Florida vs. No. 18 Georgia

 
* When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (9-5, 0-1) / Georgia (13-1, 1-0)
* Series/Last meeting: Florida leads 126-104. The Bulldogs defeated the third-ranked Gators 88-83 on Feb. 25, 2025 at Athens, handing UF the last loss of its eventual national-championship season. In that one, the Gators fell behind by 26 points in the first half, then staged a furious rally to take their first lead of the game with 1:27 to play. UF managed to get up by two, but UGA guard Blue Cain hit a 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a lead they never lost. The Dogs put four in double-figure scoring, led by guard Silas Demary Jr.’s 21 points. The win was Georgia’s first over a team ranked in the Associated Press top five in 21 years and resulted with a court-storming of Stegeman Coliseum.  
* TV: SEC Network (Matt Schumacker and Richard Hendrix)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
  (with Sean Kelley, Brian Hogan and Steve Egan) 
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

 

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Junior	14.3 pts / 8.6 reb / 3.8 apg
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	10.5 pts / 10.7 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	17.2 pts / 6.4 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	12.1 pts / 4.4 reb
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	11.0 pts / 1.9 rpg

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Kanon Catchings	F	6-9 / 220	Sophomore	8.3 pts / 4.6 reb
Somtochukwu Cyril	C	6-11 / 260	Sophomore	10.0 pts / 6.4 reb / 2.8 blk
Jeremiah Wilkinson	G	6-1 / 185	Sophomore	18.3 pts / 2.1 reb
Blue Cain	G	6-5 / 195	Junior	15.6 pts / 5.4 reb
Jordan Ross	G	6-3 / 195	Junior	7.9 pts / 3.1 reb / 2.8 ast

The Setup

Florida and 18th-ranked Georgia meet in the second Southeastern Conference game for both and the home league opener for the Gators. … The two clubs, at the moment, are headed in different directions. UF, the reigning NCAA champion, started the season ranked No. 3 and after suffering its fifth loss Saturday, a 76-74 defeat at Missouri, fell out of the Associated Press top 25 this week for the first time since the 2023-24 season. UGA, meanwhile, has won seven straight, including Saturday’s 104-100 overtime defeat of Auburn, while playing at 100 miles an hour and scoring more points than any team in the country. … The Bulldogs’ win over the Gators last February stopped UF’s 12-game winning streak in the series that dated to 2020. It also was the first in seven tries for UGA coach Mike White over Todd Golden, who replaced White when he bolted for Athens in 2023. White went 142-88 over seven seasons at UF and became the third-winningest coach in program history. … UF has won straight in the series at home and 13 in a row at the O’Dome overall. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Georgia
84.3	Scoring	99.36
.456	Field-goal percentage	.495
.280	3-point percentage	.321
70.1	Scoring defense	74.0
.406	Field-goal percentage defense	.399
.323	3-point percentage defense	.309
14th	KenPom.com overall ranking	26th
34th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	22nd
9th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	44th
69th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	2nd
27th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	21st
18th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	322nd

The Breakdown 

About the Gators: They took a couple steps backward in the loss at Missouri, where they surprisingly played to a stalemate on the boards, allowed 32 points in the paint and had yet another poor shooting performance (25.9%) from the 3-point line. The team that ranks second nationally in offensive rebounding and fourth on the defensive end better show up in this game because UF is going to need as many extra possessions as possible against the high-scoring, fast-breaking Bulldogs. On the positive side, Florida had only eight turnovers against one of the most, steal-oriented teams in the league. … Florida is 0-1 in SEC play for the fourth consecutive season and looking to avoid the first 0-2 start since 2022. … The Gators have just two in their rotation of seven top players shooting better than 27% from the 3-polnt line. Thomas Haugh, who led the Gators with 24 points in the loss at Mizzou, is at 33.8 and backup guard Urban Klavzar (8.6 ppg), who saw only 10 minutes of action Saturday, is at a team-best 35.7. The rest of the the roster has made a combined 24.9%. ... Alex Condon, from his power forward position, leads the team with 50 assists. He had six at Missouri and has eight games with at least four. That’s remarkable for a “big,” especially considering UF’s starting backcourt has a combined 11 such games. … Guard Xaivian Lee has six consecutive games of double-digit scoring and is shooting 42.3% from the arc over the last five games and 38.7 over the previous eight. He’s also at 77.2% from the 2-point area over the last five and 60% over the previous eight. … Point guard Boogie Fland, after going 0-for-6 at Mizzou, is at 20% for the season (12 of 60). His 2-point percentage is 55.4. Fland had a season-high seven assists versus just one turnover last time out, but like Lee’s struggles early in the season (22.6% overall, 15.6% from deep through the first six games), he absolutely needs to start making some open shots if this team is going to be the best version of itself and take some pressure off the front court. Fland made 34% of his 3s during his injury-marred freshman season at Arkansas. Before suffering a finger injury that required surgery, he made 36.4% and had five games (out of 18) of at least three makes. … Backup center MIcah Handlogten had four points, six rebounds and two blocks in 12 minutes and was the only player with a positive plus/minus score at plus-6. … With his turn as the eighth man in the rotation, sophomore Isaiah Brown made a couple winning plays on way to two points, three boards and a steal. 

