With a 2-0 start to the 2024-25 season the Florida Gators will look to keep their record spotless on November 11th when they take on the Grambling State Tigers.
Before we talk about the game, it’s impossible not to reference the report that came out on November 8 regarding a Title IX complaint against head coach Todd Golden. At the time of publishing this article, no further news has been released, and it’s unknown if Golden will be coaching this game. We will proceed with a breakdown of Grambling State, and will release relevant news on the investigation as it comes.
Grambling State is a team that has risen to the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, winning the league’s regular season in both 2023 and 2024, and winning the conference championship last season to go to the NCAA Tournament where they beat an excellent Montana State team in the First Four before going on to battle Purdue where they ultimately lost. Winning consistently in a league like the SWAC is extremely difficult to do but head coach Donte Jackson has built the program into a perennial favorite and deserves a ton of credit for doing so. Grambling State was the preseason pick to win the SWAC once again, and they’ll be no easy out for the Gators who will have to treat this game with the utmost respect.
At the time of writing Grambling State is 1-0 following a win over non-D1 Southern New Orleans, but they will play Ole Miss on the evening of November 8th–their first real test.
Last season the Gators played Grambling State and the game wasn’t particularly competitive with the Gators winning 96-57, but this year’s Tigers are older and more experienced and they’ll be looking for revenge.
A big reason why Grambling State was picked to finish at the top of the SWAC was that they did the nearly impossible–kept some of their top players from a year ago from entering the transfer portal and leaving. Many coaches outside of the power structure say it’s impossible to maintain players in the transfer portal era but Donte Jackson has proved that it can be done returning Kintavious Dozier (13.0 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.0 assist, and 1.0 steal) and Antwan Burnett (10.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists) among others.
Dozier was picked as the SWAC preseason player of the year, and for good reason. He’s an off guard that’s a pest defensively, and someone who can catch fire and lead the Tigers offensively. His biggest point total of the year came against Washington State where he hung 34, and he also played excellently in the NCAA Tournament against Purdue with 16 points. At just 6’1” you might expect him to be more of a point guard but he’s really at his best working away from the ball, letting the action come to him before deftly timing his attacks and largely finishing at the rim. Small, electric guards were an issue for Florida’s defense last year and they’ll be tested in this area again, but look for the Gators to use defensive weapon Alijah Martin to try and neutralize Dozier.
Antwan Burnett is a big wing at 6’5” and 210 pounds and had to play power forward for the Tigers last year, but they’ll hope to get him on the wing a bit more where he can be more of a perimeter defender. Burnett has some nice ability to score off the drive and around the rim even against bigger players, but he’s best on the defensive end where he can guard multiple positions and be physical. In last year’s meeting Burnette was the best player for Grambling State with 14 points and 2 steals, showing he’s not outmatched against high major competition.
Last year one of Grambling State’s issues was size on the interior, and while it can be really challenging for low-major teams to get size–that wasn’t a problem for Donte Jackson. He brought in NC State transfer Ernest Ross (6’9”, 205), JUCO studs PJ Eason (6’9”, 240) and Solomon Ray (6’10”, 235), Florida Gulf Coast transfer Samuel Onu (7’0”, 265), and freshman James Flippin (6’10”, 255) to round out his frontcourt, and while he doesn’t have a ton of proven production–he certainly has some bodies to at least throw out there and use fouls. Starting in the frontcourt are Ernest Ross and PJ Eason, and they’ll be important players to try and keep Florida off the offensive glass where they are particularly dangerous.
Much of Grambling State’s success has come because of their work on the defensive end, particularly in 2023 when they finished 90th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric–a truly remarkable feat for a SWAC team. They have the potential to be really good on the defensive end once again, and Florida will have to be crisp to beat their pressure. The Tigers are very quick on the flight of the ball to slide into rotations, and their guards are aggressive with ball pressure knowing that their teammates are comfortable scrambling around should they get beat off the dribble. Many teams at the SWAC level will play conservatively against high-major opponents but that’s not the case with Grambling State who will play with confidence and aggression and let the chips fall where they may.
Florida played a South Florida team that has an excellent defense that plays similar to Grambling State and they had no issue putting up points and they will likely look to utilize the same concepts. Against Jacksonville it was clear that Walter Clayton was looking to be more of a distributor than a scorer and for that reason had lower production than normal, but everyone knows he can flip the switch at any time and be one of the best individual scorers in the country.
Florida and Grambling State will tip off at 7 PM ET on November 11th, and it will be televised on SEC Network+.