No. 6 Florida vs. Stetson

* When: Sunday, 1 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center / Gainesville, Florida.
* Records: Florida (12-0) / Stetson (2-10)
* TV: SEC Network+ (Kyle Crooks And Patrick Young)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Channel List
(with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey And Steve Egan)
* Ticket information

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Planned starters

Stetson	position	Size/Weight	Class	statistics
Jordan Wood	F	6-10 / NA	senior	12.2 points / 3.1 Reb
Josh Massey	F	6-6 / NA	senior	10.8 points / 5.2 Reb
Abramo Canka	G	6-6 / NA	Junior	10.8 points / 5.2 Reb
Tristan Goss	G	6-6 / NA	Second semester	7.7 pts / 3.7 Reb
Mehki Ellison	G	6-0 / NA	Junior	14.2 points / 1.5 Reb / 2.5 Ast

The collapse

SET UP: No. 6 Florida and Stetson meet in both teams’ first game after the holidays. The undefeated Gators, who moved up one spot Associated Press Top 25 poll and have achieved their highest ranking in the post.Billy Donovan era, are coming off a 99-45 win over North Florida on Dec. 21 and remain one of just four teams (along with Tennessee, Oklahoma and Drake) left undefeated in Division I. Stetson’s last appearance was also on Dec. 21, a 103-77 win against Fort Lauderdale, a National Christian College Athletic Association program. The Hatters, who play in the Atlantic Sun Conference, ended a 10-game losing streak.

SERIES: The Gators lead 54-14, including a streak of 19 straight wins since 1984. The last meeting was on December 4, 2022, just a month since Coach Todd Golden‘S In their first season, the Gators won 89-51, with five players, led by the sophomore, scoring in double figures Will Richards 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from the 3-point line. Sophomore wing Kowacie Reeves had 12 points and was a fifth-year guard Myron Jones had a complete game with eight points, six rebounds, five assists and no turnovers over 19 minutes. UF shot 53 percent as a team, made 11 of 22 from distance and defended the Hatters to an overall rate of 32 percent.

ETC: UF and Stetson first met on an unknown date during the 1919–20 season. The Hatters actually won the first three meetings until UF got into the win column in 1922.

Story from the tape

Florida	statistics	Stetson
87.6	Rating	74.0
.470	Field goal percentage	.442
.343	3-point percentage	.346
65.0	Goal defense	83.3
.378	Field goal defense percentage	.346
.279	3-point percentage defense	.388
7	KenPom.com Overall ranking	351
6	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	316
16	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	354
84	KenPom.com has adjusted the pace	156
4	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings.	358
140	Overall schedule ranking strength	245

The Gators

One of Golden’s goals entering the season (and it was an ambitious one) was to finish in the top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency; Quite a goal considering the Gators ranked 94th in defense last season. Well, guess what? After holding UNF to a 26.7 percent shooting percentage overall and limiting one of the country’s most productive 3-point shooting teams to just five 3s in last week’s 54-point win, the Gators are now one of just six teams in the country in This double top 20 gold is sought. Suffice it to say, those numbers could go up after Sunday given Stetson’s abject struggles, but that’s why they play the games. UF is also currently No. 2 in offensive rebounding and faces an opponent ranked 332nd on defense.

After 10 games, guard Walter Clayton Jr. averaged 19.2 points per game, the most by a player in the UF program this deep in a season this century. However, over the last two games, Clayton has been held to just 10.0 points per game on 7 of 21 from the floor and two of nine from deep. The Gators may not need the best version of Clayton against the Hatters, but the Southeastern Conference season starts next weekend (at least in Kentucky). …Fifth year Aliyah Martin He wasn’t at his best offensively in the last two games either, but like Clayton, he made some great (winning) plays in the win over North Carolina in the Jumpman Invitational. Martin had just eight points against UNF and has shot just 8 of 22 and 3 of 15 in the last two games. That means Clayton and Martin are a combined 15 of 45 (33.3 percent) and 5 of 24 from the 3-point line (20.8 percent) compared to the previous two. … As for UF’s three guards, that’s what’s left Will Richardwho has been great over the last few games, averaging 23.0 points on 17-for-22 shooting (that’s 77.2 percent) and dropping eight of 13 long balls (61.5 percent). He also averaged 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals.

