Florida vs Prairie View A&M (Friday, 9:25 pm ET)

Florida vs. Prairie View A&M

* What: NCAA Tournament South Region
* When: Friday, 9:25 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Benchmark International Arena / Tampa, Fla.
* Records: Florida (26-7) / Prairie View A&M (19-17)
* Series/Last meeting: Florida leads 1-0. In their lone meeting, the defending national-champion and No. 1-ranked Gators defeated the Panthers 94-33 at Gainesville on Nov. 21, 2006, behind double doubles from both forward Al Horford (13 points, 11 rebounds) and backup Marreese Speights (13 points, 10 rebounds), plus 19 points from center Joakim Noah. UF led 45-19 at halftime and even after emptying its bench outscored Prairie View 48-14 in the second half.
* TV: TNT (Tom McCarthy, Candace Parker, Dan Bonner and AJ Ross)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
(with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan)
* Ticket info

Projected Starters

UF first-team All-SEC forward **Thomas Haugh**

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Junior	15.0 pts / 7.7 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	11.2 pts / 11.5 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	17.1 pts / 6.2 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	11.5 pts / 3.8 reb / 4.2 ast
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	11.6 pts / 2.5 reb

Prairie View	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Cory Wells	F	6-7 / 200	Senior	13.3 pts / 7.2 reb
Corey Dunning	F	6-9 / 225	Senior	1.2 pts / 3.4 reb
Elijah Mitchell	G	6-5 / 207	Sophomore	2.4 pts / 1.5 reb
Dontae Horne	G	6-4 / 190	Senior	20.4 pts / 4.6 reb
Lance Williams	G	6-1 / 181	Senior	10.1 pts / 3.3 reb / 3.3 ast

The Setup

Benchmark International Arena (capacity 20,500), home to the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning, will host the first two rounds of the NCAA Southeast regional Friday and Sunday in downtown Tampa.

Fourth-ranked Florida is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament Southeast Region and will face 16th-seed Prairie View A&M in opening-round play in front of what figures to be a tremendous home court advantage at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida. ... The Gators, defending NCAA champs, earned the 1-seed by playing one of the nation's toughest schedules. They went 16-2 in the Southeastern Conference, the nation's most difficult league per analytics, to claim the conference title by three games. UF won its last 11 regular-season games, plus one in the SEC Tournament, but suffered its most lopsided loss of the season in a 91-74 blowout by Vanderbilt in the semifinals five days ago. ... Prairie View, winner of eight straight, earned its berth into the First Four round by winning four games in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament to claim the league's automatic bid. The Panthers then defeated Lehigh 67-55 in a 16-seed play-in game Wednesday night at Dayton, Ohio. ... The winner will face the winner of the first Friday night game pitting 8-seed Clemson (24-10) against 9-seed Iowa (21-12) on Sunday for the right to go to the Sweet 16. ... The Gators are 51-20 in 23 all-time NCAA Tournament appearances, including 6-1 under Coach Todd Golden. All six of those wins, of course, came last year en route to the national title.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Prairie View
86.8	Scoring	78.9
.478	Field-goal percentage	.433
.308	3-point percentage	.334
72.0	Scoring defense	76.1
.408	Field-goal percentage defense	.437
.324	3-point percentage defense	.335
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	280th
9th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	311th
6th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	214th
28th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	23rd
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	300th
4th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	347th

