Pregame Shootaround: Florida at GWU (Wednesday, 7 pm)
Tuesday, March 22, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA at GEORGE WASHINGTON NATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ET) Where: Charles E. Smith Center, Washington, D.C. Records: Florida (21-14), George Washington (25-10) TV: ESPN2 (with Brad Nessler and Cory Alexander) Radio: Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (with Mick Hubert and Mark Wise). Check for availability here.
STAKES, STARS AND STATS
>>> Background: The Gators, on the strength of tournament road wins at North Florida and Ohio State, are one victory away from capturing their quadrant of the NIT bracket and advancing to New York for the tournament semifinals (and finals, if they can get there) at Madison Square Garden. UF has reached the NIT's last four three times in school history — 1986, 1992 and 2009 — but have never done so by winning three road games. … Florida and George Washington will meet for the fourth time, with UF holding a 2-1 edge in the all-time series that dates to a 49-36 home win for the Colonials on Dec. 30, 1939. The other two games were both at neutral sites, with Florida winning 70-63 in the Gator Bowl Tournament in Jacksonville in '77 and 75-66 in the Children's Charities Foundation Classic at Landover, Md., in 1995. In that game, guard Greg Williams led the Gators with 20 points, thanks for 4-for-8 from the 3-point in what was a homecoming of sorts. Williams grew up in nearby Falls Church, Va. … GWU is one of three Division I programs playing in the nation's capital, along with Georgetown and American.
Kasey Hill>>> About the Gators: After a season of offensive challenges, the Gators have shot a combined 46.7 percent in their two NIT games and have scored 167 points along the way, with nine different players hitting double-figures in at least one of the games. UF has also shot 40.7 percent from the 3-point line, with seven different guys hitting 3s. … Junior point guard Kasey Hill (9.0 ppg, 3.2 apg) has been the catalyst behind three wins in four postseason games. The more assertive Hill has nearly doubled his scoring average in the postseason to 16.3 points per game on 53-percent shooting. … Senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith (14.9 ppg, 8.3 rpg) is coming off his seventh double-double of the season after collecting 16 points and 12 rebounds at Ohio State. … Freshman center Kevarrius Hayes (2.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg) will make his second straight start and fourth in the last five games since sophomore John Egbunu tore ligaments in his thumb. Egbunu is lost for the season after surgery last week, so the Gators will go with Hayes, who responded against the Buckeyes with a career-high 14 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the floor. … Freshman guardKeVaughn Allen (11.3 pig, 2.7 rpg) has enjoyed one red-hot game and one stone-cold game in the NIT. He was 4-for-7 from 3-point range at UNF, but 3-for-12 overall and made just one of five 3s at OSU. He will be encouraged to continue firing away. Allen needs four points to hit 400 for the season and becoming the first UF freshman since Bradley Beal (2011-12) to reach that milestone.
Tyler Cavenaugh>>> About the Colonials: They finished fifth in the Atlantic 10 standings with an 11-7 mark, with three of four teams in front of them getting NCAA Tournament bids. GWU has an RPI of 64 (compared to Florida's 52), but the Colonials had a big early season upset of Virginia — currently alive as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA field — and also defeated Seton Hall at home and Virginia Commonwealth on the road. Some other wins included Tennessee and Penn State, but the Colonials had a couple ugly losses at DePaul, which went 9-21, and at St. Louis, which finished 11-21. … GW emerged from its bracket by defeating Hofstra 82-80 in the first round at home, then upending top-seeded Monmouth at home Monday night 87-71. … As a team, the Colonials average 75.8 points per game on 44.6-percent shooting from the floor and 33.8 percent from deep. They are one of the nation's best at converting free throws (75.5 percent as a team) and also one of the nation's best at not fouling (just 16 per game). … Coach Mike Lonergan is in his fifth season at George Washington, where he's 94-70. A former assistant at Maryland under Gary Williams, Lonergan came to GWU after six seasons as head coach at Vermont, which he led to two NITs and one NCAA. The Colonials are in their second straight NIT after playing in the '14 NCAA tournament by winning the A-10 tourney crown. … GWU has three players averaging in double-figures and has some size, as well. The frontline goes 6-10 senior Kevin Larsen (12.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg), 6-9 junior Tyler Cavenaugh (16.7 ppg, 7.6 rpg) and 6-8 Yuta Watanabe (8.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg). The Colonials top scoring guard is 6-6 Patricio Garino (14.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg). Cavenaugh had 22 and 12 rebounds, while Garino 19 points on 3-for-5 from deep in the win at Monmouth.
SOME NUMBERS OF NOTE
Dorian Finney-Smith* .577 — Florida's all-time record against Atlantic 10 Conference opponents, including a run of five straight victories over Rhode Island (2011), two against Richmond ('14 and '15), one against Dayton in the 2014 NCAA South Region title game and one earlier this season against St. Joseph's in the Hall of Fame Classic at Uncasville, Conn.
* .674 — Hayes' field-goal percentage for the season, based on 29 makes on his 43 attempts. That leads the team. In addition to his perfect day from the floor at OSU, Hayes also was perfect at the free-throw line (4-for-4) despite his 45.6 number there for the season.
* 1 — All-time road wins by the Gators at a Big Ten venue, thanks to Sunday's victory at OSU. UF began the day 0-11 all-time against the Big Ten on the road, including 0-4 at Columbus. [Note: Past wins against current league members Rutgers and Maryland do not count, as they were not in the Big Ten at the time.]
* 36 — Where Finney-Smith now sits on UF's career scoring list with 1,121 points during his three seasons. Fifteen more points (right at his average) against the Colonials will move him past three more former Gators — Malcolm Cesare (1975-79), Corey Brewer (2004-07) and Kenyan Weaks (1996-2000) into 32nd place.
* 1999 — The last year the Gators played three straight true road games. That team, Coach Billy Donovan's first NCAA Tournament team, won at South Carolina, lost at Auburn, then won at LSU in January of that year.
WATCH FOR IT
The Gators need to get off to a good start. Slow starts in the NIT tend to lead to slow middles and finishes. That's certainly been a pattern in the current tournament.
