Florida at Texas A&M (Saturday, 4 pm) - Florida Gators (2024)

Florida atTexas A&M

* When:Saturday, 4 p.m. (ET)
* Where:Reed Arena / College Station
* Records: Florida (15-6, 5-3) / Texas A&M (12-8, 3-4)
* TV:ESPN2 (Dave Nealand Jon Sundvold)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD
(withSean Kelleyand Lee Humphrey) /Stations list

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Texas A&M meet in a Southeastern Conference game that will mark the halfway point of the league calendar. Both teams are wedged in the middle of the conference standings. ... The Gators, in a three-way tie for fifth place (with Ole Miss and Kentucky) are riding a four-game winning streak and coming off Wednesday night's 94-91 overtime road win at 10th-ranked Kentucky, easily the most significant victory of Coach Todd Golden's two seasons. The Aggies, in a two-way tie for ninth (with LSU),had their mid-week SEC bye and will be well rested, with their previous game a 71-68 home loss to Ole Miss last weekend. ... Florida leads the all-time series 9-8, but A&M has won four straight by a combined eight points, with each game coming down to the final possession. The Aggies and Gators were matched twice last season. A&M won 66-63 at Gainesville and two weeks later prevailed in an ugly 54-52 outcome at College Station on a night that Florida -- get this -- scored 12 points in the first half and hit just two of 26 shots. Amazingly, the Gators trailed by only nine, 21-12, at the break and creeped within one point with just over a minute to go before the Aggies made the close-out plays, including four late free throws from Wade Taylor IV. A&M forward Julius Marble led all scorers with 19 points, while frontcourt mate Dennis Dexteradded 11 points and 16 rebounds, but the Aggieswere held to 35.5 percent for the game. Florida, at 26.2 percent (including 6-for-26 from the arc) would have killed for A&M's shooting problems. ... UF is 3-5 all-time at College Station.

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The ideal way for the Gators to honor that historic victory Wednesday night is to file it and focus on the next challenge. And make no mistake, a date against Texas A&M on its home floor will

be a considerable. The Aggies are a veteran bunch that has played a brutal schedule and figures, after last week's home loss to the Rebels, to come out with purpose. UF needs to come into the game equally purposeful, with the same confidence and business-like mentality the Gators took to Rupp. ... UF shot 41 percent against UK, but banged 12 of 28 from the 3-point line (43 percent) and knocked down 18 of 22 free throws (82 percent) to take its season average in SEC play to 75.4 percent. The Gators also protected the ball with only nine turnovers in 45 minutes after that 19-turnover near-disaster four days earlier in the overtime nail-biter against Georgia. ... Walter Clayton Jr. was magnificent at Lexington, going 7-for-13 from the arc on his way to a team-high 23 points. He's slowly working his long-range shooting up to the 40-percent career average he brought to UF from Iona. He's up to 38.5 percent in SEC play, with his free-throw shooting also trending up to 89.3. ... Point guard Zyon Pullin had another flush stat line: 21 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, two steals, six drawn fouls and just two turnovers. Against league foes, Pullin has 38 assists and just seven turnovers. For the season, he's at 88 and20, respectively. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel now has nine double-doubles on the season, pulling into a tie with Al Horford for the seventh-most in a season since ('96-97). Samuel, who also had four blocks at Kentucky and was a decent 4-for-5 from the free-throw line, still leads the SEC in field-goal percentage at 57.7 despite going 9-for-21 last game. That's because a couple of his misses were gathered as offensive rebounds and put back in the basket. ... Will Richard had another solid game with nine points and six boards. He's got 22 rebounds over the last three games. ... The low-post duo of Micah Handlogten and 6-11 backup freshman forward Alex Condon (7.7 ppg, 6.6 rpg) combined for just nine points and eight rebounds over 41 minutes. The Gators (and Samuel) could have used some more productivity down there, but both guys had key moments and points. ... Sophom*ore guard Riley Kugel (10.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg) had eight points, with acouple 3s, three rebounds, four assists and no turnovers over 31 minutes, his second-most court time in SEC play. Again, Kugel had a huge impact on the defensive end in guarding the talented perimeter core of Cats and making them work. ... Forward Tommy Haugh and guard Denzel Aberdeen might be deep on the bench, but their numbers are being called. Aberdeen had a driving bucket in the first half and while Haugh did not score he was on the floor for 9-plus minutes, defended, boxed out, rebounding and a had great board and outlet to a run-out bucket to end the first half.

