No. 5 Florida at No. 7 Alabama

 
* When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Coleman Coliseum / Tuscaloosa, Ala.
* Records: Florida (25-4, 12-4) / Alabama (23-6, 12-4)
* TV: ESPN2 (Dave Pasch, Jay Bilas and Molly McGrath)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
  (with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) 
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

Alabama	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Grant Nelson	F	6-11 / 230	Senior	11.8 pts / 8.0 reb
Clifford Omoruyi	F	6-11 / 250	Senior	7.1 pts / 6.8 reb
Labaron Philon	G	6-4 / 177	Freshman	10.4 pts / 3.2 reb
Chris Youngblood	G	6-4 / 223	Senior	10.2 pts / 2.6 reb
Mark Sears	G	6-1 / 190	Senior	19.1 pts / 3.0 reb / 5.0 ast

The Breakdown

SETUP: Fifth-ranked Florida and seventh-ranked Alabama square off in one of the biggest games in Southeastern Conference play this season (and that’s saying something). The top-10 showdown has mega-ramifications for seeding in both the SEC Tournament next week and NCAA Tournament the week after. The Gators and Crimson Tide are currently tied for second place in the league standings, with No. 1-ranked Auburn already clinching the regular-season title. If Florida wins, the Gators are the No. 2 seed by virtue of a head-to-head tiebreaker. If Alabama wins, the No. 2 still be dependent on what happens Saturday, when the regular season ends. As for the chase for a NCAA 1-seed, Alabama appears to have the edge (alongside Auburn, Duke and Houston), but Florida can change that. Don’t discount fourth-ranked Tennessee, either. … The Gators, winners of seven of eight, are coming off Saturday night’s 89-70 defeat of No. 12 Texas A&M, while the Tide is still smarting from blowing a four-point lead with 35 seconds left and losing on a 40-foot buzzer-beater at Tennessee, a game that started a three-game end to the regular season that now brings Florida to town, followed the Tide’s finale Saturday at rival and top-ranked Auburn; that’s three of the nation’s top four teams in eight days. 

SERIES: Alabama leads 79-72, but Florida halted a three-game winning streak for the Tide last season, with two wins in 10 days, as the teams squared off three times in a trio of high-scoring shootouts over 21 days late in the season. Bama won 98-93 in overtime at home on Feb. 21, 2024, but Florida returned the favor with a 105-87 blowout victory on March 5 at Gainesville. The team’s met the following week in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament in Nashville, where the Tide scored the game’s first eight points, but were overwhelmed from there, as the Gators rushed to 15-point halftime lead behind 50-percent shooting and ran away for a 102-88 win, led by 23 points from junior guard Walter Clayton Jr. The victory was the second of three in the tournament for the Gators, who went on to reach the title game for the first time since 2014. The Gators lost to Auburn in the championship round.  

ETC: This will mark the fourth time since 2021 that UF has played Alabama on the road, compared to two visits to Gainesville for the Tide during that five-season span.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Alabama
83.8	Scoring	90.1
.467	Field-goal percentage	.483
.354	3-point percentage	.351
67.2	Scoring defense	80.1
.394	Field-goal percentage defense	.418
.292	3-point percentage defense	.301
4th	KenPom.com overall ranking	6th
4th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	3rd
7th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	37th
68th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	1st
4th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	6th
28th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	1st

The Gators

The final 19-point margin may not have been an accurate indicator, but the Gators toying with the Aggies — A&M trailed by six with less than eight to play — eventually gave way to yet another double-digit victory. UF, which fell two spots in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll due to the mid-week loss at Georgia, now has 22 wins by at least 10 points, including nine in SEC play after shooting 48 percent, banging 14 makes from 3, compiling 21 assists and guarding the Aggies at 39 percent for the game, while also out-rebounding one of the best rebounding teams in the country. … UF remains one of just four teams in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, along with Duke (2nd and 4th), Auburn (1/10) and Houston (8/3). The Gators are up to fifth nationally in effective field-goal defense, sixth in defending the 3-point line (29.2 percent) and 10th against the 2-point area (45.4), but Alabama will be the much-improved UF defense’s biggest test yet, especially on the road. … This will be the third consecutive Quadrant 1 opportunity for the Gators, who are just 6-4 in Q1 games (Alabama has 10 such wins), with possibly another in the season finale Saturday against Ole Miss at home. 

