Florida Gators

Florida at Florida State

* When: Friday, 8 p.m. (ET) 
* Where: Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, Tallahassee, Fla.
* Records: Florida (2-1); Florida State (0-3)
* TV: ACC Network (Mike Couzens and Malcolm Huckaby)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

---

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
CJ Felder	F	6-9 / 200	Senior	3.7 ppg / 5.0 rpg
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	R-Senior	25.3 ppg / 4.0 rpg
Kowacie Reeves	G	6-6 / 192	Sophomore	10.0 ppg / 3.0 rpg
Will Richard	G	6-3 / 175	Sophomore	14.3 ppg / 4.0 rpg
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	Graduate	10.0 ppg / 4.3 rpg / 4.0 apg

Florida State	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Cameron Corhen	F	6-10 / 225	Freshman	8.0 ppg / 3.7 rpg
Cam'Ron Fletcher	G	6-7 / 215	Junior	11.7 ppg / 8.3 rpg
Matthew Cleveland	G	6-7 / 200	Sophomore	8.0 ppg / 3.7 rpg
Caleb Mills	G	6-5 / 180	R-Junior	10.7 ppg / 2.3 rpg
Darin Green Jr.	G	6-5 / 195	Junior	16.3 ppg / 3.0 rpg / 2.3 apg

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Florida State will play their annual rivalry game for the 73rd time, a series that dates to 1951. ... Both teams are coming off humbling home defeats Monday night. The Gators were beaten 76-74 by Florida Atlantic, out of Conference USA, which represented UF's first loss to a state school other than FSU or Miami in 12 years. The Seminoles, though, are not only dealing with triple such despair, but doing so with a roster ravaged by attrition (more on that below). They lost 79-72 to Troy, out of the Sun Belt Conference, which piled on previous losses to Stetson (Atlantic Sun Conference), in the season opener and UCF (American Athletic) in the first week. ... UF leads the all-time series 44-29, but only after last year snapping FSU's seven-game winning streak, which matched the longest for either team in their 71-year series history. Forward Colin Castleton scored 15 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and blocked six shots to lead UF to a 71-55 second-half route of then-No. 20 FSU, but it was an all-hands-on-deck effort, with all five Gators starters logging at least 29 minutes. Fifth-year senior forward Anthony Duruji had 15 points and seven rebounds, while guards Myreon Jones and Brandon McKissic, each had 12 points, with point guard Tyree Appleby finishing with five points and five assists. Guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr. had nine points and five rebounds off the bench. The lead changed 14 times over the first 30 minutes before the Gators went on a 13-point tear to take command and easily closed out the victory (and seven years of frustration) to give then-Coach Mike White his first win against FSU. ... Florida is 151-139 all-time against teams currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference. UF coach Todd Golden went 1-0 against the ACC in his three seasons at San Francisco, with a "Bubbleland" upset of Virginia early in the '20-21 season. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Stats	Florida State
81.0	Scoring	66.7
.462	Field-goal percentage	.434
.415	3-point percentage	.404
66.3	Scoring defense	76.7
.393	Field-goal percentage defense	.429
.362	3-point percentage defense	.413
39th	KenPom.com overall ranking	107th
43rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	79th
46th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	146th
68th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	178th
61st	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	104th
340th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	269th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

It took White seven games before defeating Florida State. How long will it take Golden? The circumstances are much more favorable for the current staff than the previous one, but the Seminoles will be geared up to play their physical style of basketball warfare that overwhelmed White's teams. We'll see what 

