Florida’s game-high scorer talks win over East Carolina

Here’s what Florida basketball’s top scorer had to say about last night’s game.

Florida basketball escaped with a 70-65 win over the East Carolina Pirates on Thursday night in the Florida Tip-Off event held in Lakeland. The victory improved the Gators to 7-3 on the season along with a 3-0 mark in December after a tough opening month.

The Orange and Blue’s top contributor, Walter Clayton Jr, led all scorers with 22 points, while three other Gators notched double digits. Florida’s largest lead was just 11 points with 2:54 remaining in the first half but it still managed to go wire-to-wire in this one, never surrending its advantage.

Following the win, Florida’s standout guard spoke with the sports media about his performance. Take a look below at an abridged version of that Q&A on Thursday night.

Five takeaways from Florida basketball’s win vs East Carolina Pirates

Here are five things you need to know following Florida’s narrow win over East Carolina Thursday night.

Florida basketball eked out a too-close-for-comfort win over the East Carolina Pirates on Thursday night in Lakeland for this year’s Florida Tip-Off, coming away with a narrow 70-65 victory.

It was a close game throughout, with the Gators’ largest lead being just 11 points with 2:54 remaining in the first half but still managed to go wire-to-wire in this one. Despite being favored by double digits, the two teams traded punches all night long with the Gators fighting off a pesky Pirates squad for the five-point win.

Walter Clayton Jr. led all scorers with 22 points, while three other Gators notched double digits. The Orange and Blue improved to 7-3 with three games remaining in its non-conference schedule.

Take a look below at the five main takeaways from Florida’s win over East Carolina.

Florida guard Riley Kugel talks East Carolina matchup

Florida star guard Riley Kugel says he’s just finding his groove 10 games into the 2023-24 season, but he’s excited about this team’s chances.

Florida guard Riley Kugel talked to the media ahead of Thursday’s matchup with East Carolina and tackled everything from returning to the Lakeland area to his play on the court the season.

Kugel is third on the team in minutes (29.6) through nine games this season. He’s one of three Gators to start every game this year and is averaging 13.6 points per game.

After flirting with the NBA draft in the offseason, Kugel has stepped up as a team leader, but his offensive output hasn’t been as prolific as expected. Kugel ended the season on an eight-game run where he averaged more than 20 points per game, but he hasn’t quite hit his groove yet in 2023.

Still, Kugel has improved as a defender, facilitator and rebounder. His assists, rebounds and steals are up from last year.

Here is everything Kugel said ahead of Thursday’s game against East Carolina.

Here’s what Todd Golden said ahead of Thursday’s East Carolina game

Here’s what Todd Golden said on Wednesday in preparation for the East Carolina matchup Thursday night.

Todd Golden and his Florida basketball team return to the collegiate parquet on Thursday night for the annual Florida Tip-Off held in Lakeland. This season, the Gators will face the East Carolina Pirates looking for their third-straight win.

The Orange and Blue have earned victories in both December games so far and are looking to wrap up the remaining four games on its non-conference schedule with four more notches in the win column. This matchup favors Florida heavily, but you never know when it comes to sports.

On Wednesday, Golden spoke with the media ahead of Thursday night’s game. Take a look below at an abridged list of questions and answers from that press session.

Game Preview: Gators face East Carolina Pirates in Florida Tip-Off

Check out how the Florida Gators will line up against the East Carolina Pirates on Thursday night.

The Florida Gators basketball program seems to be back on track with a two-game win streak under their belt, and the team will look to add another as they take another mini-road trip to Lakeland, Florida, on Thursday to take on the East Carolina Pirates.

The teams are participating in the Florida Tip-Off in what’s supposed to be a neutral venue, but the Gators might get some help from the local Florida faithful.

ECU is looking for redemption on Thursday night after suffering a six-point loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks this past Saturday, 68-62.

It will be the first-ever meeting between the men’s basketball teams and both squads are bringing a heavy-hitting offense to the hardwood. Let’s take a look at how the teams will line up on Thursday night.

Florida basketball strongly favored over East Carolina by ESPN’s BPI

The Gators shouldn’t have too much trouble with their next opponent and hopefully uses the game to prepare for Michigan next week.

Florida basketball earned a solid win against the Richmond Spiders in the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday, giving the Gators two-straight wins while making them 2-0 so far in December with a 6-3 record overall.

Next up for the Orange and Blue are the East Carolina Pirates, who will face off with Todd Golden’s gang in Lakeland, Florida, for this year’s Florida Tip-Off on Dec. 14. The matchup should give the Orange and Blue a chance to calibrate before facing the Michigan Wolverines in the following game on Dec. 19.

According to ESPN’s Basketball Power Index predictions, the Gators have an 89.6% chance of earning the victory with a predicted 14.6-point differential. The matchup quality, however, has a measly 59.7-point value (out of 100), which is still good enough for the second-best matchup of the evening.

The Gators are ranked No. 43 in the NET rankings after the win over the Spiders while the Pirates are ranked No. 266 as of Monday, demonstrating a significant disparity between the two teams. East Carolina comes into the game at 6-4 after losing to the South Carolina Gamecocks last Saturday.

Thursday night’s game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

ECU head coach Mike Houston says Michigan football is as advertised

Straightforward, dominant win for #Michigan. #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — While it may not have been quite as lopsided a blowout as one would expect from the No. 2 team in the country facing a Group of Five program, Michigan football came out and efficiently dominated East Carolina team, 30-3.

The Pirates did everything in their power to shut down the Wolverines’ run game and managed to hold Michigan to 122 yards on the ground. However, quarterback J.J. McCarthy managed 280 yards passing with three touchdowns while completing 26 of his 30 pass attempts.

After the game, ECU head coach Mike Houston said that even without Jim Harbaugh on the sideline for the maize and blue, Michigan was as expected.

“Congratulations to Michigan on a solid win today,” Houston said. “Very good football program, very good football team. Very talented, old, experienced. They look like what their preseason ranking is. I thought Jesse (Minter) did a good job in the interim today. I thought they had a really good plan defensively. Obviously, they were the better team today.”

As mentioned, McCarthy had a dominant performance, completing 87% of his passes on Saturday. While Houston was complimentary of the Michigan quarterback, he noted there were a few times he felt that his pass defense wasn’t doing what it was supposed to be doing.

Chalking it up to a mix of execution errors and youth, Houston says this is a learning experience for his secondary.

“I think he’s really good,” Houston said. “They have some really good receivers. We had some mistakes in secondary — had a couple of times we’d have a coverage called that should have allowed us to be a highly contested throw or possibly a turnover and we did not execute.

“So we got some things we could execute better within the secondary and I’m thinking of it’s young guys in their first college starts. So, there are gonna be some growing pains here early in the season.”

The surprise for the Wolverines was they struggled to run the ball on Saturday. Blake Corum had 73 yards rushing and a touchdown while Donovan Edwards had 37 yards. Corum, with 10 carries, managed an average of 7.1 yards per carry, but as a team, the maize and blue managed just 3.9 yards per carry — after being third in the country with 5.58 yards per attempt in 2022.

However, Houston isn’t exactly pleased with his numbers there, noting that just because ECU got one thing right, didn’t mean it got the game right.

“We got beat 30-3. I don’t know how much solace I can take, you know?”

As for Michigan, it will move on to UNLV, which it will host next Saturday at The Big House for Week 2.

Things you may not have known about Michigan football’s 30-3 win over ECU

Really great stuff you probably didn’t know about the game! #GoBlue

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a slow start offensively and the run game never really quite got going, but Michigan football erupted in the pass game and on the defensive side of the ball.

And it did so without head coach Jim Harbaugh and multiple players.

The Wolverines cruised to a 30-3 victory over the Pirates with acting head coach Jesse Minter overseeing the maize and blue. The only three points the defense surrendered in the game came as time expired in the fourth quarter. The offense moved the ball down the field regularly with seeming ease. Quarterback J.J. McCarthy amassed 280 yards passing with three touchdowns and completed 87% of his throws.

While that’s the gist of the game, there are many things that happened you might not have known about. That’s where MGoBlue.com comes in clutch, sharing the factoids that aren’t as obvious when watching the game.

Notes and tidbits:

  • Saturday’s announced attendance of 109,480 marks the 309th consecutive game at Michigan Stadium with a crowd in excess of 100,000.
  • Saturday’s matchup marked the first meeting between Michigan and East Carolina.
  • The Wolverines added to a home winning streak that has reached 16 straight games, dating to the 2021 season. It is the longest home winning streak under head coach Jim Harbaugh and the program’s best since home win streaks of 16 games (2002-05) and 21 games (1997-2000) under former head coach Lloyd Carr.
  • U-M improved to 118-23-3 all time in season openers, while head coach Harbaugh is 16-4 in season openers, including 7-2 during his tenure at Michigan.
  • Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was acting head coach for Saturday’s season opener and was credited with the victory. He is 1-0 as a collegiate head coach.
  • Today’s honorary captains were NASA astronaut Josh Cassada and award-winning sports reporter Gene Wojciechowski.
  • Ten Wolverines earned their first collegiate start: senior Myles Hinton (offensive line), graduate student Drake Nugent (offensive line), sophomore Keon Sabb (safety), graduate student Josh Wallace (cornerback), graduate student Keshaun Harris (cornerback), sophomore Ernest Hausmann (linebacker), junior Josaiah Stewart (linebacker), senior AJ Barner (tight end), graduate student James Turner (kicker) and graduate student LaDarius Henderson (offensive line).
  • Thirteen players made their U-M debuts in today’s game: Fredrick Moore, Karmello English, Semaj Morgan, Hausmann, Stewart, Barner, Hinton, Wallace, Turner, Nugent, LaDarius, Jyaire Hill and DJ Waller Jr.
  • Moore (2 receptions, 18 yards) and Hall (2 carries, 2 yards) recorded their first collegiate statistics.
  • After punting on its first drive, the Wolverine offense scored on five consecutive drives, recording four touchdowns and a field goal.
  • Senior running back Blake Corum posted 10 carries and 73 yards and added a 2-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter. He had 18 rushing touchdowns last year, ranking third nationally.
  • Junior quarterback J.J. McCarthy registered his best career passing game at home (280 yards, three touchdowns). McCarthy’s 86.7% completion percentage (26-for-30) ranks the second highest in Michigan history, behind Elvis Grbac’s 90.9% (20-for-22) against Notre Dame (Sept. 14, 1991).
  • In McCarthy’s 14 starts, U-M has scored in 61 of 68 red-zone trips with 51 touchdowns. When McCarthy starts and finishes a drive, U-M has produced 59 touchdowns and 26 field goals on 145 drives. Today, U-M was 3-for-3 from the red zone in the first half and 1-for-2 in the second.
  • The Wolverines earned a 23-point lead in the first half with three touchdowns and a 50-yard field goal from graduate kicker James Turner while shutting out the Pirates. It was Turner’s first field goal in maize and blue.
  • U-M capitalized on graduate student defensive back Mike Sainristil’s first-quarter interception with a 14-yard touchdown to senior wide receiver Roman Wilson for the Wolverines’ first score of the season.
  • Sainristil recorded U-M’s first interception of the season. It was also Sainristil’s second career interception; he previously returned an 8-yard interception against TCU in the College Football Playoff on Dec. 31, 2022.
  • It was Wilson’s second multi-touchdown game; his last was two against Penn State on Nov. 13, 2021. The last time a Wolverine had three receiving touchdowns in one game was Nico Collins at Indiana (Nov. 23, 2019). Wilson upped his total to 11 receiving touchdowns.
  • Sophomore tight end Colston Loveland posted four receptions, tying his career best, for a career-high 57 yards.
  • Defensively, U-M held the Pirates without a point for 59:55 until ECU kicked a 33-yard field goal as time expired. The most recent Michigan shutout was last season against UConn on Sept. 17, 2021.
  • Junior linebacker Junior Colson led the Wolverine defense with 101 total tackles in 2022; he was credited with five tackles and two TFL in today’s game.

East Carolina OC Donnie Kirkpatrick: ‘We have a lot of concerns’ about Michigan football defense

How do you think #Michigan’s defense will do in Week 1? #GoBlue

A couple of years ago, it was an anomaly — the Michigan football defense was one of the worst in college football after being, at worst, a top 11 unit across the sport.

Jim Harbaugh switched things up, bringing in Mike Macdonald in 2021, and the Wolverines were on a strong upswing. After he departed for the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator job, Jesse Minter came aboard and continued the trajectory. The expectation is to build off of the last two years in the more NFL-oriented system.

It’s something that East Carolina offensive coordinator Donnie Kirkpatrick is wary of.

Though there have been some personnel losses — defensive tackle Mazi Smith, edge rushers Mike Morris, Eyabi Okie, and Taylor Upshaw, as well as cornerback DJ Turner — the Wolverines feel like this has the potential to be a better unit than last year. Kirkpatrick is on high alert for what his offense is set to face on Saturday, noting it’s not just the scheme that gets you, it’s the sheer talent that Michigan football has.

“Their players, they’ve got really good players,” Kirkpatrick said. “Defensively, what did they give up? 16 points a game last year — now, that was last year’s team, I get that. But they got most of them returning, they did lose some players. But you know, programs like that, they just reload.

“They’ve lost, what? Three games in two years or something like that. So they’re used to winning, they’re used to having success. That means that they’re recruiting well. And then they just have outstanding talent. I mean, they don’t, they don’t do anything that’s, ‘OK, wow, what scheme is that?’ They have good schemes. Coach Minter does a great job, he’s got NFL experience, he’s got a lot of NFL stuff in.

“But that’s not what worries you. What worries me is their defensive line can just explode off the ball and just throw the offensive lineman down, and go make the tackle. And then there’s like four other guys there when they make the tackle as well.”

That’s mostly the front, but Kirkpatrick is also well aware that there are players in the secondary who can make big plays.

Though cornerback Will Johnson and safeties Rod Moore and Makari Paige are questionable, and there could be some new faces, given the talent and the way that Jesse Minter and defensive pass game coordinator Steve Clinkscale coach the back-end, there’s a lot to worry about for Kirkpatrick, there, too.

“They do a nice job with interceptions, a lot of tipped balls. I’ll tell you what, you better not tip the ball as a receiver, because they do a great job of breaking on the ball and getting the turnovers and setting the offense up for success.

“So a lot of concerns. We have a lot of concerns, have a lot of respect for them.”

Michigan football will kick off against East Carolina on Saturday at noon EDT from The Big House. The game will be nationally streamed on Peacock.

ECU DC Blake Harrell shares challenges Michigan football offense poses

He’s well aware of the team he’s going up against. #GoBlue

There are a series of challenges for the East Carolina defense on Saturday when it comes to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan football offense.

It’s not just the scheme, or the talent. There’s uncertainty about what the Pirates will see. Wolverine head coach Jim Harbaugh is suspended for the first game, as is offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore. That means that Jesse Minter, the team’s defensive coordinator, will act as interim head coach, while quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell will be stepping into the interim offensive coordinator role.

For ECU defensive coordinator Blake Harrell, while he’s looking back at Campbell’s previous experience, he doesn’t expect to see much different in terms of style of play from the maize and blue on Saturday.

“Yeah, not much,” Harrell said. “I think, obviously, the new playcaller was at ODU. So you get back in touch a little bit with his background. And I think actually going back (into the past further), he was the offensive coordinator at Alderson Broaddus, we played them back in, I think, 2013.

“So, the history there, it goes back a ways, but I don’t think it changes who the players are, who their identity is, or what they really want to do with football. I think they’re gonna be who they are, and who they have been over the last couple of seasons. Which is pound the football. Obviously, they keep talking about they want to be more balanced. So they’ve been 60-40, run-to-pass. Obviously, J.J. McCarthy is a really good quarterback and they want to be more balanced 50-50. But at the same time, they’ve been very successful doing what they do.

“So we prepare for both, a little bit more passing game, but at the same time, prepare for what we see on film, what we’re gonna get into.”

RELATED: ECU head coach Mike Houston talks Michigan football matchup

While Harrell is certain he’ll see a more aggressive pass game from the maize and blue, he’s well aware that that isn’t considered the Wolverines’ strength at the moment. That honor belongs to the run game, featuring Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards, bolstered by the two-time Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line.

Harrell notes that they can’t just come up with one idea and sit back and see if that works. He says they’ll be changing things up early and often, in hopes to get the run game out of rhythm.

“They obviously do a really good job running the football and got two good tailbacks to do that, a good O-line to do that,” Harrell said. “So we got to have various ways to take care of the run game. And I think where they get a lot of running yards, if you go back and watch the tape, is in the second half, they just kind of wear on people and wear them down in the fourth quarter. You’ll see a 10-10 ballgame, all of a sudden look up and it’s 31-10. And (they just take advantage). Somebody misses a gap and they have the ability to break it out and take it to the house.

“So you’ve gotta have various weapons to take in. I don’t think you can sit there and play them one way all game — or at least that’s not our philosophy right now. We’ve got multiple ways — one is pressure or base defense to throw at them, because they’re very good. I think if you just throw one thing out, one pitch at them all day, they’re probably gonna hit that one out of the park. So you better have multiple pitches and they’ve got to be good ones, too.”

Michigan and East Carolina will kick off at noon EDT from The Big House on Saturday. The game will be nationally streamed on Peacock.