No. 21 Florida vs Florida A&M (Tuesday, 7 pm)

No. 21 Florida vs. Florida A&M

* When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (4-0) / Florida A&M (0-3)
* TV: SEC Network+ (Kyle Crooks and Mark Wise)
* 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	13.3 pts / 6.5 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	6.5 pts / 4.8 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.8 pts / 4.0 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	13.5 pts / 5.5 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	18.8 pts / 3.5 reb / 4.0 ast

Florida A&M	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Saiyd Burnside	F	6-9 / 210	Junior	5.0 pts / 3.0 reb
Tyler Shirley	F	6-8 / 210	Senior	7.0 pts / 5.7 reb
Jordan Chatman	G	6-4 / 210	Senior	7.0 pts / 2.0 reb
Milton Matthews	G	6-3 / 200	Senior	8.3 pts / 2.7 reb
Sterling Young	G	6-1 / 175	Senior	12.0 pts / 2.0 reb

The Breakdown

SETUP: Florida and Florida A&M face off for the third consecutive season. The Gators, who fell a spot to 21st in The Associated Press poll, are coming off Friday night's 87-74 win at rival Florida State, their first true road game of the season. The Rattlers, out of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, are on their annual pre-league road tour of "buy games," with their last outing an 84-53 loss at Maryland on Nov. 11.

SERIES: UF leads 13-0. The Gators won the last meeting 89-68 on Nov. 14, 2023, as four players scored in double figures, led by junior wing Will Richard's 20 points and six rebounds, plus 17 points and six boards from freshman forward Alex Condon. The game was competitive through the first half, with UF holding just an eight-point lead at the break after shooting 38 percent through the first 20 minutes. The Gators shot 58 percent during a 51-point second half, but also allowed the Rattlers to make nearly 51 percent and score 40 points.

ETC: All but one of the UF-FAMU games have been played at the O'Dome. The lone exception was a neutral-site game in 2006 at Tampa, where the reigning NCAA-champion Gators won 72-57

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Florida A&M
88.0	Scoring	61.7
.506	Field-goal percentage	.361
.287	3-point percentage	.277
69.8	Scoring defense	97.0
.407	Field-goal percentage defense	.522
.349	3-point percentage defense	.386
19th	KenPom.com overall ranking	354th
10th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	360th
50th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	329th
51st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	107th
N/A	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	N/A
181st	Overall strength of schedule ranking	14th

The Gators

UF reserve forward **Sam Alexis** (4) with the dunk (and primal scream) vs the Seminoles.

UF had a lot to be happy about with its 13-point road win against FSU. The Gators shot 52.5 percent against an outstanding defensive team, had their best performance of the young season from the 3-point line (35.7 percent), smashed the Seminoles on the glass 47-29, defended them at 38.6 percent and made plays to close out a tough game away from home. All those were huge positives, but Coach Todd Golden and his staff were not happy with the season-worst 19 turnovers that led to 16 FSU points and kept the game competitive until a late (and timely) offensive surge put things away. Three UF starters had four giveaways and another had three. Poor ball security -- casual passes, carelessness in traffic, etc. -- can be survived against teams that struggle to score, like the Seminoles. Such performances in Southeastern Conference play, however, likely will end with a different outcome.

Guard Walter Clayton Jr. had another fabulous offensive performance, with 25 points on 8-for-15 shooting from the, four of 10 from distance and perfect in five free-throw attempts to go with five assists. He also was one of the four-turnover culprits. Still, his plus-15 on-court score tied for best on the team with forward Alex Condon, who had another across-the-board effort of seven points, 12 rebounds, two assists and two blocks. He also had four turnovers. Condon is at nearly 73 percent from the floor (16 of 22), including 2-of-4 from 3. His 30 free-throw attempts lead the team, but he's converted only 63.3 percent.

