FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When Todd Golden When he arrived in Florida in the spring of 2023, he inherited a roster that included walk-ons Jack May. In the coming months, Golden met May’s father, Dusty, the former Gators assistant who had left five years earlier to become head coach at Florida Atlantic.

When May came to UF for a clinic this summer, Golden felt that May really, really liked his FAU team, that really, really Golden was concerned because Florida and FAU were scheduled to play in Gainesville on Nov. 14, his third game on the Gators’ sideline.

“I could just say, ‘This guy has a good team, knows he has a good team and is excited about his team,'” Golden remembers. “And we were lucky enough to get them in our third game of the first year.”

One of the reasons — two of the reasons, actually — that May was so high on his roster was that he had a pair of junior guards back from the fourth grade. Aliyah Martin and Johnell Davis, and ready for big breakout seasons. In fact, a few months later, FAU came to Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center, jumped out to a double-digit lead and shocked the Gators 76-74, with Davis scoring 20 points and 10 rebounds and Martin scoring all 11 of his points (with one Trio of 3-pointers) in the second half.

It was the first of 20 straight wins for the Owls en route to a breathtaking, historic Cinderella run to a Conference USA regular-season championship, a C-USA Tournament title and, with NCAA Tournament victories over Memphis, Fairleigh Dickinson, Tennessee and Kansas State – Final Four berth.

Martin, now a 6-foot-1, 200-pound guard for the Gators, took a moment this week to reflect on this season and his kinship with Davis, who together became one of the deadliest duos in college basketball for a few Seasons.

“Facts,” Martin said. “We’ve had some highs and even some lows together, but what I’m most proud of is the brotherhood we’ve created with all of these guys, by chance and through Coach May. We will always be brothers.”

He paused.

“So it’s going to be weird, to be honest.”

The awkwardness is likely to last until the handshake before the opening tip-off on Saturday afternoon. Once the ball is thrown, Martin and Davis, eternal brothers by virtue of their FAU fame, will be mortal enemies for the next two hours as the No. 6 Gators (14-1, 1-1) take on Davis and his new team, the Arkansas Razorbacks (11-4, 0-2) at sold-out Bud Walton Arena. When May transferred from Boca Raton to Michigan last spring, the Owls spread across the country, with Golden and his staff jumping right in to make Martin their top transfer portal, while Davis also entertained a slew of high-profile suitors before becoming coach John Calipari selected the pigs.

Here they are.



(Read senior author Chris Harry(see “Pregame Stuff” setup here)


Their seasons appear to be heading in different directions for now, with the Gators remaining undefeated in the nonleague season and defeating top-ranked Tennessee 73-43 four days ago, with Martin leading all scorers with 18 points. The Razorbacks have had a mostly mediocre season so far, with back-to-back losses early in SEC play; by 24 at Tennessee last week, then 73-66 against No. 24 Ole Miss at home on Wednesday.


For Florida, this road trip is about not repeating last week’s road trip at 10am^ThKentucky, where the Gators shot 59 percent and allowed a whopping 14 3-pointers in a 106-100 loss at the start of the SEC season. The performance was eye-opening considering how UF had defended the first 13 games, and even more so in hindsight after the Gators defeated the No. 1-ranked Volunteers, who shot just 21.4 percent and went 4-0 – 29 from the depths of this history-making wipeout.

Greetings to Johnell Davis and Aliyah Martin
◾️ Both were unranked recruits in the HS
◾️ Led FAU to its best season ever
◾️ Davis became the first player in March Madness history to post a 25-10-5-5 game
◾️ Martin is well on his way to becoming FAU’s all-time leading goalscorer

FAU has made HISTORY pic.twitter.com/nO50N1D9hG

– B/R Hoops (@brhoops) April 2, 2023

CHARTING THE GATORS: Tale of the Tape

Aliyah Martin at FAU / Florida	statistics	Johnell Davis at FAU/Arkansas
124 (86) / 15 (15)	Games (beginnings)	128 (53) / 13 (11)
11.9 / 16.1	Points per game	11.0 / 8.9
43.8 / 45.9	FG percentage	47.7 / 44.1
36.9 / 34.0	3-point percentage	36.6 / 36.7
5.0 / 5.7	rebounds per game	4.7 / 3.6
1.4 / 2.8	Assists per game	1.7 / 1.6
1.3 / 1.9	Steals per game	1.2/0.7

From the coaches to the bench, the Gators credit Martin with being a big part of a tenacious defensive mentality that has catapulted a program that ranked 94th in defensive efficiency last season to its current 16th place this season . After helping FAU to 60 wins and two NCAA Tournaments over the last two seasons, Martin needed no introduction when he showed up for his portal visit last spring.

“Oh, we definitely knew it was him,” the second-year forward said Thomas Haugh said.

Martin spent additional time with senior leaders/standouts at UF Walter Clayton Jr. And Will Richard during his stay and soon learned that their plans coincided.

“We just wanted to win,” Clayton said. “That’s all we really talked about.”

Martin was sold. When he came to town, his work ethic and no-nonsense leadership skills were on display daily in both the offseason and preseason.

“We all knew he was going to bring us something different and then over the summer he led us during conditioning and we followed him. Everyone was drawn to him,” Haugh said. “And when he speaks up on the field, he doesn’t yell at you or get mad at you. He just talks to you like, ‘Hey bro. Let’s do this, let’s do that. You have to get better.’ It’s not a demanding tone, but a respectful, somehow energetic one.”

Since the start of the regular season, the results have hardly been subtle. Neither for the Gators nor for Martin.

The loss to Tennessee (the worst defeat by a No. 1 team in 57 years) put the Florida program back in the national spotlight.

Martin is second on the team in points per game at 16.1, third in rebounding at 5.7 and second in steals at 1.7. Entering SEC play, Martin is shooting 57.1 from 2-point range and 41.2 from distance in both games.

While those are great offensive numbers, it was Martin’s defense and its trickle-down effect that had the biggest impact in making the Gators – nearing the halfway point of the 2024-25 season – one of the most complete teams in college basketball.

“It was beautiful,” sophomore and defense-first center Rueben Chinyelu said.

Now the defense has to travel, which wasn’t the case last weekend.

“I think we’ll learn from Kentucky,” Martin said. “Considering how hard it is to play on the road and how hard it is to play every game in the SEC, you just never know what to expect. But we know that we cannot lack effort. This has to be done.” at the top of the game board; play hard and control what we can control.

That would be the mission regardless of the enemy. This time, however, his “brother” happens to be on the other side. In the way.

The boys named “A-Mart” and “Nelly” have taken two different paths, but for one day they will reunite at the same destination, with the goal of (this time) eliminating the other.


“College basketball has become a business. It just is what it is,” Martin said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him and I’m looking forward to seeing him, but…”


Another break.


“Yeah, it’ll be weird.”

Email the senior author Chris Harry at @[email protected]