Florida Gators

Florida vs. Florida Atlantic

* When: Monday, 7 pm (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (2-0); Florida Atlantic (1-1)
* TV: SEC Network (Roy Philpott and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
CJ Felder	F	6-7 / 240	Senior	5.5 ppg / 5.5 rpg
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	R-Senior	23.0 ppg / 7.0 rpg / 3.5 bpg
Kowacie Reeves	G	6-6 / 192	Sophomore	9.5 ppg / 3.5 rpg
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Sophomore	14.5 ppg / 2.5 rpg
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	Graduate	8.0 ppg / 3.0 rpg / 2.0 apg

Florida Atlantic	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Vladislav Goldin	C	7-1 / 240	Sophomore	13.5 ppg / 6.0 rpg
Johnell Davis	G	6-4 / 203	Sophomore	12.5 ppg / 4.0 rpg
Nick Boyd	G	6-3 / 175	R-Freshman	6.5 ppg / 3.5 rpg
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 210	Sophomore	12.5 ppg / 5.5 rpg
Bryan Greenlee	G	6-0 / 191	Junior	6.0 ppg / 4.0 rpg

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida plays its last of three consecutive home games to open the 2022-23 season and Coach Todd Golden era, with a trip to cross-state rival Florida State on tap later in the week to start a conga line of high-major contests away from the O'Dome. The Gators are coming off Friday's 88-78 win over Kennesaw State, a decent low-major program out of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Florida Atlantic plays out of Conference USA, but will move into the American Athletic Conference for the '23-24 season. The Owls will play a second straight road game against a Southeastern Conference opponent after being beaten 80-67 at Ole Miss Friday night. ... This will be just the fourth game between the two Sunshine State programs, and the first in 12 years. UF is 3-0 against FAU, with the meeting a 79-66 victory for the Gators on Nov. 23, 2010. In that one, senior forward Alex Tyus helped break open a close game (UF led by just two at halftime) with 19 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton added a game-high 21 points, with junior point guard Erving Walker finishing with 14 points, six rebounds, four assists and five steals. ... UF is 22-5 all-time against CUSA teams. ... Golden is 1-0 vs. CUSA. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Florida Atlantic
84.5	Scoring	74.0
.509	Field-goal percentage	.464
.389	3-point percentage	.353
61.5	Scoring defense	63.0
.377	Field-goal percentage defense	.405
.267	3-point percentage defense	.257
31st	KenPom.com overall ranking	86th
34th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	67th
38th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	129th
107th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	222nd
61st	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	122nd
155th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	29th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They're making shots, better than 50 percent as a team through the two games and mostly because of Colin Castleton, but the Gators need to clean up some things on the defensive end after allowing undersized Kennesaw to hit 53.1 percent in the second half during which the Owls played the Gators

even on the scoreboard (44-44). After toying with a couple low-major foes, these upcoming games against FAU and even a roster-challenged, injury-depleted FSU will require better attention to defensive details, such as straight-line drives, back-door cuts and boxing out. ... Castleton, the two-time All-Southeastern Conference post man, is shooting 60.0 percent from the floor, and has expanded his game and skill set with better ball-handling (he's led a couple successful fast breaks) and passing. He also moved past Udonis Haslem (1998-2002) and into ninth place on the UF all-time list with 123 career blocks. ... Golden months ago anointed fifth-year point guard Kyle Lofton as one of his two best (and most pivotal) players. The two fouls in the first four minutes Friday were one thing (it's basketball, it happens), but the two quick ones midway through the second half, plus the jawing at an official that drew a technical and fifth-foul disqualification can't happen. Lofton came here after averaging a startling 38.1 minutes over four seasons at St. Bonaventure. He needs to be on the floor and directing the offense. ... Will Richard is shooting 67 percent overall, 50 from the 3-point line (306) and 100 from the free-throw line (6-6). What a transfer-portal find (thank you, Belmont) he is shaping up to be. ... Wing Kowacie Reeves missed the three shots he took in the first half, but offset those misses with active rebounding. The second half? Reeves was 3-for-3 from the floor, with a powerful driving dunk and two 3s that staved off mini-runs by the Owls. For Reeves it's always going to be about consistency and individual focus on his tasks. He is delivering early. ... Forward CJ Felder has made four of six field goals attempts, all of his free throws and is second on the team in rebounding despite playing just 16.5 minutes per. ... Reserve forward Alex Fudge (11.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg), who had a team-best 20 points in the opener against Stony Brook, had six points and three boards, but also a team-high turnovers against the Owls. UF only turned it over four times, so the LSU transfer will be asked to focus on his ball security. His six turnovers on the season leads the team. ... Fifth-year guard Myreon Jones stepped in after Lofton fouled out and gave the Gators solid minutes at the "1," finishing with two points, five rebounds, two assists, a block and zero turnovers over 23 minutes. ... For all the talk about UF's depth and questions as to how Golden would handle his rotation, the Gators played just 10 guys against Kennesaw, one of whom, Virginia Military Institute transfer Trey Bonham, played just 3:20. This staff has plan. ... This is the first time since 2017 that Florida has scored at least 80 points in each of the first two games. The last time it happened, the current FAU coach was on staff.

