Jan 7 (Sat) 1 PM SEC Florida vs Georgia Presented by GFL Environmental Gainesville, FL Exactech Arena at Stephen C. O'Connell Center Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD Listen Live Stats Roster Card Tickets Preview BROADCAST INFO SEC Network | ESPN App Play-by-Play: Dave Neal Analyst: Jon Sundvold Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD SiriusXM 138/192 | SXM App 963 Play-by-Play: Sean Kelley Analyst: Lee Humphrey
Welcome Back, Hall-of-Famer Lon Kruger Jan 5, 2023 Lon Kruger, who guided the Florida men's basketball team to its first Final Four appearance in 1994 and last month was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, will be back in Gainesville this weekend for a reception in his honor.
HEAD COACHES Todd Golden 7-7 | 1st season at UF 64-43 | 4th season overall Mike White 11-3 | 1st season at Georgia 254-131 | 12th season overall MATCHUP BASICS All-Time Series: 120-103 All-Time/Home: 68-38 Series under Golden: 0-0 Home under Golden: 0-0 Last Meeting: W, 84-72, 2/26/22 (Away)
FLORIDA POSSIBLE STARTERS # Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Min. Pts. Reb. Misc. 3 Alex Fudge F 6-9 200 So. 23.1 7.9 5.3 1.0 blk 12 Colin Castleton F 6-11 250 Gr. 29.5 14.9 7.4 2.7 blk 2 Trey Bonham G 6-0 170 Jr. 20.5 10.6 2.9 1.9 ast 5 Will Richard G 6-4 206 So. 26.9 9.8 4.0 1.5 3fg 11 Kyle Lofton G 6-3 188 Gr. 29.6 8.4 2.6 3.6 ast OPPONENT POSSIBLE STARTERS # Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Min. Pts. Reb. Misc. 12 Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe F 6-8 215 Jr. 22.4 6.3 5.3 .694 fg% 23 Braelen Bridges C 6-11 245 5th 17.6 7.4 4.3 .575 fg% 0 Terry Roberts G 6-3 180 Sr. 29.5 15.0 3.5 4.2 ast 3 Kario Oquendo G 6-4 220 Jr. 27.0 14.5 3.9 1.6 3fg 13 Mardrez McBride G 6-2 180 5th 19.5 5.1 2.6 1.3 as
NUMBERS OF NOTE 10 Myreon Jones shot 10-for-19 (.526) from 3-point range vs. Georgia last season, starting with a 7-for-11 day in Gainesvillle, where he scored 23 points, his high as a Gator. He added a 3-for-8 day in Athens with 13 points. 6 Florida looks to build on its six-game win streak vs. Georgia. The Gators were 11-3 vs. the Bulldogs under Mike White. 4th The Gators play their fourth all-time game vs. a past head coach -- all three prior coming vs. Lon Kruger -- but the first at home. Coincidentally, Kruger will be on hand Saturday as UF honors his induction into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
GATORS AT A GLANCE • Florida welcomes Georgia for the home end of the teams’ season series. The Gators look to pick up their first Southeastern Conference win after a pair of hard-fought, three-point losses. Trey Bonham led UF with 21 points in Wednesday’s outing vs. Texas A&M. • UF squares off against a former Gator head coach in Gainesville for the first time. Florida faced Lon Kruger three times in his post-UF career, topping Illinois in the 2000 NCAA Tournament and splitting a pair of meetings during Kruger’s stint at Oklahoma (one road win, one neutral-site loss). • The Gators look to extend their six-game winning streak vs. Georgia, which marks the third longest by UF in series history (11, 2004-09; nine, 1964-68). • Colin Castleton leads UF in scoring (14.9), rebounding (7.4), blocked shots (38), free throws made (54) and steals (16). Kyle Lofton has a team-high 43 assists, and Trey Bonham’s 23 3-point field goals are UF’s most. • As a team, the Gators’ 5.8 blocked shots per game rank 11th in the NCAA. Castleton’s 2.71 swats per game rate are tied for seventh in the nation. • Kowacie Reeves exploded for 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting vs. Ohio, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range, to lead the Gators’ rout in Tampa. Reeves also came back from the holiday break strong, leading UF with 15 points at Auburn. • Alex Fudge had a four-game stretch from Nov. 30-Dec. 14 when averaged 13.3 points and a team-high 8.3 rebounds, shooting 18-for-32 (.563) from the field, 3-for-6 from 3-point range, and hitting 14 of 15 free throw attempts (.933). Fudge had a pair of double-doubles over that span, posting 16 and 10 vs. FAMU and 13 and 10 vs. Ohio. • Through Will Richard’s first seven appearances of the season, he displayed impressive efficiency scoring 13+points six times while shooting .607 from the field, .586 from 3-point range and .947 from the free throw line. • Riley Kugel made his first career start vs. Florida A&M, marking six straight seasons and 15 of the last 16 in which a freshman started at least one game for UF (every season since 2007-08 except 2016-17). • 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. • 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. • Golden compiled a 57-36 record over three seasons at San Francisco and led the Dons to their first NCAA Tournament bid since 1998 and their first at-large selection since 1982.
