Nuts & Bolts Preview: Florida vs. Louisiana-Monroe (Friday, 8 p.m.)
Friday, November 21, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
No. 8 FLORIDA vs. LOUISIANA-MONROE
When: Friday, 8 p.m.
Where: O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: UF 1-1, Louisiana-Monroe 2-0
TV: SEC Network (w/Doug Bell and Jon Sunvold)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (w/Mick Hubert and Mark Wise). For station nearest you, check this link.
Parking Note: Friday's parking shuttle will run from Lot 9 to the O'Dome beginning at 6 p.m.
STAKES, STARS & STATS
> UF and Louisiana-Monroe, out of the Sun Belt Conference, are meeting for the first time. The Gators are 10-6 all-time from teams currently in the Sun Belt Conference, including 7-1 under UF coach Billy Donovan. That lone defeat came five years ago, a 67-66 pre-Christmas letdown/overtime loss to South Alabama on Dec. 22, 2009. The game will mark UF's last home date for 17 days -- until facing Yale on Dec. 8 -- as the Gators embark on a five-day trip to the Bahamas next week for the Battle 4 Atlantis shootout, then return for six days before facing Kansas on the road in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. 
> The Gators are coming off a brutal 69-67 home loss to Miami, a game where the Hurricanes used an 18-1 second-half run and 19 points in the final seven minutes from 5-11 point guard Angel Rodriguez to snap UF's school-record 33-game home winning streak. ... The game marks the season debut of 6-10, 220-pound forward Chris Walker (right), who missed the first two games while serving a suspension for violating team rules. Whether Walker, the former McDonald's All-American who averaged just 1.9 points and 1.3 rebounds in limited playing time after joining the team midway through last season, starts the game will be a decision left to the staff. But given the short-handedness of the roster, that's a likely scenario. ... Speaking of that limited roster, for the second straight game forward Dorian Finney-Smith, the team's best player, will sit out with two hairline fractures in his left hand. Finney-Smith suffered the injury early in the opener against William & Mary, yet returned to score 15 points and grab five rebounds. The training staff wants to let the hand mend some more, with hope Finney-Smith could be available to play against the top-shelf field at Atlantis. ... Walk-on forward Jacob Kurtz replaced Finney-Smith in the lineup against Miami and finished with six points and a career-high 8 rebounds. Kurtz actually rates as UF's leading rebounder (7.5 pg) through two games. ... Senior center Jon Horford scored a career-high 17 points, including 3-for-6 from 3-point range, to go with seven rebounds against the Canes. ... Junior guard Eli Carter picked up the slack for his struggling backcourt mates, Michael Frazier (just 3-for-8 from 3-point range) and Kasey Hill (1-for-12 for the season). Carter scored a team-best 21 points before fouling out a charging call late in the game. 
> Louisana-Monroe opened the season with a 74-65 win over Alabama-Birmingham and a 106-39 wipeout of Champion Baptist. Before being too overly impressed, Champion Baptist plays under the Association of Christian College Athletics classification and just last year lost to Southern U 116-12 in a game they trailed 44-0. ... The Warhawks went 10-17 last season, with a 7-11 mark in the Sun Belt. They're led by a couple seniors in Tylor Ongwae (17 ppg, 7 rpg) and Marvin Williams (7 ppg, 2 apg). ... ULM is coached by Keith Richard, so let the one-liners about a certain rock 'n' roll Hall-of-Famer commence.
THREE NUMBERS OF NOTE
.500 - UF's record after two games in four of the last five seasons, with Game 2 defeats vs. Ohio State in 2010 and '11, Wisconsin in '13 and Miami in '14.
.889 - Carter's field-goal percentage against the Hurricanes, the highest single-game percentage by a UF guard with at least eight shot attempts since Kenyan Weaks went 8-for-8 against Florida A&M in Dec. 4, 1989. 
1 - Home losses experienced by third-year UF assistant coach Rashon Burno (pictured right) after the UM game. Burno joined the staff for the 2012-13 season and the Gators went unbeaten each of his first two years with the program.
10.3 - Combined second-half shooting percentage of Frazier (2-for-17) and Hill (1-for-12) in the two regular-season games. Those woeful numbers aren't exclusive to Frazier and Hill, but rather a sample size of UF, as a team. The Gators are shooting a combined 58 percent in the first half and 40.2 in the second.
Plus-16.1 - Difference in shooting percentage for UF opponents in the second half. William & Mary and Miami combined to make just 30.2 percent of their shots before intermission, but 46.3 after. 
WATCH FOR IT
If you sense a UF player has been on the bench for an unusually lengthy stretch, well, Donovan is likely sending a message about that player's defense. He made it clear to his team's practice Tuesday -- the Gators usually take the day after a game off, unless there's a second game in three days -- that he will play the guys who do what they're supposed to do.
