No. 7 Florida vs. No. 20 Arkansas

 
* When: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (22-6, 13-2) / Arkansas (21-7, 11-4)
* Series/Last meeting: Florida leads 28-15, with wins in the previous two. In their last meeting, fifth-year grad guard Alijah Martin hit four 3-points and forward Alex Condon posted a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds to help the Gators hold off a late rally by the Razorbacks for a 71-63 road victory at Walton Arena on Jan. 11, 2025. Senior guard Walter Clayton Jr. added 12 points and five assists, with all but one of his points coming in a second half when UF played through a sluggish, fouled-plagued 20 minutes that put the Razorbacks at the free-throw line 27 times. UF led by 11 with just over 10 minutes to go, but by just three inside six minutes remaining. That was when Clayton hit a 3-pointer and Condon followed with two free throws and a run-out dunk to throw ice on the home team’s rally.
* TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Kris Budden)
* 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	15.2 pts / 7.8 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	11.3 pts / 11.5 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	16.9 pts / 6.0 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	11.4 pts / 3.6 reb / 3.9 ast
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	11.5 pts / 2.6 reb

Arkansas	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Trevon Brazile	F	6-10 / 230	Senior	12.7 pts / 7.1 reb
Nick Pringle	F	6-10 / 230	Senior	4.9 pts / 4.0 reb
Billy Richmond III	G	6-6 / 205	Sophomore	10.9 pts / 3.6 reb
Meleek Thomas	G	6-5 / 185	Freshman	15.2 pts / 3.9 reb
Darius Acuff	G	6-3 / 190	Freshman	22.2 pts / 3.1 reb / 6.2 ast

The Setup

No. 7 Florida and No. 20 Arkansas meet in a game that could decide the 2026 Southeastern Conference regular-season championship. … The Gators have won eight straight and hold a two-game lead on the second-place Razorbacks in the league standings with three to go. If Tennessee defeats Alabama at home earlier Saturday night, UF will play for the outright league crown. If Alabama wins, a UF victory would give the Gators no worse than a share of their first regular-season SEC championship since 2014, with a chance for the outright crown next week. An Arkansas win would put the Hogs in position to steal at least a piece of the title, pending results of next week’s regular season-ending games. … UF is coming off Wednesday night’s 84-71 win at Texas, while Arkansas has won six of seven after whipping Texas A&M 99-84 at home Wednesday. … The game is a Quadrant 1 opportunity, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), for both teams. The Gators moved on to the No. 2-seed line relative to the NCAA Tournament, per most bracket projections. They are 9-5 in Q1s (15-6 in Q1s and Q2s combined), while the Hogs are 6-7 (12-7). … Florida is 15-3 all-time at home in the series, including 2-1 under Coach Todd Golden, who needs two wins to reach 100 during his four seasons on the UF sideline. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Arkansas
86.3	Scoring	90.2
.476	Field-goal percentage	.505
.304	3-point percentage	.375
71.2	Scoring defense	78.5
.405	Field-goal percentage defense	.448
.321	3-point percentage defense	.312
5th	KenPom.com overall ranking	17th
13th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	4th
4th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	48th
34th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	28th
6th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	18th
4th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	10th

The Breakdown 

About the Gators: Their performance in the win at Texas, especially in the second half, marked some of the best basketball the team had played all season. Offensively, UF shot 59% for the game, including 65% after halftime, and dropped eight of 18 (44.4%) makes from the 3-point line, which was the team’s second-best in SEC play behind the 11-for-22 barrage of just four days earlier at Ole Miss. Defensively, the Gators surrendered 50% shooting to the Longhorns in the first half, but forced eight misses on UT’s final nine shots of the period, then guarded at 35.7% in the second half. When it was over, UF had moved up two spots in the KenPom offensive efficiency ratings, while maintaining its No. 4 spot on the defensive side after facing the nation’s No. 6 overall offense. Now comes an even greater challenge on that end of the floor. … Florida has put itself in position for both the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament next month, as well as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, with a first weekend in Tampa. … The Gators, as the No. 2 offensive and No. 7 defensive rebounding team in the nation, should have a significant advantage on the glass against the Razorbacks, assuming they can force some misses against one of the best offensive teams in the country. They need to take care of the ball along the lines of the Texas game (9 turnovers) versus the ball-security issues in last week’s two games when they averaged 16.5 turnovers in wins over South Carolina and Ole Miss. … The late-season awakening of UF’s 3-point shooting — 35.7 over the last 11 games, including 19-for-40 (47.5%) the previous two — has put an altogether different spin on the team’s ceiling. The Gators, despite their long-range shooting woes of the first half of the season, have made a higher percentage from the arc than their opponents in 15 SEC games (32.7% to 32.1). … Forward Alex Condon, who went 10-for-12 from the floor at Texas, has averaged 22.3 points on 72.2% shooting the last three games. He’s also gone 2-for-3 from the 3-point line. … Point guard Boogie Fland came to UF after playing his freshman season at Arkansas, where he had an outstanding start to the season before suffering a hand injury that forced him to miss 15 games. He’ll be geared up for this one, especially with his offensive game seemingly rounding into form. After going 1-for-21 from the 3-point line over nine games, Fland went 3-for-6 at Ole Miss and 2-for-3 at Texas. He’s shooting nearly 56% from the 2-point area. … Thomas Haugh posted season lows of five points and no rebounds during a foul-plagued game Wednesday, but also became the 59th player in program history to reach 1,000 points for his career. Center Rueben Chinyelu had just five points and four rebounds, marking the first time since December he went back-to-back games without a double double. Anyone else thinking these two will bounce back Saturday? … Reserve guard Urban Klavzar (10.0 ppg) is shooting 43.5% from the arc in SEC play. … Backup 7-1 center Micah Handlogton (4.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg) finished with no points and two rebounds against the Longhorns, but the coaches said he played one of his best all-around games of the season, especially on the defensive end. … Reserve guard Isaiah Brown (6.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg in SEC) gave the Gators a huge lift, especially with Haugh and Chinyelu’s struggles, in nearly posting a double-double at Austin with nine points, a career-high eight rebounds and his work on defense.

