Florida Gators

Florida vs. Michigan

 
* What: Jumpman Invitational
* When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
* Where: Spectrum Center / Charlotte, N.C.
* Records: Florida (7-3) / Michigan (6-5)
* TV: ESPN (Dave O'Brien, Debbie Antonelli and Myron Metcalf)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) / Stations list
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	13.9 pts / 8.4 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 235	Sophomore	6.8 pts / 6.9 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	9.7 pts / 4.3 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Sophomore	12.4 pts / 4.3 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	16.5 pts / 3.8 reb / 3.0 ast

Michigan	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Olivier Nkamhoua	F	6-9 / 235	Graduate	16.5 pts / 7.3 reb
Tarris Reed	F	6-10 / 265	Sophomore	8.3 pts / 6.3 reb
Terrance Williams II	F	6-7 / 225	Senior	11.2 pts / 4.4 reb
Nimari Burnett	G	6-4 / 200	Senior	10.2 pts / 4.2 reb
Dug McDaniel	G	5-11 / 175	Sophomore	17.9 pts / 3.9 reb / 5.0 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Michigan will play in the opener of the second Jumpman Invitational, a men's and women's two-day double-header event that began in 2022 and brings together four of the original Jordan brand programs. The UF-Michigan game will serve as the first of four games and be followed Tuesday night by the Oklahoma and North Carolina women's game. On Wednesday, the Florida-Michigan women will play at 6:30 p.m., followed by a men's matchup between unbeaten Oklahoma (10-0) and No. 11 North Carolina (7-3). ... The Gators, who have won a season-high three straight, are playing a third straight neutral site game, having defeated Richmond in the Orange Bowl Classic at Sunrise, Fla., 10 days ago and, most recently, East Carolina in the Central Florida Tip-Off last week in Lakeland, Fla. The Wolverines have won two in a row after dropping three straight. The last of those losses was their Big Ten Conference opener against Indiana. Five days later, UM played a second league game, defeating Iowa and followed that up Saturday with an 83-66 victory over Eastern Michigan. ... Michigan leads the all-times series 3-1, with all three of the Wolverines victories coming in the NCAA Tournament, while Florida's lone win came in the 1998 Orange Bowl Classic. The team last met in second-round play of the NCAA West Region at Des Moines, Iowa, where second-seeded UM eliminating 10th-seeded UF 64-49. Guard Jordan Poole led the way with a game-high 19 points, including four 3-pointers. The Wolverines were just four, 32-28 at halftime, but the Gators shot 28.6 percent in the second half (on the way to just 21 points) and went to the free-throw only twice in the period. UF was led by 11 points from guard Jalen Hudson, while forward Kevarrius Hayes, who had eight points and seven rebounds in the last of his 140 games as a Gator.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Michigan
82.3	Scoring	82.2
.454	Field-goal percentage	.497
.321	3-point percentage	.378
72.8	Scoring defense	75.9
.419	Field-goal percentage defense	.445
.347	3-point percentage defense	.362
38th	KenPom.com overall ranking	45th
32nd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	20th
53rd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	126th
16th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	218th
58th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	70th
79th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	22nd

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They need this one, which marks the last high-end non-league game before the Gators enter Southeastern Conference play Jan. 6 against Kentucky at home. After a disappointing loss at Wake Forest on Nov. 29, the UF players set a goal of going unbeaten in the month of December. They're halfway there, but this game looms as the most challenging of the December half-

dozen. ... UF's strength to date has been on the offensive end, but with the possible exception of the blowout of Florida State the Gators have yet to truly put a wire-to-wire effort together with every player in the rotation performing well. ... While the Gators have an offensive rank of 32nd in overall efficiency, their far, far lower in effectively field goal percentage (152nd), 2-point percentage (118th) and 3-point percentage (214th). Why? Because Florida is getting multiple cracks at scoring because the Gators are the No. 4 offensive rebounding team in the country, gathering an incredible 42.6 percent of their misses. ... Guard Walter Clayton Jr., three days after his girlfriend gave birth to a baby girl, led the way against East Carolina with 22 points, but 20 of them came in the first half. His second-half comedown allowed the Pirates to get back in the game (and was a microcosm for his team), as ECU trimmed an 11-point deficit to just one late before the Gators made some big plays in the closing minutes. Clayton had five of Florida's 18 turnovers in the game, with the team committing 11 in the second half to open the door. Ball security has become an issue. UF has an 18.7 turnover percentage that ranks 233rd in the country. ... Florida had problems at the free-throw line last game. After making 20 of 25 in the win over Richmond (80 percent), the Gators went a woeful 15-for-28 (53.6 percent), which was a huge factor in letting ECU back in the game. The front-court duo of Tyrese Samuel and backup 6-11 center Alex Condon (8.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg) combined to go just 11-for-20, so expect opponents to hack away on two of the best offensive rebounders in the country. Both Condon and Samuel rank in the top 100 individually in offensive rebounding; Condon at 51st (14.2 percent) and Samuel at 93rd (12.9 percent). ... Samuel is shooting a team-high 61.9 percent from the floor, but has made just 33 of his team-high 60 free-throw tries (55.0 percent). ... Condon led UF in rebounds with 10 last game, giving him two double-digit rebound games over his previous three. ... Guard Riley Kugel has really struggled over the last three games. After scoring 25 and 24 (on 56-percent shooting and 8-for-12 from 3) in the back-to-back losses against Baylor and Wake Forest, Kugel combined to score just 18 points against Merrimack, Richmond and ECU and shot 26 percent and 1-for-13 from deep. He was 1-for-6 from the floor and missed his three 3s last game when he went to the bench with 7:17 to play and did not return. Kugel is the Gators' best and most creative offensive player, but he seems to have a confidence problem that he and the team need to work through. ... Wing Will Richard had a quiet but deadly productive outing against ECU; 10 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two steals and three blocks in 34 minutes. He's been fabulous of late. ... In his second straight start since coming back from an ankle injury, center Micah Handlogten had six points, nine rebounds and two blocks over 26 minutes. Look for the Wolverines to challenge him physically in the post. ... Backup point guard Zyon Pullin (12.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 5.0 apg) made just four of his 16 shots and missed all four of his 3s vs. ECU, but he converted a couple buckets when the Gators really needed them. His shooting numbers are down relative to his career at California-Riverside (36.2 percent floor, 21.2 from 3), but he's been very good running the team and getting UF organized in the halfcourt. ... With Handlogten back in the mix, backup forward Thomas Haugh (3.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg) has played just 13 minutes the last two games; only four against ECU, which turned out to be his first scoreless game of the season. ... Look for a pair of seldom-seen backup guards, Denzel Aberdeen and Julian Rishwain, to possibly get some more looks in this one. ... UF video coordinator Jordan Jacobson was a manager at Michigan before coming to UF in 2021.

The Wolverines

It's been an eventful few months for the Wolverines, relative to their coaching situation. It began in September when Juwan Howard, the "Fab Five" icon now in his fifth season as UM head coach, underwent successful open-heart surgery and slowly began working his way back to full-time status. He's been on the bench for select games thus far, but the Wolverines had been

led to date by acting head coach Phil Martelli, longtime head coach at St. Joseph's, until Howard made his debut in Saturday's win over Eastern Michigan. The last couple weeks, however, the program had been dealing with reports of an altercation between Howard and the team's strength coach, with the UM administration reviewing the incident and ultimately clearing Howard to return to the sidelines. ... Under Howard, the Wolverines are 85-51, with two NCAA tournament berths, the last in 2022. They went to the NIT last season. ... Four Michigan starters average at least 31 minutes. ... The Wolverines have outstanding offensive metrics. They're 13th in the nation in effective field-goal percentage (57.3), 16th in 2-point percentage (57.7) and 39th in 3-point percentage (37.8), which should be a concern for a UF defense that has been hurt from the arc this season. Four of UM's starters shoot at least 37 percent from deep, each with at least 35 attempts. ... Point guard Dug McDaniel doubles as the team's No. 1 scoring option and playmaker. He's shooting 45.5 percent overall, 37.9 percent from deep and 76.2 percent from the free-throw line, where he gets to often because he shoots more than any of his teammates (25 more field-goal attempts than any other Wolverine). McDaniel is also sound with the ball: 55 assists, just 23 turnovers. ... Forward Olivier Nkamhoua should look familiar to UF fans after playing the previous four seasons at Tennessee, where he logged 112 games (with 58 starts), scored 733 points and grabbed 330 rebounds. He's shooting 56.6 percent from the floor and 37.1 from deep. ...Forward Terrance Williams III is at 44 percent overall, 40.4 from the 3-point line and 77 percent from the free-throw line. ...Center Tarris Reed is at nearly 65 percent on the season, has attempted just one 3 and leads the club with 27 offensive rebounds. ... Guard Nimari Burnett is on his third school in four seasons; one at Texas Tech, the last two at Alabama (with a medical redshirt in '21-22), where he was a role player for last season's SEC regular-season and tournament champions. He's at 40.9 percent from the floor and 37.5 from the arc. ... UM's top two reserves are a pair of front-court guys in 6-8, 245-pound Will Tscheter (8.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg) and 6-10, 215-pound Tray Jackson (6.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg). Both average 17.9 productive minutes. UF better pay attention to Tscheter, who got his first start of the season last game and floats on the 3-point line, where he's a stunning 12-for-18 thus far (66.6 percent). ... Jace Howard, the 6-7, 225-pound sophomore son of the head coach, has missed the first 11 games with a knee injury, but could be close to making his season debut. Howard played sparingly the last two season and averaged just over one point a game. 
 

Numbers of Note

* 0 — Games during the 2022-23 season (out of 33) when the Gators grabbed at least 20 offensive rebounds (the season-high was 17).

* 5 — Games during the '23-34 season (out of 10) when the Gators have grabbed at least 20 offensive rebounds (the season-high is 24).

* 6 — Consecutive games Florida has had a at least one 20-point scorer, a mark that has been hit by four different players: Clayton (3 times), Kugel (2), Richard and Samuel (1).  

* 39 — Points scored by Michigan forward Glen Rice in the third-seeded Wolverines' 108-85 blowout of the No. 6-seed Gators in second-round play of the 1988 NCAA Tournament at Salt Lake City, just the second NCAA appearance for UF in program history. Rice, who a year later was voted tournament MVP when he led UM to the national championship, made 16 of his 24 shots, all three of his 3-point attempts and all four of his free throws to go with five rebounds, five assists and two steals without a turnover. Florida was never in the game. The Gators fell behind 54-35 at halftime, as the Wolverines shot 68.4 percent through the first 20 minutes. UF got 23 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists from guard Vernon Maxwell in his final game. The 23-point margin of defeat is the largest of Florida's 19 NCAA Tournament appearances.

* 2013 — The year the No. 2-seed and SEC champion Gators were smashed by the fourth-seeded Wolverines 79-59 in the NCAA South Region title game at Arlington, Texas, marking the third-worst margin of defeat in UF's tournament history. That UM team, which shot 62 percent from the 3-point line to build a 17-point first-half lead, had five first-round draft picks in the starting lineup and eventually lost to Louisville in the NCAA championship game. Guard Nic Staukas scored a game-high 22 points on 6-for-6 from deep.
 

Bottom Line

The Gators have lost to Virginia, Baylor and Wake Forest, with their best win to date coming against Pittsburgh (currently 40th in the NET). They need another quality, brand-name victory, with the Wolverines offering both, plus a possible Q-1 skin the line.