Florida vs Texas A&M (Wednesday, 7 pm) - Florida Gators (2024)

Florida vs. Texas A&M

* When:Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where:Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (7-6, 0-1) / Texas A&M (8-5, 0-0)
* TV:ESPNU (Tom Hartand JimmyDykes)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelleyand Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida will play its home Southeastern Conference opener, while Texas A&M will make its overall league debut. The Gators are coming off a 61-58 loss at 20th-ranked Auburn last week, while the Aggies defeated PrairieView 86-66. ... UF leads the all-time series 9-6, but A&M swept two games in 2021-22, winning 56-55 on Feb. 15 at College Station, Texas, and then eliminating the Gators from the SEC Tournament in Tampa last March 10 with a pulsating 83-80 overtime victory. In the former, Florida led by two when fifth-yearwingPhlandrous Fleming Jr. fouled A&M guard Wade Taylor IV on a 3-point attempt with 19.5 seconds left. Taylor made all three free throws and Fleming missed a 3-point try for the winon the Gators' final possession. The rematch in the tournament was even more frustrating, as UF erased a 13-point A&M lead in the final five minutes of regulation, behind a career-high 21 points from freshman guard/forward Kowacie Reeves and 16 points and fine rebounds by guard Niels Lane. In the overtime, Aggies guard Hassan Diara, a 17-percent 3-point shooter in league play, buried a 3-ball with one second left for the win in what turned out to be the final game for Florida coach Mike White. Texas A&M, meanwhile, used that game as a springboard in a run to the tournament championship game, eventually losing to Tennessee in the final.... UF is 4-0 against A&M at home since the Aggies entered the SEC for the 2012-13 season.

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

It's become redundant to the point it probably makes no sense even to speak about their resume, relative to the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET). It's not good because, a) Gators are 7-6 overall, and, b) they're 0-6 in Quadrant-1 NET games. UF has done some things well the last month, especially on defense, but it hasn't translated to victories against quality opponents. If the Gators can hold

serve at home, it won't do much for the resume, but could validate the direction the team is headed, considering Florida has just two wins over high-major programs to date (at Florida State and against Oregon State on a neutral court). ... Forward Colin Castletonkept UF in the game at Auburn, with eight rebounds, four blocks, four assists and a couple steals, but only finished with six points on 1-for-6shooting from the floor and just four free-throw attempts. Castleton commands so much attention when he gets the ball and will continue to do so as long as his teammates continue to clang away from the outside. The Gators were just 3-for-19 from 3 the last game, following a miserable 2-for-22 in the loss to Oklahoma six days earlier. ... UF outscored Auburn 27-12 in bench points, with sophom*ore wing Kowacie Reeves (10.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg) leading all scorers with 15 points on 7-for-15 shooting (just 1 of 5 from deep). Reeves averaged 13.3 over the previous three games. ...Backup fifth-year guard Myreon Jones (3.5 pts, 2.2 reb) was the only other Gator in double digits. Jones did most of his damage at the free-throw line (5 of 6), but shared point guard duties with Kyle Lofton. Jones only had one assist (in great part due toUF's all-around shooting), but did not turn the ball over in his season-high 28 minutes. Lofton, meanwhile, had eight points, two assists and a turnover in 28 minutes. ... After hitting double figures in eight of his first nine games, guard Will Richard has averaged just 2.7 points over the last four and has missed all 12 of his 3-point attempts. He likely is still dealing with the size/speed/athleticism transition from mid-major player at Belmont. Whatever the case, the UF coaches believe Richard will get it going soon.... Forward Alex Fudge had nine points and four boards against the Tigers over a career-high 33 minutes. ... Guard Trey Bonham had six points, four rebounds and a pair of steals at Auburn. He also lost a streak of 23 consecutive free throws made. Unfortunately, Bonham's first miss since Nov. 27 was the front end of a one-and-one with 3:32 to play and the game tied at 54. ...Freshman guard Riley Kugel (5.8 ppg) had his first DNP of the season at Auburn. The coaching staff will watch how Kugel responds, but the Gators are going to need him down the line (if not Wednesday).

The Aggies

They're in the fourth season with Buzz Williams at the helm and still searching for their first NCAA Tournament berth. Williams is 59-42, including 21-25 in SEC play. Last season, the Aggies finished tied for fifth in the SEC, but went on a postseason run of seven victories; three in the conference tournament, then four in the NIT, where A&M reached the championship game in New York

and lost to Xavier to finish the season 27-13. That victory total tied for the most wins by a Williams-coached team during his 15 seasons that included previousstops at New Orleans, Marquetteand Virginia Tech. He's a defense-first coach who has built his current roster (where else?)withnine transfers, only three coming from mid-major programs. This version is prone to give up a bunch of 3-pointers (36.1 percent allowed ranks in the nation's bottom third) and probably will do so again this game, willingly, that is, considering the Gators' inability to make anything from deep of late. ... The Aggies are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, grabbing 35.8 percent of their missed shots (that's 22nd nationally). ... A&M has lost all three of its games against KenPom Top 100 teams (Colorado, Boise and Memphis) and have played just one Quad 1 game (at Memphis), but this game will represent a second.... The '22-23 Aggies return three guys who did damage to the Gators last season. The backcourt of guard Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford occupies an overwhelming percentage of both usage and production on the offensive end. They've combined to hit 43 of the team's 86 3-pointers and taken 45 percent of the Aggies' free throws (and madeat a collective nearly 79 percent). Taylor is shooting 43.1 percent from the floor and 38.8 from the arc, with his 31 makes from deep more than twice as many as Radford (15). Taylor also is averaging almost 2.5 steals per game.Radford is at 39.6 percent overall and 33.3 on long-range shots. ... Henry Coleman IV is in his second season since transferring from Duke. Julius Marble is in his first since coming from Michigan State. Coleman, who had 22 points and eight rebounds in the SEC Tournament win over the Gators last season, is at 54.5 percent on the season and Marble at nearly 60, but the two have combined for just five 3-point tries (with no makes), so guess where they'll be parked during the game. Wing Dexter Dennis was the American Athletic Conference 2022 Defensive Player of the Year at Wichita State. ... Backup guard Manny Obaseki(7.1 ppg) started 17 games last season.

Numbers of Note

* .122— Florida's combined 3-point field-goal percentage the last two games, based on its 5-for-41 shooting from the arc.

* .189— Richard's combined field-goal percentage over the previous four games, based on 4-for-22 from the floor.

* 3— Transfers on A&M roster who came from SEC schools: forward Garcia Andersson, from Mississippi State; forwardEthan Henderson and guard Khalen Robinson, both by way of Arkansas. Only Andersson (2.6 ppg, 4.0 rpg) is part of the Aggies' regular rotation at 12.5 minutes per game.

* 45.7— Percentage of shots the Aggies give up that are 3-point attempts. That's the highest percentage of any SEC team and ranks 341st nationally (out of 363), with zone-only Syracuse the only high-major program checking in higher. Florida will have opportunities from out there.

* 2013—The first year the Gators and Aggies met as SEC opponents, as the league welcomed both A&M and Missouri into the fold that season for the '12-13 athletic year. The first conference game between the two was at College Station, where UF pummeled A&M 68-47 on Jan. 17 onits way to the SEC regular-season title.

Bottom Line

Not much to say other than this team needs to win games.