Florida Gators

No. 9 Florida vs. Arizona State

 
* What: Holiday Hoopsgiving
* When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: State Farm Arena / Atlanta
* Records: Florida (9-0) / Arizona State (8-1)
* TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal and Richard Hendrix)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
  (with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) 
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Sophomore	13.0 pts / 7.0 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	5.6 pts / 6.4 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	11.6 pts / 5.1 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	15.2 pts / 5.8 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	18.4 pts / 3.2 reb / 3.6 ast

Arizona State	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Basheer Jihad	F	6-9 / 239	Senior	13.3 pts / 5.8 reb
Jayden Quaintance	F	7-0 / 250	Freshman	7.8 pts / 8.0 reb
B.J. Freeman	G	6-6 / 200	Senior	12.2 pts / 4.8 reb
Adam Miller	G	6-3 / 190	Senior	9.4 pts / 2.6 reb
Alston Mason	G	6-2 / 175	Senior	12.0 pts / 1.7 reb / 3.2 ast

The Breakdown

  SETUP: No. 9 Florida and Arizona State meet in the second of three games making up the Holiday Hoopsgiving, an event now its third year. The Gators, in the Associated Press Top 10 for the first time since November 2019, will be seeking just the third 10-0 start in program history, after stringing together a three-game run -- Wake Forest, Wichita State and Virginia -- of dominant wins over high-major opponents, most recently an 87-69 home beating of the Cavaliers in the ACC/SEC Challenge. UF's nine-game win streak is the longest since the program-record 30 in a row of the 2013-14 season. The Sun Devils, meanwhile, are on a streak of their own, having won six in a row to rocket up the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings (and two spots shy of the AP Top 25), with the last outing a 90-53 smashing of San Diego. The UF/ASU game will be sandwiched between the event's two other games: No. 2 Auburn vs Ohio State (1 p.m.) and Georgia vs Grand Canyon (6 p.m.).

SERIES: UF leads 2-0, with the lone dates 24 years apart. The Gators beat the Sun Devils 87-73 in first-round play of the 1984 Hoosier Classic and did not play again until the quarterfinals of the 2008 NIT when UF went to Tempe and defeated the Sun Devils -- and a guy named James Harden -- 70-57 to advance to the tournament's Final Four in New York. Junior guard Walter Hodge led the way with 18 points, including a couple late baskets to help ice the victory, and finished six of 10 from the field and 4-for-8 from the 3-point line. The Gators made 12 of 25 from deep and shot a season-best 61 percent from the floor. Forward Chandler Parsons added 15 points and point guard Nick Calathes posted 11 points and nine assists. Harden, in his final collegiate game, had 18 points. 

ETC: The only two teams in UF history to start 10-0 were the 1951-52 squad, coached by John Mauer, and Billy Donovan's 2005-06 that started 17-0 and went on to win the program's first NCAA championship. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Arizona State
86.6	Scoring	80.0
.473	Field-goal percentage	.471
.336	3-point percentage	.395
65.0	Scoring defense	71.1
.384	Field-goal percentage defense	.404
.302	3-point percentage defense	.303
8th	KenPom.com overall ranking	51st
6th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	59th
31st	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	47th
132nd	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	143rd
6th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	35th
212th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	69th

The Gators

After putting a stranglehold on their two opponents in the ESPN Events Invitational over the Thanksgiving holiday, the Gators took something of a step back defensively in the win over Virginia. OK, so that's nitpicking, given the 18-point cushion, but allowing 46 percent from the floor, eight 3s and 13 offensive rebounds was not what Coach Todd Golden and his staff were looking for against a middling offensive team. As a result, UF fell from its place in the KenPom.com defensive efficiency top 20 back outside the top 30. That's still 60 spots better than where the Gators finished a season ago, but there's a standard that's been set this season and Florida will try to meet it each game. As for the offense? Well, it is elite right now -- only five teams in the country rate higher, with two (Auburn and Alabama) in the Southeastern Conference -- especially with the high level of play from scoring leader and point guard Walter Clayton Jr., who slashed the Cavaliers for 27 points, including five 3s, plus four assists, two steals and just one turnover. Clayton is up to 48 percent from the floor, 37 from 3 and 91 at the free-throw line. Clayton is 17 of 35 overall (48.8 percent) 10-for-21 from the arc (47.6 percent) his last two games. He's got five 3s in each of the last two games.  

Florida is in the nation's top 30 in offense (5th), turnover percentage (23rd), offensive rebound percentage (9th) and 2-point percentage (29th). The latter number is significant, given eight SEC teams currently rate higher: Tennessee (1st), Missouri (3rd), Tennessee, Auburn (4th), Vanderbilt (6th), Alabama (11th), Georgia (12th) and Kentucky (23rd). Brutal league. 

