Florida Gators

Florida vs. Merrimack

 
* When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (4-3) / Merrimack (4-5)
* TV: SEC Network+ (Kyle Crooks and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey) / Stations list
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	14.1 pts / 8.3 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 210	Freshman	4.0 pts / 4.9 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Sophomore	15.1 pts / 4.3 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	15.6 pts / 4.1 reb / 4.0 ast
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	13.5 pts / 3.5 reb / 5.5 ast

Merrimack	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Samba Diallo	F	6-7 / 195	Senior	9.3 pts / 4.7 reb
Bryan Etumnu	F	6-7 / 215	Sophomore	7.4 pts / 4.9 reb
Jordan Derkack	G	6-5 / 205	Sophomore	17.8 pts / 6.4 reb
Devon Savage	G	6-4 / 190	Junior	11.2 pts / 4.1 reb
Adam Clark	G	5-10 / 155	Freshman	12.2 pts / 2.1 reb / 3.7 ast / 3.2 stl

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

After a weekend off and four consecutive games away from home, Florida is back in action and back at the O'Dome to face Merrimack, out of the Northeast Conference. ... The Gators are coming off Wednesday's 82-71 loss at Wake Forest in the ACC/SEC Challenge, a disappointing defeat in which UF led by nine with 15 minutes to go and proceeded to fall apart in a second straight loss. The Warriors, meanwhile, snapped a three-game losing streak by beating UMass Lowell 75-68 at home. ... The two programs are playing for the first time, as Merrimack is entering its first season as a full-fledged Division I team (more on that below).   

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Opponent
84.1	Scoring	71.0
.470	Field-goal percentage	.444
.329	3-point percentage	.265
75.7	Scoring defense	70.6
.433	Field-goal percentage defense	.410
.366	3-point percentage defense	.358
35th	KenPom.com overall ranking	265th
24th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	329th
60th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	137th
17th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	197th
65th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	162nd
84th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	130th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They'll likely be without 7-foot-1 sophomore center Micah Handlogten for the fourth consecutive game. Handlogten rolled his ankle just 49 seconds into the team's game against Pittsburgh on

Nov. 22, the first in the NIT Season Tip-Off at Brooklyn, N.Y. He has not been cleared for contact work at practice. ... UF was outscored 44-24 over the final 15 minutes in the loss at Wake and along the way allowed the Demon Deacons to make 13 of their last 16 shots (that's 82 percent), all but one of which was a 2-pointer. Florida is giving up 46.7 percent from the 2-point area, which is 87th nationally. Not good enough. ... UF ranks 332nd in the country in non-steal turnover percentage. Translation: That's a lot of unforced unforced errors, if that makes sense. ... Guard Riley Kugel has averaged 24.5 points, shot 56 percent overall and 67 percent from the 3-point line the last two games, upping his scoring average from 11.4 points per game to 15.1 in just those two outings. ... Both Walter Clayton Jr. and Zyon Pullin had looked very good together since Pullin became eligible four games ago, but they both struggled at Wake. The duo combined to make just six of 24 shots and one of nine 3-pointers. Clayton came to UF as a 40-percent career 3-point shooter, but is at 33 thus far. Pullin is shooting just 36.6 percent from the floor, but he's been positively stellar in his role as a floor general with 22 assists and just two turnovers. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel is shooting 65 percent and made his first 3-pointer (in six attampts) last game, but Samuel got caught up in the way the game was being officiated and his frustrations spilled over to some of his teammates; specifically, 6-11 freshman backup Alex Condon (8.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg). Condon was in constant complaint mode on the way to fouling out in just 17 minutes. He'll learn. Preferably sooner rather than later. ... Guard Will Richard moved to a reserve role for the first time this season (and for just the third time in his UF career) at Wake. He scored just three points and attempted only one field goal in just shy of 19 minutes. ... The Gators started freshman Tommy Haugh last game in an effort to develop a more structured rotation. Haugh scored three points in his starting debut, making one of two 3-point tries. 
 

The Warriors

The UF-Merrimack contract was drawn up last winter to give the Gators a good, clean "buy" game against a D-1 newbie. Seemed harmless enough at the time. Well, then the Warriors had to go and

win the 2023 Northeast tournament championship, but were not eligible for the league's automatic NCAA Tournament berth, due to transition rules. Who knows what Merrimack might have done? The Warriors ended the season with the nation's longest winning streak (11 games) and in the tournament title game upset Fairleigh Dickenson, which mere days later shocked No. 1-seed Purdue in opening-round NCAA play. Upon the celebratory – and frustrating – conclusion to the season, the Warriors lost their top four scorers from a 20-11 team to the transfer portal and basically started their Division I journey from scratch. ... Coach Joe Gallo is 65-57 at Merrimack, most of those wins coming against Division II opponents. The Warriors have lost both their games against high-major foes, with a 76-52 loss at Ohio State on Nov. 15 and falling 69-67 at Georgetown last week on a controversial late-game technical foul. ... Gallo is a zone freak. They'll be in it probably 100 percent of the time. ...  Guard and scoring leader Jordan Derkack is shooting 49 percent from the floor, but is not a 3-point threat at just 3-for-22 on the season. Derkack is a aggressive and on the attack, already with 61 free throws. He had 33 points three nights ago against UMass Lowell. ...  Point guard Adam "Budd" Clark is tough little Philadelphia kid and has not looked like a freshman in averaging 31 minutes a game. He's at 46 percent overall and, like Derkack, isn't going to scare anyone from deep (not at 0-for-10 on the season). But Clark already has 33 assists and a whopping 29 steals. He will be in the passing lanes looking for live-ball turnover opportunities. ...  Guard Devon Savage is in his second Merrimack season since transferring from James Madison. He's the Warriors' best 3-point threat at 33 percent. He has 23 makes from deep and no other teammate is in double figures. ... Forward Samba Diallo is a transfer from Manhattan and the team's best low-post threat. ... Forward Bryan Etumnu has 20 blocked shots. 

 

Numbers of Note

* .000 — Florida's winning percentage under Coach Todd Golden when the Gators are trailing with five minutes to play, based on the team's 0-18 record in that scenario, including each of the last two games.

* .952 — Florida's winning percentage under Golden when the Gators are leading with five minutes to play, based on the team's 20-1 record in that scenario. 

* 32nd — Where the Northeast Conference ranks in the KenPom.com power ratings. That's out of 33 leagues. 

* 34 — Span of days during this current run on the Florida schedule when the Gators will play just one game at home. UF last was on the O'Dome home floor Nov. 17 against Florida State and after the date against Merrimack will not be back again until Dec. 22 against Grambling.  

* 1998 — The year the Gators last played an opponent from the Northeast Conference. The date was Dec. 20. The place was the O'Dome. The opponent was Long Island U, which Florida obliterated 119-61, as seven players scored in double figures, led by 17 from sophomore center Obiora Nnaji, plus 16 each from freshman forward Mike Miller and backup senior forward Greg Stolt. Senior point guard Eddie Shannon and eight assists. That UF team was the third under Coach Billy Donovan and his first to reach the NCAA Tournament, where the Gators made a run to the Sweet 16. 
 

Bottom Line

Been a rocky start, especially trying to find some continuity with the rotation, but exactly no one is going to feel sorry for the Gators. This team needs to get back to its ball-sharing ways and get tougher on defense.