Gators Host Auburn on Thursday & Ask Fans to THINK PINK
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 | Women's Basketball
The University of Florida women's basketball team plays host to Auburn on Thursday in the O'Connell Center beginning at 7 p.m. The Gators are one of over 800 programs participating in the basketball initiative to "THINK PINK" and bring awareness to breast cancer.
Gators Think Pink – Breast Cancer Awareness Night, wear pink to receive $1 general admission. Teams will be wearing pink shoelaces, coaches and their staffs will wear pink in support of the campaign. Breast cancer survivors will be recognized at halftime.
Pink Tote Bag Giveaway – The first 1,000 fans will receive PINK tote bags courtesy of Sun Sports.
Game Day Gator Tales
The Gators (14-8, 3-4 SEC) conclude their three-game homestand on Thursday, playing host to Auburn (15-6, 3-3 SEC).
Florida will be aiming to halt its two-game overall losing streak and its three-game home slide.
Auburn has won its last two games, earning decisions over Alabama and Mississippi State.
Following Thursday's game, Florida begins a two-game road trip, first traveling to Starkville to play Mississippi State on Sunday before heading to Athens to face Georgia. The meeting with the UG Bulldogs will be the second this season, as Florida dropped the 82-55 decision on January 24th to the Lady 'Dawgs in the O'Connell Center.
Seven Down, Seven Up
The first-half of Florida's 14-game SEC schedule is in the books, with just seven more games to go.
The Gators have league contests remaining against Auburn, Mississippi State (away), Georgia (away), Arkansas (home), South Carolina (home), Tennessee (away) and Ole Miss (away).
Dotson 14 Points Shy of 1,000
Junior Marshae Dotson is on-pace to become the 20th Gator to score 1,000 career points. Fellow classmate Sha Brooks topped the milestone during the December 22 game against Saint Louis.
Assuming she plays, Thursday's game will be the 84th of Dotson's career. Should she reach the 1,000-point plateau during the contest, Dotson would tie Cheryl Fisher (1977-81) as the 14th-fastest Gator to top the scoring mark.
The last time the Gators took the court featuring two 1,000-point scorers was during the 1999-2000 season, when three players all topped the milestone: Tiffany Travis, Tonya Washington and Tamara Stocks … and all three eclipsed the mark during that same season.
Senior Depree Bowden has an outside chance to reach the 1,000-point mark, but would need to average 19.8 points over the next eight games (should UF lose in the first round of the SEC Tournament and not make any kind of postseason appearance).
Who's Hot?
In UF's last THREE games, Marshae Dotson is averaging 17.3 points and 9.0 rebounds, while shooting 54.4 percent (18-33) from the floor.
Team Ties
Amanda Butler's fellow classmate during her four-year career as a Gator letterwinner was Kerry Cremeans, who is an assistant coach at Auburn. The two were backcourt mates from 1990-94, helping UF earn its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid their junior year and repeated the trip their final season.
Cremeans also was an assistant coach at Florida during the 2003-04 season, when the Gators posted a 19-11 record and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Pre-Season Picks
The SEC coaches selected Florida to finish 11th in the 12-team league standings during the preseason vote, while Auburn was picked to place fifth.
The media poll was identical to the coaches' poll, with one change: picking the Gators to finish 10th and South Carolina to place 11th.
Home Sweet Home
Eleven of Florida's 14 wins this season have come within the friendly confines of the O'Connell Center. The Gators sport an 11-4 record this year in Gainesville, where they had won eight consecutive games before their January 24th loss to Georgia. The eight-game home win streak tied for the fifth-longest in program history.
Entering Thursday's game, however, the Gators have lost three straight outings in the O'Dome, falling to Georgia on January 24th, to Vanderbilt on Jan. 31 and to LSU on Feb. 3.
The Florida-Auburn Series
Auburn holds a 29-13 lead in the all-time series against Florida and have won the last three meetings. The 42-game series is the fifth-longest against any opponent in the 34-year history of the Gator program.
Scouting the Tigers
Defensively, Auburn leads the SEC in rebounding margin (all games stats), holding a +6.8 advantage, while ranking among the league's top-three teams for scoring defense (57.5 ppg), steals (10.67 pg) and blocks (5.19 pg).
On the offensive side, the Tigers rank fourth overall in scoring (70.8 ppg), while raking third for 3-point field goal percentage (35.7%) and fifth for overall field goal percentage (43.3%).
Junior DeWanna Bonner headlines the Tigers wtih 16.9 points and an SEC-leading 10.0 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-4 forward is the only SEC player averaging a double-double this season.
The Tigers are hitting 37 percent from the three-point arc in SEC games, with Bonner actually hitting 4-of-5 and Alli Smalley sinking 9-of-26 for 34.6%.
Golden Coaches
Thursday's game is the second consecutive outing the Gators are facing a former U.S.A. Olympic gold-medal-winning head coach. Auburn's Nell Fortner guided the Red, White & Blue to the 2000 Olympic championship, while LSU's Van Chancellor was head coach of the 2004 team.
More Board Work
Thursday's game features two of the SEC's top three rebounders in league games.
UF's 5-foot-11 Marshae Dotson is the SEC's second-leading rebounder for conference games (third in all games), collecting 9.4 per league outing, trailing only the 10.1 per game by South Carolina's Demetress Adams. Auburn's DeWanna Bonner, who leads SEC rebounders in the 'all games' stats, ranks third in SEC contests with a 9.2 per game average.
The “Big Three”
During the preseason, Florida's 'Big 3' were expected to produce big things ... and they have not disappointed. The trio of Depree Bowden, Marshae Dotson and Sha Brooks combined for 868 of UF's 1527 points (56.8%), 377 of 895 rebounds (42.1%), 149 of 298 assists (50.0%) and 124 of 213 steals (58.2%) this season.
Game Day Information
What: Game 23: Florida hosts Auburn
When: Thursday, February 7, 2008 * 7 p.m., ET
Where: Gainesville, Fla. * Stephen C. O'Connell Center (12,000)
Radio: LIVE on WRUF AM850 in Gainesville - audio simulcast on Cox Channel 96 with Steve Babik & Steve Russell
Internet Audio: LIVE thru GatorZone.com (FREE of charge)
GatorVision Online: delayed next day per SEC television contractual agreements
Television: none
Post-Game Satellite Feed: Feb. 7: Time: 10:15-10:30 pm ET
KU Band Digital Feed - Galaxy 11, Transponder 24K, Slot D.
Downlink Freq.: 12193.5 Vertical ..... Symbol Rate: 3.9787
Data Rate: 5.5 ... FEC: 3/4 .....Trouble #: 352-392-8043
Tickets: Reserved Seating - $5.00; General Admission - $4 Adults & $2 youth age 17 & under; UF Students are FREE
Additional Hoopla for Thursday's Game:
Gators Think Pink – Breast Cancer Awareness Night, wear pink to receive $1 general admission. Teams will be wearing pink shoelaces, coaches and their staffs will wear pink in support of the campaign. Breast cancer survivors will be recognized at halftime.
Pink Tote Bag Giveaway – The first 1,000 fans will receive PINK tote bags courtesy of Sun Sports.
GRU Gameday with the Gators – Local elementary school will be invited to the game courtesy of GRU and will receive free general admission tickets, a hot dog and a soda.
Thursday's game is the first of THREE “THINK PINK” games the Gators will participate in ... also sporting PINK shooting shirts and PINK shoelaces for the February 10 game at Mississippi State and the February 14 game at Georgia.
Over 800 college and high school programs are participating in the WBCA-driven event that will run from February 7-18 and support the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, while bringing attention to breast cancer.
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