Guard Will Richard has scored 55 points the last two games, after pouring in a career-high 30 in the loss at Georgia, followed by a game-high 25 against A&M. In the two games he combined to go 11-for-20 from the 3-point line and has worked his percentage from the arc up to 37.7 for the season. He was at 26.7 percent through the first 10 games. Richard has at least five rebounds in three of the last four games and at least three assists in two. … Guard Alijah Martin dropped four 3s on the Aggies in the first half to help UF open an 11-point lead at the break. He finished with 14 points, five rebounds and a couple assists. … Point guard Walter Clayton Jr. had just 10 points, but hit a couple 3s (running his consecutive streak with at least one to 51 games) and was a game-high plus-20 in the box score, so he was doing other things to help lead the team. Clayton, though, has gone 12 straight games without scoring at least 20 points, which is the longest such streak of his career (at both UF and Iona). … Backup guard Denzel Aberdeen (8.3 ppg) had six points and three assists against A&M, but went a third consecutive game without making a 3-pointer and is 2-for-12 from the floor the last two games. … Reserve guard Urban Klavzar (3.8 ppg) scored four points, but had his string of seven straight games with at least one 3 snapped. 

Forward Alex Condon (10.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg) just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, but clearly was closer to being at full-go in his second game back after missing four with an ankle sprain. Condon was five of six from the floor, but just one of five from the free-throw line, where he is now 55.6 percent on the season. That’s a low number for the Gator who draws the most fouls. … “Condo” did his thing off the bench the last two games. Whether he’ll be back in the starting lineup (like he was the first 22 games of the season) will be a topic of conversation for the coaches. Thomas Haugh has been outstanding in his five consecutive starts. He scored 17 against the Aggies on 7-for-10 shooting and made two of three from distance. … After stringing together four consecutive games of double-digit scoring (with a career-high 19 points and 13 rebounds in a win at LSU), center Rueben Chinyelu combined for just three points and five rebounds over 22 minutes the last two games. The Gators will need his physicality and rim-protection against a Bama team that excels in scoring around the basket. … Backup “big” Micah Handlogten (2.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg) continues to impact games on the interior off the bench. He’s only attempted eight shots (and is 1-for-6 at the free-throw line), but the 7-1, 255-pound center has 17 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass, the last two games despite totaling just 21 minutes. Against A&M, Handlogten also had two blocks, two assists and two steals. … Reserve forward Sam Alexis (4.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg) returned to practice Monday and is closing in on returning from an ankle injury. Alexis has missed the last five games.  

 

The Crimson Tide

It’s been another phenomenal season for Nate Oats and his program, as they roll toward a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament berth. Oats, who guided the Tide to the first Final Four in program history last year, is 140-60 in his five seasons, including 74-32 in SEC play, has won at least 25 games in three of the last four seasons, and probably will make it four of five. Oats has devised one of the most lethal (and breakneck) offensive attacks in the country, with this version of the Tide ranks No. 1 in tempo and No. 3 in efficiency. Bama, which dropped one spot in the AP poll, is first in the SEC in effective field-goal and 2-point percentagae (57.7), as well as third in 3-point percentage (38.3) and offensive rebound percentage (35.6). The Tide has scored at least 100 points in eight games, including four in the SEC. Defensively, they’re middle of the pack at No. 8 in the league (and 37th nationally) in efficiency and next-to-last in the league at forcing turnovers. … The Tide, once again, challenged themselves big-time on the scheduling front, with non-league play with road or neutral-site games against Purdue, Illinois, Houston, Rutgers, Oregon, North Carolina and Creighton — all in succession — and went 5-2 in those games, including an upset of the Cougars, which is one of the reasons Bama is a projected No. 1 seed, according to most bracketologists. The weekend’s last-second road loss at Tennessee — on a 40-footer at the buzzer, after the Tide turned the ball over on a five-second call under their basket — was a tough one, as well as the team’s third loss in five games. … Alabama is 12-2 at home this season, with losses to Ole Miss and Auburn. 

