Pregame Stuff: No. 21 Florida vs No. 5 Duke (Tuesday, 9 pm), New York

Tuesday, December 6

New York, NY

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Pregame Stuff: No. 21 Florida vs No. 5 Duke (Tuesday, 9 pm), New York

Monday, December 5, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

A nuts and bolts look at the Gators' date against the Blue Devils in the Jimmy V Classic.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

No. 21 FLORIDA vs No. 5 Duke

When: Friday, 9 p.m. (ET)
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
Records: Florida 7-1, Duke 8-1
TV: ESPN (with Dave O'Brien, Dick Vitale and Maria Taylor)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Mark Wise)

STAKES (The Setup)

After bouncing around the Sunshine State for eight games at five different arenas, the Gators now take their road show to the next level with a date against the blue-blood Blue Devils at Madison Square Garden. The two teams have lost a game a piece, both to opponents currently ranked into the Top 10. Florida lost to No. 8 Gonzaga 77-72 in the the AdvoCare Invitational Tournament at Disney two weekends ago, while Duke's lone loss was a 77-75 setback against fourth-ranked Kansas in the State Farm Champions Classic, also at Madison Square Garden. ... Most recently, the Gators smashed North Florida 91-60 on the road Thursday. Duke did the same to Maine 94-55 at home Saturday. ... UF trails in the all-time series 4-12, but eight of those games came before 1975. In their last meeting, the No. 5-seed Gators stunned the top-seed and No. 1-ranked Blue Devils 87-78 at Syracuse, N.Y., in the Sweet 16 Round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament. In that one, five UF players finished in double figures, led by guard Brett Nelson's 15 points, along with 10 points and nine rebounds from forward Mike Miller. The Gators forced a whopping 22 turnovers in that game, including five by Shane Battier.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Devin Robinson	F	6-8	200	Junior	11.8 pts / 5.6 reb
Justin Leon	F	6-8	206	Senior	7.5 pts / 3.8 reb
John Egbunu	C	6-11	255	R-Junior	9.1 pts / 7.5 reb / 2.5 blx
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	183	Sophomore	12.4 pts / 2.5 reb
Kasey Hill	PG	6-1	175	Senior	7.6 pts / 4.0 asts

Duke	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Jayson Tatum	F	6-8	205	Freshman	10.0 pts. / 8.0 reb
Chase Jeter	F	6-10	230	Sophomore	4.2 pts / 3.0 reb
Amile Jefferson	F	6-9	225	Graduate	14.7 pts / 9.8 reb
Luke Kennard	G	6-6	202	Sophomore	19.4 pts / 6.8 reb
Matt Jones	PG	6-5	204	Senior	9.6 pts / 3.0 reb

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

Luke Kennard, the sophomore guard and former McDonald's All-American from Franklin, Ohio, is coming off a career-high 35-point outburst Friday night against Maine. In that one, Kennard went 11-for-16 from the floor, buried four of his nine 3-point shots, and hit all nine of his free throws. He's a hard guard because he's left-handed, big at 6-6 and possesses a nice handle, and is equally comfortable driving the ball or pulling up from distance. Kennard also crashes the glass, evidence by his 6.6 rebounds per game. He has had to carry a larger scoring load while several of his five-star rookie teammates have dealt with injuries, so his numbers likely will start decreasing now that those guys are back in the lineup, but Kennard obviously is feeling (and shooting) very confident right now on offense.

STUFF (Need to Know Info)

Freshman forward Keith Stone powers up a shot vs. North Florida.