The Owls

They're in the fifth season under former UF associate head coach Dusty May, who was Mike White's right hand during three seasons (2015-18) and two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 2017 run to the Elite Eight. May's record stands at 67-57 with the Owls, who went 19-15 last year and

appeared in the CBI. His 2022-23 team returns all five starters from that squad, which finished a solid 129th in the final KenPom.com rankings of '22. ... FAU opened the season with an 81-46 blowout of Lynn, a Division II program out of the Sunshine State Conference. In the loss at Mississippi, the Owls fell behind by nine at halftime and were still down 10 with under four minutes left when standout forward Vladislav Goldin was called for hanging on the rim on a layup. The play appeared to cut the lead to just five with 1:39 to go, but instead was waved off and turned into a free throw and eight-point lead for the Rebels, who closed out the game from there. ... Ole Miss shot 50.8 percent in the game, out-rebounded FAU 40-31 and outscored the Owls in the paint 42-28. ... Goldin, from Nalchick, Russia (by way of Texas Tech), had 19 points in the game on 9-for-13 shooting and is hitting 68.4 percent from the floor. He has yet to attempt a 3-pointer, so there's no mystery where he'll be during the game. He'll have a couple inches on Castleton down in the block. ... Guard Johnell Davis is at nearly 53 percent from the floor and has dropped four of his eight 3s, while Aliajah Martin is at 43.5 percent and 4-for-12 from deep. ... Guard Bryan Greenlee is a transfer from Minnesota who played at the Gainesville Rock School. ... FAU's last win over a Power-5 conference team was Dec. 29, 2018, in May's first season, when the Owls went to Illinois and upset the Fighting Illinis 73-71 in overtime.  
 

Numbers of Note

* .588 — Castleton's free-throw percentage through two games, based on 10-for-17 from the line. This, no doubt, will not sit well with the UF big, given that he's drawing fouls at a high rate (6.9 per game) and has proven to be a much better free-throw shooter during his Florida career. 

* .730 — Castleton's combined free-throw percentage his first two seasons with the Gators. 

* 7 — Players in the UF roster who are shooting better than 50.0 percent from the floor, a group that includes walk-on guards Alex Klatsky and Jack May (both 1-for-1). 

* 10.5 — Florida's turnover average through two games. Very manageable. Let's see what happens to that number as the competition increases. 

* 1997 — The last year the Gators lost to a team currently in Conference USA. The date was Dec. 27. The place was Miami Arena. The event was the Orange Bowl Classic, which was Florida's first appearance in that event. The Gators lost 80-73 to Alabama-Birmingham. 
 

Bottom Line

Golden circled this game on the schedule months ago, knowing the Owls had their whole starting unit back and are coached by a guy who knows the UF personnel. Let's see how his danger-zone theme resonates with his players.