How about the three double-doubles in the last game? The Gators bombarded the Ospreys 65-25 on the glass, including 26-7 on offense. Backup forward Sam Alexis (7.0 ppg, 4.6 rpg) posted a career-high 14 points and 12 rebounds, with super sub Thomas Haugh (7.6 points per game, 5.8 points per game) and finished with 10 and 10. Sophomore forward Alex Condon had 10 points and 12 boards. … UF is currently hitting 42.2 percent of its misses, second nationally — but behind Texas A&M (44.5 percent) in the SEC. What a league. … Forward Rueben Chinyelu has grabbed at least six rebounds in seven of the last eight games and has at least three offensive rebounds in half of those eight games.

Substitute guard Denzel Aberdeen (7.0 ppg) had a season-low of two points against North Florida, but season-highs of six rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes. …It confuses this backup guard Urban Klavzar (2.7 ppg) continues to struggle with his jump shot, which is deadly in the gym every day. Klavzar, the Slovenian sophomore, is eight of 28 overall (28.6 percent) and just 1 of 13 from the 3-point line (7.7 percent). … Freshman Wing Isaiah Brown (3.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg) scored a career-best seven points against the Ospreys, along with four rebounds and a steal.

 

The Hatters

They’re down in season six Donnie Joneswho won two national championships as an assistant alongside Donovan in 2006 and 2007, then sought the top job at his alma mater, Marshall. After three seasons there, Jones was hired at UCF, where he spent the next six years, later taking assistant positions at Wichita State and Dayton before the Hatters came calling in 2019. Jones made history at the school last season by winning the A-Sun Tournament and securing the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth. However, the Hatters were seeded 16th and played against reigning national champion (and eventual two-time NCAA champion) Connecticut and lost in the first round, 92-51. After his milestone season, Stetson was let down by the transfer portal and his top four scorers scattered across the country (to Miami, UC-Santa Barbara, Utah State and Middle Tennessee State), leaving Jones to essentially rebuild from the ground up . Oh, and the program hasn’t signed any transfers to the current roster.

Analysis shows the Hatters rank near the bottom of all Division I teams in net rating, including ninth in defensive efficiency. They rank 314th or worse in seven different defensive categories and aren’t much better on offense. Both of their wins came against non-D1 opponents, including a season-opening win against New College of Florida, an NAIA school in Sarasota. Stetson lost by 22 at The Citadel, by 21 at Oklahoma and by 46 at LSU. They lost by two points at South Florida and again by six points in overtime at home to Mercer.

Guard Mehki Ellisona junior college convert, shoots 50 percent from the floor and a solid 43.1 from distance on 51 attempts. In consecutive games against Mercer and Florida International, he scored 23 and 25 goals, respectively. Ellison is the Hatters’ primary ball handler, but has more turnovers (36) than assists (31). … Forward Jordan Woodat 6-10, is the size UF will struggle with in the starting lineup, although the Hatters will get some minutes from 7 feet Treyton Thompson (3.3 ppm, 3.6 ppm). … Guard Jamie Phillips Jr. (10.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg) started the first seven games of the season but hasn’t played since Nov. 24, when he had 12 points and seven rebounds in a loss to LaSalle.

 

Clue numbers

*2 – The non-conference Gators have played Stetson more than 68 times: Florida State (75) and Miami (71).

*3 – SEC teams were ahead of sixth-place Florida in the rankings AP Top 25 poll: 1) Tennessee, 2) Auburn, 5) Alabama. Unreal.

* 33.3 — Richard’s current 3-point shooting percentage. Going into the UNC game less than two weeks ago, he was at 25.0 percent.

* 57.5 – Points per game of their 23-24 team that the Hatters lost to the transfer portal (or 74.9 percent of an offense that averaged 76.8 points), led by the guard Jalen Blackmonwho took his 21.3 points with him to Miami, where he is now averaging 10.2 per game.

* 1983 – Last year, Stetson beat Florida. The date was November 26th. The location was the O’Dome. It was the season opener for the Gators, who subsequently posted a 16-13 record, including an 11-7 mark in the SEC (their most wins in the conference in 14 years), and finished third in the final league standings.

 

Conclusion

After this game, the season becomes brutally real.

Email Chris Harry at [email protected]