Pregame Stuff: Florida vs North Florida (Tuesday, 7 pm)

FLORIDA vs NORTH FLORIDA

When: Monday, 7 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: Florida (3-3), North Florida (2-4)
TV: SEC Network (Taylor Zarzour and Daymeon Fishback)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Bill Koss)

STAKES (The Setup)

Tuesday night's game against North Florida will be Florida's lone home game over a 22-day stretch.

Florida is back in action after a (mostly) disappointing Thanksgiving week at the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, where UF dropped two of three games and finished sixth in the eight-team tournament field. The Gators lost their opener to Oklahoma, 65-60, prompting Coach Mike White to shuffle his starting lineup. UF then defeated Stanford 72-49, but went ice cold in its tournament finale, falling 61-54 to Butler after shooting 28.6 percent in the second half, including 1-for-12 from the 3-point line (8.3 percent). ... This will be Florida's last game before campus-wide "reading days" heading toward exams. The Gators won't play again until Dec. 4 and need to have some things fixed before retaking the floor for one of the toughest back-to-back non-conference stretches in program history (vs. West Virginia in the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, then home four days later to face No. 11 Michigan State). ... North Florida, out of the Atlantic Sun Conference, is also coming off an international tournament, with similar results. The Ospreys dropped two of three games in the Cancun Challenge, losing 89-72 to Wright State, beating Southern Miss, 64-48, then losing to Jacksonville (Ala.) State 83-78. ... UF leads the all-time series 7-0, with lopsided wins each of the last three seasons. The Gators defeated the Ospreys, 108-68, on Nov. 2017, in what was the second game of the 2017-18 season. Six players scored in double figures that night, led by KeVaughn Allen's 18 points and five rebounds, plus 13 points and 10 rebounds from Egor Koulechov. ... Florida is 6-0 against A-Sun teams under White.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keith Stone	F	6-8	253	R-Junior	4.7 pts / 5.8 reb
Kevarrius Hayes	F	6-9	227	Senior	6.2 pts / 6.8 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-3	205	Freshman	6.7 pts / 1.2 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	193	Senior	8.0 pts / 1.7 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Freshman	8.0 pts / 3.0 reb / 5.8 ast

North Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Noah Horchler	F	6-8	210	Junior	14.4 pts / 11.2 reb
Garrett Sams	F	6-7	195	Junior	14.0 pts / 4.7 reb
Wajid Aminu	F	6-7	190	Junior	8.7 pts / 4.2 reb
Ivan Gandia-Rosa	PG	6-1	190	Junior	9.2 pts / 4.8 ast
J.T. Escobar	G	6-2	183	R-Junior	10.3 pts / 2.0 reb

STANDING OUT (Opponent to Watch)

**Noah Horchler** helped lead Melbourne (Fla.) High to the state tournament's Final Four two years ago and came to UNF after one season at Eastern Florida State College, where he was part of a team that finished second in the National Junior College National Championship Tournament. He's a two-year starter who as a sophomore was on the floor for the opening tip-off of all 31 of the Ospreys' games last season on his was to averaging 11.7 points, leading the A-Sun in blocked shots (54) and finishing second in rebounding (8.6 per game). Horchler is shooting 57.4 percent from the floor and 37.5 from the 3-point line to go with 11 blocked shots. In the game against UF last season, he went 4-for-5 from the floor and scored 10 points to go with four rebounds.

STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)