ABOUT THE OPPONENT • Georgia enters Saturday on a four-game winning streak and is coming off a win vs. 22nd-ranked Auburn. UGA also owns a neutral-site win vs. Notre Dame in nonconference action. • Bradley transfer Terry Roberts leads Georgia with 15.0 points per game, 55 assists and 24 steals. • Karie Oquendo averages 14.5 points and leads the Bulldogs with 18 made 3-pointers (.360) and 40 free throws (.769). • Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe leads UGA with 5.3 rebounds per game, and Frank Anselm’s 10 blocked shots lead the way. OPPONENT’S LAST 5 GAMES Dec. 6 at Georgia Tech L 77-79 Dec. 18 vs. Notre Dame W 77-62 Dec. 21 Chattanooga W 72-65 Dec. 28 Rider W 78-72 Jan. 4 Auburn W 76-64 OPPONENT’S NEXT 5 GAMES Jan. 11 Mississippi State Jan. 14 at Ole Miss Jan. 17 at Kentucky Jan. 21 Vanderbilt Jan. 25 at Tennessee LAST 20 VS. GEORGIA (15-5) Jan. 10, 2012 H W 70-48 Feb. 25, 2012 A L 62-76 Jan. 9, 2013 H W 77-44 Jan. 23, 2013 A W 64-47 Jan. 14, 2014 H W 72-50 Jan. 17, 2015 A L 61-73 Jan. 2, 2016 H W 77-63 Feb. 16, 2016 A W 57-53 Jan. 14, 2017 H W/OT 80-76 Feb. 7, 2017 A W 72-60 Jan. 30, 2018 A L 60-72 Feb. 14, 2018 H L/OT 69-72 Jan. 19, 2019 A W 62-52 March 2, 2019 H L 61-55 Feb. 5, 2020 H W 81-75 March 4, 2020 A W 68-54 Jan. 23, 2021 A W 92-84 Feb. 20, 2021 H W 70-63 Feb. 9, 2022 H W 72-63 Feb. 26, 2022 A W 84-72 GAMES VS. PAST HEAD COACHES All vs. Lon Kruger-coached teams March 19, 2000 vs. Illinois (NCAA) W 93-76 Jan. 28, 2017 at Oklahoma W 84-52 Nov. 21, 2018 vs. Oklahoma L 67-74
Business As Usual, Both Sides Say, for White Reunion Eight current members of the UF basketball team were brought on board by Mike White, who will be back at Exactech Arena as coach of the Georgia Bulldogs for Saturday's much-anticipated reunion game. GAINESVILLE, Fla. — No matter what he says or thinks or says he thinks, this one will be different. The feeling will be fleeting and eventually give away to an actual game, but it'll definitely be different. Even awkward, perhaps. Mike White loved Ole Miss, but always seemed to be uneasy going back to Oxford to play the Rebels, the team for whom he was a starting point guard for four season during the 1990s. White is humble and understated, so he did not like those games because the folks telling the stories about those games often wanted to make the story about him. Florida coach Todd Golden So bringing his Georgia Bulldogs (11-3, 1-0), even this rejuvenated, riding-high version, to Exactech Arena/O'Connell for Saturday's matinee against Todd Golden and the Florida Gators (7-7, 0-2) very likely will test White's comfort level. It shouldn't. White left UF last March as the third winningest coach in program history, guiding the Gators to a 142-88 record (.617 winning percentage) and six wins over four NCAA Tournament appearances, second-most by a UF coach only to Billy Donovan. But for whatever reason, White went looking for something better last spring and found it at one of Florida's biggest rivals. "Business. That's it," White told reporters in Athens, Ga., Wednesday night after the Bulldogs upset 22nd-ranked Auburn when asked his thoughts about returning to the O'Dome. "It's a place that [wife Kira] and myself and our [five] kids, loved. We had a great time there. I'll always be appreciative. I'm looking forward to seeing some family and some friends; a lot of people in those stands that I'm anxious to see, that I care about. People throughout the community … ." Then came the coach-speak disclaimer. "That said, when shoot-around is going on, I'm going to be locked in. I've got a model and when that thing's tipped, we're going down there to see if we can get a little bit better and see if we can put ourselves in a position to maybe steal one on the road. That's the name of the game in this league." [Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here] It should come as no surprise that Golden and the Gators, including eight of White's former players (six scholarship guys, two walk-ons), will try to take the same approach. "He's coaching them well and