Pregame Stuff: No. 21 Florida at Florida State

No. 21 FLORIDA at FLORIDA STATE
("Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown")

When: Sunday, 4 p.m. (ET)
Where: Donald L. Tucker Center, Tallahassee, Fla.
Records: Florida 7-2, Florida State 8-1
TV: ESPNU (with Mike Morgan and Cory Alexander)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Mark Wise)

STAKES (The Setup)

Florida is 18-11 all-time at Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee. It'll be the seventh venue the Gators have played in their 10 games thus far.

Florida is coming off Tuesday night's 84-74 loss to fifth-ranked Duke in Tuesday night's Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. Florida State, which spent a couple weeks in the Top 25 last month before losing to Temple, has won five in a row, including Thursday night's 118-63 blowout of Nicholls. ... UF is 43-24 all-time against FSU, but the series is knotted at 5-5 over the last 10 years, with the Seminoles on a two-game winning streak, both on last-second shots -- one by the Gators, one by the Seminoles. In 2014 at Tallahassee, an airball by FSU with the game tied was accidentally tipped into the basket by UF forward Jake Kurtz with less than a second remaining to win 65-63. In '15, FSU guard Duane Bacon hit a driving jumper over Kasey Hill with four seconds to get out of the O'Dome with a 73-71 win, despite a career-high 32 points from guard KeVaughn Allen, the fifth-most points by a Florida freshman in program history (and most since Matt Walsh hung 33 on Miami in 2002). ... UF is 18-11 all-time in Tallahassee. ... Florida is 1-3 under Coach Mike White against teams currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

STARTERS (Probable Lineup)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Devin Robinson	F	6-8	200	Junior	11.7 pts / 5.4 reb
Justin Leon	F	6-8	206	Senior	7.4 pts / 3.7 reb
John Egbunu	C	6-11	255	R-Junior	9.1 pts / 8.0 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	183	Sophomore	13.3 pts / 2.2 reb
Kasey Hill	PG	6-1	175	Senior	8.2 pts / 2.8 reb / 4.2 asts

Florida State	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Jonathan Isaac	F	6-10	210	Freshman	15.1 pts / 7.3 reb
Michael Ojo	C	7-1	304	Graduate	5.9 pts / 4.9 reb
Terance Mann	G	6-6	204	Sophomore	7.1 pts / 4.3 reb
Dwayne Bacon	G	6-7	221	Sophomore	16.6 pts / 3.8 reb
Xavier Rathan-Mayes	PG	6-4	208	Junior	9.8 pts / 3.3 rebs / 5.0 asts

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

As many as three different Seminoles could be profiled here, but we went with the freshest face. It belongs to freshman **Jonathan Isaac**, the 6-foot-10, 210-pounder from Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academy who is listed on virtually every 2017 NBA mock draft as a slam-dunk lottery pick, with several projections placing him in the top three. Isaac, though, has missed the last three games with a hip flexor injury, but don't be surprised if he's back in the lineup against the Gators, The kid has a complete frontcourt game, scoring at 15.1 points -- on 58.8 percent from the floor, including 44.4 percent from the 3-point line (12-for-27) -- and rebounding at 7.3 per game, best on his team. Foul him and Isaac is a 70-percent free-throw shooter. As a blossoming talent in Naples, Fla., Isaac was a guard, but grew seven inches while attending high school at Naples Barron Collier for two years before transfering to Hollywood (Fla.) International School. There he averaged state-high 30 points and 15 rebounds per game before finishing his prep career at IMG.

