Florida Gators

Florida vs. Grambling State

 
* When: Friday, 4 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (8-3) / Grambling State (2-9)
* TV: SEC Network+ (Kyle Crooks and Patric Young)
* 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	14.5 pts / 8.6 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 235	Sophomore	7.1 pts / 7.1 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	10.4 pts / 4.3 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Sophomore	11.6 pts / 4.2 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	16.1 pts / 4.2 reb / 3.4 ast

Grambling State	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jalen Johnson	F	6-8 /	Graduate	9.1 pts / 4.2 reb
Jonathan Aku	F	6-11 / 255	Senior	4.5 pts / 5.9 reb
Antwan Burnett	G	6-5 /	Sophomore	9.0 pts / 5.5 reb
Mikale Stevenson	G	6-2 /	Sophomore	5.2 pts / 2.2 reb
Kintavious Dozier	G	6-1 /	Junior	16.1 pts / 2.1 reb

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida takes on Grambling State in a matinee at the O'Dome that will represent the final game before the Gators break for the Christmas holiday.  ... The Gators have won a season-high four straight following Tuesday night's 106-101 double-overtime thriller over Michigan in the second Jumpman Invitational at Charlotte, N.C.  The Tigers, out of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, have lost seven straight after Wednesday night's 48-47 defeat at Southeastern Louisiana and are on a run of six straight road games in six different states. ... The game will mark the first between the two programs. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Grambling
84.5	Scoring	64.3
.455	Field-goal percentage	.432
.316	3-point percentage	.266
75.4	Scoring defense	76.3
.422	Field-goal percentage defense	.477
.357	3-point percentage defense	.409
36th	KenPom.com overall ranking	319th
32nd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	331st
53rd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	268th
15th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	321st
54th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	346th
77th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	135th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

Michigan is not expected to compete for a Big Ten title this season, but the win over the Wolverines was significant in a number of reasons; mostly because of the way the Gators competed

while playing from behind most of the game before using depth to overtake and finish a huge win that took 50 minutes. The game included a couple victorious firsts for Coach Todd Golden, namely a non-league win over a marquee, brand-name opponent, as well as his first (in 19 tries) with the Gators when trailing with five minutes to play. ... Reserve point guard Zyon Pullin sparked the comeback by hopping off the bench for a team-high 22 points on 6-for-13 from the floor, 2-for-2 from 3 and 8-for-10 from the free-throw line to go with five assists and just one turnover in nearly 39 minutes. His plus-12 ratio was a game-high. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel posted his fourth double-double with 21 points, 11 rebounds (six on the offensive end) and three blocks, but continued his struggles (and the team's) at the free-throw line, where he was just three of eight. Florida is shooting just 65.2 percent from the line as a team. ... Guard/Forward Will Richard scored 15 of his 17 points after halftime, with some huge shots during the comeback and takeover stretches of the game. ... Junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. was just 5-for-18 from the floor, but had seven points in the second overtime, with a dagger 3 during an 11-0 run that put the game away. He also had eight rebounds. ... The offensive struggles of sophomore guard Riley Kugel continued for a fourth straight game. The preseason All-SEC selection made just two of 10 field-goal tries and missed all five attempts from 3. Over the last four games he's 9-for-37 from the floor (24.3 percent) and 1-for-18 from deep (5.5 percent). To Kugel's credit, however, he's maintained a high level of play on the defensive end that has made it difficult to take him off the floor. ... Backup freshman center Alex Condon had another terrific performance off the bench, with 14 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Backup freshman forward Thomas Haugh had five points, with game-tying 3 in the second half, three boards and a block in less than nine minutes. ... Center Micah Handlogten came a point and rebound shy of a double-double in his 24 minutes, finishing with nine points and nine rebounds. He made four of five field-goal attempts, including his lone try from 3. Handlogten is now 4-for-4 from the arc on the season. Defenders will have to honor him out there. ... Backup sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen got his first meaningful minutes this month and had two points and three steals in 10 minutes. ... The UF defense limited UM, one of nation's best in effective field-goal percentage and offensive efficiency, to just 23.3 percent shooting over the final 12 minutes of regulation and two overtimes. The Gators also blocked 10 shots. 
 

The Tigers

It's their seventh season under Donte Jackson, who's 99-87 in his tenure and in '22-23 guided Grambling to its first SWAC regular-season championship since 1989. That team went 24-9,

tying the record for most wins in a season since GSU joined Division I in 1977. Unfortunately, the Tigers lost to Texas Southern in the SWAC Tournament title game, denying them what would have been a historic program milestone (see "Numbers of Note" below). ... Jackson was named the league's 2023 Coach of the Year, but the program lost nearly its entire roster to graduation or the transfer portal. ... Grambling is 0-7 on the road this season, with its two wins coming against non-D1 programs. The Tigers beat NAIA North Texas-Dallas by 25 and Champion Christian, a member of the Association of Christian Colleges, by 40 around a 32-point loss at Colorado. Among the seven losses in the current losing skid were scores of 92-37 at Iowa State, 76-46 at Dayton and 83-65 at Washington State. In GSU's last outing, the one-point loss at SW Louisiana, the Tigers scored just 16 points in the first half, but took a one-point lead on a Kintavious Dozier 3-point with 33 seconds remaining, but surrendered the eventual game-winning bucket with 20 seconds to go. ... Dozier, the point guard, is a junior college transfer from Gadsden (Ala.) State, where he averaged 27.8 points per game. He's shooting 52.3 percent from the floor, 32.2 from the arc and 85.3 from the free-throw line on a team-high 38 trips. ... Forward Jalen Johnson, a transfer from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is the team's only other scorer averaging in double figures. ... The Tigers' size comes mostly in Jonathan Aku, transfer from Stephen F. Austin, who is at 55.6 percent from the floor, without a 3-point attempt this season. The Gators, one of the nation's best rebouding teams, should have their way on the glass.  
 

Numbers of Note

* .739 — Florida winning's percentage this century in the last game before the Christmas break, based on a 16-7 record. All six of the losses are since 2007 and came against Ohio State, South Alabama, Kansas State (twice), Utah State, Florida State and Oklahoma. The South Alabama game was the lone home game. 

* 0 — All-time NCAA Tournament appearances for Grambling State. 

* 11:18 — Minutes during the win over Michigan (out of a possible 50) the Gators led, including the last 3:04 of the second overtime. 

* 30:38 — Minutes during the win over Michigan the Gators trailed, in a game that featured 16 lead changes and 11 ties.

* 2012-13 — The season Grambling State went 0-28 and lost every game by double-digits, except for the last one, a 59-51 defeat against Alabama A&M in first-round play of the SWAC Tournament. In the previous six seasons under Jackson, who took over in 2017, the Tigers have just one losing season. 
 

Bottom Line

The last game before Christmas getaway is always a dangerous scenario, but it's tough to envision the Gators sleepwalking for 40 minutes against an opponent ranked among the bottom 10 percent in Division I.