Pre-Game Stuff: Florida vs Yale, Monday night (SEC Network)
Monday, December 8, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
FLORIDA vs. YALE
When: Monday, 7 p.m. (ET)
Where: O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: UF 3-4, Yale 8-2
TV: SEC Network (w/Dave Neal and Joe Dean)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (w/Mick Hubert and Mark Wise), outlets here.
STAKES, STARS & STATS 
> This is the third meeting between the Gators and Bulldogs since the two teams agreed to a three-game series in 2011 and it just so happens it comes three days after Florida blew an 18-point second-half lead at Kansas about two hours after Yale shocked defending national champion Connecticut with a buzzer-beating 3-point shot. More on both of those outcomes below. ... In their last date, UF went to New Haven, Conn., two Januarys ago for a game at rickety-old, 2,600-seat John J. Lee Amphitheater, where guard Kenny Boynton (left) went 8-for-10 from 3-point range to tie his career high of 28 points and Florida won 79-58. Mike Rosario had 13 points and Scottie Wilbekin had 10 assists in that one. ... The two teams played the season before on New Year's Eve in Gainesville, with the Gators winning 90-70. ... Florida is 7-2 all-time against Ivy League teams, with the last loss coming Dec. 28, 1996 against Penn in Coach Billy Donovan's first season.
> UF became an unfortunate footnote in Kansas history Friday when the Jayhawks (down 15 at the break) staged their biggest halftime comeback in 21 years. The Gators, who led by 18 with just under 17 minutes to go and by nine with 8 1/2 left, did their part in aiding the rally, going 13 possessions and 7 1/2 minutes without a field goal and going an entire half without an offensive rebound. Moving and sharing the ball better than at anytime this season, UF shot 58 percent in the first half. In the second half, the Gators went Bahamas again -- as in cold 
as their Battle 4 Atlantis performance -- and hit just 32 percent. ... The Gators need more from junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith (9.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg), as he and senior forward Jon Horford (right) drew the wrath of Donovan after the KU game due to their lack of productivity and aggression in the second half. ... Horford is a pretty good 3-point shooter in practice, but after going 0-for-5 at Kansas he is now 5-for-24 (20.8 percent) from long distance. ... Look for 6-10 sophomore center Chris Walker (6.4 ppg, 4.7 rpg) to get some more playing time after the best all-around game of his young career (12 points on 5-for-6 shooting and five rebounds vs. KU). Walker played much more to his strengths; roaming the post, making himself available on the block and chasing rebounds. Walker has played 82 minutes this season, which is just five shy of his entire total as a freshman when the NCAA did not rule him eligible to play until February. ... Freshman forward Devin Robinson (5.4 ppg, 2.9 rpg) struggled through for his first six collegiate games, but had his best all-around performance at KU by leading the team in scoring with 13 points to go with five rebounds. Watch his numbers start to inch up the next few weeks as the game continues to slow down for him and the coaching tips begin to take hold. ... Junior guard Eli Carter will miss his third straight game due to residual pain in the left foot he sprained at practice Nov. 20
> Yale opened the season with an 88-85 double-overtime loss at Quinnipiac and also dropped a road game at Providence, but the UF coaches did not need much more to get their players' attention than Friday's big road upset of UConn at Gampel Pavillion. The Gators had two cracks at the Huskies last year and lost at both Gampel (at the buzzer) and decisively in the Final Four. ... The Bulldogs have won three straight and are No. 44 in RPI and were 78th in the KenPom efficiency metrics, as of Saturday. ... Yale is led by 6-8, 205-pound forward Justin Sears (13.7 ppg, 9.2 rpg, pictured right), who is a relentless warrior inside and figures to give Finney-Smith, Horford and Walker all they can handle on sheer effort alone. He had 12 points and 15 rebounds against UConn. ... Guard Jack Montague (10.1 ppg, 2.2 rpg) hit the 3-pointer from the corner -- off an underneath inbounds play -- with 1.2 seconds left to beat the Huskies (video below). He was 0-for-6 from the floor that night before his game-winning shot and is still making 3s at a 51-percent clip (25 of 49) for the season. ... Yale is coached by James Jones, a former Bulldogs player in his 16th on the sidelines, having led the team to its only Ivy League title (2002) in the last 50 years.
SOME NUMBERS OF NOTE
* 0 - Combined second-half rebounds grabbed by Finney-Smith and Horford against Kansas. Michael Frazier, playing the third guard/small forward spot, had one. Tough to win with one rebound in the last 20 minutes from the entire starting front court.
* 6 - Starting lineups the Gators have used through their first seven games. 
* 7 - UF's normal player rotation as long as Carter remains unavailable with that sore foot. If there's foul trouble, that means walk-on Lexx Edwards will be folded in for a minute or two. Presently, the Gators have five players on scholarship who either aren't playing or can't: Carter (foot), guard/forward Devon Walker, pictured right (knee injury suffered during the summer, out for season); transfer forward Alex Murphy (not eligible for two more weeks, per NCAA rules); transfer Jon Egubunu (not eligble until the 2015-16 season, per NCAA rules); Brandone Francis (academically ineligible this season).
* 29 - Consecutive games Frazier has hit at least one 3-point shot. If he takes the streak to 30, he will become just the fourth player in UF history to compile a run of 30 games or longer, joining Lee Humphrey (39), Kenny Boynton (34) and Brett Nelson (33).
* 1990 - The last time a Florida team was two games under .500 so early in a season, which would be the case with a loss to Yale. The 1990-91 team, in Coach Lon Kruger's first season, started 1-4. That UF team lost at South Florida and home against Texas before winning at Florida State, but then dropped a road game at James Madison and was beaten by UNC-Charlotte in opening-round play of the Carrier Classic at Syracuse.
WATCH FOR IT
This one could come down to rebounding. The Gators, who were pummeled 24-9 on the glass at Kansas, need to pick up that element of their game against the Bulldogs and limit second-chance opportunities. That means effort. That means playing harder. And that's been the battle cry of the Gators' staff for two weeks now.