STUFF (Need to Know Info)

ABOUT THE GATORS: They stared down Duke for 15 minutes, holding a two-point lead at the 5-minute mark, before the Blue Devils took off on a 15-3 run to end the half and take a 10-point lead at intermission and never trailed. Allen was UF's best player at the Garden, scoring 21 points, while a few his teammates got a little blinded by the big Broadway lights, where as a trio of Duke's future NBA players combined to score 75 points (compared to UF's 74). ... Hill had some nice moments against Duke, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but there definitely were some shots he (and the Florida coaches) probably would like to have back. ... Backup point guard Chris Chiozza (6.2 ppg, 3.0 apg) suffered a quad contusion in the game that limited him to just nine minutes. Chiozza sat out the last two days of practice, but figures to be cleared for FSU. ... Center John Egbunu gets another big test in the post against some monstrous Seminoles. He played hard Tuesday, but went just 2-for-10 from the floor and 5-for-10 from the free-throw line, but grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots. ... ABOUT THE SEMINOLES: They're off to their best 10-game start since the 2008-09 season. Coach Leonard Hamilton, now in his 15th season at FSU, has one of his best teams, armed with a handful of former prep All-Americans that figure to put the Seminoles in the upper tier of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings. ... FSU has won five straight since an 89-86 loss to Temple on a neutral floor at Brooklyn, N.Y. Along the way, they beat Illinois, Minnesota, George Washington, Southern Miss and Nicholls, with all but one of those wins by double digits. ... The Seminoles are averaging 87.2 points per game, shooting 51.1 percent from the floor and own an average margin of plus-22.4 per game. ... Bacon is one of the top backcourt prospects in the nation, making 49.5 percent of his overall shots and 40.5 from the arc. His backup is PJ Savoy, who only makes 58.8 percent from the floor and 60 percent from 3. ... The guy who makes FSU go is Xavier Rathan-Mayes (aka "XRM"), whose offensive numbers don't scream (40 percent from floor, 28 from 3), but he has a knack for making big shots and big plays, with an assist-to-turnover ratio nearly 2.5-to-1. ... And how about center Michael Ojo? Just went you think he's one of the biggest guys you've ever seen at 7-1, 304, his backup is 7-4, 230-pound Christ Koumadje (5.6 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 1.5 blx).

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

Then-UF coach Billy Donovan in his last FSU home game (2013).

* minus-1 — Ratio of turnovers to assists for Gators through the first nine games. UF has 102 assists to 103 turnovers. Only Hill and Chiozza (both at plus-15) have dished more assists than committed turnovers this season.

* 1 — Starting lineups for the Gators this season. This time last season (White's first with UF), the Gators had used three different starting lineups, with eight different players have started at least one game.

* 5 — Combined margin of victory for the winning team in the last three series meetings. Besides FSU's back-to-back two-point wins each of the last two seasons, UF won 67-66 in 2013 when forward Dorian Finney-Smith hit one of two free throws in 1.5 seconds to play.

* 13 — FSU players who averaging double-figure minutes per game, a staggering number that speaks of the team's depth, but one that reflects the Seminoles' amount of lopsided games.

* 76.3 — Hill's free-throw percentage, a true testament to the work he has put in at the gym. He started the season at 56.8 percent for his career. Hill is 20-for-24 (83.3 percent) over the last four games.

* 265 — Wins for Hamilton at FSU, the ninth-most in ACC history. Hamilton is in his 29th season as a collegiate head coach, with stops at Oklahoma State and Miami before starting his run in Tallahassee in 2002 after a brief stint as NBA Washington Wizards head coach under Michael Jordan.

STATEMENT (RANDOM THOUGHT)

Just one more bus ride after this one (to Sunrise, Fla., next weekend for the Orange Bowl Classic), then the Gators finally get to play a home game.

*** Agriculture is a $100 billion industry in Florida and Floridians can support their neighbors and communities by buying locally-grown and harvested products. For more information about the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, visit FreshFromFlorida.com, or follow Fresh From Florida on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Pregame Stuff: No. 21 Florida at Florida State

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

John Egbunu

Dorian Finney-Smith

Kasey Hill

Justin Leon

Devin Robinson

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Pregame Stuff: No. 21 Florida at Florida State

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Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

John Egbunu

Dorian Finney-Smith

Kasey Hill

Justin Leon

Devin Robinson

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