Although Xavier Filsaime committed to the Gators back in April, the last few weeks have seen the Texas Longhorns making an incredibly hard push to flip the McKinney (Tx.) native. That effort payed off on Monday as he announced his decision to flip to Texas, marking a significant miss for Florida.

Billy Napier and his staff were in major need of momentum and they got just that this past weekend with two commitments from the transfer portal. They didn't stop there, adding a third commitment on Monday, as former Oregon defensive back Trikweze Bridges announced his decision to join the Gators.

Just hours after landing their first commitment from the transfer portal, the Gators added another with a pledge from coveted defensive lineman Joey Slackman.

Heading into the final official visitor weekend before the NCAA's "dead period," Florida had not recevied any commitments from players in the transfer portal. That all changed Sunday when former San Diego State offensive tackle Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson announced that he would be joining the Gators.

The transfer portal has been open for nearly two weeks, and more than 1,400 players have officially entered their names. The Florida Gators have experienced some players leaving but are also actively seeking additions at key positions.

Saved by the rubber band. If East Carolina’s R.J. Felton had let his braids fall free, the Pirates might have scored a win over the Florida Gators at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. Felton tied the braids together with a rubber band above his head, however, and the Gators are ever so thankful he did. With 45.8 seconds left in the game and Florida (7-3) leading East Carolina (6-5), 67-65, Will Richard missed a 3-pointer from just left of the key. In the battle for the rebound, Tyrese Samuel and Felton both grabbed for the ball. Initially, the zebra crew of Ron Groover, Olandis Poole and Don Daily gave the ball to ECU, but since it was a close call in the final two minutes, the play was reviewable. It took all three officials on the replay monitor where it showed the ball rolling off Felton’s elevated braids, held high by a rubber band. If the braids had been free-falling, the ball would have gone out of bounds and belonged to the Pirates with a chance to win. Given a fresh 20 seconds on the shot clock reset after the zebra crew awarded the ball to UF, the Gators struggled to get anything close to a shot. With Zyon Pullin about to be pinned to the sideline and UF in danger of a shot clock violation, Todd Golden called a 30-second time out. In the huddle he set up a nice curl play that would free Walter Clayton Jr. behind a Tyrese Samuel screen for a straight-on three from the top of the key. There were 31.3 seconds left in the game, five on the shot clock. The play worked to perfection except Clayton’s 3-pointer clanged off the rim. However, the moment Clayton left his feet to release the shot, Samuel broke through the two defenders he was screening, sprinted to the rim and grabbed the rebound, dunking it back with 20 seconds to go to make it a two-possession game and a 69-65 Florida lead. For all practical purposes it was game over. ECU missed a 3-pointer, Alex Condon rebounded and was fouled. His first of two free throws was icing on the cake as Florida walked away with a very ugly 70-65 win. The good thing about ugly wins is they count the same as the perfectly executed blowout variety. This is a game that shouldn’t have been close but 18 Florida turnovers, 13 missed free throws and a bad night at the office when it came to shooting the basketball kept the Pirates very much in the game until those final seconds. The Gators shot only 41.7 percent from the field (25-60) overall and a dismal 25 percent (5-20 from the 3-point line). At the foul line the Gators barely kept their heads above the water (15-28). And yet, when it counted the most, the Gators made the plays to come away with their third straight win. What saved the Gators was a 51-32 margin on the backboards that included 21 offensive rebounds that UF converted into 16 second half points and extremely good defense. ECU shot only 39.7 percent (25-63) overall from the field and just 31.8 percent (7-22) from the 3-point line. Games like this happen in seasons that stretch from November to April. Good teams, even the best teams, find themselves in games that should be blowouts only to turn into dogfights determined by what happens in the last couple of minutes. Winning and losing sometimes comes down to a little bit of luck, like hair braids held high by a rubber band. Todd Golden’s opening statement said, “A win is a win.” He’s right. This was one to hang on the win column and move on, satisfied that the Gators walked away with a win and not a loss. “It’s hard to be good, and obviously we didn’t have our best tonight,” Golden said. “Credit to East Carolina. I thought they did a good job in the second half dictating what we were doing on the offensive end for the most part, turned us over 11 times. But what I talked about to the guys in the locker room, I thought the last four [minutes] of the game we did a really, really good job of gathering ourselves and executing, ran good offense, got good shots, got on the glass, did a good job defending and found a way to win the game. I think as our program continues to mature, these are the type of wins that, you know, they build character, they build trust, they build belief. I’m proud of our guys to find a way to win tonight.” Florida had opportunities to put the Pirates away. Multiple opportunities, but each time the Gators had ECU on the ropes, shots stopped dropping, free throws clanged off the rim and turnovers snuffed out scoring chances with far greater frequency than Golden would have liked. The Gators built an 11-point lead in the first half behind the red-hot shooting of Clayton, who scored 20 of Florida’s first 33 points. It was 35-24 with 2:54 remaining in the first half but the shots stopped dropping. The Gators went 1-8 from the field the rest of the half, scoring only with 46 seconds left when Micah Handlogten followed up his own miss. The bad shooting down the stretch left Florida with an uneasy 37-30 lead at the break. The Gators hit just 10-29 from the field, 1-10 from the 3-point line and 12-22 from the foul line in a second half in which they turned the ball over 11 times. Among the 19 misses from the field were 12 layups. With the lead precariously at two, 48-46, the Gators went on a mini-run of 7-0 capped by a driving layup by Zyon Pullin with 10:45 to go. That expanded the lead to 55-46 and once again, the Gators seemed to have control but once again, they went into an offensive funk. Shots wouldn’t fall whether from the field or the foul line. Taking care of the ball seemed to be a lost art. The 9-point lead dwindled to one, 62-61, with 3:32 to go. The Gators got it back to a 3-point game on a Pullin layup and a free throw by Samuel but East Carolina was back within two on two separate occasions, the second time when R.J. Felton’s hair came up with the play of the game. Clayton finished the game with 22 points on 9-14 shooting, four rebounds and two steals. It was a celebration of sorts for Clayton, from nearby Lake Wales. He won a high school state championship playing on the RP Funding Center and earlier in the week celebrated the birth of his first child. “Obviously, through the evaluation process, through the film you see a really talented player, a great three-level scorer, a guy that can really make plays with the ball in his hands, a great facilitator for his teammates, just a really efficient and effective guard,” Golden said. “And when you get to know him as a person, he’s a warrior, man. He’s a warrior. He’s the kind of guy that as a coach gives you confidence when you’re out on the floor when you have guys that, they believe, they trust, and they don’t get rattled.” Pullin, held scoreless in the first half, had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists. Samuel finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one blocked shot and two steals. Will Richard had 10 points to go with seven rebounds, four assists, four blocked shots and two steals. Condon finished with eight points, 12 rebounds, one assist, one blocked shot and one steal. The Gators are idle until Tuesday when they face Michigan (5-5) in the Jumpman Classic in Charlotte.

