OGT-#24 Florida vs. #18 South Carolina March 2, 12:00 (ESPN)

#24 Florida 20-8/10-5 SEC vs. #18 South Carolina 23-5/11-4 SEC
Colonial Life Arena (18,000) | Columbia, S.C.
Game 29 | March 2, 2024 | 12 p.m


BROADCAST INFO
ESPN & SEC Network | ESPN App
Play-by-Play: Tom Hart
Analyst: Jimmy Dykes

Gators Sports Network from LEARFIELD
Play-by-Play: Sean Kelley
Analyst: Lee Humphrey
Producer/Engineer: Steve Egan

 

HEAD COACHES
Todd Golden
36-25 | 2nd season at UF
93-61 | 5th season overall
Lamont Paris
34-26 | 2nd season at SC
121-98 | 7th season overall

MATCHUP BASICS
All-Time Series: 48-28
All-Time Away: 24-15
Series under Golden: 1-0
Away under Golden: 0-0
Last Meeting: W, 81-60, 1/25/23 (Home)

 

FLORIDA POSSIBLE STARTERS
# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Min. Pts. Reb. Misc.
4 Tyrese Samuel F 6-10 239 Gr. 27.2 13.5 7.9 1.7 ast
3 Micah Handlogten C 7-1 235 So. 20.4 6.4 7.6 .655 fg%
0 Zyon Pullin G 6-4 206 Gr. 33.4 15.3 3.8 4.9 ast
1 Walter Clayton Jr. G 6-2 195 Jr. 30.8 16.8 3.8 2.4 3fg
5 Will Richard G 6-4 206 Jr. 29.3 11.4 3.8 2.0 3fg

OPPONENT POSSIBLE STARTERS
# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. Min. Pts. Reb. Misc.
2 B.J. Mack F 6-8 260 Gr. 24.8 13.6 4.8 1.3 ast
30 Collin Murray-Boyles F 6-7 231 Fr. 20.5 9.7 5.1 .601 fg%
5 Meechie Johnson G 6-2 184 Jr. 28.9 13.8 4.3 3.0 ast
12 Zachary Davis G 6-7 194 So. 21.9 5.4 3.6 1.1 ast
55 Ta’lon Cooper G 6-4 200 Gr. 33.6 9.8 4.4 4.4 as

 

NUMBERS OF NOTE
23​

Tyrese Samuel and Zyon Pullin combined for 23 of Florida’s final
25 points in the win vs. Missouri. Samuel accounted for 14 of the
Gators’ last 20 points on the way to a career-high 28 points.

30​

The Gators have had 30 individual 20-point performances this
season, the team’s most dating back to the 1996-97 season. Walter Clayton Jr. leads UF with 10 such games, and five Gators have at least four 20-point outings.

100​

With 97 offensive rebounds, Micah Handlogten looks to become the fourth Gator to record 100 in a season, along with Dwayne Davis (114, 1988-89), Joakim Noah (102, 2006-07) and Patric Young 101, 013-14; 100, 2011-12).

 

THE TIP-OFF​

• Florida visits South Carolina for a top-25 showdown, which marks the Gators’ fifth ranked opponent in eight SEC road games. The Gators have won nine of their last 11 games entering Saturday’s action, most recently topping Missouri on Wednesday behind Tyrese Samuel’s 28 points and 10 rebounds and Zyon Pullin’s 21 points.

• Florida looks for its second top-25 road win this season (at #10 Kentucky), which would match the most in team history. The Gators have previously posted two ranked road wins in 2000-01, 2002-03 and 2017-18.

• Zyon Pullin leads the SEC and ranks second in the nation in assist/turnover ratio (4.07), and his 4.88 assists per game rank second in the SEC. Pullin scored 10+ points in his first 23 games as a Gator, tied for the third-longest double-figure scoring streak by a Gator since 1996-97.

• Florida has two of the top three offensive rebounders in the SEC in Micah Handlogten (3.7) and Tyrese Samuel (3.1). UF’s 39.4% offensive rebounding rate is third-highest in the nation, while Handlogten’s 18.6% offensive rebounding rate ranks second nationally.

