No. 3 Florida vs North Florida (Thursday, 8 pm)

Florida vs. North Florida

* When: Thursday, 8 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (0-1) / North Florida (0-0)
* Series/Last meeting: UF leads 11-0. The Gators defeated the Ospreys 99-45 on Dec. 21, 2024, behind Will Richard's career-high 26 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the 3-point line. Backup forward Sam Alexis came off the bench to tally a double-double of 14 points and 12 boards, with seven rebounds on the offensive end. The 54-point victory margin was the ninth largest by a Florida team in program history.
* TV: SEC Network+ (Ryan Urquhart and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
(with Sean Kelley, Brian Hogan and Steve Egan)
* Ticket info

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Junior	11.0 pts / 8.0 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	4.0 pts / 1.0 reb
Thomas Haugh	F/G	6-9 / 215	Junior	27.0 pts / 4.0 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	14.0 pts / 6.0 reb / 5.0 ast
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	9.0 pts / 4.0 reb / 3.0 ast

North Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	2024-25 Statistics
BJ Plummer	F	6-6 / 189	Freshman	N/A
Mason Lee	F	6-7 / 200	R-Sophomore	1.4 pts / 0.8 reb
Dalton Gayman	G	6-7 / 223	Graduate	9.3 pts / 6.8 reb (Division II Purdue Northwest)
Kent Jackson	G	6-2 / 169	Sophomore	2.7 pts / 0.6 reb
Kamrin Oriol	G	6-3 / 187	Senior	7.3 pts / 2.3 reb / 1.4 ast

The Setup

Just three nights after opening the season on the other side of the country, Florida will play its first home game -- and make its first appearance in the O'Dome -- as reigning NCAA champions. The No. 3 Gators found out quickly how the title belt will bring out the best in opponents when 13th-ranked Arizona rolled out a physical and inspired performance Monday in beating the champs 93-87 before a regionally friendly crowd in Las Vegas. After a solid start to the game, UF allowed UA a big run to take a halftime lead, with the Gators mostly playing on their heels (and from behind) in the second half. Thursday's game, the first with the 2025 title banner hanging from the rafters, will be about rediscovering their physicality and front court hutzpah after getting dominated in the paint.

Tale of the Tape

[embed photo]

Florida	Statistics	North Florida
87.0	Scoring	82.8
.429	Field-goal percentage	.444
.259	3-point percentage	.357
93.0	Scoring defense	84.8
.492	Field-goal percentage defense	.481
.400	3-point percentage defense	.345
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	*266th
3rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	*123rd
9th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	*353rd
15th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	*10th
N/A	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	N/A
N/A	Overall strength of schedule ranking	N/A

* Denotes 2024-25 statistics

The Breakdown

Gators reserve guard **Urban Klavzar** (7)

The Gators: Forward Thomas Haugh admittedly wasn't perfect in the opener, but he poured in a career-high 27 points, played 38-plus minutes and never came off the floor in the second half. That's the kind of energy UF will need up from forward Alex Condon and center Rueben Chinyelu, both of whom got worked pretty good by the aggressive, big-bodied Wildcats (especially 30-point freshman Koa Peat) before fouling out. Chinyelu grabbed one rebound in the game, matching the UF career low established in just seven minutes against Texas A&M last season. ... Backup 7-1 center Micah Handlogten, who went 5-for-5 from the floor on his way to 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, had by far his best all-around performance since his sophomore season, ... Point guard Boogie Fland and shooting guard Xaivian Lee were frustrated with their individual and collective performances on both ends of the floor. They combined to hit just eight of 26 shots, including three of 13 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the two weren't nearly aggressive enough fighting off the ball-screens that allowed Peat and point guard Jaden Bradley (27 points) to roll down the lane with a head of steam and finish or get fouled around the basket. ... Backup guard Urban Klavzar scored eight points, made two of his six 3-point tries, and had a pair of turnovers in 18 minutes off the bench. ... Freshman reserve guard CJ Ingram hit an early 3-pointer, but played a little wide-eyed later in the game. Understandable, given the stage. ... Florida has won 34 consecutive home openers, dating to 1991. The last time the Gators lost one, Nov. 27, 1991, was at the hands of visiting Texas, which left the O'Dome with a 76-74 win in the first home game under new UF coach Lon Kruger.

The Ospreys: This will mark UNF's first season since 2008-09 that Matt Driscoll's is not on the sidelines. Driscoll, who went 248-264 (with one NCAA appearance) over 16 seasons, bolted after last season to become associate head coach at Kansas State, with the school opting to elevate longtime Ospreys assists Bobby Kennen to his first head coaching job since leading Williston (Fla.) High for three seasons in the late 1990s. ... Look for Kennen's teams to maintain a facsimile of the "Birds of Trey" 3-point bombing system that defined UNF during the Driscoll era. Over the last six seasons, the Ospreys were among the nation's top teams in 3-point attempts, including 54% of their shots coming from distance in '24-25. ... UNF returns no starters from a team that finished 15-17 after starting out the season with victories over South Carolina and Georgia Tech in the first two weeks. ... The Ospreys' most productive returnee, point guard Kamrin Oriol, averaged 21 minutes off the bench last season. ... Starting forward Dalton Gayman is in his sixth collegiate season and at his fifth school, with none of the previous four stops at a Division I program. Gayman has played at Purdue Southwest, Drury and Arkansas-Fort Smith, all DII programs, as well as one season at State Fair Community College in Missouri. ... UNF's average margin of defeat in the series losses has been 33.9 points, with the lone single-digit game a 77-69 loss at the O'Dome in the Nov. 14, 2013 season opener of a season that ended with the Gators in the 2014 Final Four.

Numbers of Note

Arizona freshman forward **Koa Peat** (right) goes up and over Florida counterpart **Alex Condon** on his way to 30-point breakout performance in Monday night's season opener between two ranked teams.

* minus-4 — The final scoring-in-the-paint margin for the Gators against the Wildcats, which was nowhere near the expectation of what the UF coaches were looking for (and needed) from their defense, especially a front court billed as among the best in the nation.

* .259 — Florida's shooting percentage from the 3-point line against Arizona, based on its 7-for-27 performance. That number has to improve.

* 2006 — The first year UF and UNF played, with the reigning national-champion Gators winning 86-40, in just its second season playing NCAA Division I.

Bottom Line

After Monday's high-level lid-lifter defeat, the competition takes a major dip. The Gators' focus and energy need not, however.

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.

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