Coming off a decisive win over rival Florida State the undefeated Florida Gators (4-0) will see a clear opportunity to keep their win column grow with a game against Florida A&M (0-3) on November 19th.
Everything is going Florida’s way right now with a clean record and each win coming by a double digit margin. After starting the season 26th in KenPom they have moved up to 19th, the highest the program has been since December of 2021. They’ll have every opportunity to keep that momentum going when they take on the Florida A&M Rattlers, a team expected to finish near the bottom of the Southwestern Athletic Conference–one of the weakest conferences in college basketball.
Florida saw the Rattlers last season and won 89-68, and the story coming out of this one was the Alex Condon breakout. Condon finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 points off the bench giving the Gators the first look at what they were getting with their Australian freshman. This turned out to be no flash in the pan as Condon turned out to be a major contributor the rest of the season, and the Gators might look for a young player to have his breakout this season. After missing Florida’s first three games due to eligibility issues with the NCAA, Slovenian point guard Urban Klavzar was finally allowed to play and he got in against Florida State for 5 minutes where he chipped in 2 points. Klavzar, with a number of years of professional experience in Europe, is someone who Florida’s staff expects to contribute in a big way this season and while Florida State on the road might not have been the opportunity to introduce him to a big role–this could be the game.
Right now the Rattlers sit at 0-3 having played only road buy games against TCU, SMU and Maryland, games they lost by 46, 29, and 31 points. Like most SWAC teams, Florida A&M is tasked with playing a ton of non-conference buy games in order to fund the program which means they’re walking into some tough situations where they are set up to get pounded. Having played three high-major opponents on the road so far this season they certainly won’t be surprised by Florida’s height and athleticism when the game tips Tuesday–though they haven’t shown the ability to contend with it to this point with three blowout losses. Currently Florida A&M is 354th in KenPom (out of 364 teams), so they will be in for a challenge when they take on the Gators.
Florida A&M is in their first season under new head coach Patrick Carey who comes to the Rattlers after successful stints at the NAIA level with St. Thomas University and Washington Adventist University. This is his first division-I job, and he has been thrown right into the first with a tough situation. The Rattlers lost nearly all their contributors from a year ago and he was forced to rebuild the roster from scratch, and now starts his D-I stint with four straight high-major games on the road.
Leading the way for Florida A&M is 6’1” guard Sterling Young, a native of Queens, New York who brings toughness and scoring to the point guard position. Young was a talented JUCO player who could score at the rim and from deep which led him to transfer to Charlotte. After not getting much run there he chose to transfer to Florida A&M where he is now averaging 12 points per game while shooting 33% from the field in just 21 minutes per game. That minute total might look low but Coach Carey is doing something that most low-major coaches wouldn’t in his situation–he is running a deep bench and allowing a lot of his guys to get minutes early. Most coaches would try to be as competitive as possible by riding their starters, but Carey knows it would be difficult for him to compete against high-majors early and is instead valuing the opportunity to give everyone on his bench minutes and hope that it pays off once he gets to SWAC play. Florida A&M functionally has a 13-man rotation, and 8 players are getting at least 17 minutes per game. This bigger vision makes a ton of sense for the Rattlers who have to be fully concerned with their conference schedule and not as much the non-conference portion of their season, and because of it Florida will have even more of an opportunity to get a comfortable win. Because of this the Gators could also counter by getting their bench players more minutes–particularly a player like Urban Klavzar that they need to incorporate as mentioned earlier.
Stylistically, Florida A&M is going to play slow and methodically, and many of their offensive possessions end with a three-pointer. Currently they are 27th in the country in three-point rate with exactly half of their attempts coming from behind the arc so the Gators will definitely know what to expect on Tuesday.
Defensively they will mix up some different looks and will alternate between man and zone, something they will also do based on lineups given how much versatility they have with so many players getting minutes. This will be a chance for the Gators to get some reps against different styles, though nothing should be much of a challenge as they try to put the ball in the hoop. The Rattlers are 329th in adjusted defensive efficiency and have given up over 100 points to both TCU and SMU, and Florida will look to do the same.
For the Gators this is a game all about staying focused and paying attention to details that are easy to let slip in a game like this. Their bench players should be itching for an opportunity to play more minutes and show what they can do, so look for the second unit to enter the game engaged.
Florida and Florida A&M will tip off Tuesday, November 19th at 7 PM ET and the game will be televised on SEC Network+.