Florida at Georgia (Saturday, 1 pm)

Florida at Georgia

* When: Saturday, 1 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Stegeman Coliseum / Athens, Ga.
* Records: Florida (17-7, 7-4) / Georgia (14-10, 4-7)
* TV: SEC Network (Mike Morgan and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey) / Stations list

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	13.1 pts / 8.0 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	6.7 pts / 7.6 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	11.1 pts / 3.9 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	16.3 pts / 3.6 reb
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	15.2 pts / 3.8 reb / 4.9 ast

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jabri Abdur-Rahim	F	6-8 / 215	Senior	12.8 pts / 3.7 reb
Russell Tchewa	F	7-0 / 275	Senior	7.3 pts / 6.7 reb
Silas Demary	G	6-5 / 190	Freshman	9.9 pts / 3.9 reb
Noah Thomasson	G	6-4 / 210	Senior	12.0 pts / 2.9 reb
Justin Hill	G	6-0 / 185	Senior	9.0 pts / 1.9 reb / 3.7 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida is back on the road to square off against rival Georgia in another game (the second straight for UF) between two Southeastern Conference teams headed in opposite directions. The Gators have won six of seven, most recently Tuesday night's 82-80 squeaker at home over LSU. In that one, UF led by 20 in the second half, only to see the Tigers roar back to tie the game in the final 90 seconds, then survive behind a couple late possessions with the game in the balance. The Bulldogs have lost five in a row (and seven of nine), but had a mid-week bye after losing 78-75 last weekend at Arkansas. ... Florida leads the all-time series 123-103 with a 10-game winning streak that dates to the 2020 season and includes the Gators' 102-98 overtime victory Jan. 27 in Gainesville. In that one, UF had a 21-point lead with 15 minutes to play, only to let UGA storm back to tie the game behind 51 points and 62-percent shooting in the second half, plus a handful of ugly, uncharacteristic turnovers that led to 24 Bulldogs points. Georgia freshman guard Blue Cain scored his team's final seven points over the last 2:02 of regulation, including a game-tying driving layup with 49 seconds left to send the game into overtime. In the extra period, the Gators had a seven-point lead inside 25 seconds to go, but still had to survive another brutal turnover, a sixth 3-pointer from forward R.J. Melendez, who had a career-high 35 points, before guard Zyon Pullin (20 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists) hit two free throws with 5.7 second left for a two-possession lead. Florida was led by a career-high 23 points and 17 rebounds from center Micah Handlogten. ... UF coach Todd Golden is 3-0 vs. Georgia, while UGA coach Mike White is 0-3 against his former team.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Georgia
84.6	Scoring	75.9
.455	Field-goal percentage	.431
.334	3-point percentage	.348
76.3	Scoring defense	73.9
.433	Field-goal percentage defense	.433
.334	3-point percentage defense	.320
30th	KenPom.com overall ranking	86th
13th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	100th
83rd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	73rd
38th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	109th
32nd	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	96th
33rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	51st

Team Snapshots

The Gators

Their postseason resume isn't great, but it's been enhanced greatly the last two weeks with two Quadrant 1 victories (at Kentucky on Jan. 31 and last weekend at home against Auburn). UF is

now 2-7 in Quad 1 games, but a perfect 15-0 in Quad 2, 3 and 4 games. No bad losses counts for something, and now comes a Quad 2 road date against an opponent that was a possession or two away from winning in Gainesville, has its back to the wall after five straight losses and coming off an open week to reset. ... Offensively, Florida is just outside the nation's top 10 in efficiency and has single-digit turnovers in five of the last seven games, including just eight against LSU. If only the Gators could figure out how to fix their 10-minute second-half problem (which may also be a zone offense problem), they possibly would not only surge into the top 10 in offense, but win more games and make closing out far less dramatic. The Gators have outscored SEC opponents in the first half by 47 points, but have been outscored in the second half by 28. ... UF shot 68 percent in the first half and 34 in the second against LSU. Through the game's first 28 minutes, the Gators were still at 63 percent, but then crashed to a 6-for-25 finish (24 percent), while allowing the Tigers to make 11 of their last 16 shots and tie the game. One of the misses, remarkably, was the unguarded 4- or 5-foot floater from forward Jordan Wright that would have tied the game at the horn. ... Guard Walter Clayton Jr. was nine of 15 from the floor, but just one of six from the 3-point line. He was a team-best plus-6 when on the floor. ... Point guard Zyon Pullin had 14 points, four rebounds and three assists. He was six of 11 from the field and was on the floor for the entire 20 minutes of the period. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel had 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a block over 29 minutes, while center Micah Handlogten had four points, six rebounds and two blocks in 21 minutes. ... Guard Will Richard had nine points and four rebounds, but was 2-for-8 overall and one of five from deep, making him 5-for-18 over the last three games and just seven of 32 over the previous five games (22 percent). Richard, who hails from Fairburn, Ga., needs just one point to reach 1,000 for his three-year career, which began at Belmont... Backup guard Riley Kugel, after pouring in 20 off the bench against Auburn, was held to just six points, missed all three tries from deep and all three of his free throws. He did have four rebounds, two assists and a steal over 26 minutes. ... Backup 6-11 freshman forward Alex Condon (7.4 ppg, 6.7 rpg) hit four of his five shots and one of two free throws. The one was a big one. It came with 9.9 seconds to go to give the Gators a two-point cushion on LSU's final possession. Fellow freshman reserve Thomas Haugh (3.2 ppg, 3.7 rpg) and two points and three boards in 11 minutes off the bench, with sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen, who was a DNP vs. Auburn, at two points and an assist in four minutes. Aberdeen may see more time if the UF coaches look at fatigue as one of their second-half issues.

The Bulldogs

They're 30-26 in the second season under Mike White, who inherited a mess left behind by Tom Crean (6-26 and 1-17 in SEC play in '21-22). The Bulldogs, though, are just 10-19 against conference

competition under White and now are mired in a five-game league skid that started with the overtime loss at Florida and followed with home losses to SEC high-enders Alabama and South Carolina, then road defeats at Mississippi State and Arkansas. ... Georgia ranks last in the SEC in effective field-goal percentage and two-point field-goal percentage (56.7), while also getting out-rebounded by nearly two per game game (compared to Florida's plus-9.0 average edge on the glass). The Bulldogs are pretty good at protecting the ball, which figures to show up even better against a Florida defense that does not force a lot of turnovers. And remember those 19 forced turnovers against the Gators last time. ... Forward Jabri Abdur-Rahim is one of the best 3-point shooters in the SEC at 37.7 percent. He's actually taken more than twice as many 3s as 2s, so the Gators will know where to find him on defense. ... Guard Noah Thomasson, a transfer from Niagara, is the Bulldogs' No. 2 scorer and third-best threat from distance at 36.5 percent. For a perimeter player, he does not shoot free throws well at all (56.8 percent). ... Backup wing R.J. Melendez (10.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg) is a fascinating case study, if for any other reason than the 35-point eruption (13-for-19 from the floor, with six 3-pointers) he dropped on the Gators last month. In the four games since, the Illinois transfer has combined for just 26 points. Melendez is shooting less than 28 percent from 3 on the season, so he figures to be pretty geared up for this game. ... Center Russel Tchewa, transfer from South Florida, roughed up Handlogten and Samuel pretty good in the last meeting, finishing with 15 points, 11 rebounds and basically getting wherever he wanted on the block. He's at 54 percent on the season, but has only attempted one 3. So just like Abdur-Rahim will be floating around the arc, Tchewa will be planted in the post. ... Guard Silas Demary was quiet in the first meeting (just one of five shooting in 17 foul-plagued minutes), but he's very capable of impacting the game from all three levels as a scorer and playmaker, with his 59 assists second on the team. ... Point guard Justin Hill came off the bench for UGA's first 22 games, but has started the last two. He had 18 points in the Arkansas loss, thanks to 11-for-12 from the free-throw line. He'll be on the attack, but also looking to distribute (team-best 88 assists). ... Freshman backup guard Blue Cain (7.2 ppg) killed the Gators last time on his way to 14 points, including those last seven in regulation (with a clutch 3). He's at 36.6 percent from deep on the season.

Numbers of Note

Bulldogs guard **R.J. Melendez** during his career-high 35 points eruptions vs. the Gators last month.

* 3 — 3-pointers Melendez has made (in just eight attempts) in the four games since dropping six of 10 on the Gators last month

* 23.1 — Melendez's 3-point shooting percentage, based on 16 of 69, in all other games besides his 6-for-10 drilling of the Gators. Outside of his O'Dome barrage, only three times this season has he made as many as two 3s in a game.

* 42.1 — Kugel's 3-point field-goal percentage in SEC play, which is the best among UF's four guards, followed by Pullin (38.2), Clayton (37.3) and Richard (27.5), who is due for a breakout.

* 84.6 — Florida's average points per game during the '23-24 season, which is on pace to break the record of 84.2 set by the Vernon Maxwell-led team of 1986-87 that went to the first NCAA Tournament in program history. That also was the first season of the universal 3-point line in college basketball.

* 2009 — The last year Florida won a 10th consecutive game in its series against Georgia, a feat the team will attempt to achieve Saturday, which would equal the second-longest UF winning streak in the series' history 150-game and 101-year history. The Gators beat Georgia nine straight from 1964-68, then 11 in a row from 2004-09.

Bottom Line

One team is hot, the other is not, but make no mistake; this one is going to be an absolute Dogfight.

Gators Calendar

Florida at Georgia (Saturday, 1 pm)

Florida at Georgia

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The Bulldogs

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Riley Kugel

Zyon Pullin

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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Florida at Georgia (Saturday, 1 pm)

Florida at Georgia

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The Bulldogs

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Related News

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Riley Kugel

Zyon Pullin

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

Related Videos

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