No. 3 Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday, 8:30 pm)

No. 3 Florida vs. South Carolina

* When: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (21-3, 8-3) / South Carolina (10-14, 0-11)
* TV: SEC Network (Roy Philpott and Jon Sundvold)
* 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
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Sophomore	8.2 / 6.2 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	5.3 pts / 6.5 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.2 pts / 4.8 reb
Denzel Aberdeen	G	6-5 / 190	Sophomore	8.0 pts / 2.1 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	17.5 pts / 3.6 reb / 4.1 ast

South Carolina	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Collin Murray-Boyles	F	6-8 / 245	Sophomore	15.6 pts / 8.7 reb
Nick Pringle	F	6-10 / 230	Senior	9.3 pts / 6.4 reb
Zachary Davis	G	6-7 / 200	Junior	9.2 pts / 4.5 reb
Jacobi Wright	G	6-2 / 185	Senior	8.2 pts / 2.5 reb
Jamarii Thomas	G	5-11 / 190	Senior	13.0 pts / 3.3 reb / 3.2 ast

The Breakdown

UF guard Will Richard (5) throws in his game-winning bank shot against the Gamecocks in the Gators' 70-69 win on Jan. 22 at Columbia.

SETUP: Third-ranked Florida plays host to South Carolina in a Southeastern Conference game between a team near the top of the league and one at the very bottom. The Gators have won three straight, including back-to-back victories against ranked teams on the road (No. 1 Auburn and Tuesday night at No. 22 Mississippi State) for the first time in program history, and sit in their highest spot in the Associated Press poll in 10 years. The Gamecocks, meanwhile, lost their 11th conference game in as many tries, falling 72-68 at home against No. 19 Ole Miss.

SERIES: UF leads 49-29, including a 22-10 record at home, where the Gators have lost three of the previous four meetings. The lone win came in 2023 and the three losses in '18, '19 and '21. Florida, of course, defeated South Carolina last month when senior guard Will Richard drove down the left side of the lane for a circus-type left-handed layup off the glass with 4.8 seconds left that proved the difference in a 70-69 victory. Gamecocks guard Jacobi Wright's desperation 30-footer at the buzzer found iron and the Gators prevailed -- thanks to an effective 1-2-2 press that helped generate 13 steals -- despite trailing by 14 with 12 minutes to go, 13 inside nine minutes, by nine with just over six remaining and five with 1:05 to play. Richard finished with 22 points on nine for 14 shooting and 3-for-5 from the 3-point line to go with four rebounds and three steals. Walter Clayton Jr. had 16 points and seven assists, while guard Alijah Martin added 14 points and three steals.

ETC: The UF-USC basketball game will be the nightcap of a full day of Gators sports on campus, with golf hosting the Gators Invitational (7:45 a.m.), softball against Boston College (11:30 a.m.), men's tennis against North Florida (noon), lacrosse against North Carolina (noon), a second softball game against Binghamton (2 p.m.), baseball, with its second game of the season, against Air Force (4 p.m.), followed (last but not least) by men's hoops (8:30 p.m.).

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	South Carolina
83.6	Scoring	69.8
.466	Field-goal percentage	.430
.344	3-point percentage	.322
66.5	Scoring defense	69.8
.388	Field-goal percentage defense	.443
.281	3-point percentage defense	.342
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	77th
4th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	135th
8th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	44th
81st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	290th
5th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	91st
24th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	19th

The Gators

Let's start with one of the biggest headlines of the season: 7-1 junior center Micah Handlogten announced Friday he will forgo the rest of what was supposed to be a medical redshirt season and make his 2024-25 debut Saturday. Handlogten averaged 5.3 points, 6.9 rebounds and was one of the top five offensive rebounders in the nation as s sophomore before suffering a broken leg in the SEC Tournament. He has been medically cleared for nearly two months, but the plan was to sit out the season and have two years of eligibility remaining. He now will give the Gators an unexpected lift of front court depth when they sorely needed it, following the ankle injuries Tuesday night to starting forward Alex Condon (10.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg) and backup Sam Alexis (4.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg). Neither Condon nor Alexis will play Saturday.

They've won three straight despite missing at least one starter in each game. UF defeated Vanderbilt without point guard and leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. with an ankle injury. Guard Alijah Martin took a hit to his abdominal area that same game and, while he finished, has missed the previous two games -- road upsets of No. 1 Auburn and No. 22 Mississippi State -- and was joined on the injury list by Condon, who was lost just 30 seconds in at Starkville. Clayton, of course, missed just one game and has been sensational in the two since, averaging 19.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 1.5 turnovers and 38.0 minutes. ... The undermanned Gators, meanwhile, have put together the best shooting and ball-sharing stretch of the season, averaging 12.3 makes from distance and 20.3 assists over the last three games, despite the uneven lineups. ... The Gators have inched to No. 8 nationally in defensive efficiency after holding two of the best offenses in college basketball (Auburn is No. 1, Mississippi State is No. 26) to a combined 42.1 percent from the floor and 28.6 from the 3-point line.

So, what about forward Thomas Haugh and the back-to-back performances he's put together? His conference numbers were OK, not necessarily great, halfway through the season, but Haugh was spectacular at Auburn (16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and a steal) and again at Starkville (16 points, 9 rebounds, career-high 8 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks in a career-high 37 minutes) after Condon went down. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu was really good against the Bulldogs, finishing with 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks over a career-high 30 minutes. Chinyelu's on-court score of plus-20 was second-best on the team to Clayton's plus-21. The Gators could use a similar effort from Chinyelu, but the addition of Handlogten inside should help.

