No. 5 Florida vs Texas (Saturday, 4 pm)

No. 5 Florida vs. Texas

* When: Saturday, 4 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (15-2, 2-2) / Texas (12-5, 1-3)
* TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart and Jimmy Dykes)
* 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	10.8 pts / 8.0 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	5.6 pts / 7.5 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.2 pts / 5.1 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	15.8 pts / 5.5 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	17.8 pts / 3.4 reb / 3.8 ast

Texas	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Arthur Kaluma	F	6-7 / 225	Senior	14.1 pts / 7.8 reb
Kadin Shedrick	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	8.3 pts / 6.0 reb
Tre Johnson	G	6-6 / 190	Freshman	18.7 pts / 2.8 reb
Tramon Mack	G	6-5 / 200	Senior	9.4 pts / 3.5 reb
Jordan Pope	G	6-2 / 175	Junior	13.3 pts / 1.5 reb

The Breakdown

SETUP: Fifth-ranked Florida and Texas square off for the first time as Southeastern Conference opponents in a key game for both teams for completely different reasons. The Gators are coming off Tuesday night's 83-82 home loss to Missouri and can ill-afford to drop a second consecutive home game early in this brutal conference schedule. The Longhorns, after starting 2024-25 at No. 19 in the Associated Press preseason poll, made their SEC debut with three consecutive losses before winning 77-73 on the road Wednesday night against fellow SEC newbie Oklahoma, thus dumping their fellow former Big 12 rival to 0-4 in conference play. UF is in a five-way tie for seventh place in the SEC standings, one game behind a block of four teams in a tie for third. UT is in a two-way tie for 12th, one game ahead of the league's three winless teams.

SERIES: Texas leads 4-3 in a series that dates to 1964, but has been dormant since the two programs last played a home-and-home series almost 30 years. That last meeting occurred on Dec. 9, 1997, with Texas winning 85-82 at Austin, despite a career-high 31 points from UF point guard Jason Williams. UT guard Brandy Perryman converted a four-point play with less than two minutes to play to give the Longhorns a seven-point lead. Florida managed to get within three points and had possession, but Williams, who had 21 in the second half, missed two game-tying 3-point attempts in the final 10 seconds. Perryman finished with 15 points, while freshman teammate Chris Mihm had 16 points and 15 rebounds. For UF, guard Eddie Shannon had 13 points and center Damen Maddox had a career-high 19 rebounds.

ETC: UF had its 16-game home winning streak, which dated to a Jan. 13, 2024 blowout of Arkansas, snapped Tuesday. The streak was the eighth-longest in program history.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Texas
86.0	Scoring	81.6
.468	Field-goal percentage	.497
.341	3-point percentage	.388
65.9	Scoring defense	65.9
.374	Field-goal percentage defense	.410
.278	3-point percentage defense	.320
6th	KenPom.com overall ranking	35th
6th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	43rd
16th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	44th
83rd	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	199th
6th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	35th
54th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	134th

The Gators

The Gators got a lesson in humility in their loss to Missouri. The Tigers played like a more motivated, more energized and more passionate team. They were first to loose balls, basically played UF even on the glass and shot lights-out to start the game and built a 19-point lead that was too much overcome. But that one is over. It's now about the response because Texas is going to be ready to play, given their difficult circumstances. ... UF gave up 50 points in the first half against the Tigers and 33 in the second. ... The game will mark the first of three confirmed sellouts (along with Jan. 25 against Georgia and March 1 against Texas A&M), with more likely down the line.

Guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored 28 points against the Tigers, his third-highest output of the season and just the second time he scored at least 20 over the previous seven games. He was nine of 19 from the floor and 3-for-9 from the arc and now is shooting 45.4 and 36.6 from those respective areas. He's missed some big free throws (four at Kentucky, two huge late ones against Missouri) in UF's two losses, with both instances very surprising for a player who is 87.6 percent for his career at the line. ... Guard Alijah Martin didn't have his best outing against the Tigers. Yes, he had 14 points, with seven in the final 94 seconds, but he had some loud turnovers and was uncharacteristically out position on defense -- granted, like the rest of his teammates -- and the Gators paid for it. Look for a focused bounce-back performance. ... Will Richard was good for 12 points and three rebounds. At plus-8, he had the highest floor score on the team.

Forward Alex Condon, named Monday as the SEC Co-Player of the Week, had eight points, hitting all three of his shots, and six rebounds, but like Martin had some loud turnovers and tough-luck plays. Look for a focused bounce-back (see a pattern developing?). ... Center Rueben Chinyelu had his second double-double of the season with 11 points, 10 rebounds and was 4-for-5 from the floor, but fouled out in 26 minutes. It was his second straight disqualification. Chinyelu is averaging 10.0 boards in SEC play.. ... Sophomore reserve forward Thomas Haugh (7.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg) had very strange game on his way to a plus-6 on-court score, which was second-best on the team. Haugh picked up three fouls in his first three minutes of the opening half. Even so, Coach Todd Golden sent his super-sub back in the game with more than nine minutes to play in that first half. Haugh was whistled for his fourth foul 18 seconds later. Haugh, though, finished the game without fouling out. He had seven points, five rebounds and went 5-for-6 from the free-throw lin in 16 minutes, but definitely had to play cautiously/smart in the second half. ... Junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.1 ppg) had two points (just one of five from the floor), an assist and two turnovers in 14 minutes. He was a minus-11 in the box score and, like most of his teammates that night, did not look comfortable against Missouri's pressure defense. ... Reserve forward Sam Alexis (5.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg) did not score and grabbed one rebound in his nine minutes.