Guard Alijah Martin, the Florida Atlantic transfer, had a season-high 17 points, going seven of 16 overall and 3-for-9 from deep, grabbed five rebounds and had three turnovers. Center Rueben Chinyelu, the transfer from Washington State, tallied four points, six rebounds and also had four turnovers. He's shooting 85.7 percent from the floor (12 of 14). Guard Will Richard had seven points, six rebounds and three assists without a turnover in 33 minutes.
.
Backup forward Sam Alexis is rounding into quite a portal acquisition. The 6-8 Tennessee-Chattanooga transfer forward is averaging 10.0 points on nearly 61-percent shooting and 5.3 rebounds, including nine on the offensive end, over just 16.5 minutes per game. He was 5-for-6 from the floor at Tallahassee. ... Reserve Thomas Haugh, the 6-9 sophomore forward, is at 4.5 points and 6.3 rebounds over starter-like 22.5 minutes (4th-most on the team). Haugh made two pressure-packed free throws with 2:21 to go -- in a one-and-one situation -- after FSU had cut an 18-point lead to just four. ... Sophomore backup point guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg) played a super-steady 14 minutes on his way to scoring eight points (with a couple 3s), just one turnover and a plus-10 on-floor score. ... Sophomore guard Urban Klavzar had two points, hitting his lone field-goal attempt, and a turnover in his UF debut. Klavzar, from Slovenia, was cleared by the NCAA for participation Thursday after sitting out the first three games. He will get more minutes against the Rattlers.

The Rattlers

The game marks the UF's first against the Rattlers since 2009 that they're not coached by Robert McCullum, who was an assistant under Lon Kruger when the Gators reached their first Final Four in 1994. McCullum was fired after going 6-23 last season and replaced by Patrick Crarey II, who was head coach at NAIA St. Thomas in Miami the last three seasons, where he won the Sun Conference title in 2024 and went to two NAIA tournaments, including a 26-win season in '22-23.

FAMU uses its non-conference schedule to help fund the athletic program. Of its 11 games before entering SWAC play, seven of them are on the road, with two of the four games coming against non-Division I opponents. The Rattlers already have lost road dates at TCU (by 46), at SMU (29) and Maryland (31). After taking on the Big, ACC and Big Ten, respectively, now they get the SEC, with future road dates at Clemson, Utah, BYU and Tarleton State in the weeks to come.

The Rattlers rank near the bottom of KenPom metrics in offensive efficiency, but also in a slew of defensive categories. They will have issues dealing with the Gators' size and rebounding.

Point guard Sterling Young, a transfer from South Alabama, had 16 and 15 points, respectively, in his first two games, but was held to five in the loss at Maryland. He's shooting 37 percent overall on a team-high 35 attempts in three games and is 6-for-18 from the 3-point line. ... Guard Milton Matthews is in his first Rattler season after coming from North Carolina A&T. Like Young, he's a volume shooter (27 attempts) and making just 26 percent from the floor and is 6-for-22 from deep. ... Guard Jordan Chatman, probably the most consistent FAMU player at 43 percent overall and five of 11 on 3s, is the lone Rattler who played against UF last season. He had eight points in that game. ... Backup 6-11 forward Jamine Charles is the tallest on the team, but he's averaging just 2.7 points and 8.3 minutes. ... Back forward Shaquir O'Neal (5.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg), a transfer from Texas Southern, is the son of a certain Basketball Hall-of-Famer with the same last name.

Numbers of Note

When attacking the basket and playing around the rim, the Gators have been elite from the 2-point area -- like this driving layup from **Walter Clayton Jr.** -- compared to their early struggles from long distance.

* 0.59 —Years of Division I basketball experience on the FAMU roster, according to KenPom. That's 352nd nationally, meaning only 12 programs have less.

* 2 —Steals for the Gators against the Seminoles. That's the program's fewest in a game in its three seasons under Golden. UF ranked last in the SEC in '23-24 in forced turnovers.

* 22.7—Richard's 3-point percentage through four games, based on 5-for-22 shooting. The number, at least for now, is an enigma, given the deadly precision he demonstrated in pickup and live action through the offseason and preseason.

* 32.2 —Average margin of victory for the Gators in the series. The closest the Rattlers have come was a 10-point loss in the first meeting, back in 1991, and the least closest was a 75-point loss in 2000, when UF won 125-50.

* 66.0 —Florida's shooting from the 2-point area, which ranks sixth nationally compared to its 28.7 percent from 3 that ranks 270th.

Bottom Line

The lowest-ranked opponent, per KenPom, on the Florida schedule should lead to minutes at the end of the UF bench.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 21 Florida vs Florida A&M (Tuesday, 7 pm)

No. 21 Florida vs. Florida A&M

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Rattlers

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

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No. 21 Florida vs Florida A&M (Tuesday, 7 pm)

No. 21 Florida vs. Florida A&M

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Rattlers

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Related News

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

Related Videos

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