Guard Denzel Aberdeen, in stepping in for Clayton against Vandy and for Martin at Auburn and Mississippi State, averaged 14.3 points as a starter for the first time. He's shot 43 percent overall, 35.3 from 3 and hit seven of 11 free throws while playing some very stout defense, especially against MSU standout Josh Hubbard, and has taken care of the ball. ... Guard Will Richard had 10 points and a couple steals last game. He's hit double-figure scoring all three games since scoring just two points (and taking just two shots) in Florida's ugly 20-point loss at Tennessee on Feb. 1. ... Backup guard Urban Klavzar made a 3 in his third consecutive game at Mississippi State. He's now 6-for-7 from distance over that three-game stretch and 6-for-8 overall in SEC play (75.0 percent). ... Depending on Martin's availability, UF may try to steal some minutes with freshman wing Isaiah Brown (2.5 ppg) at the "4" spot.

The Gamecocks

South Carolina point guard **Jamarii Thomas** (6)

It's their third season under Coach Lamont Paris, but it's starting to look far too much like the first; worse, actually. Paris came to Columbia from Tennessee-Chattanooga to succeed Frank Martin after 10 seasons. He went 11-21, with just four SEC wins, in his inaugural '22-23 season, but last year guided the Gamecocks to 26-8 record, a fifth-place league finish and NCAA Tournament berth that ended with a first-round loss against Oregon. South Carolina lost some good players to graduation and the portal and has been in a handful of tight games (including Wednesday night against a very good Mississippi squad), but to be winless at this point in the season against SEC competition -- including losses by 35, 20 (twice) and 23 -- few would have seen coming. The Gamecocks, offensively, rank at the bottom of the league in almost every key stat (effective field-goal percentage, turnover percentage, 2-point and 3-point percentage, among them), while floating in the bottom third in most defensive statistics. Worth noting: Five of USC's losses, including against Vandy, UF, Mississippi State and Texas A&M, came by four points or fewer. The Gamecocks are feisty and certainly good enough (and desperate enough), especially without the pressure of being at home, to make things difficult on a Florida squad that is down a couple players.

Forward Collin Murray-Boyles is one of the best, most all-around skilled bigs in the league and a likely lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. He had 14 points, five rebounds and a career-best eight assists in the first meeting, with his ability to find cutters and shooters out of double teams a big reason why the Gators fell into such a big hole on the road. He can make a 3 every now and then, but his game is in the paint, where he's converting 61 percent in the 2-point area and offensive-rebounds nearly 9 percent of his team's misses. His 24.3-percent rebounding rate on the defensive end is top-50 nationally. ... A knee injury sidelined point guard and No. 2 scorer Jamarii Thomas, a transfer from Norfolk State and starter the first 15 games, for the first meeting. They sorely missed him when the Gators fell into their press. He sat out four games, but has been back the last five and averaged 15.0 points, with a couple 19-point outings. USC is much better with him in the lineup. ... Guard Zachary Davis was a problem last time out. He scored a season-high 22 points and hit a trio of 3s to go with five rebounds and four assists. Without Thomas, though, the primary ball-handling duties fell to Davis and he was forced into six turnovers, also a season high. ... Forward Nick Pringle, the transfer from Alabama, scores at 60 percent inside the arc and is a poor-man's version of Murray-Boyles with regard to passing out of double teams. He's only found double-figure scoring three times in SEC play.

Backup guard Morris Ugusuk (6.4 ppg) needs to be accounted for. He hurt the Gators with nine points, all on 3s, in helping USC build its lead. He scored 20 and 15 points, respectively, in close losses to Vandy and Oklahoma. ... Another guy off the bench, a big one, is 6-9, 240-pound grad senior Benjamin Bosmans-Yerdonk, who plays just seven mintues per game but has more offensive rebounds (20) than defensive (16) this season. He had some huge winning plays in the post Wednesday. ... Reserve freshman guard/forward Arden Conyers (4.3 ppg) has scored in double figures in four league games. ... Shooting guard Myles Stute (5.4 ppg) started the first 14 games and was one of the team's best from the 3-point line, but he's yet to play in SEC game due to complications from a blood clot.

Numbers of Note

The last SEC player to post a stat line like **Thomas Haugh** did Tuesday at Mississippi State (see below) was Kentucky point guard **John Wall** 15 years ago. Wall was the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft.

* 2 — SEC teams (Vanderbilt 2019 and Missouri 2024) that have gone 0-18 in league play, an infamous club South Carolina is trying desperately not to join.

* 4 — SEC players this century to tally at least 15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists and two blocks in a game, a feat Haugh achieved at Mississippi State. He joined the short list that also includes MSU's Lawrence Roberts (2004), UF's Corey Brewer (2005) and Kentucky's John Wall (2010).

* 20 — Combined points making up six of the Gamecocks conference losses. They lost to Auburn at home and at Vanderbilt in consecutive games by three; to Florida by one and Mississippi State in overtime by five in consecutive home games; to Texas A&M at home and Ole Miss by four at home.

* 28.1 — UF opponents' combined shooting from the 3-point line, which ranks No. 4 in the nation.

* 2014 — The last year Florida defeated South Carolina twice in the same season. The Gators and Gamecocks split home-and-homes in 2017 and '18. Some UF fans (most actually) will also recall that USC defeated UF 77-70 in the NCAA East Region championship game at Madison Square Garden with a Final Four berth on the line.

Bottom Line

The next two weeks are about fighting through injuries and banking wins in games the Gators will expect -- and be expected -- to win, if their goal is to contend for a conference championship and lock up the highest seeds possible for the SEC and NCAA tournaments.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 3 Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday, 8:30 pm)

No. 3 Florida vs. South Carolina

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Gamecocks

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Isaiah Brown

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

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No. 3 Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday, 8:30 pm)

No. 3 Florida vs. South Carolina

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Gamecocks

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Isaiah Brown

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

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