Florida vs West Virginia 11/27 8:30 ESPNU

Nov 27 (Sun) 8:30 PM Gators Sports Network from LEARFIELD
Florida vs est Virginia
Portland, OR

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BROADCAST INFO
ESPNU | ESPN App
Play-by-Play: Doug Sherman
Analyst: Cory Alexander

Gators Sports Network from LEARFIELD
Play-by-Play: Sean Kelley
Analyst: Lee Humphrey

 

HEAD COACHES
Todd Golden
4-2 | 1st season at UF
61-38 | 4th season overall

Bob Huggins
331-189 | 16th season at WVU
921-400 | 41st season overall

MATCHUP BASICS
All-Time Series: 7-3
All-Time/Neutral: 2-1
All-Time vs. Big 12: 26-19
Last Meeting:
W, 85-80, 1/30/21 (Away)

 

NUMBERS OF NOTE

17.7​

Trey Bonham has averaged 17.7 points over the last three games after
totaling three points in the first three games of the season.

.500​

Will Richard is shooting 12-for-24 from 3-point range, including
6-for-11 over the first two games of the Phil Knight Legacy.

100​

Sunday marks Todd Golden’s 100th career game as a head coach. He’ll
square off against Bob Huggins, who will be coaching his 1,322nd

 

FLORIDA POSSIBLE STARTERS
# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Min. Pts. Reb. Misc.
1 CJ Felder F 6-7 240 Sr. 16.9 3.7 4.7 0.5 stl
12 Colin Castleton F 6-11 250 5th 31.3 20.7 8.5 3.3 blk
2 Trey Bonham G 6-0 170 Jr. 15.9 9.3 3.0 2.0 ast
5 Will Richard G 6-4 206 So. 30.4 14.5 5.0 2.0 3fg
11 Kyle Lofton G 6-3 188 Gr. 30.2 8.3 4.0 4.2 ast

OPPONENT POSSIBLE STARTERS
# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Min. Pts. Reb. Misc.
1 Emmitt Matthews Jr. F 6-7 210 5th 30.2 9.7 2.8 2.0 ast
3 Tre Mitchell F 6-9 225 Sr. 23.4 11.8 4.2 .634 fg%
15 Jimmy Bell Jr. F 6-10 285 Sr. 13.5 4.5 5.2 .643 fg%
0 Kedrian Johnson G 6-3 185 5th 20.5 8.0 1.8 2.2 stl
10 Erik Stevenson G 6-4 205 5th 21.0 14.0 1.7 1.8 3fg

 

GATORS AT A GLANCE

• Florida and West Virginia square off as the Gators look to build on Friday’s win vs. Oregon State. The Gators and Mountaineers meet for the 11th time and the fourth over the past eight seasons. Colin Castleton had 21 points, seven rebounds, and five blocked shots in the Gators’ Jan. 30, 2021, win at Morgantown in the last meeting between UF and WVU.

• Trey Bonham has exploded in the Phil Knight Legacy, averaging 21.0 points over the Gators’ two games while leading the team in scoring both contests (23 vs. Xavier, 19 vs. Oregon State).

• Will Richard has provided efficient scoring from the wing, tallying at least 13 points in every game while shooting .580 from the field, .500 from 3-point range and a perfect 14-for-14 from the free throw line. Richard posted a season-high 18 points vs. Xavier.

• Colin Castleton’s double-double vs. Xavier (11 points, 10 rebounds) marked his 15th as a Gator, tying him with Joakim Noah and Chandler Parsons for fifth-most by a Gator since the 1996-97 season.

• UF’s 19-point rally at Florida State marked the fourth-largest in team history and the largest on the road since a 22-point comeback at South Carolina on Feb. 24, 1993. Castleton scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half.

• Colin Castleton opened the season on fire and posted back-to-back 30-point outings, notching a career-best 33 vs. Kennesaw State and 30 vs. FAU. An individual has recorded back-to-back 30-point games nine times in UF history and Castleton is the seventh different player to accomplish the feat. He was the first since Anthony Roberson in Jan. 2005 to do so (see page 6 for full list).

