No. 14 Florida at Georgia

 
* When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Stegeman Coliseum Arena / Athens, Ga.
* Records: Florida (17-6, 8-2) / Georgia (17-6, 5-5)
* Series / Last meeting: Florida leads 127-104. The Gators defeated the Bulldogs 92-77 in their first meeting on Jan. 6 at Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center behind 21 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocks from junior wing Thomas Haugh. UGA, on a seven-game winning streak and ranked 18th, came into that game leading the nation in scoring at 99.7 points per game, including 27.0 fast-break points, only to finish a point below their previous season low and with just 10 points in transition against UF’s 35. Forward Alex Condon had 21 points and eight rebounds. UF led by just one, 41-40 at halftime, but went on a 12-2 two minutes out of intermission to take the lead to double digits. 
* TV: ESPN2 (Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD 
  (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	13.4 pts / 8.0 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	12.0 pts / 11.5 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	17.8 pts / 6.4 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	10.7 pts / 3.9 reb
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	11.3 pts / 2.4 rpg / 4.0 ast

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Kanon Catchings	F	6-9 / 220	Sophomore	11.2 pts / 4.9 reb
Somtochukwu Cyril	C	6-11 / 260	Sophomore	9.5 pts/ 5.7 reb / 2.7 blk
Jeremiah Wilkinson	G	6-1 / 185	Sophomore	17.1 pts / 2.0 reb
Blue Cain	G	6-5 / 195	Junior	13.2 pts / 5.0 reb
Jordan Ross	G	6-3 / 195	Junior	7.4 pts / 2.9 reb / 2.5 ast

The Setup

No. 14 Florida and Georgia meet for the second time this season, the first rematch for the Gators against one of their three Southeastern Conference-assigned home-and-home opponents. … Unlike their game last month in Gainesville — the first between the two programs since 1996 when the Bulldogs were ranked and the Gators were not — UF is playing outstanding basketball, having won three straight blowouts, including two on the road, most recently Saturday’s 86-67 victory at Texas A&M that gave them sole possession of first place in the conference standings. UGA, meanwhile snapped a three-game losing streak Saturday by winning 83-71 at LSU. … UF, which moved up three spots in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, started the week with a half-game lead on Kentucky atop the SEC and full-game edge on Arkansas and A&M, who are tied for third. Georgia is in a tie with Auburn for ninth place, but in solid shape relative to its NCAA Tournament hopes. A home win against the Gators, like last season’s court-storming victory that marked UF’s last defeat before rolling to the national championship, would be a huge boon to UGA’s postseason hopes. … Coach Todd Golden is 7-1 against his UF predecessor, Mike White, who bolted the Gators at the end of the 2021-22 season for the vacant Georgia post. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Georgia
86.3	Scoring	91.1
.469	Field-goal percentage	.470
.288	3-point percentage	.320
71.2	Scoring defense	77.4
.407	Field-goal percentage defense	.420
.327	3-point percentage defense	.315
7th	KenPom.com overall ranking	37th
13th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	33rd
6th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	53rd
62nd	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	7th
9th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	35th
4th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	73rd

The Breakdown 

About the Gators: Their three consecutive wins have come by a combined 89 points, which is an astounding number considering two of them have come on the SEC road and during a stretch when they’ve shot just 18 of 57 from the 3-point line. That’s because the team has shot a combined 60.7% from the 2-point area and defended those three opponents (at South Carolina, Alabama and at Texas A&M) at 33.3% overall. Along the way, the Gators have turned the ball just 23 times, with two of those games coming against the fastest-paced teams in the country. Translation: 3-point deficiency is not hurting this team because it rebounds and defends so well, plus they’re really not taking that many 3s, anyway. … Florida is 6-4 in Quadrant 1 games, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) that will seed the postseason tournament. The Gators are a combined 11-6 in Q1 and Q2 opportunities with both games this week (UF faces No. 25 Kentucky at home Saturday) representing two more Q1s. … Florida has a chance to win a fifth consecutive road game for the first time since 2017, but also a fifth straight in SEC play for the first time since 2014. … Thomas Haugh, who poured in 21 of his game-high 22 points at A&M in the second half, is the league’s No. 7 scorer and its leader in minutes per game at 33.8. He’s been even better in SEC play at 19.3 points per game and 37.5% from the 3-point line (31.6%). … Center Rueben Chinyelu posted his SEC-high 14th double-double at A&M is now averaging 13.7 points (second on the team) and 12.2 rebounds in league play. He’s also shooting 61.4% from the floor and 74.4 from the free-throw line. … Forward Alex Condon had just four points and seven rebounds last game and the Gators still won going away. It’s a trend, apparently. Point guard Boogie Fland is 0-14 from the 3-point line the last six games, but has 30 assists and nine turnovers during that stretch and has been a holy terror on defense. Backcourt mate Xaivian Lee is 1-for-14 from the arc the last three games, but has 14 assists and just three turnovers. Translation: It’s not always about shooting and scoring. Statistically, the Gators have been the No. 2 defense in the country over their last 10 games. … Backup guard Urban Klavzar is up to 41.1% from the arc in SEC play and 86.4 from the free-throw line. … Reserve guard Isaiah Brown (5.0 ppg, 2.4 rpg) is at 50% from the floor vs. the SEC, with a bunch of dunks. … Reserve center Micah Handlogten (4.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg) had six points, seven rebounds and two steals against the Aggies. 

About the Bulldogs: They’re in the fourth season under White, who is 73-52 overall, 29-39 in league play, with a lone NCAA Tournament berth last season that marked the program’s first since 2015. … The Bulldogs are 3-4 in Quad 1 games and 8-5 in combined Q1 and Q2 opportunities. Last month, they beat a very good Arkansas team at home by 14, then followed it with a two-point win at Missouri (where UF lost), but then came a three-game losing skid: at Texas by 20, at home against Tennessee at one in overtime; by 15 at home to Texas A&M in a game they trailed 22-2. UGA shot 51% and made 10 3s in snapping the losing streak on the road Saturday. … Georgia no longer tops the nation in points per game (unbeaten Miami-Ohio does), but the Bulldogs rank second in scoring and first in fast-break points at 22.3 per game. Overall, their offensive numbers are down a smidgen since exiting a very soft non-conference slate, but the Bulldogs still rate as the nation’s 22nd-best 2-point shooting team (58.4%) and rest in the top 35 in offensive rebounding (36.5%) and turnover percentage (14.5), even though they play at the seventh-fastest pace in the country. What Georgia does not do well is rebound on the defensive end (335th nationally at just 35.5%), which is good news for the Gators. … Center Cyril Somtochukwu did not start at LSU due to an illness, but came off the bench to score eight points and grab four rebounds. “Somto” was ejected from the first UF-UGA game for throwing a punch at Chinyelu. … Guard Jeremiah Wilkinson started the season red-hot, but was slowed by injury (he scored two points in the last meeting, just days after ripping Auburn for 31). He’s at 51% from the 2-point area and 33.5 from deep as one of the highest usage players in the conference. … Guard Blue Cain, who has hit some big shots against the Gators, is struggling from the 3-point line this season at just 26.6%, but he’s a hefty 62.5 from 2. … Kanon Catchings is a solid, across-the-board player who is coming off a season-best 23 points against the Tigers. … Marcus “Smurf” Millender (11.6 ppg, 3.6 apg) is one of the best sixth men in the SEC. He’s shooting nearly 40% from deep, plus 85 from the free-throw line and leads the team in assists despite coming off the bench. … Backup forward Justin Abson (3.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg) started in place of Cyril at LSU and posted six points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes.

 

Numbers of Note 

* .944 — UF’s winning percentage the last two seasons when Chinyelu posts a double-double, based on a 17-1 record on those circumstances, including a 14-0 record in ’25-26. 

* 29.7 — Average margin of victory in the Gators’ last three games. That number is 33.0 for the two road games. 

* 2014 — The last year Florida sat in sole possession of first place in the SEC … and the Gators were there, basically, for the entire season by virtue of the first 18-0 record in league history on the way to capturing the program’s seventh (and last) regular-season conference crown.

 

Bottom Line

Teams that win on the road contend for league championships.  

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