Point guard Mark Sears is a leading contender for first-team All-America status. Sears, the lefty who is as creative a scorer and playmaker as there is in college basketball, is second in the SEC in scoring, making 47.1 from the 2-point area and 36.1 from 3. He’s averaged 27.5 points over his previous four games, plus 5.8 assists. He had 35 points, 10 assists and three steals in a win at Mississippi State. Sears is currently No. 6 in KenPom.com’s Player of the Year standings, which is second-best in the league behind Auburn’s Johni Broome (No. 2) and just ahead of Clayton (No. 7). … Guard Aden Holloway (12.0 ppg), a marquee freshman and 2023 McDonald’s All American, is the team’s second-leading scorer, is shooting 56.4 percent from 2 and a team-high 42.3 from distance at 21 minutes per game, all off the bench. …. Guard Chris Youngblood, the transfer from South Florida where he was 2024 American Athletic Conference Player of the Year,  missed the seasons first nine games, but has started the last 10 and been a huge difference-maker on both ends. Youngblood is making 60 percent from 2 and 38 from 3. Against Mississippi State he hit seven from distance. … Forward Grant Nelson was a match-up problem for the Gators last season when he had 22 points and eight rebounds in Bama’s home win. Nelson is way more efficient from inside the arc (65.6 percent) than outside (25.0) and is a big-time glass-crasher with eight double-digit rebound games. He also leads the team in blocks. … Guard Labaron Philon was one of three top-40 prospects in the team’s 2024 freshman class and the only one without McDonald’s pedigree. The Mobile, Alabama., product, however, is the one who has worked his way into the starting lineup (four straight games) and has scored in double figures in six of the previous seven. 

Forward Clifford Omoruyi, who transfered from Rutgers, is the main muscle underneath. Omoruyi had 15 rebounds in the win over Kentucky and leads the team in offensive boards. … Philon replaced 6-11, 215-pound forward Jarin Stevenson (5.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg) in the starting lineup four games ago, but Stevenson will get 20-plus minutes doing his thing in the paint. Same with sophomore Mouhamed Dioubate (6.9 ppg, 5.8 rpg). … Regarding the aforementioned McDonald’s All Americans, guard Derrion Reid (7.1 ppg, 3.2 rpg) and forward Aiden Sherrell (2.9 ppg, 2.6 rpg) are role players.  

 

Numbers of Note

* 1 — Wins needed for the Gators to reach 26 for the regular season, which would match the second-most in program history, alongside the 2006-07 team that finished 26-5 and went on to win a second straight NCAA championship. The program record for most wins in a regular season is 29 by the 2013-14 team.  

* 5 — SEC games in UF basketball history when the Gators and their opponent were ranked in the AP Top 10 through the 2024 season. 

* 5 — SEC games during UF’s ’24-25 season when the Gators and their opponent were ranked in the AP Top 10, including Wednesday’s game in Tuscaloosa. 

* 100.0 — Florida’s average points per game in three meetings against Alabama last season, based on the Gators’ 98-93 overtime loss at Tuscaloosa, their 105-87 win at the O’Dome and 102-88 win in the SEC Tournament. 

* 2019 —The last year Florida won at Tuscaloosa (the Gators are 0-3 since), as freshman point guard Andrew Nemhard went 9-for-9 from the floor on his way to 21 points in a 71-53 blowout of the host Tide. Nembhard, the league’s No. 5 assists leader at the time, didn’t record his first dime until two minutes remained in the game. By that time, the visitors were well on their way to victory after shooting 54 percent and holding Bama to its lowest point total of the season. Nembhard became the first SEC player in 20 years to make at least nine field goals without a miss. Freshman UF forward Keyontae Johnson had 14 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, while senior guard KeVaughn Allen added 13 points, four rebounds and three assists. 

Bottom Line

A road date against a reigning Final Four team with oodles at stake. Ain’t March great?

Email Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu