Florida Gators

Florida vs. Florida A&M

* When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (4-3); Florida A&M (1-4)
* TV: SEC Network+ (Kyle Crooks, Mark Wise and Patric Young)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

---

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
CJ Felder	F	6-7 / 240	Senior	3.4 pts / 4.6 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	R-Senior	18.1 pts / 8.0 reb / 2.8 blx
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	13.6 pts / 4.7 reb
Trey Bonham	G	6-0 / 170	Junior	8.4 pts / 2.9 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	Graduate	9.6 pts / 3.4 reb / 4.1 ast

FAMU	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jaylen Bates	F	6-7 / 215	Junior	7.5 pts / 7.3 reb
Chase Barrs	F	6-9 / 210	Senior	5.0 pts / 4.0 reb
Jordan Chatman	G	6-7 / 208	Sophomore	9.8 pts / 5.4 reb
Jordan Tillmon	G	6-2 / 180	Freshman	9.8 pts / 2.2 reb
Byron Smith	G	6-2 / 185	Junior	8.4 pts / 2.6 reb / 2.4 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

On paper, this is a major mismatch, but don't tell Florida that after the beatdown the Gators took Sunday night in their final game of the Phil Knight Legacy in Portland, Ore. UF was smashed 84-55 by West Virginia in what was the program's worst loss since 1999. Florida A&M actually is coming off its first victory of the season, a 70-65 defeat of Division II Albany (Ga.) College after opening the 2022-23 campaign for four straight road losses on the road against power conference opponents. ... The Gators and Rattlers will play for just the 12th time, with Florida leading the all-time series 11-0. The two teams last met on Dec. 1, 2009, when four UF players hit double figures, led by 16 from senior forward Dan Werner, who knocked down four of six from the 3-point line, and the 13th-ranked Gators won 80-59 for the program's first 7-0 start in four years. Junior forward Alex Tyus had 15 points and five rebounds. ... Florida is 23-0 all-time against teams from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. ... UF coach Todd Golden is 1-0 against the MEAC. ... The game will be the second of a men's-women's double-header, with the UF women facing Prairie View at 5:30 p.m.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	FAMU
76.9	Scoring	54.6
.447	Field-goal percentage	.367
.331	3-point percentage	.237
72.6	Scoring defense	76.0
.433	Field-goal percentage defense	.460
.371	3-point percentage defense	.328
61st	KenPom.com overall ranking	359th
56th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	362nd
67th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	305th
24th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	192nd
61st	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	310th
247th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	254th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

There were some glaring miscues in the two losses that sandwiched UF's lone win at the "PK85," and thus plenty of areas for Golden and his staff to work on, starting with a game against a FAMU squad that clearly will be outmanned. The Gators might as well start getting right immediately what with

some challenging games coming up and only so many opportunities -- Sunday against Stetson (which beat FSU earlier this month); next week against unbeaten Connecticut, which just won the PK Invitational; a neutral-site date in Tampa against Ohio; the Jumpman Classic against Oklahoma in three weeks -- to fine-tune before the Dec. 28 date at Auburn that opens Southeastern Conference play. ... The Gators are shooting 49.8 percent from the 2-point area, which rates 168th in the country and is a reflection of too many missed opportunities at the rim. They may have been able to make up for those numbers with better marksmanship from deep, but their 33.1 percent out there is just 178th nationally. ... UF's own 3-point shooting is not nearly as big an issue as its 3-point defense. In giving up 37.1 percent from the arc, the Gators rank 286th nationally and next-to-last in the SEC. Only six other power conference teams rank lower. ... Forward Colin Castleton went to Portland averaging 25.3 points per game, which ranked third in the country. In the three "PK85" games, and against some very good post players, Castleton averaged just 8.6 points, made 10 of 26 field goals (38.4 percent), six of 10 free throws and grabbed 7.0 boards per game. He was clearly frustrated with some no calls, as were several of his teammates, but Golden talked after the WVU romp about the need to play through adversity at a much more determined level. ... Guard Trey Bonham averaged one point through the first three games, but 17.6 over the next three after replacing wing Kowacie Reeves to start the second half at Florida State. Bonham, however, was a marked man against the Mountaineers, who never let him breath, much less drive to the basket. He finished 0-for-9 from the floor, missed all four 3s and was just three of six from the free throw line in the 29-point loss. Bonham was a 79.2-percent free-throw shooter in his two seasons at Virginia Military Institute, but is off to a slow start thus far; just 14-for-25 (56.0 percent). ... Reeves (5.7 ppg, 1.6 rpg) started the first four games of the season, but did not play in the second half at FSU and was on the floor just eight minutes of one game at the PK85, with DNPs in the losses to Xavier and WVU. Golden said Monday that Reeves definitely would play against the Rattlers. ... Guard Will Richard continued his run of sterling shooting efficiency at all levels at Portland, though his string of double-digit scoring (11 straight games, dating back to his final five at Belmont last season) ended Sunday when he was limited to eight points against WVU. He's shooting 57.1 from the floor, 52.0 from 3 and has missed just one free throw this season. ... Forwards CJ Felder and Alex Fudge have combined for just one double-digit scoring game; that was Fudge's career-high 16 points in the opener against Stony Brook. Felder had seven points and seven rebounds in the Xavier loss; Fudge had six points and seven boards in the WVU loss. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton led the Gators with 17 points (his UF high) last game. While his 4.1 assist average is below the career average of 5.2 he brought from St. Bonaventure that's more a reflection of the team's overall shooting percentages. Six UF rotation players are at 43 percent or below. ... Backup center Jason Jitoboh is not one of those sub-43 guys. After going 7-for-8 in the tournament, the 6-11, 300-pounder is at 81.8 percent from the season (9 of 11). ... Keep an eye on freshman guard Riley Kugel (5.6 ppg), who went from averaging 11.3 minutes over the first four games to 18.6 in Oregon. He went there 2-for-12 from the floor (16.7 percent), but made 12 of his 24 field-goal tries (50 percent). 

The Rattlers

They're coached by Robert McCullum, now in his sixth season, whose record in Tallahassee is 55-92. McCullum also had head-coaching stops at

Western Michigan (44-35) and South Florida (50-76), but around these parts he's more known for being Lon Kruger's right hand from 1990-96 and an important part of the Gators' run to the program's first Final Four in 1994. ... The Rattlers sit just four spots from the very bottom of the KenPom.com rankings, but not because they haven't tried to play difficult competition, what with lopsided losses in consecutive road games to open the season at Oregon, Portland, Oregon State and Miami. Their closest game of those four defeats came at Oregon State, a 60-43 win for the Beavers, who the Gators defeated 81-68 for their only win at the "PK85." Florida A&M shot 31.3 percent in that game, just three of 13 from deep, and scored only 17 points in the first half. ... The Rattlers have no player averaging in double-figure scoring and they're a hot mess when it comes to taking care of the ball. On a team averaging barely 50 points a game it's no surprise the Rattlers have just 44 assists over five games, but they have twice as many turnovers with 97. UF should have some transition opportunities. ... FAMU shot 49 percent in its loss at Miami, but turned the ball over 22 times. ... Guard Jordan Chatman put together an 18-point, 9-rebound effort in the win over Albany. Forward Chase Bates grabbed 13 rebounds in that game. ... Seldom-used backup center Wylie Howard, who goes 6-11, 255 points, in a transfer from Santa Fe College, the junior college in Gainesville.  

Numbers of Note

* .256 — Florida's offensive rebounding percentage through seven games, which ranks 262nd (among 363 Division I teams) and is more than 7 percent below the team's goal of 33 percent. UF had just six offensive rebounds against West Virginia, compared to 15 for the Mountaineers.

* .947 — Richard's free-throw percentage, based on 18-for-19, after missing his first of the season against WVU. 

* 28.6 — Average margin of defeat in FAMU's four games. The Rattlers lost by 35 at Oregon, 37 at Portland, 17 at Oregon State and 26 at Miami.  

* 100 — Career games coached by Golden, who is now 61-39 (.610) in his combined three seasons at the University of San Francisco (2019-22) and through seven games at Florida. 

* 1991 — The first year Florida and Florida A&M played in men's basketball. The date was Nov. 23, which was Kruger's (and McCullum's) second season in Gainesville. UF won 76-66 to tip off a season the Gators finished at 19-14, with a run to the semifinals of the NIT in New York City, with Kruger named SEC Coach of the Year.
 

Bottom Line

The more distance, as in games (better yet, as in wins) the Gators can put between themselves and the WVU debacle, the better.