Florida Gators

Florida at Ole Miss

 
* When: Wednesday, 9 p.m. (ET)
* Where: The Pavilion at Ole Miss / Oxford, Miss.
* Records: Florida (10-4, 0-1) / Ole Miss (13-1, 0-1)
* TV: SEC Network (Kevin Fitzgerald and Richard Hendricks)
* 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	G-Transfer	13.5 pts / 8.7 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	7.5 pts / 6.8 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	11.1 pts / 3.6 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	15.7 pts / 3.9 reb
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	G-Transfer	14.9 pts / 3.9 reb / 4.8 ast

Ole Miss	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jaemyn Brakefield	F	6-8 / 230	Senior	11.6 pts / 5.7 reb
Jamarion Sharp	F	7-5 / 235	G-Transfer	3.9 pts / 4.4 reb / 2.6 blk
Allen Flanigan	G	6-6 / 215	G-Transfer	16.2 pts / 7.3 reb
Matthew Murrell	G	6-4 / 200	Senior	16.4 pts / 3.8 reb
Jaylen Murray	G	5-11 / 170	Junior	14.4 pts / 2.5 reb / 3.6 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Mississippi meet in the second Southeastern Conference game for both teams; the first on the road for the Gators and first at home for the Rebels. ... Both teams are coming off losses in their league debuts. UF fell in deflating fashion against sixth-ranked Kentucky, which erased an eight-point second-half deficit, took a late lead and held on for an 87-85 win, the Gators' first home loss of the season, and snapped the program's longest winning streak in seven seasons at six games. Ole Miss, which opened the 2023-24 season by winning its first 13 games (one of only three unbeaten programs in the nation going into the weekend), got drilled 90-64 at fifth-ranked Tennessee. ... Florida leads the all-time series 70-48, including two straight victories. The Gators defeated the Rebels in their lone 2023 meeting, winning 79-64 in Gainesville on Feb. 15, 2023, a game that was more memorable for the one really bad thing that happened. Fifth-year senior guard Myreon Jones hit five 3-pointers to pace UF in the win, but the Gators lost senior forward and three-time All-SEC selection Colin Castleton for the season with a broken hand (on a fluke play, not less). After that, the team dropped five of its final seven games to finish with just the second losing record in 24 years. ... Ole Miss has won the last three meetings at Oxford, the previous two in lopsided fashion (70-54 in '22 and 68-51 in '20). 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Ole Miss
86.2	Scoring	76.4
.468	Field-goal percentage	.462
.332	3-point percentage	.402
74.6	Scoring defense	69.4
.413	Field-goal percentage defense	.407
.334	3-point percentage defense	.310
37th	KenPom.com overall ranking	84th
34th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	59th
52nd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	132nd
11th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	269th
49th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	67th
96th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	218th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They may be still kicking themselves over blowing Saturday's opportunity for a program-making, signature-type victory, but the sulking better end before arriving in the Magnolia State. UF had

an eight-point lead at the half against Kentucky that could easily have been more. The Gators missed too many wide-open shots (and free throws) and turned the ball at critical moments in allowing that game to slip away. Time to move on. Florida still has a potent offense, one of the best rebounding teams in the country (though not great against UK), held the SEC's most lethal offense to just 46 percent from the floor and five 3-pointers (but still gave up 50 points in the second half) and now needs to take the next step by closing out games against really good teams. ... The Gators are winless in their four 4 Quadrant-1 games, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), with this game looming as the fifth, at least for now (with a UF win potentially pushing the game to Q-2 status). ... After going 18-for-28 at the free-throw line (62.1 percent), the team is at 65.1 on the season. That's last in the league by nearly five percentage points. Yes, the Gators work on them in practice, but there's only so much coaches can do to replicate pressure and game situations. Eventually, it's up to players to step to the line and make the shot. ... Leading scorer Walter Clayton and red-hot Will Richard went into the UK game shooting 35 and nearly 39 percent, respectively, from the 3-point line. The two combined to go 3-for-18 in the game (16.6 percent), with Richard 0-for-7, with some wide-open looks. If they'd gone, say, 5-for-17 (still bad at 29 percent), the Gators likely prevail. Oh well. Richard needs to "next-play" that game and get his aim back. Clayton, who still had 23 points (2-for-7 overall, 0-4 from deep after halftime), needs to do the same. ... Point guard Zyon Pullin had a season-high 23 points in the game, though his three assists equaled a season-low. UF only had 11 assists in the game after combining for for 46 the previous two. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel went into the UK game leading the SEC in field-goal percentage (.646) and third in rebounding (8.85). His three points were a season low (just his second single-figure scoring game) and just one of his seven boards (fewest in seven games) came on the offensive end, an area the Gators were sure they'd have an advantage. ... Center Micah Handlogten's 12 rebounds were his second-most of the season, but his three turnovers were a season-high. ... Sophomore guard Riley Kugel (11.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) had a nice first half, hitting his first two 3-pointers after 18 consecutive misses the previous four games. Kugel finished with 15 points, his most since scoring 24 at Wake Forest on Nov. 29, but a couple ill-timed turnovers in the second half while trying to play a little too fast and do a little too much. It was good to see him playing with some confidence, though. The Gators were plus-11 with him on the floor, the best mark on the team. ... Freshman forward Alex Condon (8.3 ppg, 6.6 rpg) got his first taste of the SEC and its physicality on his way to 10 points and four rebounds over 23 minutes. Same with classmate Thomas Haugh, who went scoreless with four boards in 13. 
 

The Rebels

Their feel-good, unbeaten start to the season -- under Chris Beard, their controversial coach in his first season -- got something of a reality check in Knoxville. Give Beard credit, though, for

flipping the script in Oxford under a zeroed-in microscope following his firing at Texas in December 2022 over a domestic violence incident. Beard, who led Texas Tech to the 2019 NCAA title game, took over a Mississippi program that won a combined seven league games the previous two seasons under Kermit Davis Jr., retooled the roster through the transfer portal and put some instant electricity back in the Pavilon, the most beautiful arena in the SEC. ... The Rebels built their 13-0 start in part on a soft non-conference schedule that featured just one opponent in the current KenPom top 50 (Memphis at home) and two more in the top 100 (North Carolina State at home, UCF on the road). The Rebels won those games, however, but were absolutely manhandled by the Volunteers and a smothering defense ranked second in the nation, while getting blasted in the rebounding column, 47-24, including 19-4 on the offensive end. ... Four days after facing the SEC's best 3-point shooting team in Kentucky at 40.6 percent, the Gators get the No. 2 team from distance, with the Rebels at 40.2 percent on the season, armed with six players who make nearly 39 percent or better. ... Guard Matthew Murrell, once a UF recruit, is the No. 8 scorer in the league. He's at nearly 47 percent, 38.6 from 3 and one of the best perimeter defenders in the conference at 2.4 steals per. ... Guard Allen Flanigan was big-time portal acquisition by Beard, who got the wing from Auburn, where he was a four-year contributor (sometimes standout) and son of Tigers Hall-of-Famer Wes Flanigan. The younger Flanigan sits one spot behind Murrell among SEC scoring leaders and is making 39 percent of his 3s and nearly 80 percent from the free-throw line. He's the league's No. 6 rebounder. ... Forward Jaemyn Brakefield, in his third Rebels season since transferring from Duke, is a "stretch-4" who is hitting 39 percent from deep, knows how to draw fouls inside (82.6 percent from the line) and is the team's best offensive rebounder with 25. ... Point guard Jaylen Murray, the transfer from Saint Peter's, is a score-first point guard who despite his size (5-11, maybe) still makes nearly 46 percent of his field-goal tries and 3s. ... Forward Jamarion Sharp, one of the nation's tallest players at 7-5, led the country in blocked shots last season at 4.1 per game. He's at 61.5 percent from the floor on the season, but with only 39 field-goal attempts is not one of the Rebels' primary scoring options. ... Against Tennessee, the low-post tandem of Brakefield and Sharp combined to make eight of nine shots, while the Mississippi's top three scorers (Murrell, Flanigan and Murray) were a collective 10-for-34 overall and five of 13 from deep. Of the Rebels' four offensive rebounds in the game, backup 7-0 forward Moussa Cisse (3.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg), the transfer from Oklahoma State, grabbed three.  

Numbers of Note

* .718 — Beard's all-time winning percentage, based on a 249-98 record over 12 seasons at McMurray (National Christian College Athletics Association), Angelo State (Division II), Arkansas State, Texas Tech, Texas and Ole Miss. 

* 1 — Where Ole Miss ranks in KenPom metrics in the mathematically complicated category of luck. The luck rating is the deviation between a team's actual winning percentage and the expected from the systems array of metrics. If teams are winning more of the close games they are considered "lucky". 

* 316th — Where Florida ranks in KenPom metrics in the mathematically complicated category of luck. That's out of 362. 

* 2016 — The last year Florida won in Oxford. The date was Jan. 16. The place was the sparkling new $96 million Pavilion. The UF coach was Mike White, in his first seasons with the Gators and once a four-year starting point guard for the Rebels. White's first homecoming game against his alma mater was an impressive wire-to-wire job, with freshman guard KeVaughn Allen scoring 27 points on 9-for-11 shooting from the floor and a sizzling six of seven from the 3-point line. Fifth-year senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith had his fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds, as the Gators snapped a seven-game road losing streak dating back nearly a year.    

* 2019 — The year Beard, with Texas Tech, came within an overtime of winning a national championship. The date was April 8. The place was U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The opponent was Virginia. The Red Raiders led by three in regulation with 25 seconds to play, had the final shot (and missed) to win it in regulation, jumped ahead by three with three minutes go in the extra period, but eventually were defeated 85-77 by Kyle Guy and the Cavaliers.
 

Bottom Line

Obviously, the Gators do not want to dig themselves a two-game hole to start the conference season, but this will be a very difficult game in a raucous environment. The last time UF was in town, Mississippi resident and prominent Rebels fan Morgan Freeman was courtside for the blowout.