kind of fight this UF group has, especially on the road. ... UF shot just 38.2 percent against FAU, despite making eight of 17 from the 3-point line (.471). That means the Gators shot only 35.3 percent from the 2-point area -- with way too many missed attempts in close -- and that is not sustainable the way Golden wants to play. ... Transition defense was a huge problem against the Owls and thus a huge emphasis at practice the last two days. ... Forward Colin Castleton currently ranks seventh in the nation in scoring (second among power conference players). After making just 11 of 25 shots in the FAU loss (.440), he's shooting 52.7 percent for the season, which is below the combined 56.5 percent his previous two UF seasons. Castleton did make the first 3-pointer of his career against the Owls and is now 1-for-4 on the season and 1-for-21 for his career. ... Guard Will Richard is the only player besides Castleton to hit double-figure scoring in all three games. The transfer from Belmont is shooting 58.3 percent from the floor, 55.6 from the 3-point line and 100 percent from the free-throw line. Maybe he needs to shoot more. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton had his most impactful game as a Gator on his way to 14 points, seven rebounds, six assists and just two turnovers over 37 minutes. ... Wing Kowacie Reeves had eight straight points, including a pair of 3s, during a 10-point run when the Gators fought to get back in the game late. He's at 50.0 percent from deep for the season, but just 3-for-9 inside the arc. ... CJ Felder was scoreless against the Owls, attempting only two shots and grabbing four rebounds. UF got just five points off its bench against FAU (compared to 34 for the Owls), four of them coming from backup forward Alex Fudge (8.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg), who was 2-for-6 shooting to go with seven rebounds, no assists, two turnovers and five fouls in spelling Felder. The Gators need more production from the "4" spot. ... The rest of the bench -- guards Riley Kugel, Myreon Jones, Trey Bonham and Niels Lane, plus center Jason Jitoboh -- combined to go 0-for-4 from the floor, 0-for-2 from 3, finishing with one point, two assists and five turnovers. The Owls outscored the Gators' bench 34-5.

The Seminoles

And Leonard Hamilton thought last year was frustrating. FSU '21-22 lost four of five starters to season-ending injuries on the way to finishing 17-14 and missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years. Things had to be better this season, Hamilton's 22nd in Tally, right? Well, try to

follow along: Guards Chandler Jackson (thumb) and Jeremiah Bembry (back), forward Baba Miller (suspension), and a pair of centers, 6-10 Jaylan Gainey (knee) and 7-4 Naheem McLeod (foot/ankle) have all been sidelined. FSU was without the first four for the first two games, then lost McLeod in the Friday defeat against UCF. The Seminoles went down against Troy with six scholarship players and a walk-on. That's it. The five starters each logged at least 27 minutes; four of them at least 32 minutes. Where the rotation will stand Friday night remains to be seen, but if it looks like it did at the start of the week the Seminoles will be feeding guard Darin Green Jr., who scored 24 points and grabbed six rebounds against the Trojans and went a sizzling 7-for-9 from the 3-point line. Green Jr. is a transfer from UCF, where he left ranked 10th in American Athletic Conference history with 208 made 3s and can absolutely dagger the long ball. He's averaging 35.8 minutes per game, but also 54.5 percent from the arc (12-for-22), so apparently he doesn't get tired. If the Gators allow the Seminoles free reign in transition (like FAU enjoyed), Green will make them pay. ... Wing Cam'Ron Fletcher, transfer from Kentucky, had a so-so first season at FSU, but is coming off a 15-point, 10-rebound performance. He's the Seminoles' top rebounder, though not by design, since their missing all that size. ... Guard Caleb Mills, the team's leading scorer last season after transferring from Houston, and wing Matthew Cleveland, are both talented, athletic players, but like Green they've been saddled with ridiculous demand on minutes. ... Sophomore Jalen Warley is a combo guard by definition, but has been forced into point guard duties. He leads the team with 20 assists, but also leads with 14 turnovers. ... Forward Cameron Corhen, a true freshman "big" forced into the starting lineup, hit double-figure scoring in each of his first two college games of his career, but went 0-for-4 from the floor against Troy. ... Forward Tom House (3.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg) is a walk-on who due to the dire circumstances is averaging 14.4 minutes per game. 

Numbers of Note

* .434 — FSU's offensive rebounding percentage, which means opponents are getting better than four of every 10 missed shots, which ranks 352nd out of 362 teams in Division I. UF should have some second-chance opportunities, assuming the Gators come ready to crash. 
 
* 20.1 — Seconds per possession for the Florida State offense. That ranks 355th in the country. Only five teams in the country average longer. 

* 74 — Age of the ageless Hamilton, the FSU coach, who looks 10 years younger (at least). Still going strong on the recruiting trail, also.

* 617 — Career victories for Hamilton, with 11 of them (against nine losses) coming against the Gators, which places him 16th on college basketball's active list. 

* 2005 — The last year a UF player attempted more field goals in a game than Castleton's 25 shots against FAU. That player was guard Anthony Roberson, who went 9-for-26 in a 83-76 home overtime loss to Tennessee. 
 

Bottom Line

One team is going to leave Tucker Center thoroughly frustrated and on a losing skid Friday night.