The Longhorns

They're in the third season under Rodney Terry, who was elevated to interim head coach in December 2022 when Chris Beard was suspended and eventually fired for his involvement in a domestic violence case. Terry promptly guided the Longhorns to the Elite Eight, before losing to Miami a game shy of the 2023 Final Four. Terry's 13-year record of 218-182 includes stops at Fresno State and Texas-El Paso, but his best work has been done in Austin, where he is 62-27 overall. He got UT back to the tournament last season and lost in the second round. ... The Longhorns dropped out of the polls early, losing their season opener against Ohio State and later a home game against Connecticut to go 0-2 against the lone top-30 teams the first two months of the season. Their best non-league win, in terms of the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ratings, came against St. Joseph's on a neutral floor in Brooklyn. The win over the Sooners was their first Quadrant 1 victory in six tries this season. In fairness, Texas had an absolutely brutal indoctrination to SEC play, facing three Top 10 teams out of the gate: at No. 10 Texas A&M, then home against No. 2 Auburn and No. 1 Tennessee.

Texas is a top-25 team in effective field-goal percentage and a top-10 squad in protecting the ball, with only 13.8 percent of its possessions ending with a turnover (8th nationally). The Longhorns are not a great rebounding team, ranking in the bottom half of the league on both ends, which should give the Gators an advantage in that area. Then again, that was also the on-paper case going into the Missouri game and the Tigers not only out-performed their numbers, but mostly out-worked UF on the glass. ... UT is one of the most methodical offenses in the country, at 18.5 seconds per possession, which will test the patience of a UF squad that wants to run and, given its struggles to force turnovers, may have only so many opportunities against an efficient offense that doesn't give the ball away. ... Texas ranks last in the league in most assist categories, but they have scorers who create and make one-on-one plays.

Guard Tre Johnson, a 2024 McDonald's All American out of Garland, Texas, and a projected top-five lottery pick in the June NBA Draft, leads the SEC in scoring, is shooting 47 percent from the floor, 41 from the 3-point line (averaging 2.5 deep makes per game) and 85.0 at the free-throw line. He averaged 26.3 points in the losses to Ohio State, UConn and Tennessee and was 12-for-26 from deep in those games. ... Forward Arthur Kaluma is starring at his third school, following two terrific seasons at Creighton, one last year at Kansas State, and now UT. Kaluma, who hung 34 on Auburn in defeat, is shooting 56.8 percent in SEC play, which ranks third in the league. ... Hard-core UF fans may recall guard Jordan Pope, who transferred from Oregon State. Two years ago, Golden's first at Florida, the Gators played the Beavers in the PK85 at Portland. UF won the game fairly easily, but Pope, then a freshman, had 12 points and five rebounds. He's actually leading the Longhorns in scoring in SEC play at 18.8 per game. He ripped New Orleans for a career-high 42 last month, including eight 3-pointers. ... Guard Tramon Mack was a terrific freshman on Houston's 2021 Final Four team, played last season at Arkansas, and has settled in as a fourth scoring option. He's shooting just shy of 40 percent on the season, but 38.6 from 3, and is an outstanding on-ball defender. ... Texas is mostly a perimeter-oriented offense, but forward Kadin Shedrick, who played his first two seasons at Virginia, is an active inside player who scores at 58-percent; and 6-9 reserve Ze'rik Onyema (3.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg) will mix it up inside for about 10 minutes a game. ... Backup point guard Julian Larry (5.6 ppg, 4.0 apg) is the team's assists leader, despite coming off the bench for 21 minutes.

Numbers of Note

UF forward **Alex Condon** (21) is one of the best in the conference at drawing fouls, but is just 10-for-20 from the line in league play.

* .000 — Florida's post-Billy Donovan winning percentage at home when ranked in the Associated Press top 5, based on the Gators' 0-3 record. UF was ranked fifth when it lost to Florida State and Loyola-Chicago in December 2017, then came the setback against Mizzou.

* 0 — Minutes played in the four conference games by UF reserves (such as Urban Klavzar, Isaiah Brown or Kajus Kublickas) outside of Golden's eight-man rotation.

* 40 — Consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer by Clayton, who needs one to tie the program record set by Michael Frazier II (2012-15), who went 41 straight games with a trey from Jan. 23, 2014 to Jan. 25, 2015.

* 67.0 — UF's free-throw shooting in SEC play, which ranks next-to-last in the league. Only Texas A&M is worse (barely) at 66.9. Richard (81.6 for his career) and Martin (75.9) are both at 62.5 in the four conference games. Even Clayton, at 75.0, is more than 12 points below his career average. Worth noting: Texas's opponents have made just 65.9 percent of their free throws this season, which puts the Longhorns ninth nationally in the so-called "free-throw defense" category.

* 1964 — The first year Florida and Texas met in basketball, with the Longhorns defeating the Gators 62-49 in the Gator Bowl Tournament on Dec. 30.

Bottom Line

Protect. The. Home. Floor.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 5 Florida vs Texas (Saturday, 4 pm)

No. 5 Florida vs. Texas

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Longhorns

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Sam Alexis

Isaiah Brown

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Kajus Kublickas

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

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No. 5 Florida vs Texas (Saturday, 4 pm)

No. 5 Florida vs. Texas

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Longhorns

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Sam Alexis

Isaiah Brown

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Kajus Kublickas

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

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