After a successful season debut on a neutral floor against USF, No. 21 Florida basketball is back in Gainesville for its home opener on Thursday night against Jacksonville.
The Florida Gators (1-0) rallied from a 13-point deficit in the first half to beat USF 98-83 on Monday night at VyStar Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. Senior point guard Walter Clayton Jr. scored 29 points to lead UF to the comeback win, with senior guard Will Richard adding 25 points. Florida went 27-for-33 from the free throw line to overcome a 20% shooting night (5-25) from 3-point range.
“Credit our guys for being more aggressive, getting downhill and getting to the rim in the second half,” Florida basketball coach Todd Golden said. “And obviously we shot well from two, but we also got to the line 29 times in the second half, and just had relentless rim pressure.”
Jacksonville (1-0) opened its season with a 78-65 win over Trinity Baptist College, behind a double-double (19 points, 13 rebounds) from junior forward Stephon Payne III. The Dolphins are coached by Jordan Mincy, who was a former assistant coach at Florida under Mike White from 2015-21.
“Seeing him work his way up from LA Tech, here and then over to Jacksonville, I think he does a really good job,” Golden said. “I think he does a really good job recruiting; they have good size for a low-major program. He’s always able to find pretty good, jittery scoring guards and obviously he comes from good pedigree. I’m sure he’ll be excited to get in here and give it his best effort.”
Florida looks to continue its high level of play at the O’Connell Center, where the Gators went 14-1 last season.
“Our program is really excited to get back into playing in front of the home fans,” Golden said. “We feel like we got a big lift on the back-half of the year last year at home only losing one game at home all year and playing really, really well for the most part here.”
Florida has won 33 straight home openers, with its last home-opening loss coming to Texas on Nov. 27, 1990.
Florida basketball vs Jacksonville start time
Florida and Vanderbilt are slated to tip off at 8 p.m. ET on Monday from the O’Connell Center in Gainesville (capacity, 10,151).
Florida basketball vs Jacksonville betting odds
Per BetMGM, Florida is a 22.5-point favorite over Jacksonville. The over/under is 153.5 points.
What channel is the Florida basketball vs Jacksonville game on today?
Florida and Jacksonville will air on the SEC Network Plus and stream on WatchESPN.com. Kyle Crooks will handle play-by-play duties, with Mark Wise as the color analyst.
How to listen to Florida basketball vs. Jacksonville game on radio
The Florida-Jacksonville game will air on AM 850 and FM 98.1 in Gainesville and across the state on the Gator Radio Network. Sean Kelley will handle play-by-play duties, with former Gator great Lee Humphrey as the color analyst.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
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