ABOUT THE GATORS: When's the last time, through, six games, Florida had one player averaging in double figures? Guess what? Who knows. Call Elias Sports Bureau. That one player, by the way, doesn't even start. For now, the Gators' scoring leader is sophomore guard Deaundrae Ballard (10.2 ppg), who is shooting a 56-percent clip overall and 42 from the 3-point line. Ballard, by far, has been the guy least hesitant to put the ball up, which obviously is an indictment of KeVaughn Allen, who is averaging just eight field-goal attempts per game, and Jalen Hudson, who was benched from the starting lineup after the Oklahoma loss and is averaging just 7.0 points and 18.2 minutes a game. In the loss to Butler, Allen reverted to his passive ways with reverse dribbles off ball-screens, while Hudson appeared to be playing cautiously and minus his normal confidence. Tough to blame him. After hitting just one of his five shots, Hudson now is 33 percent from the floor and 19 percent from deep. Where their heads are will have a lot to do with where the Gators are headed. ... In Noah Locke's two starts replacing Hudson he hit six of 17 shots, with 4-from-11 from 3, and averaged 8.0 points. Of greater significance to White and the staff, Locke did what he was told to do and (not perfectly, but more often than not) was where he was supposed to be on defense (more often than not). ... Forward Keith Stone had the second-most minutes of any front court player (behind Kevarrius Hayes) in the Bahamas, but like the Gators other most experienced and best offensive players he's having trouble getting going. He has one game this season scoring in double figures (10 vs. Oklahoma). ... Point guard Andrew Nembhard was UF's best player at Atlantis. He made 10 of his 22 shots (45.4 percent), four of his eight 3-balls (50 percent), grabbed 10 rebounds, dished 18 assists, turned the ball over three times and had four steals. ... Backup forwards Keyontae Johnson and Dontay Bassett averaged 17 and 13 minutes per game, respectively, at Atlantis. ... Isaiah Stokes (5.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg), the 6-8, 270-pound forward who missed all three Bahamas games with a sore, knee was full-go each of the two practices since and is expected to play. The other two MIA bigs, center Gorjok Gak (knee) and forward Chase Johnson (concussion protocol), remain out. ... ABOUT THE OSPREYS: They're in the 10th season under Coach Matt Driscoll (149-154), with one

NCAA Tournament berth (2014) and one NIT (2015) along the way. Driscoll is extremely liked and well respected in the profession for his style of play and what he gets out of his players. ... The Ospreys are averaging 75.2 points and shooting 44.7 percent as a team, including 31.2 from the free-throw line. ... They opened the season with road losses at Dayton (close game) and Penn State (not close), beat NAIA Edward Waters at home, lost on the road at Wright State, then split with Southern Miss (win) and Jacksonville State (loss) in the Cancun Challenge. ... UNF has three players averaging in double figures, which is three more than UF's starting lineup. ... After Horchler, guard Garrett Sams is the Ospreys' next go-to guy, but he wasn't very good against the Gators last season. Try, 0-for-8 from the floor, with five misses from the arc. This year, he's at 44 percent from the floor (just 23 from deep), but will drive it and get to the line (team-high 31 free throws), where he converts at nearly 81 percent. ... Guard J.T. Escobar is in his second season since transferring from Ole Miss. ... UNF is averaging 15 turnovers a game, which should help the Gators and their defense get some points in transition. ... The Ospreys are out-rebounding their opponents (plus-2.8), whereas the Gators are being out-rebounded to date (minus-2.2).

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

* 6.2 — Assist-to-turnover ratio (as in 6.2 to 1) for Nembhard since his four-assist, four-turnovers debut in the season-opening loss at Florida State.

* 2 — Blocked shots needed by Hayes to pull even with Patric Young (2010-14) and Dwayne Davis (1987-91) and into fifth place on the all-time UF list with 160.

* 33.6 — Points per game currently averaged by UF's starting five.

* 61 — Points scored by Ballard through six games this season. He scored 60 through his final 24 games last season.

* 2014 — The last time the Gators started a season 3-3, which was Coach Billy Donovan's last go-around. UF opened with a win over William & Mary, blew a huge second-half lead at home to Miami in a loss, needed overtime to defeat Louisiana-Monroe at home, then went to the Bahamas and lost to Georgetown in overtime, beat Alabama-Birmingham, then lost to North Carolina. UF actually dropped the next game as well, blowing an 18-point second-half lead at Kansas, to start 3-4, marking the program's first sub-.500 mark through seven games since 1995.

STATEMENT (Random thought)

I'm not sure how much a game, or even a win, against UNF will help this team's confidence, fix any problems, or identify any more issues, but I know it's needed. Badly.

Gators Calendar

Pregame Stuff: Florida vs North Florida (Tuesday, 7 pm)

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Deaundrae Ballard

Dontay Bassett

Gorjok Gak

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Keyontae Johnson

Egor Koulechov

Noah Locke

Andrew Nembhard

Isaiah Stokes

Keith Stone

Footer

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Saint Francis on Dec. 17, 2025 at 6:30 PM

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Colgate on Dec. 21, 2025 at 12 PM

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Dartmouth on Dec. 29, 2025 at 6 PM

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball at Missouri on Jan. 3, 2026 at 8:30 PM

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Georgia on Jan. 6, 2026 at 7 PM

Pregame Stuff: Florida vs North Florida (Tuesday, 7 pm)

Related News

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Deaundrae Ballard

Dontay Bassett

Gorjok Gak

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Keyontae Johnson

Egor Koulechov

Noah Locke

Andrew Nembhard

Isaiah Stokes

Keith Stone

Related Videos

Footer