Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center | Billy Donovan Court
Gainesville, Fla. | Nov. 30, 2022 | 8 p.m.
TV
SEC+ | ESPN App
PxP: Kyle Crooks | Analysts: Mark Wise & Patric Young
Radio
Gators Sports Network from LEARFIELD | Streaming on FloridaGators.com<https://floridagators.com/showcase?Live=4973> & The Varsity Network App
PxP: Sean Kelley | Analyst: Lee Humphrey
Gators at a Glance
* Florida and Florida A&M square off for the 12th time in series history but the first since 2009. All but one game in the series has been held in Gainesville, with the lone exception being a Dec. 2006 matchup in Tampa.
* The Gators look to bounce back from Sunday’s loss vs. West Virginia. Kyle Lofton scored a season-high 17 points in the game for UF.
* Trey Bonham averaged 17.7 points over a three-game span, including Florida’s wins vs. Florida State and Oregon State, along with the game vs. Xavier.
* Will Richard has provided efficient scoring from the wing, tallying at least 13 points in six of Florida’s seven games while shooting .571 from the field, .520 from 3-point range and .947 from the free throw line. Richard posted a season-high 18 points vs. Xavier.
* Colin Castleton’s double-double vs. Xavier (11 points, 10 rebounds) marked his 15th as a Gator, tying him with Joakim Noah and Chandler Parsons for fifth-most by a Gator since the 1996-97 season.
* UF’s 19-point rally at Florida State marked the fourth-largest in team history and the largest on the road since a 22-point comeback at South Carolina on Feb. 24, 1993. Castleton scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half.
* Colin Castleton opened the season on fire and posted back-to-back 30-point outings, notching a career-best 33 vs. Kennesaw State and 30 vs. FAU. An individual has recorded back-to-back 30-point games nine times in UF history and Castleton is the seventh different player to accomplish the feat. He was the first since Anthony Roberson in Jan. 2005 to do so (see page 6 for full list).
* Castleton became the first Gator with a 30-point double-double since Joakim Noah (37/11 vs. Georgia, 3/1/06) and the only SEC player since the 1996-97 season with 30 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots in a game, a stat line he accomplished vs. FAU.
* Kowacie Reeves started the first four games of the season, and he stepped up with a pair of late 3-pointers in the win vs. Kennesaw State. Reeves had a strong postseason in his freshman campaign, averaging 16.3 points over the Gators’ three tournament games, including a career-best 21 vs. Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament.
* Grad point guard Kyle Lofton (Saint Bonaventure), a three-time All-A-10 player who scored 1,613 points in four seasons with the Bonnies, came to Florida via the transfer portal. UF also brings in a trio of transfers who all have three years of eligibility remaining: junior Trey Bonham (VMI), sophomore Alex Fudge (LSU) and sophomore Will Richard (Belmont).
* Bonham averaged 11.3 points over two seasons at VMI, and Richard averaged 12.1 per game during his freshman campaign at Belmont, while the bouncy Jacksonville native Alex Fudge looks to make a sophomore leap.
* UF also added a pair of freshmen who shared a backcourt at Orlando’s Dr. Phillips High School in Denzel Aberdeen and Riley Kugel, along with big man Aleks Szymczyk out of Frankfurt, Germany.
* Golden took the lead at Florida after three seasons as head coach at San Francisco. He compiled a 57-36 record with the Dons and led them to their first NCAA Tournament bid since 1998 and their first at-large selection since 1982.
