No. 3 Florida at Georgia (Tuesday, 7 pm)

No. 3 Florida at Georgia

* When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Stegeman Coliseum / Athens, Ga.
* Records: Florida (24-3, 11-3) / Georgia (16-11, 4-10)
* TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal and Pat Bradley)
* 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	8.9 pts / 6.3 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	6.2 pts / 6.6 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	12.6 pts / 4.7 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	15.0 pts / 4.8 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	17.1 pts / 3.7 reb / 4.0 ast

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Asa Newell	F	6-11 / 220	Freshman	15.4 pts / 6.7 reb
RJ Godfrey	F	6-8 / 230	Junior	7.0 pts / 4.2 reb
Dylan James	F	6-9 / 210	Sophomore	2.9 pts / 2.0 reb
Blue Cain	G	6-5/ 195	Sophomore	9.1 pts / 3.9 reb
Silas Demary	G	6-5 / 195	Sophomore	12.1 pts / 4.0 reb / 3.2 ast

The Breakdown

Stegeman Coliseum (capacity 10,523) at the University of Georgia

SETUP: Third-ranked Florida travels to Georgia for their second meeting this season. The Gators have won six in a row, but fell one spot in this week's Associated Press Top 25 poll. Their latest win came Saturday night, a 79-65 come-from-behind victory at LSU, which kept them in a two-way tie with Alabama for second place in the Southeastern Conference standings, as teams jockey for position and seeding (and double-byes) in next month's league tournament at Nashville, Tenn. The Bulldogs have dropped four straight (and five of the previous six). They were beaten 82-70 Saturday at top-ranked Auburn, a game in which the Dogs hung around and kept things within a possession or two most of the second half, before the Tigers pulled away in the final few minutes. UGA is tied with Oklahoma for 13th in the league standings and certain to be playing on the SEC Tournament's expanded four-game first day.

SERIES: UF leads 126-103, including a run of 12 straight, dating to the 2020 season. On Jan, 25, the Gators stomped the Bulldogs 89-59 at Gainesville in the first of their two meetings as permanent home-and-home opponents assigned by the league. In that one, UF shot 68 percent in the first half, with seven 3-pointers, and led 51-26 at intermission. Five Gators scored in double figures, led by 17 each from guards Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin, plus 16 from Will Richard, who dropped four 3s. They limited the Bulldogs to 36 percent for the game (five of 21 from the 3-point line) and forced 18 turnovers that became 29 UF points.

ETC: How many teams in the country are fortunate enough to get to play No. 1 and No. 3 in consecutive games? Congrats, UGA.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Georgia
83.6	Scoring	74.8
.469	Field-goal percentage	.460
.351	3-point percentage	.324
66.3	Scoring defense	68.7
.389	Field-goal percentage defense	.408
.284	3-point percentage defense	.295
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	45th
4th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	67th
7th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	34th
99th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	235th
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	41st
29th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	11th

The Gators

They were tested in a different way at LSU. The Gators got off to a 14-point first half lead, then got a little cavalier on both ends of the floor. The Tigers went on an alarming 22-2 run over the final seven-plus minutes of the first half to lead by six at the break. The margin was eight nearly five minutes into the second half when UF, having picked up their intensity and the game's tempo, UF went on a couple quick-strike runs that turned the game. The first was a 15-2 spree that got the Gators back out in front by five. LSU stuck around and were within four with five minutes go when Florida smacked the home team with 14 straight points to go up by 18 with less than three minutes to go. Maybe the team learned a lesson about maintaining pace and pressure, especially away from home, as the one-and-done season of March approaches. ... UF remained at No. 4 nationally in offensive efficiency, but moved up a notch to seventh in defense after holding the Tigers to 38.1 percent for the game and 29.0 from 3. The Gators, even without sophomore forward Alex Condon (10.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg), were outstanding on the glass, with a 48-33 advantage overall and 19-12 on the offensive end. ... Condon, who missed the last four games with a low-ankle sprain, could be cleared to go against Georgia. He dressed out and went through all pregame warm-ups at LSU.

Center Rueben Chinyelu is on a tear. He scored a career-high 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds Saturday (his third double-double of the season), in his finest game as a Gator. He also had two blocks. Chinyelu, the transfer from Washington State, has reached double-figure scoring in four straight games (at 12.5 ppg) after doing so just four times in the season's first 23 games. ... Forward Thomas Haugh, who made his third consecutive start for Condon, was spectacular in the second half. After scoring just three points in the first, Haugh had 13 in the second, with four dunks and a 3-pointer, to finish with 16 points, 10 rebounds (half on offense), three assists and his second double-double of the season. He was seven of nine from the floor. In his three games as a starter, Haugh is averaging 14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 58.3 percent overall and gone 5-for-10 from deep. Also worthing noting: Haugh had his breakout game as a freshman at Athens last season, scoring 17 points and banging a trio of 3s. ... Guard Alijah Martin was back in the starting lineup for the first time in five games. Playing about 80 miles from his hometown of Summit, Miss. (and with an enthusiastic cheering section in the house), "A-Mart" scored 14 points, with a couple 3s, and grabbed six rebounds over 32 minutes. Yeah, he's back. ... Point guard Walter Clayton Jr., on his way to 13 points, made a couple 3s (he's made at least one in 49 straight games), but missed six. He also went his first game in four without an assist, but also did not turn the ball over.

Junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (8.7 ppg) returned to his role off the bench, providing 11 points on 5-for-9 shooting and a couple steals. ... Reserve guard Urban Klavzar (3.8 ppg) banged a 3 in his sixth straight game, doing so at a pivotal moment of UF's second-half run to take the lead. He's 10 of 18 from deep in SEC play (55.5 percent). ... Junior center Micah Handlogten (1.7 ppg, 4.7 rpg), playing in his third game, was a significant factor in the Gators' big rebounding numbers. He grabbed six in just 14 minutes, including three on the offensive end. ... Florida has gone five consecutive games with at least five players scoring in double figures. That's a program record. The Gators have won their six straight despite missing at least one starter due to injury in each.

The Bulldogs

Georgia point guard **Silas Demary Jr.** (5)

Once again, Georgia coach Mike White will face the program he left in 2022 after seven seasons, along the way producing a winning record in each and four NCAA Tournament appearances. White is 0-6 against Golden, his UF successor, including 0-2 at Athens. Unlike, the last meeting, most games have been competitive, with the Gators talent ultimately taking over. ... Georgia went 12-1 during the non-conference portion of its slate, then lost at Ole Miss in the SEC opener, but followed that with home wins against South Carolina and Kentucky. The Bulldogs are 2-9 since, with the four straight losses coming against NCAA-bound teams Mississippi State and Missouri (at home), Texas A&M and Auburn on the road. ... UGA ranks 14th in league play in offensive efficiency, including last in 3-point shooting at 29.1 percent, as well as next-to-last in effective field-goal percentage (46.7) and turnover percentage (19.4). Defensively, the Bulldogs are ninth overall and fourth at guarding the arc (30.8 percent), but they're last in defensive rebounding (39.1 percent), which should be an advantage to UF's glass crashers.

Fifth-year guard Tyrin Lawrence (8.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg) has missed the last three games since suffering a leg injury in a loss Feb. 8 at MSU. His status was uncertain, as of Monday afternoon. ... Forward Asa Newell is a projected lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and one of the best freshman in the country. He's a relentless competitor in the post who has scored in double figures in all but two games, with six double doubles. He had 20 points, hit a trio of 3s and grabbed five rebounds in the loss against Auburn. Newell is converting at 63.1 percent from 2 and ranks 60th nationally in offensive rebounding percentage at 13.7. ... Point guard Silas Demary Jr. has built on his solid freshman campaign in '23-24. He scores at all three levels and is adept at getting to the line, where he converts at 82.6 percent. ... Guard Blue Cain has averaged nearly 15 points over the last three games and gone 7-for-16 from the 3-point line. He's 33.0 out there on the season.

Backup guard Dakota Leffew (the team's third-leading scorer at 9.9 pg) also got hurt in the Mississippi State game. The transfer from Mount St. Mary's missed one game, returned for the last two but went scoreless over his combined 48 minutes. He's a solid 35.1 percent from deep. ... Forward RJ Godfrey brought the Bulldogs some muscle and winning experience, by way of Clemson, where he fell a game shy of the Final Four last season. Godfrey, at 58.1 percent from 2, shuffles minutes in the post with backup Somtochukwu Cyril (4.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg). The two will park in the paint. They're 0-for-11 combined from deep.

Numbers of Note

UF forward **Devin Robinson** tries to knife between a couple Georgia defenders in the team's lone 2015 meeting and the last year a Bulldogs' season ended in the NCAA Tournament. The Gators lost that game, 73-61, ending UF's 24-game SEC winning streak, which was the fourth-longest in league history at the time.

* .320 — White's winning percentage in SEC play in his three seasons at Georgia, based on a 16-34 mark.

* .580 — White's winning percentage in SEC in seven seasons at Florida, based on a 72-52 mark (with no losing records).

* 24 — Florida's wins to date, which ties for the third-most in a regular season in program history, behind the 29 in 2013-14 and 26 in '06-07.

* 68.5 — UF opponent's free-throw percentage in SEC play, which is the lowest in the league. The Gators, however, are shooting just 70.1 percent at the line against the conference, which is 14th.

* 2015 —Georgia's last NCAA Tournament appearance, with the nine-season drought the longest in the conference (two years behind Vanderbilt's last in 2017) and trending toward a 10th consecutive season.

Bottom Line

UF's postseason resume (specifically, the difference between a No. 1 or No. 2 seed) truly begins to take shape this week.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 3 Florida at Georgia (Tuesday, 7 pm)

No. 3 Florida at Georgia

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Bulldogs

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

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No. 3 Florida at Georgia (Tuesday, 7 pm)

No. 3 Florida at Georgia

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Bulldogs

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Related News

Players Mentioned

Denzel Aberdeen

Rueben Chinyelu

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Thomas Haugh

Urban Klavzar

Alijah Martin

Will Richard

Related Videos

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