Florida Gators

No. 7 Florida vs. North Carolina

 
* What: Jumpman Invitational 
* When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Spectrum Center / Charlotte, N.C.
* Records: Florida (10-0) / North Carolina (6-4)
* TV: ESPN (Dave O'Brien, Debbie Antonelli and Myron Metcalf)
* 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	12.2 pts / 7.1 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	5.6 pts / 6.6 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	12.0 pts / 5.2 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	15.2 pts / 6.3 reb / 3.1 ast
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	19.1 pts / 3.2 reb / 3.7 ast

North Carolina	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Ven-Allen Lubin	F	6-8 / 230	Junior	6.8 pts / 4.7 reb
Drake Powell	F/G	6-6 / 195	Freshman	5.7 pts / 3.6 reb
Seth Trimble	G	6-3 / 195	Junior	15.4 pts / 4.7 reb
RJ Davis	G	6-0 / 180	Senior	17.6 pts / 4.0 reb / 4.3 ast
Elliot Cadeau	G	6-1 / 180	Sophomore	11.5 pts / 3.7 reb / 5.6 ast

The Breakdown 

SETUP: No. 7 Florida and North Carolina face off in the third Jumpman Invitational, a Jordan brand-created event that debuted in 2022 as a men's double-header featuring the four original Jordan schools: UF, UNC, Michigan and Oklahoma. The Gators lost to OU in '22, beat UM in double-overtime last year and now rotate to the Tar Heels for what will (technically) be called a neutral-site game, despite Spectrum Center being packed overwhelmingly with Carolina fans. UF is coming off one of its most impressive victories of the season, throttling Arizona State 83-66 in the Holiday Hoopsgiving event Saturday at Atlanta. UNC, which has played a brutal pre-Atlantic Coast Conference schedule, defeated LaSalle 93-67 at home Saturday to win a second straight after losing three in a row. The Florida/Carolina matchup will precede an Oklahoma/Michigan women's nightcap. On Wednesday, the UF/UNC women will play, followed by unbeaten OU vs. UM. 

SERIES: North Carolina leads 4-2. The first meeting came on an unknown date during the 1922-23 season, with the Tar Heels punishing the Gators 59-14 at Chapel Hill. In 1926, UNC again won at home, that time by a football-looking score of 42-6. The Tar Heels dominated the last meeting, a 75-64 hammering in the 2014 Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Islands, Bahamas. In that one, No. 5 Carolina scored the game's first 12 points -- while the Gators missed their first 10 field-goal attempts -- and led by as many as 18 in a first half as 18th-ranked UF went 1-for-15 from the 3-point line. Florida showed some fight in cutting the margin to as few as seven in the second half, but the Gators never got out of their shooting funk in finishing at 32.8 percent for the game and 22.8 from distance. UNC was led by forward Kennedy Meeks, who had 18 points and 13 rebounds, along with guard Marcus Paige's 16 points. UF got a career-high 20 from sophomore point guard Kasey Hill, as well as 17 points and nine rebounds from junior guard Michael Frazier II. 

ETC: This will be the last Jumpman headlined by the four flagship programs, with more Jordan-brand schools rotating to the event in the years to come. There is buzz about the originals returning every second or third year. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	North Carolina
86.2	Scoring	86.8
.473	Field-goal percentage	.469
.336	3-point percentage	.329
65.1	Scoring defense	78.7
.382	Field-goal percentage defense	.420
.300	3-point percentage defense	.343
7th	KenPom.com overall ranking	28th
7th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	21st
22nd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	38th
98th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	6th
5th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	36th
154th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	10th

The Gators

They're one of just five unbeaten Division I teams still kicking and doing it on both ends of the floor. What has taken this team to the next level, however, is a long, aggressive and physical defense that forces missed shots and turnovers that can quickly turn into transition baskets -- and oftentimes 3-pointers. It's a stat that's been talked about a lot, but there's no underestimating the improvement on the defensive side, where Florida ranked 94th in overall efficiency last season and currently sits at 22nd after swarming the Sun Devils into 37 percent from the floor, 28 from 3, converting 12 turnovers into 20 points and tallying 28 points in transition. The Gators' effective defensive field-goal percentage (a weighted metric that takes into accounts 3s vs 2s) ranks 11th in the country, with UF's 2-point defensive percentage of 42.5 is 12th-best nationally. 

The perimeter trio of Walter Clayton Jr., Will Richard and Alijah Martin combined for 56 points and 10 3-pointers in the game, with Clayton leading the way with 25 points and five 3s, becoming just the second player in UF history to drop at least five 3s in three consecutive games. His 19.1 scoring average is the highest through 10 games by a Florida player this century. Richard had 16 points and six rebounds. Martin had 15 points, a season-high 11 rebounds and six assists. 

The starting front court of Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu made life miserable on ASU in the paint. They didn't block a bunch of shots (just 5), but stood their ground and used length, physicality and effort to hold the Sun Devils to 28 paint points and 43.2 percent inside the arc, while bombing them 47-27 on the glass (12-6 on the offensive end). Condon and Chinyelu each pulled eight rebounds. The two combined to score just 11 points, but Chinyelu was 3-for-3 from the floor. ... Sophomore Thomas Haugh (7.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg) hit three of his four shots off the bench, grabbed four rebounds and had an assist and steal. Fellow backup Sam Alexis (6.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg) was instant energy and productivity in his 17 minutes. He was 4-for-7 shooting for eight points. 

