Florida vs. George Washington

 
* What: Orange Bowl Classic 
* When: Saturday, 2:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Amerant Bank Arena / Sunrise, Fla.
* Records: Florida (5-4) / George Washington (8-3)
* Series/Last meeting: Tied 2-2. GW defeated UF 82-77 in the quarterfinals of the 2016 National Invitational Tournament at Washington, D.C., a game that would have been played at the O’Connell Center had the building’s renovations not begun a week earlier. Forward Tyler Cavanaugh scored 18 of his 23 points in the final 10 1/2 minutes, while center Kevin Larsen had 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Colonials (their nickname at the time) against a UF frontcourt minus 6-11, 255-pound center John Egbunu, who underwent season-ending hand surgery several days earlier. Cavanaugh scored eight in the last 92 seconds, including a dagger 3-pointer with 53 seconds and the shot clock winding down to turn a one-point game into a two-possession game. His four free throws in the final 16 seconds sealed the deal and wrapped Coach Mike White’s first Florida season with a 21-15 record. Freshman guard KeVaughn Allen led the Gators with 22 points.  
* TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart and Dane Bradshaw)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
  (with Sean Kelley, Patric Young and Steve Egan) 
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

 

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Junior	15.0 pts / 9.0 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	10.0 pts / 11.2 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	18.6 pts / 7.0 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	18.6 pts / 7.0 reb / 3.9 ast
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	12.0 pts / 2.1 reb

George Washington	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrone Marshall Jr.	F	6-8 / 215	Graduate	7.9 pts / 4.9 reb
Rafael Castro	C	6-11 / 220	R-Senior	15.5 pts / 7.5 reb
Trey Autry	G	6-4 / 210	Junior	9.0 pts / 3.2 reb
Christian Jones	G	6-4 / 200	R-Sophomore	10.7 pts / 2.5 reb / 2.9 ast
Bubu Benjamin	G	6-7 / 220	Junior	9.5 pts / 3.3 reb

The Setup

No. 18 Florida and George Washington face off in the Orange Bowl Classic, a double-header event held annually by the bowl committee, with UF and Florida State now playing in it every other year. The Gators played in the OBC all but two years from 1997 to 2019, but this will be the first first trip South Florida (and second under Coach Todd Golden) since beating Richmond there in 2023. … The stop will mark the last of five consecutive away-from-home games, a travel gauntlet that included a split of two games in San Diego, followed by losses at No. 4 Duke and, most recently, Tuesday night against No. 5 Connecticut at Madison Square Garden in New York City. … The Gators’ four losses have already matched their entire total of last season’s march to the 2025 NCAA title, but their pre-Southeastern Conference schedule has been far more ambitious, including a season-opening defeat in Las Vegas against Arizona, which is now the No. 1-ranked team in the country. … UF is 19-4 all-time in the Orange Bowl Classic. … George Washington won eight of its first 10 games, but suffered an ugly 70-58 home defeat Wednesday night against Delaware. … FSU and Massachusetts play in the first game at noon.

Tale of the Tape

 

Florida	Statistics	George Washington
82.2	Scoring	88.3
.431	Field-goal percentage	.491
.273	3-point percentage	.351
72.4	Scoring defense	75.2
.400	Field-goal percentage defense	.445
.280	3-point percentage defense	.321
15th	KenPom.com overall ranking	81st
22nd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	47th
11th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	154th
42nd	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	51st
24th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	76th
4th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	294th

The Breakdown 

About the Gators: UF hasn’t been this big a favorite to win a game since defeating Merrimack at home on Nov. 21. That said, GW will be the Gators’ eighth top-100 opponent (out of 10 games), per KenPom. The last time they played as many as eight top-100 opponents in non-conference action was in 2017-18. Florida is the only team in the country to play three teams currently ranked in the Associated Press top five. … UF is up to No. 2 in offensive rebound percentage (42.7) and rate as a top 20 team in defensive rebounding (24.4%), as well as the top 25 in guarding the 3-point line (28.0%). Unfortunately for the Gators, they’re shooting even worse from deep than their defensive average. UF is making just 27.3% of its 3s, which ranks 344th (out of the nation’s 365 Division I teams) and dead-last among the 79 power conference teams. … Thomas Haugh has played his best basketball against the best teams on the Florida schedule. Against Arizona, at Duke, and against UConn, Haugh averaged 23.0 points, shot 57.5% from the floor and 42.9 from the 3-point line. … Guard Xaivian Lee is coming off his best all-around game as a Gator: 19 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, no turnovers. Lee, however, went 1-for-7 from the arc and sits at 20.3% for the season (just 26.3 from the floor overall). … Point guard Boogie Fland (also struggling with his shot: 39% overall, 23 from 3) was on the floor against UConn for just six first-half minutes due to foul trouble. He finished with eight points, one rebound, one assist, but was the only UF player to post a positive plus-minus score (plus-4). The Gators outscored the Huskies by nine when Fland was on the floor in the second half. … Alex Condon had 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists and three blocks. He was one board shy of his fifth double-double of the season. … Center Rueben Chinyelu had 11 rebounds against UConn for his sixth double-figure rebound game in the last seven.

About the Revolutionaries: They retired the name Colonials and switched to Revolutionaries in 2023, saying the previous name “glorified harmful history.” For those keeping score at home, the program is 44-33 since, as well as the same 11 games over .500 in the four seasons under Coach Chris Caputo, with a trip to the NIT in 2024. … GW plays in the Atlantic 10 Conference and has a top-50 offense that was not on display in the loss Wednesday to Delaware, which was 279th in KenPom going in. The Revs shoot just shy of 60% from the 2-point area and eight points higher than the Gators from the arc (35.1). … Center Rafael Castro is shooting 65% from the floor and has taken 82 free throws at nearly 71% conversion. He has yet to attempt a 3-pointer, so the UF bigs know where he’s going to be. He had 15 rebounds in a game earlier this season. … Point guard Christian Jones is a ball-dominant, attacking guard. He’s at 59% from the 2-point area and 33 from deep. … Backup guard Trey Autry has knocked down 12 of his 18 shots from 2 (that’s nearly 67%), but has more than double the attempts from deep, where he’s 18-for-44. That’s 40.9%, which is nearly 4 percentage points better than the best UF 3-point shooter (backup guard Urban Klavzar at 36.7). Autry made four 3s in the Delaware loss.

Numbers of Note 

* 4 —Florida’s all-time losses in the Orange Bowl Classic. The Gators were beaten in the inaugural OBC by Alabama-Birmingham in 1997, which was Billy Donovan’s second season. They won nine straight, skipping the 2005 event, before losing to Richmond 56-53 in 2009, also under Donovan. Then came seven more consecutive wins until a loss to Clemson under Mike White in 2017, then another loss against Utah State in 2019. UF has won two straight since; the first with White still on board in ’21, the second with Golden two years ago. 

* 2014 —The last time a defending NCAA champion started its season with four losses in the first nine games. That team was UConn, which eventually finished 20-15, missed the NCAA Tournament and lost in the first round of the NIT. 

* 13,000 — Number of estimated miles the Gators will have traveled during their non-conference slate with the completion of this road trip to South Florida. UF already has been to Las Vegas, San Diego, Durham, North Carolina and New York.  

 

Bottom Line

The schedule has been brutal, yes, but it’s time to start stacking wins. Full stop. 

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