Florida Gators

Florida vs. No. 12 Auburn

 
* When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (15-7, 5-4) / Auburn (19-4, 8-2)
* TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal and Patric Young)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD
  (with Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey) / Stations list
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	13.3 pts / 8.4 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	7.0 pts / 7.6 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	11.6 pts / 4.0 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	15.9 pts / 3.9 reb
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	15.4 pts / 3.7 reb / 5.1 ast

Auburn	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jaylin Williams	F	6-8 / 245	Senior	13.3 pts / 5.2 reb
Johni Broome	F	6-10 / 240	Junior	16.0 pts / 8.7 reb / 2.4 blk
Chris Moore	G	6-6 / 220	Senior	2.4 ppg / 1.6 rpg
Denver Jones	G	6-4 / 205	Junior	7.7 ppg / 1.9 rpg
Tre Donaldson	G	6-3 / 200	Sophomore	7.4 pts / 2.7 reb / 3.5 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and 12th-ranked Auburn meet in a Southeastern Conference showdown at the O'Dome, with the Gators looking to notch a scalp against one of the league's premier teams. ... The Gators are coming off an exhausting week of back-to-back road games when they upset 10th-ranked Kentucky 94-91 in overtime, then lost Saturday at Texas A&M 67-66 in a game they had two last-second field-goal attempts and a chance to steal a win. The loss currently has them in a sixth-place tie (with the Aggies) in the SEC standings (a half-game out of fifth). The Tigers pounded rival and No. 16 Alabama 99-81 at home Wednesday night and with the win moved into a three-way tie (with Bama and South Carolina) atop the conference. ... Auburn leads the all-time series 91-82, but Florida has won 14 in a row at home, dating to the 1998 season, including wins over Tigers teams ranked No. 4 in 2020 and No. 2 in '22. The two teams last met on Dec. 28, 2022 in the SEC opener for both, with the Tigers defending their home floor with a 61-58 victory that went down to the final possession. Auburn took a one-point lead with 1:12 remaining on a driving layup from sophomore forward Johni Broome. After a couple empty possessions by both teams the Tigers converged on UF forward Colin Castleton in the final seconds, forcing a turnover that turned into a run-out layup by point guard Wendell Green Jr. with less than two seconds to go that iced the win amid the bedlam of a 27th straight sell-out home crowd. Broome and Green led the Tigers with 14 points each. Though Auburn shot only 38.2 percent for the game, it hit 48 percent in the second half and dominated the glass throughout, 40-28, including 17-5 on the offensive end. The Gators got 15 points from sophomore wing Kowacie Reeves and Myreon Jones, both off the bench, on a night they shot 40.4 percent overall and struggled — 3-for-19 (15.8 percent) — from the 3-point line against the nation's No. 12-rated team in defensive efficiency. ... The game will be the second meeting between UF coach Todd Golden and Auburn's Bruce Pearl, who gave Golden his first assistant position when in 2014 he lured Golden from Columbia, where he was director of basketball operations, and promoted him to full-time assistant a year later. After two years at Auburn, Golden took an assistant's job at San Francisco and eventually was promoted to head coach in 2019.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Auburn
84.9	Scoring	83.1
.456	Field-goal percentage	.465
.337	3-point percentage	.333
77.0	Scoring defense	66.5
.431	Field-goal percentage defense	.379
.331	3-point percentage defense	.299
36th	KenPom.com overall ranking	4th
17th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	10th
81st	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	3rd
27th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	64th
39th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	7th
33rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	65th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They let one slip away at College Station. UF led Texas A&M by a dozen early in the second half and had a one-point lead in the final minute before giving up the go-ahead basket with 35 seconds left

and came up short on-back-to-back shots in the final five seconds in losing a fifth straight to the Aggies, all by a combined 10 points. The Florida offense, ranked in the top 20 in efficiency, was held to just 26 points in the second half and completely taken out of its rhythm by A&M's physicality. UF shot just two free throws in the second half (compared to 20 for A&M), which definitely was an issue for Golden. ... Florida is the nation's No. 2 offensive rebounding team, which is why the offensive efficiency numbers are so high, as the Gators rank just 113th in 2-point field-goal percentage (52.0) and 180th from the 3-point line (33.7). UF turns the ball over 17.1 percent of its possessions (and had 14 against the Aggies), which is 160th nationally. ... This will be the third consecutive Quadrant 1 opportunity for the Gators, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) metrics. UF is 1-7 in Q1 games, so it could really use the resume boost. ... Leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. had a string of nine straight double-figure scoring games snapped. Clayton had two 3-pointers less than seven minutes into the last game, but missed his last five shots over the two halves and finished with eight points on just 2-for-8 from the floor. ... Point guard Zyon Pullin, with eight assists and three turnovers last time out, continues to lead the SEC in assist-to-turnover ratio. He's got 96 assists and 23 turnovers on the season. He made eight of his 15 shots and led the team in scoring with 18 points and is looking to become just the fifth Gator this century to have 20 straight double-figure scoring games. ... The low-post combo of Tyrese Samuel and Micah Handlogten were mostly neutralized by the Aggies' physicality. They combined to make four of nine field goals (Handlogten took just one shot) for eight points and nine rebounds. Their combined average on the season is more than 20 points and 16 rebounds. ... Wing Will Richard had 12 points and hit a trio of 3s in the game on 10 attempts. He also had one rebound after grabbing at least five in each of the last four games. ... Sophomore guard Riley Kugel had a pretty solid game (12 points on 4-for-8 shooting and a couple 3s, 5 rebounds, 4 assists), but on UF's next-to-last possession -- out of a timeout after a nice play call from Golden -- had the ball stripped from him on a drive to the basket with his team down one. ... Reserve forward Alex Condon (7.5 ppg, 6.8 rpg) only scored three points, but the freshman battled as well as any of his front court teammates on his way to 11 rebounds and five blocks over 27 minutes for a plus-6 in the box score. Same for backup freshman forward Tommy Haugh, who had three points, five rebounds, two blocks and an assist in 13 minutes. Haugh was a team-best plus-8 for the game. ... Reserve guard Denzel Aberdeen had a highlight-reel slam on a transition lob from Richard, but also had a very loud turnover that turned into a transition layup in the second half.

The Tigers

They're in the 10th season under Coach Bruce Pearl, who has built the program into an annual contender in both the SEC (with two regular-season championships, plus one postseason

tournament title) and nationally (four NCAA Tournament berths, plus a run to the 2019 Final Four). Pearl, with stops at Division II Southern Indiana (1992-2001), Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2001-05), Tennessee (2005-11) and Auburn (2014-present) has 668 all-time victories, but also has run afoul of NCAA rules, which have resulted in his firing at UT and forfeiture of games at Auburn. There's no question, though, Pearl is a fantastic coach with blueprint for fast-playing, athletic, high-scoring and hard-nosed teams. ... The '24 Tigers not only are the No. 4 overall team in KenPom and No. 5 in the NET, but the best defensive team in the SEC by virtually all metrics. They rank No. 1 in five of the primary defensive categories: effective effective field-goal percentage, turnover percentage, 2-point percentage, 3-point percentage and block percentage, as well as second in steal percentage. ... Auburn opened the season with a four-point neutral-site loss to Baylor (same margin as UF's loss to the Bears) and after five straight wins got ambushed in a road loss at Appalachian State. The Tigers then won 11 straight before losing two on the road, at Alabama and Ole Miss, then after defeating Vanderbilt earned its first Quad 1 victory of the season last weekend by beating Ole Miss. The impressive Bama blowout ws their second straight Q1. Beating UF on the road would be a third in a row. ... Forward Johni Broome, the Tampa Catholic product who chose Auburn over Florida in the spring '22 when he transferred from Morehead State, is having a first-team All-America type season. In addition to scoring at 55.5 percent from the floor and a career-best 33 from 3, he's second in the SEC in both rebounding and blocked shots with 55. The Wooden Watch List nominee has nine double-doubles on the season and went for 24 points, seven rebounds and five blocks in the rout of Bama. ... Big and strong Jaylin Williams is the front court Robin to Broome's Batman, and has better scoring percentages than his partner to prove it. Williams is hitting nearly 60 percent of his field goals, 40 percent of his 3s and 81 from the free-throw line. ... The team's No. 3 scorer is backup 6-7 junior wing Chad Baker-Mazara (9.5 ppg, 3.4 rpg), who has yet to start a game but is third on the team with 25 makes from distance at 39 percent. He sat out the '23 season after transferring from San Diego State (yes, he missed a Final Four run), which came two years after transferring from Duquense. ... Point guard Tre Donaldson was elevated to the starting lineup four games ago and has 15 assists over the last three games. Backup freshman point guard Aden Holloway (8.8 ppg) was a 2023 McDonald's All American by way of prep school in California. He's started 17 games, but is shooting just 32 percent from the floor and 32 from 3 -- but only 23 from deep in SEC play. His assist-to-turnover ratio is at 3-to-1, which is solid for a rookie. ... Guard Denver Jones was the No. 20 scorer in the nation last year at Florida International. He's a 36-percent shooter from deep and 91 from the free-throw line. ... Mercurial backup guard K.D. Johnson (7.3 ppg), with just one start this season, has been shooting the Tigers in and out of games ever since he transferred from Georgia three years ago. He may be hitting only 27 percent from 3, but he's always only one make away from that hot streak. That's his mindset. ... Reserve forward Dylan Cardwell (5.0 ppg, 67 percent floor, 4.0 rpg) goes 6-11 and 255 pounds, is the 10th player in the rotation and still ranks fourth in the SEC in blocks per game (1.5).
 

Numbers of Note

* 2 — The Tigers' rank in the Associated Press Top 25 the last time they came to Gainesville, in '2022, and were upset by the Gators 63-62 behind 26 points from fifth-year point guard Tyree Appleby, plus forward Colin Castleton's 19 points, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals over 35 minutes. That Auburn team became the highest ranked opponent ever to lose a road game at Florida. 

* 4 — Auburn head coaches who are part of the current 14-game losing streak at the O'Dome: Cliff Ellis (1994-2004), who was the last to win there; Jeff Lebo (2004-10); Tony Barbee (2010-14); Pearl ('15-present). 

* plus-8.9 — Florida's free-throw shooting percentage increase in SEC play (74.3) versus what the Gators shot against non-conference opponents (65.4) in the run-up to the league season. 

* 10 — Auburn players who average at least 14.5 minutes per game, compared to seven for Florida. If fatigue or foul trouble come into the play the situation will favor the Tigers.

* 1996 — The last year Auburn won at the O'Dome. The date was Feb. 10. The Florida coach was Lon Kruger, in what would be his final season on the UF sideline. With the game tied, Tigers senior point guard Ray Donald hit a 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds left to give the visitors a 73-70 victory. The defeat was a heart-breaker after Gators freshman point guard Eddie Shannon led a comeback from 12 down with just over four minutes left, feeding sophomore forward LeRon Williams for the game-tying 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining. Williams led UF with a career-high 25 points and nine rebounds. Shannon had 12 points (eight in the final four minutes) and seven assists.  
 

Bottom Line

Can the Gators summon the magic they showed in upsetting the last two highly ranked Auburn teams to come to town. They need to. Their postseason hopes may depend on it.