Although the Gators' 2024 opponents have been known for some time, Florida's full schedule, along with the rest of the SEC, was announced on Wednesday evening.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

Back to a four-man rotation among his bigs last Saturday in Sunrise against Richmond in the Orange Bowl Classic, Todd Golden had a comfort zone that had been missing since the first 39 seconds of the Gators’ loss to sixth-ranked Baylor. With 7-1 Micah Handlogten back in the lineup, he had four bigs that he could rotate in and out of the lineup and it kept the heat on the pesky Spiders, who hit enough 3-pointers to be dangerous, but never really threatened after the five minute mark of the second half. Handlogten, finally comfortable after suffering a sprained ankle in the Baylor loss, really opened things up on the floor for 6-10 Tyrese Samuel, who responded with 18 points and 14 rebounds. It moved 6-11 Alex Condon and 6-9 Thomas Haugh back to the bench, but the interchangeable freshman pair logged productive minutes while helping the Gators to a phenomenal 19-rebound advantage (49-30). “Micah is obviously a very good player,” Golden said Wednesday afternoon before the Gators (6-3) got in their final practice for tonight’s Florida Tip-Off against East Carolina (6-4) at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland (7 p.m., SEC Network). “He does a lot of things under the radar and just makes us really, really good on the glass. He’s good defensively and is easy to play with offensively. And being able move Condo and Tommy back back to those reserve roles was great. “I thought Condo played really, really well. He didn’t shoot it great, but he played really well. And Tommy gave us really good minutes as well. Like we’ve talked about, I think when we’re healthy we have a really good rotation and I think it showed up Saturday.” The Gators have size this season, a real issue a year ago when Colin Castleton was the only reliable big guy more taller than 6-5. Not only does the size show up defensively in the paint and on the backboards, but all four are good enough offensive threats that it opens up the perimeter. Against Richmond, 6-4 Will Richard went nuclear, scoring 19 points in the second half including a run of three consecutive 3-pointers that gave the Gators a comfortable cushion to work with. The Richmond game wasn’t one of Florida’s better shooting games – just 44.6 percent from the floor overall and 31 percent from the 3-point line – but the Gators were so dominant on the backboards that they got extra possessions and simply overwhelmed the Spiders. “We haven't had one night all year with the exception of maybe the Florida State game where we shot a really high percentage from three,” Golden said. “We've been right around that 33 percent mark most nights so the fact that we've done such a good job getting on the glass and we're consistently getting better taking care of the ball, I think are the main drivers behind that. Once we get it really going and guys are comfortable, you know, Walt, Will, guys like that banging a bunch of shots, we should be a top-10 offense in the country. “I think it does say a lot that on a night where we made only eight or nine threes and we shot a little bit under 33 percent, we were still able to put 87 up on the board.” The Gators come into tonight’s game averaging 83.7 per game, third in the SEC and an improvement of 12.5 per game last year, 13.1 over Mike White’s final year as the UF head coach in 2021-22. The Gators are shooting 45.8 percent overall from the floor and just 32.8 percent from the 3-point line. All you have to do is look at the rebounding totals, especially on the offensive end, to see why the Gators are scoring so well. Florida is rebounding at 43.8 per game. If the Gators can keep that up, they will become the first team since 1975-76 to average more than 40 rebounds per game for a season. The Gators lead the SEC in rebounding, rebounding margin (+10.56 per game) and they rank sixth in the country (second in the SEC) in offensive rebounds per game (16.11). A year ago the Gators averaged 34.6 rebounds per game, a -4 per game margin. Dominance on the boards has allowed the Gators to pick up the offensive pace as well, so evident in the win over a good Richmond team that figures to be a factor in the tough Atlantic 10 Conference race. “We out-rebounded Richmond by 19 overall so all those extra possessions that you're creating I think is a product of wearing teams down,” Golden said. “You get to that point in the second half, referencing Will Richard kind of going nuclear in the second half, we had kind of warn them down at that point in the second half and we grew our lead to 16 and it was going to be hard for them to get back in it but we have the backcourt and the perimeter that can play with this type of style, guys that enjoy pushing the ball and playing fast and getting downhill in transition and we can do that and constantly put pressure on defenses in the first five to seven seconds of the shot clock, you're going to be a more efficient offense. The fact that we've been able to get a really good transition offense rate – I think 30 percent or so of our possessions are in transition – it’s going to give yourself a better chance to wear teams down and to be more efficient and effective toward the end of the game as well." Scouting report: East Carolina doesn’t have a win over a power conference team this season although the Pirates did knock off UNC-Wilmington the game before UNC-W bushwhacked Kentucky in Rupp Arena. East Carolina played South Carolina to a standstill before the Gamecocks pulled away in the final minutes for the win. ECU averages 75 points per game. The Pirates are hitting 44.2 percent overall from the floor and 31.8 percent from the 3-point line. The leading scorer is RJ Felton, who averages 16.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. “I think all five of their guys in the starting lineup have had 20-plus point games so far this year,” Golden said. “They've played a lot at home. I think they had one road or neutral game out of their nine total games so getting them on the road or neutral is good. They do a lot of the little things. They rebound it well on the offensive glass, I think they're a top-40 offensive rebounding team. They do a really good job getting fouled and they don't turn it over.” Gator notes: Walter Clayton Jr. leads the Gators in scoring (15.9) to go with 3.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game … Samuel is averaging 14.2 points, 8.3 rebounds and is hitting 60.5 percent of his shots … All four of Florida’s big men have hit at least two 3-pointers (Haugh 4, Condon 4, Handlogten 3, Samuel 2) … Zyon Pullin averages 13.6 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game ... Golden said the new target date for the return of sophomore Aleks Szymczyk (6-10, 250) from his broken foot is sometime after Christmas. Starting lineups FLORIDA (6-3): Tyrese Samuel (6-10, 239, GR); Micah Handlogten (7-1, 235, SO); Walter Clayton Jr. (6-2, 195, JR); Will Richard (6-4, 206, JR); Riley Kugel (6-5, 207, SO) East Carolina (6-4): Brandon Johnson (6-8, 222, JR); Ezra Ausar (6-8, 247, SO); Quentin Diboundje (6-5, 221, JR); R.J. Felton (6-3, 209, JR); Bobby Pettiford (6-0, 196, JR) SEC basketball Wednesday’s games: Mississippi State (8-2) 85, Murray State (3-6) 81; LSU (6-4) 74, Alabama State (4-5) 56; Auburn (7-2) 87, UNC-Asheville (5-6) 62 Today’s game: FLORIDA (6-3) vs. East Carolina (6-4) at Lakeland, FL