The Aggies

This is their fifth season under Buzz Williams, who has a record of 88-55 and one NCAA berth (in '23) to show for it. Last year's team won 25 games, finished second in the SEC and returned

all five starters, including the the Preseason SEC Player of the Year in Wade Taylor IV. Thus far, the Aggies have under-performed to those expectations (they were picked to finish second in the league), but they've played a tough schedule and some of their losses have been close ones against really goodteams (Florida Atlantic, Memphis and Houston). They also are tied for the most Quadrant 1 wins in the league with four, having beaten Ohio State and SMU on the road, Iowa State on a neutral floor and Kentucky at home last month. ... Much has been made this season about UF being the No. 4 offensive rebounding team, but now the Gators face the nation's No. 1 offensive rebounding team. At 43.8 percent, theAggies are 3.1 percent better than the Gators on their end of the glass. ... News broke Friday afternoon that starting guard Tyrese Radford had been arrested earlier in the day for evading police after running a stop sign. Radford, a sixth-year player who spent three seasons at Virginia Tech and the last three at A&M, has been productive against UF the last two years, including a 17-point performance last year in the Aggies' win at Gainesville. Radford has averaged double-figure scoring throughout a 140-game career that has produced 1,638 points. There was no word as of mid-Friday afteroon on Radford's status for the game. ... Taylor has had major hands in the four consecutive wins over the Gators, even in that offensive eye sore when he was held to just eight points, went 2-for-15 from the floor and missed all five of his 3s. Taylor offset those numbers with four rebounds, five assists and game-icing free throws. At 20.1 points, he's second in the SEC in scoring, but his efficiency numbers, like his team, are down a little this season at 37 percent from the floor and just under 31 from deep. Still, Taylor can go off any night. He had 35 in a loss to Florida Atlantic, 34 against KenPom No. 1 Houston, 31 in the win over Kentucky, 41 against Arkansas and 30 in the loss last Saturdayagainst Ole Miss.... Big and beefy Henry Coleman III (11.4 ppg, 7.4 rpg), the 6-8, 245-pound senior who transferred from Duke in 2021, is been in a reserve rolethe last four games. He killed the Gators in the 2022 SEC Tournament at Tampa with 22 points, eight rebounds and five steals in an 83-80 overtime win. ... After Taylor, Radford and Coleman, the next-highest scorer is backup fifth-year wing Hayden Hefner (7.4 ppg), who shoots 3s at 32 percent. Then comes starter Jace Carter, who transferred from Illinois-Chicago who is not much of an offensive threat besides what he does around the basket. ...Forward Wildens Levequeplayed three years at South Carolina and accompanied fired Gameco*cks coach Frank Martin to UMass last season, but now isin his fifth year and playing 11 minutes a game. He starts but basically yields to Coleman off the bench. ... Backup big man Andersson Garcia (6.0 ppg, 8.7 rpg) is in his second season since jumping from Mississippi State and ranked second in the SEC behind only Auburn's JohniBroome in rebounding. He is a relentless effort guy on the glass, with his 13.6 offensive board percentage among the top 50 in the country.

Numbers of Note

* minus-2.25— Average margin of defeat for Florida during its four-game losing streak against A&M.

* .077— UF's first-half shooting percentage in the Jan. 18, 2023 game at Reed Arena, based on that 2-for-26.

* 2— Where the Gators rank in the SEC in offensive efficiency in league play, behind only Alabama.

* 13— Where the Gators rank in the SEC in defensive efficiency in league play, in front of only Missouri.

* 1997— The last year a college basketball player tallied at least 22 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots in a road win against a top-10 opponent, like Samuel did at Kentucky. That player 27 years ago was future Hall-of-FamerTim Duncan, who had 26 points, 14 boards and four blocks in a 81-69 victory over No. 10 Duke on Jan. 11 of that year.

Bottom Line

The opportunity for the program's best week in three years is there for the taking. A second straight road win (and fifth consecutive victory) would be a remarkable sign of growth. It also will not be easy. Not at all.