About the Gators: They've won two straight, defeating Miami and UNF, since suffering the lone loss of the season against an enormous and outstanding Gonzaga team. In these early goings, UF has shown to be a well-rounded offensive team, with five or six players who could lead the team in scoring on a given night. In fact, through eight games, six different Gators -- Devin Robinson, Justin Leon, KeVaughn Allen, backup wing Canyon Barry, along with point guards Kasey Hill and Chris Chiozza -- have topped a given box score, with a seventh, redshirt freshman forward Keith Stone (3.6 ppg, 1.9 rpg), nearly doing it in another game. ... Florida is shooting 44 percent as a team, but allowing opponents 40.5. If that latter number is relective of the kind of defense the Gators play against an army of former prep All-Americans like the Blue Devils, that'll be bad news Tuesday night. UF allowed Gonzaga to shoot 52 percent, including 61 in the second half, in blowing a 10-point lead. ... Chiozza is coming off one of the finest all-around games of his career. Against UNF, he scored 16 points, including 3-for-5 from the 3-point arc, grabbed four rebounds, tied his career-high with nine assists, committed just one turnover and had three steals in 26 minutes. ... Florida is shooting 74.7 percent from the free-throw line (up 10 percent from a season ago), with Hill up more than 21 percent from his career numbers: 77.4 this season vs. 56.9 for the three previous seasons combined. ... The Gators are shooting just 31.5 percent from the 3-point line as a team, but Leon is 12-for-24 (50 percent) for the season. The next-best from long distance is Chiozza at 35.3 percent. ... Hill had five assists at UNF, giving him 401 for his career and now sits 10th on the school's career assists list. ... About the Blue Devils: Besides a loss to Kansas, they also have wins over Penn State and Rhode Island in neutral-site contests, along with a 78-69 defeat Tuesday night of Michigan State at home as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. ... Duke is scoring 85.7 points per game and shooting 49 percent, while allowing just 63.2 points on 39.6-percent shooting, including a stingy 26.6 from deep. ... The Blue Devils show a plus-8.2 on reboundiing margin, which is bad news for the Gators, whose biggest weakness on the defensive end might be rebounding (plus-1.2). ... Duke has eight McDonald's All-Americans on their roster and up until a few days ago three of them -- all freshmen, two of them slam-dunk lottery picks -- weren't even playing. The Blue Devils have not had the services of 6-10, 240-pound forward Harry Giles (knee), the No. 1-ranked prep prospect last year and a favorite to be the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft, but there are rumbles he could be set to make his collegiate debut. ... While Luke Kennard was getting his 35 against Maine, forward Jayson Tatum and 6-11, 240-pound center Marques Bolden were making their debuts. Tatum scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 20 minutes; Bolden went for seven and and five, respectively, in 12 minutes. They're playing time is expected to increase. ... Starting center Amile Jefferson had a career-high 20 points and nine rebounds vs. Maine. He shoots nearly 66 percent from the floor. ... Former Jacksonville prep standout Grayson Allen, the team's No. 2 scorer by way of Providence Christian, found stardom as a freshman in the NCAA Tournament, helping the Blue Devils to the 2015 title. Another backup center, 7-foot, 260-pound sophomore Antonio Vrankrovic (4.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg), is from Delray Beach, Fla., where he once scored 55 points in a game. He was not a McDonald's All-American.

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

Casey Prather works vs Memphis in the 2013 Jimmy V Classic.

* 2 — Field-goal attempts by Allen, UF's leading scorer, at North Florida. The Gators got away with it against the Ospreys, but they'll likely need Allen to more aggressive against the high-powered Blue Devils. They'll also need him far more focused on defense.

* 5 — Consecutive losses for the Gators against non-Southeastern Conference opponents ranked in the Top 5. UF lost at No. 1 Michigan State last December and before that against No. 5 North Carolina in 2014 in the Bahamas, No. 4 Syracuse and No. 3 Ohio State in 2011, and at home to No. 4 Ohio State in 2010. The Gators last beat a non-conference top-five opponent Nov. 27, 2009, a 77-74 win over No. 4 Michigan State in the Legends Classic at Atlantic City.

* 10 — Points needed by Barry to reach 1,000 for his career, counting the 893 he scored in three seasons at College of Charleston, of course.

* 55 — Points Rick Barry, Canyon's Hall-of-Fame father once scored as a Golden State Warrior at Madison Square Garden.

* 2012 —Last time Florida signed a McDonald's All-America recruit (Hill and Chris Walker). The Blue Devils have signed 17 in the time since, more than UF has signed in its school history.

* 2013 — Last time the Gators played in Madison Square Garden. That too was in the Jimmy V Classic -- two games into what would be a school-record 30-game winning streak that ended in the Final Four -- when they defeated Memphis 77-75 behind 22 points from forward Casey Prather.

STATEMENT (Random Thought)

Strapped to a lie-detector, who would Duke athletic director Kevin White say he's pulling for in this game? He has a son named Mike, who will be on the UF sideline Tuesday night.