doing what they need to do — but it's going to be any other game," said UF fifth-year senior Colin Castleton, who played two seasons for White, including last year's second-team All-Southeastern campaign. "We've got to win, that's the bottom line, no matter who's coming in here, who's coaching, who's playing. We have to win games." UF forward Colin Castleton (left) was plucked from the transfer portal (by way of Michigan) by then-UF coach Mike White during the Covid-crazy summer of 2020. Yes, they do. UF is currently on a three-game losing skid, with each defeat coming down to late-game execution the opponents' did better. The Gators were in a three-point game with just over two minutes to go against Oklahoma in the Jumpman Invitational before Christmas and lost by nine. They were in a tie game with just over a minute left at Auburn and lost by three. They were tied with less than a minute remaining at home Wednesday night against Texas A&M and lost by three. In those games, it didn't matter that Porter Moser, Bruce Pearl or Buzz Williams were the respective coaches on the opposite bench. And it won't matter that White is standing on the visiting sideline Saturday, either. By the time the game's outcome is being decided, any awkwardness will be long over and any Florida fan craving their pound of White's flesh (in whatever verbal form that may take) will be long over. "We've got to worry about ourselves and make sure we're doing what we're capable of to win the game," Golden said Friday. "Obviously, there might a little extra motivation for some of our guys, but it definitely won't be a point of emphasis from my perspective. For us, I want to make sure we're focusing on ourselves and what we're doing to put our best foot forward." The Gators did that on a couple fronts against A&M, especially when it came to shooting the basketball. UF hit nearly 47 percent from the floor, including 7-for-19 shots from the 3-point line after going through a two-game clang fest when just five of 41 long balls went down. Unfortunately, on the same night they righted some shooting wrongs, the Gators turned the ball over a season-worst 20 times (leading to 21 A&M points) and surrendered 13 offensive rebounds. Those second-chance opportunities allowed the Aggies to take 61 field-goal attempts (to UF's 44) and win a one-possession game despite making just 37.7 percent for the game, 12.5 percent from distance (2-for-16) and 64.3 from the free-throw line. "Against a team like A&M, you can't do that and give yourself a chance to win the game," Golden said. Mike White as a Gator Just once, the Florida staff would like to see its players put together a solid, across-the-board game against a high-major opponent — UF has lost five straight vs. power conference teams — instead of playing whack-a-mole with random areas that go from good to bad on a given night. There's a faction of Gators (the ones in uniform), of course, who would love to do so against the guy on the other sideline Saturday. "Even the guys that don't play that much, they're still excited. They know what kind of defense he plays and they just want to beat him," junior guard Trey Bonham, who transferred to UF last offseason from Virginia Military Institute. "[But] Coach Golden is definitely going to be on [the emotions element] early. … I feel like he's going to nip that in the butt and make sure we stay in our game." After all, like White said, it's just business, right?
Glad to see Coach White doing so well this year! I still hope we beat Georgia's ass tomorrow, though.
Must-must-MUST-win game for the Gators today. Not in small part because I'll be there. The point about late-game breakdowns is important. We let each of these last three games slip through our fingers because of abysmal play in the last couple of minutes.
Already more movement on offense. Like Gene Smithson always screamed in practice...."You want a shot in D1? Move your ass!"
Worries me sometime when we make a couple of early threes. Tend to get too three-happy. Hopefully this one will be different.
