Pre-Game 'Stuff' -- Florida at Missouri (Tuesday, 9 pm)
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
FLORIDA at MISSOURI
When: Tuesday, 9 p.m. (ET)
Where: Mizzou Arena, Columbia, Mo.
Records: Florida 13-14 (6-8); Missouri 7-20 (1-13)
TV: SEC Network (with Matt Stewart and Darrin Horn)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (with Mick Hubert and Mark Wise), check for local outlets here.
STAKES, STARS & STATS
>>> UF and Mizzou will play for the first time this season. The Gators hold a 3-1 advantage in the all-time series, with all four meetings coming since Missouri joined the Southeastern Conference for the 2012-13 season. ... The two last met March 14, 2014 in the third round of the 2014 SEC Tournament at Atlanta, where Florida turned a game tied at halftime into a 72-49 rout. UF shot 57 percent from the floor after halftime, including 6-for-9 from 3-point range, while holding Mizzou to just 20 points on 32-percent shooting and 0-for-6 from long distance. Guards Scottie Wilbekin and Michael Frazier II had 15 points, with forward Dorian Finney-Smith adding 10 points and nine rebounds off the bench. ... The game will mark just the second trip for Florida to Mizzou Arena. The Tigers won there 63-60 in 2013. 
>>> Florida coach Billy Donovan (left) sits on 499 career victories. His next win will make him the second-youngest coach to reach 500 Division I wins in college basketball history. Only Bobby Knight will have done it faster. ... Once again, the Gators will be without their two leading scorers in Frazier (13.2 ppg, 40 percent from 3-point) and Finney-Smith (12.9 ppg, 39.8 percent from 3). Frazier (ankle) will miss his fifth straight game, while Finney-Smith (suspended), who also is UF's best rebounder (5.8 pg), is out for a third straight. ... Florida has lost five of the previous six, with its last outing Saturday's 70-63 defeat at LSU. The Gators currently rest in a three-way tie (along with Tennessee and Alabama) for fifth place in the league standings. A win at Mizzou would go a long way toward keeping the Gators out of the Wednesday opening-night round of the five-day SEC Tournament at Nashville next month. ... In its present state, Florida has no starters averaging in double figures. The most productive of the bunch is junior guard Eli Carter (8.9 ppg), who missed eight of his first nine shots at Baton Rouge, finishing 4-for-14 overall and 2-for-7 from the arc for 14 points. For the season, Carter is shooting 36.6 percent and 29.7 from 3. ... Freshman forward Devin Robinson (6.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg) has hit double figures in three of the past four games. In the game he didn't, though, he went scoreless. ... Junior forward Alex Murphy (5.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg) has started the last two games. >>> Missouri is coached by Kim Anderson, in his first year since coming from Central Missouri, which he led to the Division II national title last season (left). ... The Tigers are in the midst of one of their worst seasons in decades. Remarkably, Mizzou entered SEC play with a 6-6 record and promptly defeated LSU -- yes, the same team that has waxed the Gators twice -- in overtime to open the league slate. Since then, however, the Tigers have dropped 13 in a row, eight of them by double-digits. ... Missouri ranks among the bottom of 18 of the SEC's statistical categories; the bottom two of 11 of them, including scoring offense and defense (61.7 ppg and 69.5 ppg); field-goal percentage offense and defense (.410 and .348), rebounding margin (minus-3.3) and turnover margin (minus-2.0). ... Mizzou is led by 6-9, 225-pound sophomore forward Johnathan Williams III (12.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg), who has five double-doubles this season, along with senior guard Keith Shamburger (8.5 ppg, 3.9 apg).
SOME NUMBERS OF NOTE 
* .253 -- Gators' combined 3-point shooting percentage in SEC play when Frazier and Finney-Smith are removed from the equation.
* .316 -- Sophomore point guard Kasey Hill's 3-point shooting percentage in SEC play. Of the Gators who will play at Mizzou, Hill (left) tops the team.
* 3 -- Points needed by Carter to reach 1,000 for his career. His 997, the first 799 were scored during Carter's two seasons at Rutgers before transferring to UF in the summer of 2013.
* 4 -- 3-point field goals (on nine attempts) from Murphy over the last two games. He had one (on 13 attempts) in the previous 15 games.
* 48 -- Combined points scored by Missouri's five-man freshman class of Tramaine Isabell, Jakeenan Gant, Montaque Gill-Caesar, D'Angelo Allen and Naman Wright, which speaks to the team's youth.
WATCH FOR IT
Donovan has used 12 different starting lineups in 27 games this season. A 13th one, if you can believe it, may be coming.