2023-24 HIGHLIGHTS​

• Walter Clayton Jr. posted a four-game run of 20-point outings from Feb. 10-21, matching Colin Castleton, Tre Mann and Nick Calathes for the longest such streak by a Gator since Dwayne Schintzius’ five straight in 1989

• Florida’s win vs. #12 Auburn marked the Gators’ 15th in a row at home vs. the Tigers. Riley Kugel’s 22 points led the Gators, along with 20 points from Walter Clayton Jr. and 19 by Zyon Pullin, while the Gators matched a season low with just seven turnovers.

• The Gators notched a big resume win in their victory at 10th-ranked Kentucky, led by a trio of 20-point scorers in Walter Clayton Jr. (23), Tyrese Samuel (22) and Zyon Pullin (21). Clayton’s 3-pointer with 3.0 seconds left in regulation forced overtime and another with 1:42 left in overtime put the Gators ahead for good.

• Micah Handlogten posted 23 points and 17 rebounds in the home win vs. Georgia, while Zyon Pullin scored seven of his 20 points in the overtime period. The Gators completed the sweep in Athens for a 10th straight win vs. Georgia behind 21 points from Walter Clayton Jr. and 17 by Thomas Haugh.

• The Gators outlasted LSU at home, led by Walter Clayton Jr.’s 21 points, along with 15 points from Tyrese Samuel and 14 by Zyon Pullin. Florida overcame LSU’s 11-for-21 3-point game by scoring 20 points off 19 offensive rebounds while committing just eight turnovers.

• Will Richard led the Gators with 23 points and nine rebounds in the win vs. Mississippi State as Florida committed a season-low seven turnovers. Zyon Pullin and Walter Clayton Jr. each added 15 points.

• Zyon Pullin scored 22 and Tyrese Samuel posted 21 points and 11 rebounds in the Gators’ double-overtime
victory vs. Michigan in Charlotte. Pullin’s 3-pointer with 8.9 seconds remaining in the first overtime forced the second extra session, where an 11-0 UF run put the game away.

• The Gators topped Pitt in the first game of the NIT Season Tip-Off behind 28 points from Walter Clayton Jr. on 6-for-8 shooting from 3-point range, a 20-point, 10-rebound performance from Tyrese Samuel and a 24-to-8 assist-to-turnover showing as a team

 

ABOUT THE OPPONENT​

• South Carolina has climbed as high as 11th in the AP poll in its second season under Lamont Paris and owns wins at Tennessee and at home vs. Kentucky and is coming off sweeping back-to-back road games as Ole Miss and Texas A&M.

• Meechie Johnson leads South Carolina with 13.8 points per game and has made a team-leading 50 3-pointers, one of four players on the team with 40+ 3-point field goals. Johnson also leads SC with 26 steals.

• B.J. Mack also adds double-figure scoring at 13.6 per game, while three other players add at least nine points per game: Ta’lon Cooper (9.8), Collin Murray-Boyles (9.7) and Myles Stute (9.0).

• Cooper leads the team with 123 assists, while Murray-Boyles’ 5.1 rebounds per game are SC’s most.

• South Carolina’s adjusted tempo (via KenPom) ranks 354th in the nation, compared to Florida’s 30th, promising a contrast in styles

OPPONENT’S LAST 5 GAMES
Feb. 10 Vanderbilt W 75-60
Feb. 14 at Auburn L 61-101
Feb. 17 LSU L 63-64
Feb. 24 at Ole Miss W 72-59
Feb. 28 at Texas A&M W 70-68

OPPONENT’S UPCOMING GAMES
March 6 Tennessee
March 9 at Mississippi State
March 13-17 SEC Tournament

LAST 20 VS. SOUTH CAROLINA (12-8)
Feb. 10, 2010 A L 71-77
Jan. 15, 2011 H L 69-72
Feb. 9, 2011 A W 79-60
Jan. 14, 2012 A W 79-65
Feb. 2, 2012 H W 74-66
Jan. 30, 2013 H W 75-36
Jan. 8, 2014 H W 74-58
March 4, 2014 A W 72-46
Jan. 7, 2015 A W 72-68
Feb. 20, 2016 A L/OT 69-73
Jan. 18, 2017 A L 53-57
Feb. 21, 2017 H W 81-66
March 26, 2017 NCAA L 70-77
Jan. 24, 2018 H L 72-77
Feb. 10, 2018 A W 65-41
Jan. 5, 2019 H L 69-71
Jan. 7, 2020 A W 81-68
Feb. 3, 2021 H L 66-72
Jan. 15, 2022 A W 71-63
Jan. 25, 2023 H W 81-60