Florida vs Georgia (Saturday, 1 pm)

Florida vs. Georgia

* When: Saturday, 1 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (7-7, 0-2) / Georgia (11-3, 1-0)
* TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal and Jon Sundvold)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

UF junior guard **Trey Bonham** (2) hit four 3s against Texas A&M on his way to a game-high 21 points.

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Fudge	F	6-7 / 240	Sophomore	7.9 pts / 5.3 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	5th-Senior	14.9 pts / 7.4 reb / 2.7 blk
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	9.8 pts / 4.0 reb
Trey Bonham	G	6-0 / 170	Junior	10.6 pts / 2.9 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.4 pts / 2.6 reb / 3.6 ast

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Matthew-Alexander Montcrieffe	F	6-8 / 215	Junior	8.0 pts / 4.0 reb
Braelen Bridges	F	6-11 / 245	5th-Senior	7.4 pts / 4.3 reb
Kario Oquendo	G	6-4 / 220	Junior	14.5 pts / 3.8 reb
Terry Roberts	G	6-3 / 180	Senior	15.0 pts / 3.5 reb / 4.2 ast
Mardrez McBride	G	6-2 / 180	5th-Senior	5.1 pts / 2.6 reb

The Breakdown

**Mike White** won 142 games over seven seasons with the Gators, the third-most in UF basketball history.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Georgia renew one of the oldest rivalries in the south, as well as the oldest between the two programs, this time with quite a twist, what with former UF coach Mike White in his first season leading the Bulldogs after resigning his post last March 10 to head for Athens. ... At the moment, the two teams are playing to entirely different narratives. The Gators have lost three straight under first-year Coach Todd Golden and have their worst record after 14 games in 27 years. UF has dropped its first two Southeastern Conference contests for the second year in a row after falling to Texas A&M 66-63 in its home league opener Wednesday night. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, have won four straight and Wednesday upset No. 22 Auburn 76-64 at home in their league lid-lifter and need just one more victory to double last season's total of six. ... Florida leads the all-time series 120-103, with the 223 games the most either team has played against another opponent. UF has won six straight (all under White, of course), with three consecutive sweeps in their home-and-home matchups as SEC permanent opponents. The Gators won 72-63 at home last Feb. 9, then defeated the Bulldogs 84-72 on Feb. 26 behind 27 points from fifth-year senior guard Phladrous Fleming Jr., the Athens native. Florida also got 21 points from point guard Tyree Appleby, as he and Fleming combined to hit nine of 18 from the 3-point line on an afternoon the Gators shot 51.7 percent overall. ... Florida and Georgia will play in Athens on Feb. 28.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Georgia
74.2	Scoring	71.6
.451	Field-goal percentage	.438
.343	3-point percentage	.342
66.6	Scoring defense	64.0
.409	Field-goal percentage defense	.410
.336	3-point percentage defense	.284
57th	KenPom.com overall ranking	91st
100th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	131st
26th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	80th
45th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	225th
73rd	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	110th
43rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	238th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

It's been decades since they had a losing overall record this early in the SEC season, but that's what's at stake (among other things) for the Gators Saturday. They need wins. To get 'em, Florida will have to shore up a number of areas, especially after allowing a second straight opponent infuriating success on the offensive glass, but also with ball security, after turning the

ball over a season-high 20 times against A&M. The biggest turnover culprits were also the two Gators who kept their team in the game. Guard Trey Bonham helped his club crawl out of a miserable 3-point shooting slump (5-for-41 the previous two games) by dropping four of seven on his way to a game-high 21 points. Bonham, though, also had seven turnovers vs. four assists. Forward Colin Castleton made some huge offensive players in the second half to put UF in position to win on the way to 14 points and five boards over a team-high 36 minutes, but equaled his career-high of six turnovers. Two players, 13 giveaways, as the Aggies scored a total of 21 points off the Florida turnovers. ... Guard Will Richard snapped out of his cold spell by scoring eight points (2 of 4 from deep), grabbing five boards and dishing two assists without a turnover in the loss. He'd been held to just 11 points and missed 14 consecutive attempts from 3 the previous four games combined. ... Forward Alex Fudge had three points and five rebounds before fouling out after 21 minutes. Two of his fouls were on the offensive end, with another a flagrant hook-and-hold that cost the Gators two technical free throws in the first half. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton had nine points (2-for-7 from the floor), but just one rebound, pair of assists and a turnover. Lofton was one of three Gators (along with Richard and Fudge) to post a positive plus-minus ratio in the game. ... Backup wing Kowacie Reeves continued his up-and-down scoring trend with six points on 2-for-7 shooting and 0-for-4 from 3 after going into the game at 40.8 percent from deep on the season. His point totals over the last six games look this: 12, 7, 20, 5, 15 and 6. He continues to look for consistency in his role as the team's most explosive scorer off the bench.

The Bulldogs

Georgia made something of a splash in 2018 when it hired Tom Crean to take over a program with just 12 NCAA tournament berths in school history and just one win in five tournament appearances this century. Crean, though, was a disaster. He went 47-75 over four seasons, including 15-57 in SEC play. Last year's team finished 6-26, with a 1-17 mark in the league. UGA pegged

White, with his four NCAA berths in seven seasons at UF, as the guy to resuscitate the program. While the Bulldogs have played one of the easiest non-conference schedules among the nation's power conference teams (291st) this first year is about progress and White already has stockpiled five more wins than Crean had all last season and beaten a ranked opponent (Auburn) to match the team's SEC win total of last season. In White's 11 previous seasons, he never posted a losing record, with the 20-16 mark of '18-19 his so-called worst season winning percentage-wise and that one ended with an NCAA Tournament berth (and first-round win). ... Up until the Auburn victory, Georgia's 10 wins had come against teams with an average NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) of 264, but the Tigers currently sit at No. 48, which is far better than the best win Florida has posted to date (Ohio U at 130th). ... White managed to convince guard Kario Oquendo, the team's best player from last season, to return after flirting with the portal. Oquendo, the team's No. 2 scorer, is shooting 43.6 percent from the floor and 36.0 from deep (with team-high 18 makes) and nearly 77 percent at the line. He's yielded scoring honors to Bradley transfer Terry Roberts, who the Gators chased aggressively, as well, after his first-team All-Missouri Valley Conference and Freshman of the Year season. Roberts' in-game percentages aren't eye-popping (41.6 overall, 30.2 arc), but he gets to the free-throw line and converts (81.4 percent) and leads the team with 35 assists and 24 steals. He was great in the win over Auburn, finishing with 26 points. ... Post man Braelen Bridges is shooting 57.5 percent on the season and has yet to attempt to a 3. ... Oklahoma State transfer Matthew-Alexander Montcrieffe is shooting 79 percent from the floor and had a solid 9-point, 9-rebound outing against the Tigers, as well as a plus-15 ratio. ... Reserve point guard Justin Hill (7.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg) is second on the team with 37 assists. ... Backup forward Jabri Abdur-Rahim (6.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg) is in his second since transferring from Virginia. He's averaging just 15 minutes off the bench, but his 17 makes from 3 (at 39.3 percent) rank second on the team. ... UGA assistants Erik Pastrana and Akeem Miskdeen were on White's last UF staff last season, both coming from Florida Atlantic.

Numbers of Note

UF forward Canyon Barry (floor) tumbles into the celebrating UF bench (as White stoically looks on) after hitting a 3-point play and being fouled in the Gators' 80-76 defeat of Georgia on Jan. 14, 2017. Barry, a graduate transfer from College of Charleston who went on to win SEC Sixth Man of the Year, poured in 27 points that afternoon and Florida went on to reach the Elite Eight that season. It was White's second in Gainesville.

* minus-19 — Florida's aggregate offensive rebounding numbers through its two SEC games, based on a 30-11 deficit after being blasted 17-5 at Auburn and 13-6 by A&M.

* .786 — White's winning percentage as Florida's coach against Georgia, based on an 11-3 record, including 5-2 at the O'Dome.

* 8 — Georgia basketball staff and support members, including White, Pastrana and Miskdeen, who formerly worked at Florida. The five others: Bryce Douglas (Assistant to Head Coach), Ben Gonzalez (Director of Basketball Operations), Julie Danielson (Video Coordinator), Collin Crane (Director of Athletic Performance) and Casey Reed (Executive Assistant).

* 1923 (or '24) — The first time the Gators and Bulldogs played in men's basketball, with the exact date unknown. The Bulldogs won 45-24.

* 2022 — The last year the Gators started 0-3 in SEC play, a mark they would fall to again to with a defeat Saturday. The last 0-3 start before that was the 1980-81 season (or 41 years earlier).

Bottom Line

Certainly one of strangest, most awkward pregame storylines (especially for a routine January conference game) in UF basketball history.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Georgia (Saturday, 1 pm)