The Breakdown

About the Gators: Their performance in the SEC semifinal against Vandy looked nothing like the body of work the team put together in finishing the conference season with 11 straight wins by an average margin of 22.3 points. It wasn't drastically different, however, than what UF put on tape in the second half of its regular-season finale at Kentucky (an 84-77 win the Gators led by 20 in the second half) or the SEC Tournament quarterfinal rematch against Kentucky (a 71-63 win when the Gators shot poorly and turned the ball over too much). Rest assured, the concerns of those last two-and-a-half games were addressed this week, so now its up to the players to respond. ... UF dropped three spots in offensive efficiency (6th to 9th) and two spots on defense (4th to 6th), but remains one of just four teams -- along with fellow 1-seeds Duke (4/2), Arizona (5/3) and Michigan (8/1) -- to be ranked in the KenPom.com top 10 in both categories; as well as one of only five in the top 20 (along with Houston at 14/5). ... In the two SEC Tournament games, Florida combined to shoot just 41.7% overall and 21.6 from the 3-point line. The Gators defended well against UK (35.6% overall, 21.7 from 3), but got sliced up by Vanderbilt for 54.5% shooting from the floor and 10-for-21 from deep (47.6%). Rebound-wise, UF was outstanding in both games, but could not capitalize on second chances against the Commodores. There was also the matter of those 32 combined turnovers in the games. ... Forward Alex Condon was the best Gator at the SEC Tournament. He averaged 17.5 points, shot 62% (hit his only 3 attempt, also) and grabbed 8.5 rebounds, but also had eight turnovers. He got in foul trouble against Vandy. ... Forward and leading scorer Thomas Haugh went just 1-for-9 from the arc in the tournament, but went 6-for-14 from the 2-point area and 17 of 20 at the free-throw line. Haugh was named to several All-America teams this week. ... Center Rueben Chinyelu has gone three straight games without a double-double, equaling his longest such drought of the season, after amassing a SEC-best 18 during '25-26. ... Xaivian Lee had his streak of seven consecutive games in double-figure scoring snapped last game, but had 10 assists in the two tournament games. ... Point guard Boogie Fland has averaged 15.4 points over the last seven games and has hit at least one three in each. ... UK and Vandy did an excellent job denying UF sharp-shooting guard and SEC Sixth Man of the Year Urban Klavzar from getting any good looks in the tournament. Klavzar, 40.2% from deep on the season, made just one of four attempts in the two games.

About the Panthers: They're in the 10th season under Byron Smith (146-178), who has his team in its second NCAA Tournament and first since 2019. ... The Panthers, like many SWAC programs, signed up for a handful of buy games against high-major teams early in the season. Prairie View lost to Wichita State by 43, Oklahoma State by 27, Missouri by 18, LSU by 14 and Texas A&M by 29, so they won't be wide-eyed at the competition. Four of their wins this season (versus Biblical Studies, Dallas, Champion Christian and Paul Quinn) came against Division II or NAIA opponents. ... Offensively, the Panthers were among the bottom third in the country and even placed eighth in their league. What they do, though, is play 100 miles per hour. They ranked 23rd nationally in tempo and first in the SWAC. And they shoot 3s. In bunches, despite making just 34.6% in league play (10th). Prairie View was one of the worst rebounding teams in its league (which means in the nation), so the Panthers could be in for a very long night against the Gators' size. ... It's a veteran team, with all five starters in their fourth or fifth collegiate seasons, with three coming via the junior-college route. ... Guard and leading scorer Dontae Horne is shooting nearly 45% from the floor; just 32% from the arc. He's also second on the team with 41 offensive rebounds, so he's shooting and chasing his shots. He went 10-for-19 from the floor on his way to 25 points against Lehigh. ... Cory Wells is the team's top rebounder, but he'll give away lots of inches, girth and athleticism in the post. ... Backup guard Tai'Reon Joseph (17.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg) only played nine minutes the last two games, but has nine games this season of at least 25 points this season, including five of more than 30 points. He is a rare fifth-year guy playong for a fifth different school (Austin Peay, Radford, Southern, UTSA and Prairie View).

Numbers of Note

Former Gators guard KeVaughn Allen (5) went off in the 2017 NCAA Tournament against Wisconsin.

* 35 — UF's single-game record for points in the NCAA Tournament, a mark set by sophomore guard KeVaughn Allen against Wisconsin on March 27, 2017. Allen's outburst was overshadowed, though, thanks to Chris Chiozza's miracle 3-point buzzer-beater in overtime. Allen went 11 of 24 from the floor, four of 12 from the 3-point arc and nine of 10 at the free-throw line.

* 134 —Program record for points score in a single NCAA tournament, a mark set during UF's 2025 run to the title by senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., who averaged 22.3 points, shot 55.2% from the floor, 43.7% on 46 attempts from the 3-point line and converted 42 of 46 free throws (91.3%) over the Gators' six games.

* 1987 — The year Florida played in its first NCAA Tournament. The Gators, led by junior guard Vernon Maxwell and freshman center Dwayne Schintzius, went 19-8 overall and 12-6 in the SEC that season to gain an at-large berth as a No. 6 seed in Syracuse, New York. They defeated North Carolina State 82-70 in opening-round play, then upset 3-seed Purdue 85-66 in the second round. The run ended in the "Sweet 16" with an 87-81 loss to Syracuse at East Rutherford, N.J.

Bottom Line

The bracket-making gods put the Gators in Tampa. They need to thank them with a couple victories.

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

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