About the Bulldogs: They’re in the fourth season under White, who is 69-47 overall, 25-34 in league, with a lone NCAA Tournament berth last season that marked the program’s first since 2015. White, in his previous 14 seasons as a head coach, has never finished with a losing record (just one .500 mark to start his stint at UGA) and is all but certain not to do this season after going 12-1 in non-league play against a schedule that rated the 337th most difficult (out of 365) in the nation. UGA’s lone loss came in overtime against Clemson on a neutral floor. That was one of only three Top 100 KenPom.com foes the Bulldogs have played, having also defeated both Cincinnati and now Auburn. UGA also demolished Florida State 107-73 in their ACC/SEC Challenge matchup at Tallahassee. By comparison, the Gators beat the Seminoles by two points at Gainesville. … This will be just the second Quad 1 opportunity UGA, with an 0-1 mark in those games. … Georgia leads the nation in points (99.4) and fast-break points (27.0) per game, while playing the second-fastest tempo in the country behind only IU-Indianapolis. Per KenPom, UGA’s offense rates 21st in efficiency, second in 2-point percentage (63.2) and are top 40 in turnovers and offensive rebounding. Defensively, the Bulldogs check in 46th in overall efficiency, 17th in defending the 2-point area (44.8%) and second in block percentage (18.2), with beastly center Somto Cyril the main perpetrator in swatting away 12.6% of shots taken when he’s on the floor (2nd nationally). … The Dogs that do the most damage on offense are guards Jeremiah Wilkinson, the transfer from California, and Blue Cain. Wilkinson is shooting 36% from 3 and threw in 31 in the big Auburn win. Cain is at 31% from deep, but just under 70% from 2. He’s scored in double figures in all 14 games and is at 90.4% from the free-throw line, which rates fourth in the SEC. … Cyril, by the way, is at 81.2% on the season and — get this — has made 27 of his last 30 field-goal attempts (that’s 90%) over the last eight games. Not exactly a small sample size. And, yes, mostly on dunks. … Backup point guard Marcus “Smurf” Millender (11.6 ppg, 3.9 apg) leads the team in assists and is 89.7 from the free-throw line. 

Numbers of Note 

* 5 — Games of at least 20 points from Haugh this season after recording just two during the previous two seasons.

* 18 — All-time Top 25 wins for Golden, which ranks third in the program history. White ranks second with 20. The Gators face three ranked opponents over their next four games (with a home game Saturday against No. 19 Tennessee and next week’s trip to No. 11 Vanderbilt). 

* 1996 — The last year Georgia and Florida played when the Bulldogs were ranked and the Gators were not. The date was Jan. 17. The place was Athens. The 22nd-ranked Bulldogs blasted the Gators 71-46 in what turned out to be the final season for UF coach Lon Kruger, who left for Illinois after going 12-16. That UGA team was in its first season under Tubby Smith, who bolted after two seasons — and a 45-19 record — for Kentucky and led the Wildcats to the national championship in his first season there. This will mark the first time UF has played a ranked UGA team since 2003. 

Bottom Line

The circumstances for this game — and these two teams — just seem weird, don’t they?  

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