• Castleton became the first Gator with a 30-point double-double since Joakim Noah (37/11 vs. Georgia, 3/1/06) and the only SEC player since the 1996-97 season with 30 points, 12 rebounds, and five blocked shots in a game, a stat line he accomplished vs. FAU.

• Kowacie Reeves started the first four games of the season, and he stepped up with a pair of late 3-pointers in the win vs. Kennesaw State. Reeves had a strong postseason in his freshman campaign, averaging 16.3 points over the Gators’ three tournament games, including a career-best 21 vs. Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament.

• Grad point guard Kyle Lofton (Saint Bonaventure), a three-time All-A-10 player who scored 1,613 points in four seasons with the Bonnies, came to Florida via the transfer portal. UF also brings in a trio of transfers who all have three years of eligibility remaining: junior Trey Bonham (VMI), sophomore Alex Fudge (LSU), and sophomore Will Richard (Belmont).

• Bonham averaged 11.3 points over two seasons at VMI, and Richard averaged 12.1 per game during his freshman campaign at Belmont, while the bouncy Jacksonville native Alex Fudge looks to make a sophomore leap.

• UF also added a pair of freshmen who shared a backcourt at Orlando’s Dr. Phillips High School in Denzel Aberdeen and Riley Kugel, along with big man Aleks Szymczyk out of Frankfurt, Germany.

• Golden took the lead at Florida after three seasons as head coach at San Francisco. He compiled a 57-36 record with the Dons and led them to their first NCAA Tournament bid since 1998 and their first at-large selection since 1982.

 

ABOUT THE OPPONENT​

• Bob Huggins leads West Virginia in his 16th year at the helm, already owning a dominant road win at Pittsburgh with its lone loss coming vs. Purdue in Thursday’s opening round action of the PK85.

• South Carolina transfer leads WVU with 14.0 points per game, followed by Tre Mitchell’s 11.8. Stevenson is also the team’s top 3-point shooter at 11-for-25 (.440).

• Joe Toussaint averages 11.5 points off the bench and has dished a team-high 20 assists.

• Jimmy Bell Jr. is grabbing 5.2 rebounds per game in just 13.5 minutes, while Kedrian Johnson has a team-leading 13 steals.

OPPONENT’S LAST 5 GAMES​

Nov. 11 at Pittsburgh W 81-56
Nov. 15 Morehead State W 75-57
Nov. 18 Penn W 92-58
Nov. 24 vs. Purdue L 68-80
Nov. 25 vs. Portland State W 89-71

OPPONENT’S NEXT 5 GAMES​

Dec. 3 at Xavier
Dec. 7 Navy
Dec. 10 UAB
Dec. 18 Buffalo
Dec. 22 Stony Brook

ALL-TIME SERIES (7-3)​

Jan. 30, 1963 A L 67-114
Dec. 9, 1967 A W 82-72
March 3, 1969 A W 75-57
Jan. 17, 1970 A L/OT 87-88
March 1, 1971 H W 72-71
Dec. 3, 2002 N L 66-68
Dec. 20, 2003 N W 70-57
Jan. 30, 2016 H W 88-71
Dec. 4, 2018 N W 66-56
Jan. 30, 2021 A W 85-80

LAST 10 VS. BIG 12 (5-5)​

Jan. 28, 2017 at Oklahoma W 84-52
Jan. 27, 2018 Baylor W 81-60
March 17, 2018 *vs. Texas Tech (Dallas) L 66-69
Nov. 21, 2018 vs. Oklahoma (Bahamas) L 60-65
Dec. 4, 2018 vs. West Virginia (NYC) W 66-56
Jan. 26, 2019 at TCU L 50-55
Jan. 25, 2020 Baylor L 61-72
Jan. 30, 2021 at West Virginia W 85-80
Dec. 1, 2021 at Oklahoma L 67-74
Jan. 29, 2022 Oklahoma State W 81-72
*NCAA Tournament; ^NIT