FLORIDA vs FLORIDA STATE When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
Where: O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: UF (8-3), FSU (9-2)
TV: ESPN2 (with
Mark Jones and
Dick Vitale)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (with
Mick Hubert and
Mark Wise). Check for availability
here.
STAKES, STARS AND STATS >>> UF and FSU will meet for the 67th time, with the Gators holding a 43-23 lead in the all-time series and 21-6 mark at home. Florida has won five of the last six. ... Their last meeting came nearly one year to the day -- Dec. 30, 2014 -- in Tallahassee, where the game was tied in the final seconds as Seminoles guard
Devon Bookert launched a desperation 3-point shot from the corner. The ball barely grazed the front of the rim, but was inadvertently tipped into the goal by UF forward
Jacob Kurtz with four-tenths of a second remaining, giving FSU a 65-63 win. The Gators, who erased a five-point deficit in the final 50 seconds, were led by 17 points from point guard
Kasey Hill and 13 points from forward
Dorian Finney-Smith. The Seminoles got 17 points from guard
Montay Brandon. ... For UF, it'll be the first game in seven days, since the Gators defeated Jacksonville 89-65 on Dec. 22, while FSU is back on the floor for the first time in eight days. The Seminoles beat Charleston Southern 75-64 on Dec. 21.
Egbunu>>> Florida has yet to defeat a ranked opponent -- and Florida State is not ranked. Yet. The Seminoles, though, are a really good team that figures to be in the postseason conversation, so the Gators need to take advantage of a home game against a quality opponent, given they've already dropped games against ranked foes Purdue, Miami and Michigan State. ... UF rates 17th nationally in scoring defense (60.9 ppg) and is allowing teams to shoot just 37.3 percent from the floor and 31.9 from the 3-point line. ... After starting the season somewhat sloppily, with 44 turnovers in the first three games, the Gators' 10 turnovers per game is tied for 11th nationally. ... Florida remains a poor shooting team -- from everywhere: 42.4 overall, 28.6 from distance and 62.3 from the free-throw line. All three of those statistics rank last among the 14 teams in the Southeastern Conference. UF's shooting guards remain the biggest culprits, with freshmen
KeVaughn Allen and
Brandone Francis-Ramirez now a combined 11-for-65 from the 3-point line (16.9 percent). ... Finney-Smith (14.0 ppg, 7.8 rpg), the fifth-year senior, continues to lead the team in scoring and rebounding, with sophomore forward
Devin Robinson (11.3 ppg, 7.5 rpg) not far behind. Those two, however, were singled out for their last of effort in the win over Jacksonville and benched to start the second half. Coach
Mike White will be looking for engagement on both ends from both players. ... Sophomore center
John Egbunu (11.5 ppg, 6.6 rpg) is shooting 60 percent from the floor, with 21 of his 51 field goals dunks, but freshman backup
Kevarrius Hayes is the team's field-goal leader at 70.6 percent (12 of 17). ... Sophomore point guard
Chris Chiozza (6.5 ppg, 3 apg) has 10 assists and no turnovers in his three games since taking over for Hill at the starting point guard spot. Hill has 15 assists and four turnovers in his backup role. ... Reserve forward
Alex Murphy aggravated the plantar facia tear -- the one that sidelined him for the first nine games -- in his right foot during practice Sunday night, just two games after making his season debut. He's questionable for the game. Backup center
Schuyler Rimmer (back) will miss his third consecutive game.
Bacon>>> Expectations for FSU shot up a couple notches with the arrival of a freshman class ranked among the nation's top 10 by some recruiting services and headlined by a pair of top-40 prospects in small forward
Dwayne Bacon, a McDonald's All-American, and shooting guard
Malik Beasley. Thus far, the two have performed as advertised, with Beasley (17.3 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and Bacon (17.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg) ranked 1-2 on the team in both scoring and rebounding. Bacon is listed as a guard, but he goes 6-7 and is a handful in transition. And with Beasley (51.2 percent from the floor and 42.6 from 3), FSU isn't the one-dimensional, plodding, work-from-inside bunch its historically been under
Leonard Hamilton, now in his 14th season in Tallahassee. ... The Seminoles say they start a four-guard lineup (mostly big guards, including Bacon), but Brandon (4.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg) is 6-8, 230. The lone, so-called non-guard exception is 7-3 senior center
Boris Bojanovsky (7.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg). FSU's roster checks in as the third-tallest in the country. ... Sophomore point guard
Xavier Rathan-Mayes (11.5 ppg, 6.1 apg) is an excellent floor general. FSU also can gets scoring off the bench from Bookert (7.3 ppg), a part-time starter last year and now a backup because of the top-flight rookies. ... The Seminoles' lone two losses came against Hofstra in a tournament at St. Thomas and at Iowa in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Since falling to the Hawkeyes, FSU has reeled off five straight wins (including defeats of VCU and Mississippi State).
SOME NUMBERS OF NOTE 
Allen* .500 -- Winning percentage of both White and Hamilton against one another, based on their 1-1 records. While at Louisiana Tech, White's teams went against FSU twice in the NIT. The Bulldogs won 71-66 in opening-round play in 2013, but the Seminoles returned the favor 78-75 in the tourney quarterfinals in 2014. Both games were at Tallahassee.
* .527 -- UF's all-time winning percentage against current ACC schools, based on 145-130 record, with an 0-1 mark under White.
* 1 -- As in the first SEC game of the season. It's Saturday, when the Gators get Georgia at the O'Connell Center, three days before the start of the spring semester.
* 4 -- Starting lineups used by the Gators over the last four games, as the team has mostly shuffled backcourt personnel in search for a scoring spark.
* 13.5 -- Average points by Allen the last two game after the UF freshman averaged just 6.2 through his first nine. He's gaining confidence and finally listening to the encouragement from his coaches and teammates to play aggressive and look to score.
WATCH FOR IT The two teams are almost complete opposites as far as identity, with FSU -- despite its size advantage virtually every outing -- reliant on its backcourt for a high volume scoring in hopes of getting the game into a track meet. UF has been carried most of the season by the play of its front court. And team defense. Whichever squad gets a little more from an unexpected source (for UF, that would be scoring from the guards; for FSU, production far more production in the paint) likely wins the game.
