No. 2 Florida at LSU (Saturday, 6 pm)

No. 2 Florida at LSU

* When: Saturday, 6 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Maravich Assembly Center / Baton Rouge, La.
* Records: Florida (23-3, 10-3) / LSU (14-12, 3-10)
* TV: SEC Network (Kevin Fitzgerald 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	8.6 pts / 6.2 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	5.7 pts / 6.3 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.0 pts / 4.8 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	15.0 pts / 4.8 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	17.2 pts / 3.6 reb / 4.2 ast

LSU	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Daimion Collins	F	6-9 / 200	Junior	8.6 pts / 4.5 reb
Dji Bailey	G	6-5 / 195	Senior	8.8 pts / 4.4 reb
Vyctorius Miller	G	6-5 / 185	Freshman	9.2 pts / 2.5 reb
Curtis Givens III	G	6-3 / 185	Freshman	4.6 pts / 1.5 reb
Cam Carter	G	6-3 / 190	Senior	17.3 pts / 4.1 reb / 2.7 ast

The Breakdown

Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge (capacity 13,215)

SETUP: Second-ranked Florida, on a five-game heater, travels to LSU for a third consecutive game against an opponent hovering near the bottom of the Southeastern Conference standings. The Gators are coming off Tuesday night's 85-63 home drubbing of Oklahoma, their second straight win by 20-plus points. The Tigers, after a dismal start to the conference season, have won two straight, upsetting OU on the road last weekend, then beating last-place and winless South Carolina 81-67 Tuesday. UF is looking to stack wins in its quest for a high SEC Tournament seed and potential No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. LSU is a virtual lock to be one of the eight teams playing in the dreaded (and now expanded) Wednesday round of the league tournament next month at Nashville, Tenn.

SERIES: LSU leads 66-53, though Florida has won three straight and five of the previous six. In the last meeting, the Gators defeated the Tigers 82-80 in Gainesville in a game that was far too close for comfort. Florida led by 20 with 15 minutes, but LSU rallied by shooting 63 percent in the period and taking advantage of a nasty Gators' cold spell when they missed 10 of 11 shots on the way to a 34-percent second half. UF forward Alex Condon made one of two free throws for a two-point lead with 9.9 seconds left, giving the Tigers a chance to tie or win it on the final possession. Guard Jordan Wright got a pass in the paint for a point-blank, wide-open floater from about five feet. He missed. The Gators were led by junior Walter Clayton Jr.'s 21 points, plus grad forward Tyrese Samuel's 15 points and seven rebounds.

ETC: The game is the latest matchup between Florida coach Todd Golden and LSU's Matt McMahon, both of whom were finalists for the vacant UF post when Mike White left for Georgia in March of 2022. Golden was at San Francisco. McMahon was at Murray State. The two faced off in first-round play of the NCAA Tournament at Indianapolis, with Murray winning 92-87 in overtime. Golden was announced as Florida's coach the next day. He's 3-0 against McMahon since.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	LSU
83.8	Scoring	76.6
.470	Field-goal percentage	.457
.352	3-point percentage	.317
66.4	Scoring defense	72.2
.390	Field-goal percentage defense	.413
.284	3-point percentage defense	.316
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	78th
4th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	102nd
8th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	58th
77th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	116th
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	79th
27th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	67th

The Gators

Their win Tuesday, coupled with Alabama's loss Wednesday at Missouri, moved the Gators into a two-way tie with the Crimson Tide for second place in the SEC standings. UF's next two games are road dates against opponents near the bottom of the standings, while Bama has back-to-back home games, albeit against ranked Kentucky and Mississippi State. ... The Gators' next regular-season win will equal last year's total of 24, as well as their SEC victory total of 11, which would mark the team's most in league play since winning 12 in 2020. ... UF, at fourth and eighth, respectively, is one of just three teams ranked in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency -- along with Duke (2/4) and Houston (7/3). The Gators are one of five in the top 20 in both (throw in Auburn at 1/11 and Iowa State at 18/12). ... Injuries to the front court have result in Florida falling to No. 10 in offensive rebounding (37.7 percent). UF, in fact, played half the OU game with four guards, which impacted the rebound numbers. UF is up to No. 3 in effective field-goal percentage defense (44.2), fourth in 3-point defense (28.4) and 16th in 2-point defense (45.2). ... During the five-game winning streak, the Gators have shot 51.0 percent from the floor and 42.0 from the 3-point line, averaging 12.6 deep makes per game. They've defended at 44.1 percent and allowed just 31.0 percent from the arc in the span. ... Sophomore forward Alex Condon (10.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg) has progressed well in his recovery from the low-ankle sprain suffered 30 seconds into last week's win at Mississippi State. Golden said Condon's availability was not out of the question for this game. He'll be listed either as "questionable" or "doubtful." Backup forward Sam Alexis (4.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg), who rolled his ankle in the same game, will not play. Alexis will miss his third straight.

Walter Clayton Jr. continues his tracking toward potential first-team All-America honors. Currently the No. 8-rated player in the country (and No. 2 in SEC), Clayton is averaging 17.3 points and shooting 37 percent from the 3-point line in league play, while averaging 4.6 assists to 2.4 turnovers. Clayton's school-record run of consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer is now at 49. He's made at least four 3s in three of the last four games. Clayton had 18 points on 4-for-7 from distance versus Oklahoma. ... Fifth-year guard Alijah Martin, after scoring 14 points and grabbing five rebounds against OU over 27-plus, pronounced himself close to 100 percent recovered from the hip pointer that kept him out two games. With four more days of treatment in the books, look for Martin to be back in the starting lineup against the Tigers, with Denzel Aberdeen resuming his reliable role off the bench. Aberdeen, despite a 1-for-9 outing against OU, averaged 14.4 points, made 12 3s and totaled just four turnovers in averaging 29.8 during his five-game run with the starting unit. ... After just his second game without a 3-pointer this season, guard Will Richard dropped three in scoring 14 points and grabbing eight rebounds and a couple steals -- while taking most of the reps at the "4" spot -- against the Sooners. He's at 38.8 percent from deep in SEC play. ... Sophomore backup guard Urban Klavzar (4.4 ppg) totaled career highs in points (10) and minutes (23) against Oklahoma and also nailed two of his four from distance. Klavzar, now 9-for-14 on his 3s in SEC play, gives the Gators five guards, all of whom are very different in what opponents must prepare for. ...

Thomas Haugh, in starting the second game of his career, was just one of five from the floor and missed both his 3s, but still impacted the game with big-time effort plays on his way to seven points, six rebounds, two assists and four drawn fouls. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu has three straight games in double-figure scoring. He had four such games in the first 23 of the season. Chinyelu is at 59.6 percent from the floor. ... In the second game back after announcing he would bypass a medical redshirt season , 7-1 center Micah Handlogten (2.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg) hit his lone field-goal attempt, grabbed five rebounds and carded a couple assists over 16 minutes.

The Tigers

They're in the third season under McMahon and still looking for a first NCAA Tournament berth. The Tigers had a break-even mark of 16-16 last year and were invited to the NIT, but were beaten at home by North Texas in the first round. LSU is in position for another NIT, but that's not where the program wants to be, what with its last NCAA appearances in 2021, followed by the ouster of Coach Will Wade over NCAA violations. The '24-25 Tigers went 11-2 during non-league play, but lost their first three SEC games and 10 of the first 11 before putting together the modest two-game streak. The win at Oklahoma last weekend was the team's first Quad 1 victory in 10 tries this season.

The team was dealt a tough blow in early December when junior forward Jalen Reed, who was averaging 11.1 points and 6.5 rebounds, suffered a season-ending knee injury. Losing their best "big" has forced the Tigers to play a mostly four-guard lineup and the results have been difficult, especially on the rebounding front, where LSU ranks 332nd nationally on the defensive end and 157th on the offensive side. UF, even without Condon, should have a significant advantage on the glass. In SEC play, the Tigers rate next-to-last in turnover percentage (19.9) and in defensive efficiency, which should also play into Florida's excellent rebounding and fast-breaking hands.

Guard Cam Carter is the SEC's No. 3 scorer in league play, where he's shooting 42.2 percent from the floor and 39.0 from deep. Carter, who transferred after two years at Kansas State (and a year at Mississippi State before that), has 10 games of 20 or more points and is equally comfortable from the 2-point area (174 attempts this season) as the 3-point (160 attempts). ... Point guard Jordan Sears (12.5 ppg, 2.7 apg), by way of Tennessee-Martin (and Gardner-Webb before that) has been in and out of the starting lineup, but he's second on the team in scoring. Sears was a first-team all-state selection at Daytona Beach (Fla.) Mainland High. ... Guard Dji Bailey came from Richmond, where he had six steals against UF last year in the Gators' win in the Orange Bowl Classic. ... They ask a lot of forward Daimion Collins, who mostly sat on the bench the last two years at Kentucky. He's their lone size in the starting lineup. Collins is shooting a robust 68.7 percent inside the arc and is one of the better shot-blockers nationally (50th at 7.8 percent). He had a nice game of eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks in the win against South Carolina last weekend. ... Backup forward Corey Chest (6.5 ppg, 7.1 rpg), at 6-8, 220, averages less than 17 minutes but leads the team in rebounding. ... Freshman wings Vyctorious Miller (59.5 percent from 2 and 32.5 from 3) and Curtis Givens III (31.4 and 25.5) are young players the program will try to build around.

Numbers of Note

**Matt McMahon** (circa Murray State) and **Todd Golden** (San Francisco) in 2022.

* .489 — McMahon's winning percentage in his three seasons at LSU, based on his 45-47 record, including 14-35 in SEC play (.286)

* .663 — Golden's winning percentage in his three seasons at Florida, based on his 63-32 record, including a 30-19 in SEC play (.612).

* 4 — Consecutive games for UF with at least five players in double-figure scoring, marking the program's longest such run.

* 50.8 — Percentage of Gators' points this season from their three seniors -- Clayton, Martin and Richard -- based on the trio's 1,131 points to UF's total of 2,225.

* 2017 — The last year Florida won six consecutive SEC games, something the Gators will try to do Saturday. The team from eight years ago won eight straight conference games in the middle of the season (as well as a ninth out-of-conference game at Oklahoma in the Big 12/SEC Challenge) on the way to finishing 14-4 in league play, 27-9 overall, and eventually advancing to the Elite Eight.

Bottom Line

If the goal is a No. 1 seed (and it is), there can be no let-up, especially on the road when favored by double digits.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 2 Florida at LSU (Saturday, 6 pm)

No. 2 Florida at LSU

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Tigers

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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No. 2 Florida at LSU (Saturday, 6 pm)

No. 2 Florida at LSU

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Tigers

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Sam Alexis

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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