Pregame Stuff: No. 25 Florida at Oklahoma (Saturday, 2 pm ET)

Friday, January 27, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

A nuts and bolts look at the Gators' road date against the Sooners in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

No. 25 FLORIDA at OKLAHOMA
SEC/Big 12 Challenge

When: Saturday, 2 p.m. (ET)
Where: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Okla.
Records: Florida 15-5, Oklahoma 8-11
TV: ESPN (Brent Musberger, Dick Vitale and Kaylee Hartung)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Bill Koss)

STAKES (The Setup)

The Lloyd Noble Center on the Oklahoma University opened in 1975 and seats 11,562.

It's the fourth year of the ESPN-hatched SEC/Big 12 Challenge and the second with the event staged in late-January. The network moved it from early December, thinking it got lost in the stretch run of NFL and college football. Instead, it now provides a unique array of games by interupting the middle of the conference campaign for both leagues (and on the open football weekend between the league championship games and next week's Super Bowl). ... After splitting a home-and-home with Kansas (2013 and '14) and beating West Virginia at home last year, the SEC/Big 12 sends the Gators to Norman, Okla., for the first time in program history. ... The Gators snapped a two-game losing streak Wednesday night with a 106-71 road blowout at LSU that drew them within a game of first place Kentucky and half-game of second-place South Carolina in the SEC standings. The Sooners are coming offf a tough 84-83 road loss Monday at Texas and are next-to-last in their league. ... UF and OU will play for just the second time. The Gators and Sooners met in the title game of the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City on Dec. 30, 1995, with UF prevailing in overtime 76-72. In that one, UF trailed by 14 in the second half and by seven with five minutes to go, but got a career-high 20 points from point guard Eddie Shannon, including a 3-pointer with seven seconds left in regulation to force overtime. Freshman forward LeRon Williams tallied the first double-double of his career with 17 points and 12 rebounds. The coach of that Florida team? Fella named Lon Kruger. Read on.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Devin Robinson	F	6-8	200	Junior	11.9 pts / 5.6 reb
Justin Leon	F	6-8	206	Senior	6.8 pts / 3.3 reb
John Egbunu	C	6-11	250	R-Junior	7.7 pts / 6.7 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	183	Sophomore	13.9 pts / 2.2 reb
Kasey Hill	PG	6-1	175	Senior	9.5 pts / 2.7 reb / 4.6 asts

Oklahoma	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Khadeem Lattin	F	6-9	212	Junior	8.2 pts /5.6 reb / 2.0 blx
Kristian Doolittle	F	6-7	236	Freshman	8.9 pts / 6.3 reb
Jordan Woodard	G	6-0	187	Senior	17.3 pts / 5.3 reb / 3.6 asts
Rashard Odomes	G	6-6	212	Guard	10.3 pts / 3.9 reb
Christian James	G	6-4	218	Guard	9.3 pts / 4.0 reb

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

The Florida basketball program was in the sewer when **Lon Kruger** took over in 1990. HIs charge was to oversee things while the NCAA wrapped up an ugly investigation, then steer the Gators in a positive direction. All he did was band together a collection of lightly regarded recruits and in 1994 lead UF to the first Final Four in school history. That team went 29-8 before falling to Duke in the NCAA semifinals. Kruger, who went 104-80 overall and 51-47 in SEC play over his six seasons on the Florida sidelines, reached the NCAA Tournament in '95 as well, but could not sustain the success and never really established any pipelines on the recruiting front. Following the 1995-96 season, after going 12-16, Kruger bolted for Illinois. The Gators went looking for another coach and found, of course, **Billy Donovan**, who became the program's gold standard, while Kruger bounced to various venues -- the NBA Atlanta Hawks, then UNLV -- before landing at OU in 2011. It was Kruger, though, who laid the foundation that eventually led to the greatest era of Florida basketball. This will mark the second time Florida has lined up against Kruger. The Gators were matched agaisnt his Illini in NCAA second-round play in 2000 at Winston-Salem, N.C., where UF won 93-76.

STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)

ABOUT THE GATORS: The 35-point win Wednesday at LSU made for a happy bunch after hitting a school single-game record 19 shots from the 3-point line (57.6 percent). UF came into that game having hit better than 40 percent from the arc just once in seven conference games, including that 0-for-17 clunker exactly one week earlier at South Carolina. Five Florida players hit at least three 3-pointers. ... … Forward Devin Robinson had his most complete SEC game in a Florida uniform, scoring a career-high 24 points, grabbing eight rebounds and going 5-for-8 from deep after starting the league season with just three makes in 20 attempts from distance. Just as key, Robinson was active on the hustle front, diving for loose balls and getting his length into the game. … After an 0-for-6 stretch of three games from deep, forward Justin Leon is 5-for-8 over the last two. … Backup point guard Chris Chiozza had a career-high 10 assists, but also hit three treys at LSU after hitting just two in 15 tries against SEC foes. … Fifth-year senior forward Canyon Barry (12.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg), who missed the LSU game with an ankle sprain, practiced Thursday with some restrictions, was limited Friday, but is likely to try and play against the Sooners. Even without Barry, the Florida bench scored 39 points at Baton Rouge. ... While on the subject of UF reserves, redshirt freshman forward Keith Stone has scored just one point over the last three games, but had five rebounds in 17 foul-plagued minutes at LSU, including four on the offensive end. ... ABOUT THE SOONERS: They're 119-68 in six seasons under Kruger, but the Sooners, coming off last year's 29-8 march to the Final Four, are in danger of their first losing record since 2011-12. That was Kruger's first on the OU sidelines when the team finished 16-17. Two weeks ago, the Sooners were on a seven-game slide, including a neutral-site loss to Auburn in Uncasville, Conn., then staged a huge road upset of No. 7 West Virginia that was part of a two-game winning streak. They've lost two straight since, though, most recently Monday's 84-83 hearbreaker at Texas when the Longhorns hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 11.5 seconds, including the game winner with just 1.8 to go. That loss dropped OU to 2-6 in Big 12 play. ... Oklahoma went 0-4 when standout point guard Jordan Woodard was out of the lineup with a leg injury, but Woodard is back and was the catalyst of that big upset at WVU. As good as Buddy Hield was on his way to NCAA Player of the Year honors last season, Woodard ran the Sooners' offense and this season is hitting 42 percent from the floor and 39 from the 3-point line. Though only 6-foot, he's a very physical player who can drive the ball and draw fouls (85.3 percent from the free-throw line) and will be a handful for the Gator who draws that defensive assignment. … Both Kristian Doolittle and Christian James hit over 40 percent from the 3-point line (47.6 and 41.5, respectively), so if UF brings the perimeter defense it showed just two games ago against Vanderbilt it could be in trouble. … OU's best reserve is freshman guard Kameron McGusty (9.4 ppg), a 35-percent shooter from deep and 79 from the free-throw line. Dolittle and McGusty are two of four Oklahoma freshmen who play key minutes.

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

* .650 — UF's winning percentage through 20 games last season, based on a 13-7 record, including a 5-3 record in SEC play.

* .750 — UF's winning percentage through 20 games this season, including a 6-2 record in SEC play.

* 5 — Backup guard Eric Hester's five 3-pointers without a miss were the most by a Florida player since Walter Hodge went 5-for-5 against Stetson on Dec. 20, 2006.

* 106 — UF's point total at LSU was the most scored against an SEC opponent in 42 years, dating to a 107-104 double-overtime win over Mississippi State on Feb. 3, 1975. It was the most scored in regulation of a league game since beating Ole Miss 106-86 on Jan. 25, 1971 and the most ever against an SEC opponent on the road.

* 1996 — The year the Gators set the previous school mark for 3-pointers in a game. They hit 18 against Robert Morris in a 106-69 win in the consolation game of the Fiesta Bowl Classic at Tempe, Ariz. That was the 12th game under first-year UF coach Billy Donovan.

STATEMENT (Random thought)

Lots of Florida basketball coaches, past and present, in Oklahoma the next couple days.