The opportunity to be the sole team at the top of the Southeastern Conference standings is on the line.
On Saturday, No. 17 Florida (16-6, 7-2 SEC) travels to College Station, Texas, to face Texas A&M (17-5, 7-2 SEC) at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Aggies come into this game with first-year head coach Bucky McMillan and an almost fully revamped A&M team, tied with UF for first in the conference.
“It’s gonna be a great game,” Florida head coach Todd Golden said. “Two teams that I think are playing pretty well, and it should be a good battle to see who can control tempo and pace.”
Here are four keys for the Gators to grab their first win in Reed Arena since 2020.
Defend the perimeter
The Aggies are one of the best teams Florida has seen all season from deep. They rank first in the SEC in 3-point percentage, shooting 37.6% from beyond the arc, and second in points per game (92).
Rylan Griffen and Rubén Dominguez are at the forefront of A&M's 3-point success.
Griffen transferred from Kansas to the Aggies and is averaging 11.5 points per outing in his senior campaign. The Dallas, Texas, native is shooting 44.6% from 3, placing him third in the SEC. Against Alabama, he logged 17 points, going 3 of 5 from deep.
Griffen faced Florida four times in his first two seasons in the NCAA while with Alabama; however, he recorded double-digit points just once, with 10 on 2-of-11 shooting from the field, when the two faced in Tuscaloosa on Feb. 21, 2024.
Dominguez, a sophomore guard who spent a few years playing professionally in Europe, comes into Saturday averaging 12.4 points per game on 42.8% shooting from 3. That mark puts him fifth in the conference.
Against Manhattan on Nov. 21, he had a season-best 30 points on 10-of-14 shooting from beyond the arc. However, he has struggled as of late, failing to reach double-digit points in three of the Aggies’ last four outings, including a 1-point outing against Alabama on Wednesday.
Against Florida, Dominguez and Griffen overcoming their respective slumps will not be an easy task.
The Gators enter Saturday's game holding teams to a third-best in the SEC, 71.4 points per game. For Florida to come out on top, it starts with the Gators’ ability to continue their success on defense and prevent the Aggies from taking over with 3-point shots.
“It’s one of those games, similar to Alabama, where they’re going to make some threes," Golden said. “You've got to make sure that they earn every single one of them. If we don’t guard the line, you're not going to win.”
Attack the paint
While A&M’s offense focuses on making shots from the perimeter, Florida’s is best when it focuses on getting in the paint.
The Aggies come into this matchup missing a standout shot blocker, as they are without a player who is averaging at least one rejection per game. As a result, the Gators should not get caught in trying to answer A&M’s 3-pointers, but instead attack the rim, knowing there is no true shotblocker waiting in the paint.
Florida found much success in doing so on Sunday against Alabama, where the Gators recorded 72 points in the paint.
Alex Condon, in particular, has seen the benefit of not settling for outside shots and getting closer to the basket. On Sunday, he tied his season-high of 25 points while attempting just one shot from beyond the arc. This performance earned the Aussie the SEC Player of the Week award.
“Coach Hartman came to me and said, ‘The 3-point shot is just not falling, but don’t worry about it. Don’t let it affect what you do well,’” Condon said after the Alabama game. “So, that’s what I focused on, getting to my spot in the paint and facilitating for the other guys around me.”
As long as the Gators don’t settle for shots from beyond the arc, they should have no issue producing offensively by getting to the basket and scoring in the paint.
Win the turnover battle.
A large difference maker in Florida’s win over Alabama on Sunday was the Gators’ ability to dominate the turnover battle.
UF finished the contest plus-16 in the turnover battle and plus-25 in points off turnovers.
At the forefront of Florida’s effort in forcing turnovers was Boogie Fland. He finished the contest with eight steals, tying a program record set by Clifford Lett, who had eight swipes against Georgia on Jan. 7, 1991. Overall, the Arkansas transfer leads the team with two steals per game.
“He has really good hands,” said Florida’s junior guard Urban Klavžar. “He knows when someone is going to pass the ball. He just steals the ball and tips it. He’s really good at reading those passes and just picking your dribble.”
However, Texas A&M has taken care of the ball so far this season, leading the SEC with 19.9 assists a game. The Aggies are also second in the conference with 8.9 takeaways per outing.
Defensively, A&M tends to employ a full-court press, which has helped the Aggies assert themselves as one of the peskier defenses in the conference.
“They press quite a lot,” Klavžar said. “We just have to be mentally and physically tough, especially mentally, to get over that half-court and start off.”
If Fland and the rest of Florida can maintain their aggression on defense while beating the press on offense, the Gators can come away with another important SEC win.
Use the bench
Another area where Texas A&M can power its offense is through its bench.
The Aggies run an 11-man rotation, and while there is no single offensive spark, this depth allows them to beat teams in bench scoring by committee.
Conversely, Florida runs an eight-man rotation, which has forced Thomas Haugh, Condon and Fland to average over 30 minutes per contest. However, the Gators have gotten some production from their bench, mainly from Klavžar.
The Slovenian has recorded double-digit scoring efforts in seven of his last eight outings. Against LSU on Jan. 20, he logged 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and five 3-pointers.
While the Gators should come into Saturday more rested, having been given a midweek bye, the Aggies’ depth could play a factor if the Gators' bench is unable to hold its own.
“The bench is important for everything,” Klavžar said. “We’re trying to be aggressive coming in and help the team.”
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the spring 2026 men's basketball beat reporter and a second-year journalism sports & media major with a media, management and production minor. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams
