NCAA Tournament: (1) Florida vs (4) Maryland (Thursday, 7:39 pm)

(1) Florida vs. (8) Maryland

* What: NCAA Tournament West Region / "Sweet 16" round
* When: Thursday, 7:39 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Chase Center / San Francisco
* Records: Florida (32-4) / Maryland (27-8)
* TV: TBS and TruTV (Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, Stan Van Gundy and Lauren Shehadi)
* 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	11.1 pts / 7.8 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Sophomore	6.1 pts / 6.5 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Senior	13.5 pts / 4.5 reb
Alijah Martin	G	6-2 / 195	Graduate	14.6 pts / 4.5 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Senior	17.9 pts / 3.8 reb / 4.2 ast

Maryland	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Julian Reese	F	6-9 / 252	Senior	13.3 pts / 9.1 reb
Derik McQueen	C	6-10 / 246	Freshman	16.2 pts / 9.1 reb
Rodney Rice	G	6-4 / 198	Sophomore	13.9 pts / 2.2 reb
Selton Miguel	G	6-4 / 217	Senior	12.0 pts / 1.9 reb
Ja'Kobi Gillespie	G	6-1 / 186	Junior	14.6 pts / 2.8 reb / 5.0 ast

The Breakdown

Chase Center (capacity 18,064) in San Francisco is home to the NBA Golden State Warriors

SETUP: Fourth-ranked Florida and 12th-ranked Maryland meet in the third round of the NCAA West Region. The Gators, the bracket's No. 1 seed, got here by defeating 16-seed Norfolk State 95-69 in first-round play and 8-seed Connecticut, the two-time defending national champion, 77-75 in the second round, both at Raleigh, North Carolina. The Terrapins, regular-season runners-up in the Big Ten, advanced with wins of 81-49 against 13-seed Grand Canyon and Saturday night's 72-71 buzzer-beater over 12-seed Colorado State, with both games played at Seattle. The winner will move on to Saturday's regional title game for an "Elite Eight" matchup against either 3-seed Texas Tech (27-8) or 10-seed Cinderella Arkansas (22-13), who play in Thursday's late West game.

SERIES: The two programs have met just four times, including three times since 2002, with the series knotted 2-2. Their last game came on Dec. 12, 2021 in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational at Barclay's Center in Brooklyn. Terps forward Donta Scott threw in an off-balance, awkward-angle bank shot to break a tie game with 16 seconds left and push his team ahead 70-68. At UF's end, fifth-year point guard Tyree Appleby's attempt at a game-winning 3 bounced off the back of the rim. Appleby scored all 15 of his points in the second half on five 3-pointers. Gators grad guard Phlandrous Fleming had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.

ETC: UF is 9-2 in all-time in Sweet 16 games, including a run of eight consecutive victories, dating to 1999.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Maryland
85.4	Scoring	81.4
.473	Field-goal percentage	.471
.356	3-point percentage	.375
69.4	Scoring defense	66.6
.399	Field-goal percentage defense	.413
.293	3-point percentage defense	.302
3rd	KenPom.com overall ranking	13th
2nd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	34th
11th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	9th
61st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	23td
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	10th
16th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	45th

The Gators

They're in the Sweet 16 for the first time in eight years, with the 2017 run to the Elite Eight the program's last deep venture in the NCAA Tournament. That Florida team lost to Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina one victory shy of the Final Four. The Gators have won eight in a row and 14 of the previous 15, with seven of the last eight games (except for the first-round rout of Norfolk State) Quadrant 1 games. Not that the NCAA Evaluation Tool ratings matters anymore, but the level of competition in UF's late-season run has been incredibly high, including the ousting of the championship-pedigree Huskies on Sunday. ... Florida is a 6.5-point favorite. ... UF fell one spot (from No. 1 to 2) in the KenPom.com offensive efficiency ratings and held steady at 11th on defense. Though the Gators' reputation mostly starts on the offensive end, the defensive numbers put up against UConn (37.5% from the floor, just 8-for-29 from the 3-point line) furthered justified their KenPom ratings of fifth nationally in effective field-goal percentage (45.5), their 17th-rated 2-point defense (46.2) and fifth-rated 3-point defense (29.3). UF will have to be stout against a UM offense that gets high marks in all those categories. ... The Gators shot just 64.7% from the free-throw line against UConn -- well below their season averaging of nearly 72 % -- and were a maddening 15-for-27 in the second half (55.6%). They were very fortunate those misses did not come back to bite.

Point guard Walter Clayton Jr. shook off a rough first half when UConn's sticky, ball screen-blitzing defense tried to take him out of his game. In the second half, the first-team All American went four of seven from the floor, 3-for-3 from distance, including a couple late-game killers, and converted four of his five free throws on the way to a game-high 23 points. In the team's five preseason games (three in the SEC Tournament, two in the NCAA), Clayton is aveaging 21.6 points, shooting 47.8% overall, 51.1 from the 3-point line (22 of 43) and 88.0% at the free-throw line (22 of 25). ... The Gators may have been in big trouble were it not for Alijah Martin's first half against the Huskies. He had 14 points on six of nine shooting and a couple 3s. Martin scored four huge points in the closing seconds, including a dunk off an offensive rebound from a missed free throw and two clutch free throws with 21.6 seconds remaining. ... Will Richard had two points and missed both his field-goal tires in the first half, but finished with 15 points (with a couple big 3s), six rebounds, three assists and two steals. ... UF's trio of seniors is averaging 51.8 points in the five postseason games.