About the Razorbacks: It’s the second year under John Calipari, who is the winningest active coach in college basketball with a 898-284 record in his 34 seasons spanning stints at Massachusetts (1988-96), Memphis (2000-09), Kentucky (2009-24) and now Arkansas (2024-present). His mark with the Razorbacks is 43-21, including 19-14 in SEC play. Calipari’s time in Fayetteville got off to a rocky start, with five consecutive SEC losses, but the Hogs bounced back, reached the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the 2025 Sweet 16 before falling to Texas Tech. His second team returned some good players, but Calipari (no surprise) got the biggest jolt from his freshman class (read on). … Arkansas lost non-league games to heavyweights Michigan State, Duke and Houston, but also beat Louisville and Texas Tech. The Hogs have won five of their previous six in SEC play, with the lone loss an epic 117-115 double-overtime shootout at Alabama. … Arkansas ranks No. 4 nationally in offensive efficiency, No. 1 in turnover rate and is among the best teams in the league from both the 2- and 3-point areas (58.9% and 35.2 in SEC play, respectively). In other words, the Hogs can score with anyone and rarely give the ball away. Defense is another matter. Though the chasm isn’t as wide as what the Gators saw with Texas (No. 6 offense vs. No. 112 defense), the Razorbacks’s defense checks in at 48th nationally, including 269th at guarding inside the arc, where opponents shoot nearly 54%. They’re not a great rebounding team, either (112th on the offensive end, 223rd on the defensive end). … Against A&M, the Hogs played just seven guys due to injuries, with five logging at least 30 minutes and a sixth at 28. They still nearly scored 100 points … Point guard Darius Acuff, currently No. 10 (and lone SEC rep) in the KenPom Player of the Year standings, is a slam-dunk lottery pick whose 2026 NBA Draft has soared of late in great part due to his electrifying 49-point performance in the loss to Alabama. Lightning fast, with a great shot and eye to find open teammates, the Detroit product and 2025 McDonald’s All American leads the league in scoring on 54% from 2, 43% from 3 and 80% at the free-throw line. In a two-game span two weeks ago, Acuff hit 13 3s and four times this season has had double-digit assists. The fact he’ll mostly be matched against Fland, the former Hog, makes for great pregame fodder. … Trevon Brazile, the fifth-year forward who came from Missouri in 2023, is shooting 64% from 2 and will take his defender to the arc, where he’s made 34.4%, He’s also one of the best defensive rebounders in the SEC. … Meleek Thomas (9.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg), another outstanding Calipari freshman, is almost better from 3-point line (40.8%) than inside it (45.0). … Karter Knox (8.1 ppg, 4.5 rpg), the Tampa product and USF transfer, has basically missed the last five games (in played just six minutes in a win over Auburn two weeks ago). They’ve missed his work on the glass probably more than his 38% threat from the 3-point line. … Guard DJ Wagner (7.2 ppg, 2.4 apg), who came with Calipari from Kentucky, started the first 18 games, but has come off the bench the last 10 while dealing with a nagging ankle injury along the way. He went 28 minutes in the A&M win, so he’s healing up. … Forward Malique Ewin (9.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg) came off the bench to score 18 points, make six of seven shots from floor and grab nine rebounds in 34 minutes against the Aggies. He’ll play a starter’s role in this one.  

Numbers of Note 

* 14 — The most conference wins in a season by a Florida team since that history-making 18-0 run of 2014. The Gators went 14-4 in in both 2017 and ’25. They can equal that number Saturday, but have a chance to surpass it by winning two of their final three regular-season games.  

* plus-29.7 — The difference between what the Gators shot from the floor (65.4%) and what the Longhorns shot (35.7) during Wednesday’s second half, when UF (keyed by that tremendous defense) ran away late by outscoring UT 48-32 in the second half, including 23-7 over the final 7:27. 

* 1,004 — Haugh’s career point total after he passed the four-digit milestone. With at least five games left this season, here’s a small sampling of the players on Haugh’s immediate horizon, after he already supplanted Brooks Henderson (1962-65) and his 1,001 at No. 58 all time. Next up: 57) Chris Chiozza (2014-18) 1,025 points; 56) Erik Murphy (2009-13) 1,052; 55) Condon (2023-present) 1,055; 54) Walter Hodge (2005-09) 1,074. 

Bottom Line

A dozen years is a long time to go without a league championship.

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