No. 3 Florida vs No. 12 Texas A&M (Saturday, 8:30 pm)

No. 3 Florida vs. No. 12 Texas A&M

* When: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (24-4, 11-4) / Texas A&M (20-8, 9-6)
* TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart and Ron Slay)
* 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	8.8 pts / 6.3 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	6.1 pts / 6.5 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.2 pts / 4.7 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	14.7 pts / 4.7 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	17.1 pts / 3.7 reb / 4.0 ast

Texas A&M	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Andersson Garcia	F	6-7 / 220	Senior	5.3 pts / 5.9 reb
Henry Coleman III	F	6-8 / 250	Senior	7.8 pts / 5.2 reb
Solomon Washington	F	6-7/ 220	Junior	4.8 pts / 5.3 reb
Zhuric Phelps	G	6-4 / 190	Senior	14.4 pts / 5.2 reb
Wade Taylor IV	G	6-0 / 180	Senior	15.3 pts / 2.9 reb / 4.8 ast

The Breakdown

ESPN's "College GameDay" show (sans **Jay Bilas**) will air live from the O'Dome Saturday morning.

SETUP: No. 3 Florida and No. 12 Texas A&M meet in a Southeastern Conference game with serious ramifications relative to seeding in both the league and NCAA tournaments next month. ESPN's "College GameDay" show will air from the O'Dome 10 a.m. to noon. The Gators had their six-game winning streak snapped Tuesday night with an 88-83 loss at Georgia, where they fell behind by 26 points in the first half, rallied to take the lead with just over a minute to go, but were overtaken by the Bulldogs in the closing seconds. The Aggies are coming off Wednesday night's home loss to Vanderbilt, 86-84, are in a three-game losing streak for the first time this season and will be desperate to stop the bleeding. UF, for now, sits alone in third place in the SEC standings, one game behind second-place Alabama, one game ahead of Tennessee and Missouri and two ahead of A&M in a scramble -- with three regular-season games remaining -- to secure one of the four two-day byes in the SEC Tournament. First-place Auburn has the No. 1 seed virtually locked up, with Alabama in great shape for the 2 or 3 seed. The remaining two spots are very much up for grabs, with some outstanding, top-20 teams in the mix. UF, though, has an inside track to one of them, if the Gators can take advantage.

SERIES: UF leads 10-9, but only because the Gators snapped a run of five consecutive losses, dating to 2022 (by a combined 10 points) last time out. After Florida took four in a row from 2017-20, the two teams did not play during the '21 league season because of Covid. The Aggies then won, in succession, by one point at College Station and by three in overtime at the SEC Tournament in Tampa in '22; by three at Gainesville and by two at College Station in '23; then by one again at home in '24, before meeting again six weeks later in the SEC Tournament semifinals at Nashville. In that one, A&M jumped to 18-point first-half lead before UF staged a stirring comeback behind sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen's career-high 20 points off the bench, including a 4-for-5 shooting display from the arc. The Gators shot 56 percent and banged eight of 15 from deep on the way to a 53-point second half against one of the best defenses in the country. Junior guard Will Richard had 19 points, grad forward Tyrese Samuel had 15 points and six rebounds, and grad point guard Zyon Pullin had 15 points and five assists, as UF advanced to the SEC championship game for the first time in 10 years. The Gators lost in the title game to Auburn.

ETC: UF has beaten two teams (Tennessee and Georgia) by 30 points at home this season and lost to both (UT by 20, UGA by five) in road rematches mere weeks later.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Texas A&M
83.6	Scoring	73.9
.467	Field-goal percentage	.420
.351	3-point percentage	.306
67.1	Scoring defense	66.7
.394	Field-goal percentage defense	.399
.292	3-point percentage defense	.327
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	21st
4th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	53rd
8th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	7th
75th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	226th
5th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	20th
29th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	10th

The Gators

UF forward **Alex Condon** (21) returned to action Tuesday after missing four games with an ankle sprain.

What may have been the worst 12 minutes of the season Tuesday night coincided with what had to be the best 12 minutes of Georgia's season, and the Gators paid for it. With just inside eight minutes to go in the first half, UF trailed 39-13, was shooting 25 percent from the floor, surrendering 75 percent and had forced just three turnovers. Over the next 27 minutes, the Gators outscored the Bulldogs 67-39 on 46-percent shooting, while guarding at 41 percent and forcing 14 turnovers to take an 80-78 lead. It was that last, unfortunate minute, however, that decided the game and ended UF's six-game win streak. Florida exited the loss with virtually the same offensive and defensive metrics it began with, making those aforementioned 12 bad minutes all the more difficult to stomach. But it's over. The Gators need wins. More specifically, they need quality ones, like these final three games present (A&M, at Alabama, home against Ole Miss), each of which could end up being consecutive Quadrant 1 opportunities, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool. Florida is just 5-4 in Q1s, which is a considerably low number of wins for a program that aspires for a high tournament seed.

Guard Will Richard, slowed by a sore toe the previous few games, came alive in his Georgia homecoming with a career-high 30 points, five 3-pointers, five rebounds and three assists. Richard had 17 in the first half and was the only reason the Gators were even remotely in the game. Hhis backcourt mates, Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin combined for just six points on 2-for-11 shooting in the first period. Clayton, though, finished with 18 points, with a trio of 3s, five assists and five turnovers. Martin had eight points, two rebounds and three steals over his 32 minutes. ... With Richard's 30 points, now all three of UF's starting guards have scored at least 30 in a game (Martin vs. Southern Illinois and Clayton at Kentucky). ... Forward Thomas Haugh, in his fourth consecutive start, had six points, four rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals. He went 0-for-4 from the arc. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu had his run of four straight double-digit scoring games snapped. He had three points, four rebounds and fouled out in just 15 minutes. ... In his first action since suffering a low-ankle sprain 30 seconds into the Feb. 11 game at Mississippi State, sophomore forward Alex Condon (10.5 ppg, 7.6 rpg) was a bit rusty with his finishes around the rim in going 1-for-7 from the floor. He checked into the game early, however, played 21 minutes and finished with nine points, three rebounds and went 7-for-9 from the free-throw line in drawing a game-high six fouls.

Sophomore 7-1 center Micah Handlogten (2.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg) scored six points, grabbed nine rebounds and carded two steals in just 12 minutes at UGA. Six of his rebounds were on the offensive end. ... Backup junior guard Denzel Aberdeen (8.3 ppg) had his toughest game in weeks, going scoreless in less than eight minutes. ... Reserve sophomore guard Urban Klavzar (3.8 ppg) played eight minutes and ran his consecutive-game streak with at least one 3-pointer to seven. He's 11-for-20 from deep in SEC play. ... Backup forward Sam Alexis (ankle) will miss his fifth straight game.

The Aggies

Texas A&M point guard **Wade Taylor IV** (4)

They're in the sixth season under Buzz Williams, a program-builder who has a very good thing going in College Station, where he's 117-70, with four straight 20-win seasons and headed for a third straight NCAA Tournament berth. Last week, A&M was knee-deep in the No. 2-seed NCAA conversation, but that was before the current three-game skid (losses at Mississippi State, then home against Tennessee and Vandy). Now comes a date at No. 3 UF, followed by a home finale against No. 1 Auburn. Yikes. ... The Aggies are arguably the most physical team in the SEC (right there with Tennessee), lead the conference in scoring defense (66.7 ppg) and are at or near the top in some of the most significant defensive metrics in league play: No. 1 in turnover percentage (20.1), rebounding percentage (26.0), as well as second in 2-point percentage (47.7) and fourth in overall efficiency. On offense, A&M ranks next-to-last in effective field-goal percentage, but No. 1 -- in the league and the nation -- in offensive rebounding percentage (38.5). The Aggies are 12th in 2-point percentage (48.2) and 14th from distance (29.2). They struggle to score, but also are in no hurry to try and do so.

Point guard Wade Taylor IV is the league's No. 15 scorer and needs 45 points to reach 2,000 for his four-year career. Taylor had a tough shooting night Wednesday, making just three of 10 overall and two of six from the arc, but was 13-for-16 at the free-throw line, where the Aggies, one of the worst free-throw shooting teams in the country, went 31 of 39 as a team (79.5 percent). ... Guard Zhuric Phelps, the SMU transfer, is the second-leading scorer, but only shooting 27 percent from the arc. He'll get most of his baskets from drives and mid-range shots, but also has shot 115 free throws (70.4 percent). ... Beefy Henry Coleman II is in his fourth season at A&M after playing as a 9-minute-per-game freshman in '20-21 at Duke. Coleman is a big reason (one of several) the Aggies are so good on the glass. He's equally troublesome on both ends (72 offensive rebounds, 73 defensive), but is the No. 87 offensive rebounder in the country. Coleman is shooting 57 percent on the season and has only attempted one 3. ... Backup guard CJ Wilcher (4.6 ppg) hit four 3s against Vanderbilt and at 42.2 percent is -- by far -- the best pure shooter on the team.

Forward Andersson Garcia is another of those big rebounding reasons, with 65 on the offensive end vs. 99 at the other. He's got five games of double-digit rebounds, with a season-high 16 against Wake Forest. ... Forward Solomon Washington caused the Gators some problems in their road loss last year, both on the glass and contesting shots around the rim. He was scoreless against Vandy and has just five points during the losing streak, but earlier this season had five straight SEC games of double-digit scoring. ... Beware 6-9, 250-pound junior forward Pharrel Payne (9.4 ppg, 4.9 rpg), the Minnesota transfer and low-post menace off the bench. Payne can be a pain, for sure. He's at 66-percent shooting on the season (coming off 23 points on 9-for-13 from the floor against the Commodores), without an attempt from 3, and like Coleman is the same rebounder on either end (69 offensive, 67 defensive). He profiles as the 46th best shot-blocker in the country.

Numbers of Note

UF guard **KeVaughn Allen** (5) launches a 3 over A&M's Jay Jay **Chandler** in the Gators' last home win -- six years ago -- against the Aggies.

* 7 — SEC teams with more Quad 1 wins than Florida's five. Blame the relatively light non-league schedule (ranked 216th nationally) or the loaded conference slate, but those seven others look like this in the Q1 count: Auburn (15), Alabama (10), Tennessee (9), Kentucky (9), Mississippi State (7), Missouri and A&M (6).

* 15 — Where the Gators rank (out of 16) in free-throw shooting in SEC play, based on their 69.4 percent at the line after going just 18-for-29 (62.1 percent) at Georgia, with two misses each from Clayton (83.0 percent), Richard (73.1) and Martin (62.5).

* 16 — Where the Aggies rank (out of 16, although barely) in free-throw shooting in SEC play, based on their 69.3 percentage at the line.

* 50 —Consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer for Clayton, who broke the previous mark of 41 held for nine years by Michael Frazier II nine games ago and is putting this record in a different stratosphere.

* 2019 — The last year Florida beat A&M at the O'Dome. The date was Jan. 22. The Aggies' coach was Billy Kennedy. The Gators' coach was Mike White. UF won 81-72 behind a combined 58 points from guards KeVaughn Allen and Noah Locke. Allen, the senior, was an unconscious 8-for-10 from the 3-point line. Locke, the freshman on his way to a career-high 27 points, wasn't far behind at seven of 13. UF actually trailed by 13 at the half, but shot 59 percent in the second, including 11-for-15 from deep (73.3 percent), in outscoring the Aggies 48-26.

Bottom Line

With a road trip to No. 6 Alabama looming next, the stakes of this one (especially relative to NCAA seeding) are pretty obvious.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

Gators Calendar

No. 3 Florida vs No. 12 Texas A&M (Saturday, 8:30 pm)

No. 3 Florida vs. No. 12 Texas A&M

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Aggies

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

Zyon Pullin

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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No. 3 Florida vs No. 12 Texas A&M (Saturday, 8:30 pm)

No. 3 Florida vs. No. 12 Texas A&M

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Tale of the Tape

The Gators

The Aggies

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

Zyon Pullin

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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