Florida vs Iowa (Sunday, 7:10 ET)

Florida vs. Iowa

* When: Monday, 7:10 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Benchmark International Arena / Tampa, Fla.
* Records: Florida (27-7) / Iowa (22-12)
* Series/Last meeting: First meeting.
* TV: TBS (Tom McCarthy, Candace Parker, Dan Bonner and AJ Ross)
* 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	Junior	14.9 pts / 7.5 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	11.2 pts / 11.5 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	17.0 pts / 6.2 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	11.4 pts / 3.7 reb / 3.4 ast
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	11.7 pts / 2.5 reb

Iowa	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Cam Manyawu	F	6-9 / 250	Junior	6.9 pts / 4.7 reb
Cooper Koch	F	6-8 / 250	R-Freshman	7.7 pts / 3.0 reb
Tavion Banks	G/F	6-7 / 215	Senior	10.3 pts / 4.7 reb
Kael Combs	G	6-4 / 205	Junior	6.2 pts / 2.5 reb
Bennett Stirtz	G	6-4 / 190	xxx	19.9 pts / 2.6 reb / 4.4 ast

The Setup

Top-seed Florida and No. 9 seed Iowa will meet for the first time in second-round play of the NCAA Tournament Southeast Region, with the winner advancing to the "Sweet 16" next week at Houston. ... The Gators, champions of the Southeastern Conference, got here by destroying 16-seed Prairie View A&M 114-55 in Friday night's first round. The Hawkeyes did so by beating 8-seed Clemson 67-61. ... The game will be a drastic contrast in playing styles. Florida will want to play fast, take advantage of opportunities in transition and create as many possessions as possible to give their spectacular front line a chance to crash the glass. Iowa will want to force the Gators into a methodical pace of less possessions that is played almost exclusively in the halfcourt. ... The Hawkeyes, in their 30th all-time NCAA Tournament, will face the reigning national champion for the first time in 70 years and are seeking their first "Sweet 16" berth since 1999. The Gators, playing in their 24th all-time tournament, are looking to reach a second consecutive round of 16 for the first time since going to four straight from 2011-14.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Iowa
87.6	Scoring	75.0
.483	Field-goal percentage	.488
.312	3-point percentage	.355
71.5	Scoring defense	65.8
.404	Field-goal percentage defense	.459
.322	3-point percentage defense	.337
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	23rd
9th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	29th
6th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	31st
29th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	361st
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	27th
7th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	41st

The Breakdown

About the Gators: After laying an egg in the SEC Tournament last weekend, they responded with the second-biggest blowout in NCAA Tournament history. The 59-point margin of victory against Prairie View sits second only to Loyola-Chicago's 69-point erasure of Tennessee Tech in 1963. UF was lively from the opening tip, using runs of 18-0, 10-0 and 17-0 to open a 60-21 halftime lead -- with a 38-0 advantage in paint points -- and never took its foot off the gas. The Gators posted program-tournament records for points, shooting percentage (64.3) and assists (29), while placing seven players in double-figure scoring for the second time this season. They also defended at 27%, rebounded to a plus-34 margin and allowed just one 3-pointer over the game's final 33 minutes. ... Guards Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee played with nice pace in directing the offense. Fland went 6-for-6 from the floor, hit both his 3s and finished with 16 points. Lee had 10 points, hit three 3s and dished five assists without a turnover. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu hit six of his nine field-goal tries on the way to a school-record 19th double-double of 14 points and 13 rebounds. ... Forward Thomas Haugh had 14 points and a season-high seven assists, one off his career high. ... Forward Alex Condon had 13 points, three rebounds, five assists and three blocks. ... The UF bench, led by guard Urban Klavzar (11 points) and Micah Handlogten (10 points, 9 rebounds), outscored its Prairie View counterpart 47-18, with every available scholarship Gator checking into the game and all but one walk-on finding the scoring column. ... Gators coach Todd Golden, looking to join Billy Donovan as the only coaches in team history to take the program to back-to-back Sweet 16s, improved to 7-2 in NCAA play Friday, including 7-1 at UF.

About the Hawkeyes: They're in the first season under Coach Ben McCollum, who came to Iowa City from across the state at Drake. McCollum won four Division II championships during 15 seasons at Northeast Missouri State (2009-24), then bolted for Drake and promptly guided the Bulldogs to 31 wins and an NCAA Tournament berth (with a first-round win over Missouri) in his first crack at D1. He left after one season to take the Iowa posted vacated by the firing of Fran McCaffrey. His career record is 448-107, with a 43-16 mark in his two D1 seasons. ... They played a light non-conference slate (336th most difficult) that included a close loss to Iowa State. The Hawkeyes beat Nebraska last month, but also lost at Maryland, which won just four league games. Iowa, which went 10-10 in Big Ten play, had lost seven of the previous 10 before Friday's victory. ... McCollum's teams play a physical and discipline style that will test the patience of the Gators. Only four teams play slower than the Hawkeyes' pace of 361st (Minnesota, West Virginia, Northern Iowa and Niagara), but their 16th nationally in 2-point percentage. On defense, Iowa is 15th at forcing turnovers (20.6%), but 69th in defensive rebounding. ... Point guard Bennett Stirtz came with McCollum from Drake and instantly transferred his game to the Big Ten on his way to first-team all-league honors. He's shooting 58.4% from the 2-point area, 37.3 from deep (on a whopping 228 attempts) and excels at getting to the free-throw line, where he's 84.4%. Stirtz isn't coming off the floor, either. He's fifth in the nation in minutes percentage (93.5). He had 17 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals in 40 minutes against Clemson.... Wing Tavion Banks is the team's best 3-point shooter at 44.7% (Iowa has three guys shooting better than 37% from deep), but doesn't take a bunch of them because he doubles as one of the Hawkeyes' two leading rebounds alongside forward Cam Manyawu at 4.7 per game. Worth noting: UF has four players who average at least 6.0 per game.

Numbers of Note

UF guard **Tyree Applebye** (center) gets in a stance against Oral Roberts cournterpart **Max Abmas** (3) in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

* 0 — Big Ten Conference teams the Gators have played this season. UF's last game against the Big Ten was an 87-71 defeat of Maryland in the 2025 "Sweet 16" last March at San Francisco.

* 5 — Years since UF last had a chance to win consecutive games in the NCAA Tournament. The table was set for the Gators to advance to the "Sweet 16 at the 2021 "bubble" at Indianapolis, but 15-seed Oral Roberts -- two days after shocking second-seeded Ohio State -- rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to upset 7-seed Florida 81-78 behind 28 points from forward Kevin Obanor and 26 from NCAA scoring leader Max Abmas. The Golden Eagles became just the second No. 15 seed to advance to the round of 16 in NCAA history, joining 2013 Florida Gulf Coast.

* 1956 — The last time Iowa played a defending national champion in the NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes faced San Francisco, led by legendary center Bill Russell, and lost 83-71 as the Dons went on to a second consecutive title.

Bottom Line

When it comes to style of play, whose will will win out?

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.

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