Florida Gators

Florida vs. Quinnipiac

 
* When: Saturday, 1 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (9-3) / Quinnipiac (9-3)
* TV: ESPNU (Mike Morgan and Mark Wise)
* 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	14.6 pts / 8.8 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	7.1 pts / 7.0 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	10.9 pts / 3.9 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	15.4 pts / 4.1 reb / 3.3 ast
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	13.9 pts / 3.7 reb / 5.1 ast

Quinnipiac	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Amarri Tice	F	6-7 / 220	Sophomore	11.3 pts / 6.8 reb
Paul Otieno	F	6-8 / 225	Senior	9.9 pts / 5.9 reb
Alexis Reyes	F	6-7 / 190	Junior	8.5 pts / 3.8 reb
Matt Balanc	G	6-4 / 195	Graduate	18.7 pts / 4.8 reb
Savion Lewis	G	6-1 / 175	Senior	8.5 pts / 3.5 reb / 7.6 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Quinnipiac face off in what will be the Gators' final game before entering Southeastern Conference play on Jan. 6. ... The Gators, who have won five straight and are unbeaten at home this season, last took the court Dec. 22 and defeated Grambling State 96-57 at the O'Dome before breaking for Christmas. The Bobcats, out of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, have won two straight and four of their previous five, with their last game a 78-60 victory over Lafayette on Dec. 21. ... Florida and Quinnipiac have never played in men's basketball. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Quinnipiac
85.4	Scoring	78.6
.468	Field-goal percentage	.449
.332	3-point percentage	.363
73.8	Scoring defense	70.7
.417	Field-goal percentage defense	.417
.351	3-point percentage defense	.326
33rd	KenPom.com overall ranking	239th
29th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	255th
57th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	203rd
14th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	59th
46th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	185th
119th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	361st

Team Snapshots

The Gators

Their five-game winning streak is the longest (by two games) in the two seasons under Coach Todd Golden. Just two of the victories have come against teams ranked in the NCAA Evaluation

Tool top 100 (Richmond at 99th and Michigan at 69th), but opportunities for Quadrant 1 scalps will be plentiful once SEC play begins next weekend. ... The date against Quinnipiac is a little tricky, given the look-ahead possibilities and coming off the break, so the Gators need to attack this one with the focus exhibited for most of their current streak. ... What Golden does with the starting lineup remains to be seen after sophomore guard Riley Kugel (11.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg) was held out of the Grambling game after missing back-to-back practices with a sore foot. Minus Kugel, UF was awfully good, especially in sharing the basketball, with Zyon Pullin getting the start at point guard. Pullin made four five shots, his only 3-point attempt, went 5-for-6 at the free throw line and added five rebounds and six assists over a turnover-free 24 minutes. Even better, the Gators finished with a season-high 27 assists (the most in the program in 16 years) and just 10 turnovers. Don't be surprised if Pullin with the first unit is where the UF staff lands. How Kugel, back and full-go, responds to coming off the bench for the first time in nearly a year will bear watching. Who knows? Might be good for him. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel, coming off his second straight double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) and fifth this season, currently leads the SEC in rebounding. Samuel is a beast in the post and a foul-drawing machine, but has made only 52.9 percent of his team-high 68 attempts from the line. ... Center Micah Handlogten, with his third straight start, hit all four of his field-goal attempts (part of 50 points for UF in the paint) against Grambling on his way to eight points, six rebounds and two assists. ... Guard Walter Clayton Jr. has fallen shy of his team-high scoring average in three of the last four games. Clayton's eight points against the Tigers marked his third single-digit scoring effort of the season. Consider that an example of this team's versatility. It can be someone different every night. ... Guard/Forward Will Richard is quietly inching his shooting numbers back to his career averages. Over the last four games, Richard is at 50 percent from the floor and just shy of 43 from the arc. ... Minus Kugel, sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen (3.6 ppg, 1.2 rpg) played his best game as a Gator. Though he played just 12 minutes combined the previous four games, Aberdeen scored 11 points, on 5-for-8 shooting (with a highlight-reel dunk), made his only 3, posted a career-best five assists and turned it over only once in 24 minutes vs. the Tigers. He's gaining trust with the staff. ... The two freshmen, 6-11 center Alex Condon (8.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and 6-9 forward Thomas Haugh (4.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg), continue to be nothing but reliable and provide jolts of energy off the bench. Condon had five points and seven boards in 20 minutes against Grambling, while Haugh was good for a career-high 13 points and two rebounds. ... Reserve wing Julian Rishwain's 14 minutes were the most this season for the grad-transfer in his first year as a Gator. When he's on the floor, Rishwain shows he can do a little bit of everything. He went 1-for-3 from deep, grabbed four rebounds and dished three assists without a turnover. 
 

The Bobcats

Quinnipiac is a private university in Hamden, Conn., with an enrollment of 9,700. The Bobcats (formerly the Braves) went from Division II to Division I in 1998, starting as a member of the

Northeast Conference, where they stayed for 15 years before moving to the MAAC for the 2013-14 athletic calendar. ... QU has never reached the DI NCAA Tournament, but played in the DII tournament in 1976, '79 and '88. ...  Quinnipiac is in its first season under Tom Pecora, who had successful nine-season run (2002-10) as the successor to Jay Wright at Hofstra, but followed that with five disastrous seasons at Fordham, where his teams went 44-106 and never lost fewer than 19 games. From there, he headed to Quinnipiac as an assistant before being elevated to head coach last spring. ... Of the Bobcats nine wins this season, one was a 116-48 rout of Division III Coast Guard Academy to open the season. Of their 12 opponents to date, nine have come against teams currently ranked 226th or lower in the NET. The three losses have come against the three highest-ranked opponents: UMass (81st), Canisus (137th) and Yale (143rd). ... QU has two scorers averaging in double figures, led by guard Matt Balanc, a fifth-year Bobcat who is shooting nearly 46 percent from the floor and 39.3 from the 3-point line. He has six games of at least 20 points, with a season-best 25 at Yale. He had 22 points and six rebounds against Lafayette last week. ...  Forward Amari Tice is in his first season after transferring from Wofford. He's the Bobcats' best low-post option on offense. He had 22 points and a career-best 15 rebounds against Lafayette, giving him a second straight double-double. ... Forward Paul Otieno is capable inside (14 rebounds earlier this season against Niagara), but has attempted just one 3-pointer in the team's 12 games. ... Point guard Savion Lewis, another in his fifth season at Quinnipiac, ranks second in the nation at 7.6 assists per game, but he's first nationally in assist percentage at 46.2. He'll have his hands full dealing with the ultra-physical Pullin.
 

Numbers of Note

* 1.000 — UF's winning percentage at the O'Dome this season, based on a 5-0 home record to date. 

* 6 — Florida players shooting below 70 percent from the free-throw line. They are: Haugh (41.2), Handlogten (50.0), Samuel (52.9), Aberdeen (55.6), Kugel (66.7) and Condon (65.2). Those six players are a combined 97-for-170 for 57.0 percent. 

* 314th — Where Florida ranks nationally in free-throw percentage (out of 362 D1 programs), based on its 66.0 number. 

* 1988 — The year Quinnipiac's public opinion polling institute, which began in a marketing class, went mainstream. It now is regularly cited in The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, Fox News, Reuters and countless other media outlets.

 * 19,444 — Fans at sold-out Amalie Arena in Tampa on April 9, 2023 when Quinnipiac won the NCAA Division I men's hockey championship by upsetting top-seeded Minnesota 3-2 in overtime for the school's first national title in any sport. Obviously, that was a big, big deal for the tiny Connecticut school. 
 

Bottom Line

A Florida win would make for a very happy close to 2023 and nice send-off into 2024.