Forward Alex Condon, after going 7-for-8 against UVA, is at 58.7 percent from the floor for the season. He still leads the team in free-throw attempts -- his 57 is 29 attempts more than the next-closest Gator -- and has inched his percentage at the line up to 64.9 by making 16 of 21 over the previous three games. ... Guard Alijah Martin is the team's No. 2 scorer. He's at 45.6 percent on the season and 35.7 from deep. Martin went just 1-for-6 from distance against the Cavs, but 5-for-8 from 2 on his way 16 points and five rebounds. ... Guard Will Richard and forward Rueben Chinyelu are coming off quiet stat games. Richard scored five points and shot just 1-for-5. Chinyelu was scoreless (0-4) with four boards. Don't discount, however, the way Richard continues to guard (2 more steals, a team-best 20 on the season and a UF transfer record of 81 for his career) or the space the physical Chinyelu creates in ball-screen action that opens lanes for Clayton, Martin, etc., to drive. Richard, by the way, hails from nearby Fairburn, Ga., and should have a nice support group in the house. 

A pair of backups, guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.6 ppg) and Thomas Haugh (7.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg), continue to be consistently very good. Against UVA, Aberdeen had 12 points off the bench (4 of 5 from the floor, 2-for-2 from deep), while Haugh had six points, three assists and a block. ... Reserve forward Sam Alexis (6.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg) made a couple impact plays vs the Cavs in the first half when the Gators initiated their comeback from an early nine-point deficit. Alexis is averaging two offensive rebounds a game, despite playing just 14.6 minutes. ... Backup guard Urban Klavzar was a DNP/Coaches Decision for the first time in his five games since being ruled eligible Nov. 14. He'll see time this game. 
 

The Sun Devils

They're in Season 10 under Bobby Hurley, who landed the gig in 2015 after two seasons and one NCAA Tournament berth at Buffalo. Hurley's accomplishments are a far cry from brother Dan's at Connecticut (whose aren't?), but his personality is very much the same when it comes to sidelines demeanor. His record at ASU is 163-132, with four 20-win seasons and three NCAA Tournament appearances, the last in 2023. He has yet to win a tournament game at Arizona State. ... ASU (along with Arizona, Colorado and Utah) is in its first season as a member of the Big 12, following the collapse of the Pac-12. The Sun Devils were picked to finish 11th in the league, but thus far are playing above prognostications. ... They have four KenPom top-100 wins, having defeated Santa Clara, Grand Canyon, New Mexico and -- the best win to date -- Saint Mary's on a neutral court at Palm Springs, Calif. Their lone loss came in a close one at Gonzaga, 88-80, on Nov. 10.

The Sun Devils are an outstanding 3-point shooting team, with their 39.5 percent ranking 19th nationally. They also are adept not only at driving the basketball, but in the top 40 at drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line. They shot 35 in the win over New Mexico. ... Forward Basheer Jihad, a transfer from Ball State, has been to the free-throw line 63 times (7.0 per game), with his free-throw rate 10th in the country. His 28 turnovers lead the team (and are 10 more than any UF player). ... Guard B.J. Freeman is in his first ASU season after transferring from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he averaged 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists over the previous two seasons. He hasn't found his shooting touch thus far (39.8 overall, 29.2 from 3), but the Gators don't want to find out what it looks like. ... Forward Jayden Quaintance was a five-star prospect and 2024 McDonald's All American out of Ohio, who took an official visit to the Gators and ultimately signed with Kentucky. He reopened his recruitment after John Calipari went to Arkansas and landed with the Sun Devils and is a brute in the post. He won't stray far from the paint (just 9 attempts from 3, so far). He's at 49-percent shooting, with more than half of his rebounds (25 of 47) on the offensive end.

Joson Sanon (15.9 ppg, 3.6 reb), a 6-5 guard, joins Quaintance as one of the best freshmen in the Big 12 and leads the Sun Devils in scoring, despite coming off the bench. He's playing starter's minutes (27.7), shooting 52 percent overall and a blazing 25 of 46 from the arc (54.3 percent), which ranks 19th nationally. ... Point guard Alston Mason, transfer from Missouri, is one of those drivers who gets to the line and converts at better than 83 percent. ... Guard Adam Miller (45.7 percent from 3) is in his second season at ASU after transferring from LSU. He played at Illinois as a freshman reserve for the Big Ten champion Illini squad that went to the 2022 NCAA Tournament as a No. 1 seed. ... A pair of backup forwards, 7-0 Shawn Phillips Jr. (5.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and 6-8 Amier Ali (5.1 ppg), are very efficient offensive players. 
 

Numbers of Note

* .880 —Clayton's career free-throw percentage at Florida, which now ranks first in program history (minimum 140 attempts), just ahead of KeVaughn Allen, who hit 87.8 percent over his four seasons (2015-19). 

* 1 — Gators to make at least five 3-pointers in three consecutive games, as Clayton has a chance to do Saturday. The only one to do is Anthony Roberson, who made them in consecutive SEC games (6 at Auburn, 6 at Vanderbilt, 5 against Tennessee) in January 2005.

* 3.0 —Offensive rebounds per game by Condon, whose offensive-to-defensive rebounding ratio is 27-to-36. 

* 4 — Championships won by the Gators in Atlanta, with SEC Tournament titles in '05, '07 and '14, plus the NCAA championship in '07.

* 2008 —The last year James Harden had a close-cropped beard, during his days at ASU (that ended with a loss to the Gators).
 

Bottom Line

After a mostly soft non-conference schedule, now comes the first back-to-back Quadrant-1 opportunities, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), and the best chance to size up just how good this very promising team might be. 

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu