Florida Gators

Florida vs. Richmond

 
* What: Orange Bowl Classic
* When: Saturday, 4 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Amerant Bank Arena / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (5-3) / Richmond (5-4)
* TV: SEC Network (Richard Cross and Joe Kleine)
* 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	13.8 pts / 7.6 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 210	Freshman	4.4 pts / 5.6 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	8.3 pts / 3.5 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Sophomore	13.9 pts / 4.3 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	16.9 pts / 4.0 reb / 3.8 ast

Richmond	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Isaiah Bigelow	F	6-7 / 205	Senior	10.8 pts / 4.1 reb
Neal Quinn	C	7-0 / 260	Senior	13.8 pts / 6.2 reb / 3.8 ast
Jason Roche	G	6-5 / 200	Junior	4.2 pts / 1.4 reb
Jordan King	G	6-0 / 175	Senior	20.9 pts / 4.1 reb / 2.1 ast
Mikkel Tyne	G	5-10 / 180	Freshman	4.2 pts / 1.7 reb .

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Richmond meet in the 2023 Orange Bowl Classic, the annual basketball event tied to the famous football game and one the Gators took part in annually for the better part of two

decades. UF played in the OBC for 15 straight years (2006-21) and in 22 of the first 24 before committing to an every-other-year agreement. The Gators did not play in Sunrise last December, but are back and part of the double-header with Florida State. The Seminoles will play South Florida at 1:30 p.m., followed by the Gators and Spiders at 4. ... Florida is coming off Tuesday night's 77-57 home victory against Merrimack that snapped a two-game losing skid. This will be the first of three straight neutral-site dates for the Gators after playing three consecutive away from home (and going 1-2) before the Merrimack outing. Richmond, meanwhile, fell 78-73 Wednesday night at Northern Iowa and is now 1-4 when playing away from home. ... Florida leads the all-time series 3-2, including one game in the OBC. The two teams last met Dec. 1, 2015, in UF's first season under Coach Mike White, with the Gators prevailing 76-56 behind a dominant performance by the front court, especially on the glass. Redshirt sophomore center John Egbunu scored 17 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while sophomore forward Devin Robinson posted 12 points and 13 rebounds, and senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith tallied nine points and 13 boards, helping the Gators smash the Spiders on the glass 57-36. ... Florida is 19-13 all-time against the A-10.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Richmond
83.3	Scoring	78.2
.460	Field-goal percentage	498.
.331	3-point percentage	.368
73.4	Scoring defense	67.6
.421	Field-goal percentage defense	.410
.331	3-point percentage defense	.322
31st	KenPom.com overall ranking	90th
23rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	79th
55th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	126th
19th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	278th
47th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	106th
53rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	277th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They jumped 18 spots in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings with the win over Merrimack. Why? Who knows this time of year. What Florida -- without a win in the NET Top 50 -- does know is that it needs to stockpile victories during this final stretch of the non-league season, with only one opponent currently in the NET Top 100 remaining on the pre-Southeastern Conference slate. ... The Gators fooled around for

more than a half Tuesday before finding their groove during a 26-2 run that flipped a three-point deficit into a fat lead. The catalyst was guard Walter Clayton Jr., who scored 21 of his game-high 26 in the second half, hitting 10 of his 15 shots, four of seven 3-pointers and both his free throws. His assertion was needed, with backcourt mate Riley Kugel, who had averaged 24.5 points the previous two games, scoring just five points and attempting only five shots over 21 minutes. Kugel got careless with the ball against a Merrimack press on an early possession of the second half (just after UF had taken the lead) and coughed-up a live-ball turnover, layup and lead. He was summoned to the bench immediately and Coach Todd Golden in his post-game media was pretty direct about Kugel's need to be more engaged at all times. ... Freshman 6-11 center Alex Condon (8.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg) was fantastic off the bench, carding his first career double-double on the way to 12 points and 16 rebounds. Condon became the first UF freshman since Al Horford in 2005 to grab at least 16 boards in a game. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel has started at the "5" spot each of the last three games, since 7-1 sophomore center Micah Handlogten went down with an ankle injury less than a minute into UF's win over Pittsburgh in the opening game of the NIT Season Tip-Off. Samuel was great in that tournament, but had 11 points (on 4-for-11 shooting) and three rebounds against Merrimack. ... Handlogten, meanwhile returned to action against the Warriors, but played just four reserve minutes in the first half, with Golden saying afterward he didn't think Handlogten had his best stuff. Though he was budgeted for 8-10 minutes going in and could have played in the second half, the Gators were playing too well and Golden opted to give Handlogten the rest. He'll play more against the Spiders. They need his length and defense. ... Will Richard has just eight points over the last two games, but did grab nine rebounds, played a team-high 33 minutes against Merrimack and was really good on the defensive end. ... Forward Thomas Haugh got his second start and responded with a career-high 11 rebounds. In just eight games, the freshman already has two double-digit games on the glass. ... Zyon Pullin did not start the last game after missing several days of practice with a sore shoulder, but came off the bench to score 10 points, grab four rebounds and dish three assists. His five turnovers, though, more than doubled his season total of two in his first four games as a Gator. He clearly was not at 100 percent, but toughed his way through it. 

The Spiders

Florida has had three head coaches in the time Richmond has been guided by Chris Mooney, now in his 19th season. Mooney has averaged 18.1 wins with the Spiders, with two A-10 tournament 

championships, three NCAA Tournament berths and a "Sweet 16" appearances in 2011. Last February, Mooney had to take leave from the program to undergo surgery for an aortic aneurysm. The team dropped four of its last six with Mooney sidelined to finish 15-18 for just the fourth losing campaign on his watch. ... That 2011 Spiders team that reached a regional semifinal included a reserve guard named Kevin Hovde, who is now a UF assistant and coach of the Gators' offense. ... Richmond is 0-3 in its three games against high-major opponents, with losses to Boston College, Colorado and Wichita State. Worth noting: Wake Forest was 0-3 in its three high-major games, including two against the SEC, when the Gators went to Winston-Salem. ... Point guard Jordan King is a transfer from East Tennessee State, where he was an All-Southern Conference selection now scoring over 20 points per game on nearly 51 percent from the floor and 45.5 from the 3-point line. King scored a season-high 29 in a win over William & Mary earlier in the season, and last year dumped a career-high 42 on The Citadel. .... Versatile big man Neal Quinn, a deft passer at just shy of four assists per, has improved on his numbers from last season. He's over 60 percent overall, including 63 from the 2-point area. ... Forward Isaiah Bigelow is in his second season since coming from Wofford. Like Quinn, he's shooting at a high percentage (54.5 overall), especially from the 2-point area (63.2). Unlike Quinn (1-for-6 from 3 this season), he needs to be accounted for at the arc, where his 12 makes rank second to King's 25. ... Guard Jordan Roche isn't scoring a lot of points, but he's over 35 percent from deep. ... At just shy of 37 percent from the 3-point line, the Gators better be concerned with the Spiders, considering UF's penchant for losing shooters around the arc. ... Richmond is shooting 57.6 percent from the 2-point area, which ranks 19th nationally and its turnover percentage of just 11.9 percent ranks fourth. The Spiders need to make the most of their first shots because they're one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country at just 19.9 percent, which is 354th (compared to Florida, which is third at 42.6).
 

Numbers of Note

* .818 — Florida's winning percentage in the Orange Bowl Classic, based on an 18-4 record dating to the Gators' first appearance in 1997, an 80-73 loss to Alabama-Birmingham. In the more than quarter-century since, UF has defeated the likes of Michigan, Gonzaga, Miami, West Virginia, Providence, Temple, Texas A&M, Wake Forest and Oklahoma State in Sunrise. UF's last appearance in the OBC was an 66-55 win over USF in 2021. The Gators' last OBC loss was two appearances ago, a 65-62 setback against Utah State in 2019.   

* 6 — Names of the Sunrise-based arena and home to the NHL Florida Panthers over the years: National Car Rental Center (1998–2002); Office Depot Center (2002–2005); Bank Atlantic Center (2005–2012); BB&T Center (2012–2021); FLA Live Arena (2021–2023); Amerant Bank Center (2023-present). 

* 195 — Points scored by Hovde during his 99 games over four seasons (2006-11) as a role player for Mooney at Richmond  

* 1992 — The Gators played the Spiders in the postseason. It was the NIT. The date was March 19. The place was the O'Dome, where UF defeated Richmond 66-52 to begin a run of three tournament wins that sent the Gators to the semifinals of the NIT Final Four in New York for only the second time in school history.  

* 2009 — The year Richmond upset 13th-ranked Florida in the Orange Bowl Classic. The Gators blew an eight-point halftime lead by shooting just 26 percent in the second period (including 1-for-9 from the 3-point line) and allowed the Spiders to creep back into the game. Richmond guard David Gonzalvez scored 16 points, including a 3-ball with 1:34 to go that put the Spiders ahead to stay. A 3 by sophomore UF point guard Erving Walker drew Florida within a point inside five seconds to go, but Kevin Anderson sank two free throws with 0.9 to play to ice the game. 
 

Bottom Line

The Florida players made a verbal pact to get through the month of December (six games) without a loss. This one represents the second step ... and perhaps the toughest.