A lot of fans like to talk about the lack of a pure point guard on this team, but the ball-handling trio of Clayton, Martin and reliable reserve Denzel Aberdeen (7.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg) has combined for 85 assists and 42 turnovers. The Gators had 17 assists against ASU, shot 47.8 percent from the floor and made at least 10 3s for the third consecutive game (and for the sixth time in the previous seven games). Speaking of 3s, Florida shot 26.0 percent from deep through its first three games. The Gators are at 36.1 in the seven since. 
 

The Tar Heels

It's their fourth season under alum and former Tar Heel great Hubert Davis, who is 84-35 overall, with a Final Four in his inaugural 2021-22 season after replacing Hall-of-Famer Roy Williams and the 2024 ACC regular-season title. UNC's best wins thus far were against Dayton in the Maui Classic and a 68-65 victory last week over Georgia Tech in the December conference opener. The Tar Heels' four losses have come against Kansas, Auburn, Michigan State and Alabama, a quartet currently ranked 10th, 2nd, 21st and 7th in the current Associated Press poll. Carolina is averaging nearly 87 points per game, but the Heels aren't a great halfcourt; 86th in 2-point percentage (55.1) and 184th from distance (32.9). They also don't get a lot of their misses back (28.4 percent on the offensive glass, which rates 226th), so the Gators will have a chance to take advantage of those numbers and turn misses into transition opportunities. They are an elite transition team, however, so UF has to be connected on that front.

Guard RJ Davis has been one of college basketball's best players the last five seasons. Last year, he became the first UNC player to earn consensus first-team All-America honors since Justin Jackson in 2017 and the first Tar Heels guard to do so since Joseph Forte in 2001, while joining Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, Forte and Ty Lawson as the only Heel guards to be voted ACC Player of the Year. Davis averaged 21.2 points per game last season and now has 2,264 points (fifth in UNC history), 573 rebounds and 476 assists in 148 games. Davis, who hung 42 points on Miami last year, is a three-level scorer and excels at drawing fouls and getting to the line, where he's converted at 85.8 percent for his career. As far as sheer talent, Davis represents something of a barometer of how much the Florida defense has improved. Worth noting: His numbers are a little down this season (35.2 percent overall, 25.0 from 3) because he's far-and-away the top offensive option, but he can shake out of it anytime; especially on this stage. 

Guard Seth Trimble has been really efficient at 51.5 percent from the floor, 45.2 from 3 (his 31 attempts are second to Davis's 76) and 82.6 at the free-throw line. ... Point guard Elliot Cadeau isn't much of a 3-point threat (7-for-27), with his 56 assists and 17 steals tops on the team. ... UF fans should remember Ven-Allen Lubin, who scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Vanderbilt to a regular season-ending 79-78 upset of the Gators at Nashville last March. Lubin played at Orlando Christian Prep, the same school that gave UF freshman wing Isaiah Brown. ... UNC will play a lot out of four-guard rotation, with freshman Drake Powell, who broke into the starting lineup three games ago, a dual threat inside and on the perimeter. ... Guard Ian Jackson (10.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg) hasn't started a game, but he's fourth on the team in scoring. ... Six-foot-10 forward Jalen Washington (6.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg) started the first eight games, but now gives the Heels a size lift off the bench. 
 

Numbers of Note

* 1 — Times the Gators have started a season 11-0, which they have a chance to do Tuesday. That would match the 11-game start of the 2005-06 Gators, who won their first 17 on the way to the program's first NCAA championship.

* .639 — Coach Todd Golden's winning percentage with the Gators, after claiming his 50th victory on the UF sidelines versus 29 losses. 

* 33 — Consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer for Clayton, a streak that dates to the SEC opener against Kentucky last Jan. 6 and is tied for fourth-longest in program history alongside Brett Nelson, who put his 33-game run together from Dec. 2, 2000 to Dec. 2, 2001. 

* 148 — UNC games played by Davis, which is tied for sixth in program history and 21 behind all-time leader Armando Bacot (2019-24), who played a staggering 169, thanks to Covid eligibility rules. 

* 2000 —The year the Gators defeated the Tar Heels in the Final Four. The date was April. The place was the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis. UNC was something of a Cinderella team, rising from a No. 8 seed to to face fifth-seeded UF, which upset No. 1 seed Duke eight days earlier. The Gators had a three-point lead at halftime, despite shooting just 29 percent. The did it with defense, forcing 17 turnovers, including five by forward Jason Capel, and defending the Tar Heels into a 10-for-30 second half (33 percent). Florida was led by 13 points and four assists from Nelson, plus 10 points and rebounds by forward Mike Miller. Center Brendan Haywood had 20 points and 12 boards for the Heels. UF advanced to its first national-championship game, but lost to Michigan State 89-76.

 

Bottom Line

Should Florida manage to get a win in Charlotte (no easy task, obviously), the Gators will be prohibitive favorites to finish their pre-Southeastern Conference slate unbeaten, what with two home games -- Dec. 21 vs. North Florida and Dec. 29 vs. Stetson -- standing between them and the Jan. 4 league opener at Kentucky.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu