We compute the renormalization group flow of the mass anomalous dimension in adjoint QCD with $N_{f}=1$, $3/2$, and 2 Dirac fermions, using the gradient flow. Preliminary results are in agreement with at least a near-conformal scenario in all cases. At the largest flavor numbers we obtain the strongest indication for an IR conformal fixed point scenario. Moreover, we provide results for the thermal phase transitions in SU(3) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. We find hints for a connection between chiral and center symmetries in terms of a single first order phase transition where chiral symmetry is restored and center symmetry gets broken.