No. 20 Florida at Florida State (Friday, 6 pm)

No. 20 Florida at Florida State

* When: Monday, 6 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Tucker Civic Center / Tallahassee, Fla.
* Records: Florida (3-0) / Florida State (3-0)
* TV: ACC Network (Doug Sherman and Randolph Childress)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
(with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan)
* Ticket info

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Sophomore	15.3 pts / 4.7 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	7.3 pts / 4.3 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	16.0 pts / 5.0 reb / 4.0 stl
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	12.3 pts / 5.7 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	16.7 pts / 3.0 reb / 4.3 ast

Florida State	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Taylor Bol Bowen	F	6-10 / 205	Sophomore	9.0 pts / 6.0 reb
Malique Ewin	F	6-11 / 230	Junior	5.7 pts / 4.3 reb
Jamir Watkins	G	6-7 / 210	Grad	18.3 pts / 4.7 reb
Chandler Jackson	G	6-5 / 205	Junior	5.3 pts / 2.7 reb
Bostyn Holt	G	6-7 / 200	Senior	4.0 pts / 2.0 ast

The Breakdown

Donald Tucker Center in Tallahassee (capacity 11,675)

SETUP: Florida and Florida State meet in their annual rivalry game. The Gators, ranked 20th in this week's Associated Press poll, are coming off Monday night's 86-62 defeat of Grambling State in Gainesville. The Seminoles defeated Tarleton State 72-52 on Tuesday at home. Their two previous wins came against Northern Kentucky and Rice. This will be UF's first true road date of the young season.

SERIES: The Gators lead 46-29, with a three-game winning streak that followed seven consecutive victories for the Seminoles (2014-20) and equaled the longest streak in the series for either program. ... The two teams last met on Nov. 17, 2023 in Gainesville, where UF won an 89-68 blowout that marked the most lopsided game in the series in 11 years. In that one, junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. tallied 19 points and five assists, grad-transfer point guard Zyon Pullin added 15 points in his UF debut, but it was a collective (and red-hot) 64-percent first-half of offense that keyed the blowout. The Gators overwhelmed the Seminoles on both ends over the first 20 minutes, dropping 18 of their 28 field-goal tries, including six of 12 from the 3-point line -- and limiting FSU to just 27-percent shooting -- to open a 30-point halftime lead. The Seminoles got no closer than 19 the rest of the way. ... UF is 19-13 all-time at Tallahassee, including a 76-67 victory in the last visit two years ago.

ETC: UF is trying to start a season with a fourth straight win for the first time since 2021. FSU last began 4-0 in '21, also

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Florida State
88.3	Scoring	73.0
.500	Field-goal percentage	.440
.260	3-point percentage	.210
68.3	Scoring defense	59.7
.415	Field-goal percentage defense	.354
.349	3-point percentage defense	.279
22nd	KenPom.com overall ranking	79th
14th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	137th
51st	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	43rd
44th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	28th
N/A	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	N/A
235th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	266th

The Gators

Sophomore combo guard **Urban Klavzar** (7), after sitting out the season's first three games, was ruled eligible to participate by the NCAA on Thursday and is expected to play Friday against the Seminoles.

In the win Monday against Grambling, all eight of the main rotational players scored at least eight points, with five finishing in double figures. Washington State transfer center Rueben Chinyelu led the way with a career best-equaling 14 points on 7-for-8 from the floor. The Gators, like their first two games, did their best work from the 2-point area, making 22 of 41 shots (53.7 percent) versus just seven of 23 from the 3-point line, which actually was their best performance (30.4 percent) of the young season. Same for UF's rebounding, where the Gators were outplayed in their first two games. Against Grambling, UF had a 45-24 edge on the glass, including 17-5 on the offensive end.

Todd Golden earned the 100th victory of his head-coaching career Monday, with 43 of them with the Gators.

Look for Florida's eight-man rotation to become a nine-man rotation after the team announced Thursday that Urban Klavzar, the 6-1, 195-pound combo guard from Slovenia, had been cleared for participation by the NCAA. Golden praised the work of the UAA compliance staff for its diligence on Klavzar's behalf. Now the Gators can roll the sharp-shooter into an offense in need of 3-point marksmanship. Klavzar, who will start his eligibility as a sophomore, signed in July, then made good on UF's evaluations with stellar play in the EuroBasketball U20 Tournament in August, when he helped guide his team to a silver medal by averaging team-bests of 16.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 38.3 percent from deep. Klavzar didn't get to campus until the week before fall classes began and had to learn the system on the fly. The staff likes his upside as a creative scorer, but what they love most is his outside shooting (44 percent from the arc during his one season playing professionally last year).

Guard Walter Clayton Jr. is off to a solid start in his new role as point guard. Play-making duties have not taken away from his scoring. Clayton is shooting 56.3 percent from the floor, though just six of 18 from the arc (33.3 percent) and has missed just one of his nine free throws (88.9 percent). As floor general he's at 13 assists and seven turnovers.

Will Richard has yet to find his 3-point shooting touch from the wing spot. He's made 47.5 percent of his overall field-goal tries, but just four of 18 from the arc (22.2 percent). Richard's defense, however, has shown a huge improvement, as he leads the team with 12 steals after a career-best five against the Tigers. Guard Alijah Martin also has been slow to find his eye (36.7 percent overall, just 26.7 from deep), but is doing a little bit of everything, while averaging double figures by attacking the rim (his 14 free throws rank second on the team). He also rates second in rebounding and steals (9).
.
After tallying a career-high 23 points and only one rebound in a win last week over Jacksonville, forward Alex Condon had a more rounded performance Monday with 10 points, a team-best eight boards, two blocks and two assists in just under 19 minutes. Condon is shooting 82.4 percent, has made two of four 3s and leads the team with 25 free throws attempted.

Backup forward Sam Alexis, the junior transfer from Tennessee-Chattanooga, has emerged as one of the most productive players on the team at 9.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in junior 16.7 minutes per. ... Sophomore backup forward Thomas Haugh (4.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg) has yet to get on track offensively, but he leads front-court players in minutes and, as usual, is palying as hard as anyone on the floor. ... Reserve junior point guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 2.0 apg) continues to get more comfortable in his on-ball backup role.

The Seminoles

They're in the 23rd season under Leonard Hamilton, 76, who it's been speculated in coaching circles could be ready to sunset an outstanding career after this season. Hamilton is 446-281 at FSU, with eight NCAA tournament berths. The Seminoles had a four-year run earlier in Hamilton's stint when they averaged 23.7 wins and went to four tournaments, then another surge at 23.6 wins over six seasons that included two Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. The program has stagnated of late, however, combining to go 43-53 the previous three seasons, including a disastrous 9-23 mark in '22-23. FSU's last NCAA appearance came in 2021.

The Seminoles' last outing was a balanced-scoring affair, but in a different way than the Gators'. FSU won comfortably, but without a single player hitting double figures. The Seminoles were led by freshman backup guard Daquan Davis (7.3 ppg, 2.0 apg), who had nine points, with seven other players between six and eight points. Florida State made just four of 21 3-pointers, but was a very solid (UF-like) 64.3 percent from the 2-point area, held Tarleton to 31.4 percent overall (the Noles' have always played outstanding defense under Hamilton) and won the rebounding column 37-25.

FSU is middling (or worse) in most offensive categories, but beware of the Seminoles' disruption when it comes to defending, especially with steals and blocks, both of which can lead to transition scoring opportunities. They get a steal on 16.3 percent of opponents' possessions (12th nationally) and turnovers on 27.2 percent (10th). FSU's insane block percentage of 24.1 percent ranks fourth in the country.

Guard Jamir Watkins is in his third season since transferring from Virginia Commonwealth. He's a volume shooter off to a slow start at 44.4 overall, three of 13 from the 3-point line and 62.5 with his free throws. Watkins is a very good defender, though, already with nine steals. Watkins is capable of beating opponents in a variety ways, with career highs of 34 in points, 11 in rebounds (6 times), nine in assists and four in blocks. ... FSU has just three players -- Watkins, Hampton transfer forward Jerry Deng (6.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg) and Milwaukee transfer guard Justin Thomas (7.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg) -- with at least two made 3-pointers. The Seminoles are a collective 13 of 62 from distance. Watkins has five of those makes with the rest of the team 8-for-49 (16.3 percent). ... Under Hamilton, size has always been a calling card, though this FSU squad isn't as big and physical as past teams, but the length is there. Forwards Taylor Bol Bowen (47 percent, 6 blocks) and Malique Ewin (2.3 offensive rebounds pg) are the "bigs" in the starting lineup, but the Seminoles will bring 7-0 Alier Maluk (3.7 ppg, 2.7 rpg) and 6-11 Christian Nitu (2.0 ppg) for spot duty off the bench. They all be aggressive trying to protect the rim.

Numbers of Note

Florida forward Colin Castleton (12) scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the Gators' near-record road comeback at Tallahassee two years ago.

* minus-19 —Florida's first-half deficit the last time the Gators faced the Seminoles on the road. UF 6-11 forward Colin Castleton scored 19 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, as the Gators came back from 17 down at the break for their second-largest come-from-behind road win in program history. UF scored 30 of the first 35 points out of the locker room, hitting 13 of its first 21 shots, but also forced FSU into eight turnovers over the first eight minutes without committing any. The Gators flipped a 17-point margin into an 11-point lead barely out of the second media timeout and finished from there.

* 19 —Fouls drawn by Condon, which is seven more than the next-best Gator (Martin with 12). Condon, though, needs to capitalize better at the free-throw line, where he is 64.0 percent on his 25 attempts. That's a shade under the 67.3 percent he knocked down during his '23-24 SEC All-Freshman Team season.

* 83.8 — What opponents are shooting collectively from the free-throw line against the Gators, which puts them at 351st in the country. Only 13 teams rank below them and none are in power conferences.

* 92 —Where Hamilton ranks on the all-time college basketball victory list (all classifications), including 12th among active Division I coaches.

* 1966 —The last year a Florida coach began his tenure with three straight defeats of Florida State (as Golden has a chance to do). The coach then was Tommy Bartlett, who went on to win his first four against the Seminoles.

Bottom Line

Count on a little different tone (as in more hostile, obviously) for this first road trip of the season.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 20 Florida at Florida State (Friday, 6 pm)

No. 20 Florida at Florida State

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Seminoles

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Zyon Pullin

Will Richard

Footer

Upcoming Events

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Arizona on Nov. 3, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus North Florida on Nov. 6, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Florida State on Nov. 11, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Miami on Nov. 16, 2025 at TBA

Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Merrimack on Nov. 21, 2025 at TBA

No. 20 Florida at Florida State (Friday, 6 pm)

No. 20 Florida at Florida State

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Seminoles

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Zyon Pullin

Will Richard

Related Videos

Footer