All-SEC forward Alex Condon scored just five points against UConn and missed five of his eight free throws, but battled for seven rebounds and also dished four assists. After a run of games when he's struggled somewhat with physical front court players, Condon will be tested again by a very strong and athletic Maryland post game. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu will be fine with the physicality, but needs to be more disciplined with his fouling. He was hit with three in the first half Sunday and fouled out in the SEC Tournament against Alabama. He's 13.9 offensive-rebound percentage ransk 44th in the country. ... Reserve forward Thomas Haugh (9.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg) went five of six from the 2-point area, 0-for-7 from 3 in Raleigh, but also crashed the glass for 16 rebounds and had seven assists. ... Backup center Micah Handlogten (2.7 ppg, 5.5 rpg) did not score against UConn, missing all three of his shots against the active and athletic Huskies. He finished with four boards, but a minus-4 in the box score, one of only two Gators on the negative side. The other was backup guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.9 ppg), who scored three points on three shots in his 14 minutes at minus-1.

The Terrapins

They're known as the "Crab Five," as their five starters accounted for more than 81% of the team's minutes since the start of Big Ten Conference play (about 10% more than UF's starters). Maryland is in the third season under Kevin Willard, with a 65-38 record to show for it and a big bounce-back from last season's disappointing 16-17 season after guiding the Terrapins to the tournament (and winning a first-round game) his inaugural '22-23 season. Willard came to College Park after 12 seasons at Seton Hall, with six NCAA Tournament trips from 2016-22 and a 1-6 record to show for it with the Pirates, but now has a 3-1 mark at Maryland. ... The Terps want to play fast, which could play into the Gators' hands, but also could be a challenge if the 23rd-best 3-point shooting team in the country (37.5 percent) gets open looks in transition. They are excellent taking care of the ball, with a turnover percentage of just 14.3% (19th in the country) and steals percentage of just 6.8% (third). Maryland is not a great offensive rebounding team, gathering just 31% of its misses (149th). On defense, the Terps check in at 21st in effective field-goal percentage (46.8), 15th in guarding the arc (30.2) and 52nd in the 2-point area (47.6). They force turnovers on one of every five possessions (43rd). ... UM makes nearly 75 percent of its free throws. ... Four starters playing more than 70% of the team's minutes (compared to UF's three). That will be something the Gators surely will try to exploit.

Center Derik Queen put his name in Maryland basketball's rich lore Sunday night by making the program's biggest shot since Juan Dixon guided the Terps to the 2002 NCAA crown. His running, banking 2-pointer at the buzzer sent UM to the second weekend for the first time since 2016. Queen is out of Montverde (Fla.) Academy, where he played last season alongside Duke's Cooper Flagg. Whereas Flagg will be selected No. 1 in the NBA Draft this June, Quee is expected to hear his name called in the top 10 (maybe top five). He's shooting 53% from the floor, has only taken 31 shots from deep, is one of two Terps to average nine-plus boards a game and ranks 39th in the country in defensive-rebound percentage. He also draws fouls at a high rate (5.9 per 40 minutes), with 208 free-throw attempts at 75.5%. He will be a handful inside. ... Forward Julian Reese is the other super-productive "big," with a team-high 103 offensive rebounds on the season (12.1% ranks 105th nationally). Reese, a four-year Terp, is another one who does not bother to stray from the paint (just one attempt from 3 this season) and gets to the line a bunch. His 166 attempts rate second to Queen. ... Guard Ja'Kobi Gillespie is the team's second-leading scorer and one of two starters at better than 40% from the arc. He has 84 makes from deep at 40.6%, plus team highs of 174 assists and 67 steals. If Queen is the Terps best inside guy, Gillespie is their most dangerous all-around perimeter player. ... South Florida transfer Miguel Selton is a team-best 43.4% from distance on 173 attempts, with Virginia Tech transfer Rodney Rice a potent 37.3.

Numbers of Note

* .687 — Florida coach Todd Golden's winning percentage in three seasons, based on his 72-33 record, giving him the highest for any coach in program history to coach at least 100 games.

* 1 — 3-pointers needed by Clayton to reach 200 for his UF career. His 199 to date ranks second in program history, behind only two-time national champion Lee Humphrey, who hit 226 in his 136 games over four seasons (2005-07). Clayton has reached his total in just 71 games over two seasons.

* 5 —Consecutive UF head coaches who guided their respective Gators teams to the "Sweet 16" in their first NCAA tournaments with the program. Norm Sloan did it in 1987, though the wins were later vacated due to NCAA sanctions. Then came Lon Kruger in '94, Billy Donovan in '99, Mike White in 2017 and now Golden in '25.

* 1932 —The first time Florida and Maryland played a basketball game. The date was Feb. 27. The place was on a neutral floor in South Carolina (exact details not available). The Gators prevailed 39-24 in a game that was considerably lower-scoring than what is expected Thursday night.

* 2,352 — Air miles from Gainesville to San Francisco, making this the second-longest NCAA Tournament trip in program history, behind the 1999 dispatch to Seattle (2,448 miles), where the Gators defeated Penn and Weber State in the opening two rounds. Maryland, by the way, went directly from Seattle, the Terps first- and second-round site, to San Francisco, giving them an advantageous head start on the time-zone situation and lack of jet lag.

Bottom Line

Both teams survived and advanced, as they say this time of year, grueling second-rounders. Should be another entertaining (and nerve-racking) one.

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu

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