GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Point guard Walter Clayton Jr. will return to Florida's starting lineup when the sixth-ranked Gators play at No. 1 Auburn on Saturday.
Coach Todd Golden said Friday that Clayton has been cleared to play after missing a game with a sprained left ankle.
“Walt’s pretty close to 100%," Golden said. “He’s right there. I think you’ll see Walt at his best (Saturday).”
Golden was slightly less confident about fellow guard Alijah Martin, who sustained a hip pointer against Vanderbilt on Tuesday and sat out practice Thursday.
“He’s a great competitor,” Golden said. "I anticipate having him, but we’ll see how he responds to practice.”
Golden chose to give Clayton extra rest given Florida's upcoming stretch, which includes road games at Auburn and then at No. 22 Mississippi State three days later.
Clayton rolled his ankle late in the first half of a lopsided loss at then-No. 8 Tennessee last Saturday. He returned to start the second half but slipped in front of the bench to give Golden and his teammates another scare.
Clayton finished with 10 points, no assists and three turnovers in 27 minutes. Clayton leads Florida in scoring, averaging 17.4 points. He also is top on the team with 79 assists and ranks third with 28 steals.
“He's our leading scorer. He's a facilitator, too, for me," forward Alex Condon said. "He's great to have. We all knew that he was kind of just being cautious for the Vanderbilt game, I think, and we have a big one on Saturday. I think we all kind of knew that was what he was waiting for.”
The Gators (19-3, 6-3 Southeastern Conference) are 9 1/2-point underdogs against Auburn (21-1, 9-0), which has won 14 in a row and is 10-0 at home this season.
“When you go on the road and you’re playing the No. 1 team in the country, there’s a little less expectation on you," Golden said. "It takes away some of that pressure. It opens up the door to maybe take some chances and to be more aggressive in some areas that you normally wouldn’t feel the confidence to do so.
"I think that’s a very fair way to assess it. We’ll go in there with, for lack of a better term, nothing to lose, not being afraid to fail and go give it our best swing and see we can come home with.”
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll
