhibition opener: Allen, Egbunu and Robinson.

Allen is a physical, quick guard who looks extremely smooth with the ball in his hands. He's an immediate upgrade from Michael Frazier II in that regard, and his shooting stroke from the perimeter was extremely promising.

Moreover, Allen was fantastic defensively, hustling back and making several plays to end possessions. He had a team-high three steals in the first half and finished with 12 points on 5-8 shooting, including 2-4 from 3-point range.

Egbunu was a monster in the post, offering Florida a physical, high-energy presence in the paint. Moreover, for his a big man his size he flashed excellent leaping ability and instinct as a rebounder. Florida will have to figure out ways to take advantage of his size and ability while still playing within the framework of the high-tempo offense White has installed.

He finished with 13 points, six rebounds and three blocks.

Robinson also turned in an excellent preseason debut. He was in all the right places defensively, stuffing the stat sheet with nine rebounds in the first half, two blocks, and three assists. he also drained a pair of three-pointers early on before finishing with a final line of 12 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks.

Perhaps more importantly, he was consistent. He didn't have any of the bone-headed stretches of play that plagued him as a freshman.

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Injury Note

Florida had two players injured during the game: forwards Alex Murphy and Justin Leon.

Murphy went down in the first half on an offensive drive, clutching at the back of his right heel. He was helped off the floor by a trainer and a teammate before heading to the locker room.

He was unable to put any weight on his right foot. He will undergo an MRI on Friday to determine the extent of the foot injury.

Leon went down late in the first half and had his right knee checked. He went to the locker room briefly but returned after halftime and appeared fine.

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Mike White's Take

The somewhat sloppy offensive performance was a key point of emphasis following the game. Florida's 23 turnovers were a sore spot for players, who recognized immediately against better teams it will cost them.

Point guard Kasey Hill said that type of outing against an SEC team would get them "beat by 20 points" and that it's unacceptable moving forward, even if the offense is more up-tempo and players are still working on sorting out the kinks in the new system.

"No, absolutely not," Mike White said, asked if Florida can live with that amount of turnovers as long as they force them at the same rate. "Twenty-three turnovers, we weren't very happy with that ... Unfortunately for us, we played with too much intensity level when the ball was in our hands."

White was pleased with Florida's intensity in the game as a whole, though, especially defensively and in the press.

The only real surprises for him were the turnovers and the poor free-throw shooting. The Gators have been forced to run after every turnover in practice, so White was a bit surprised to see so many on Thursday night.

He attributed it to nerves playing in front of a crowd for the first time and said it'll definitely be something they have to clean up.

Otherwise, he was happy with the performance in terms of effort and energy. He admitted Florida hasn't necessarily been a great shooting team in practice, but the high tempo will be a staple for the team moving forward.

"When you're playing at that type of tempo, it's a process to understand," White said. "The game should be two speeds. In our press we want to be in a mad panic defensively and we want to be flying around with unbelievable energy level and unbelievable communication level.

"When we have the ball, though, we all need to take a deep breath and slow down and chill out a little bit. I thought we did a better job of that in the second half. Still not where we need to be."

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