Pregame Shootaround -- Arkansas at Florida (Wednesday, 7 pm)
Tuesday, February 2, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
ARKANSAS at FLORIDA
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ET) Where: O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla. Records: Florida (14-7, 5-3); Arkansas (11-10, 4-4) TV: SEC Network (with Mike Morgan and Joe Dean Jr.) Radio: Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (with Mick Hubert and Mark Wise). Check for availability here.
STAKES, STARS AND STATS
>>> Florida and Arkansas represent two of the three league teams coming off wins Saturday in the 10-game SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Both teams were home, with the Gators defeating No. 9 West Virginia 88-71 and the Razorbacks beating Texas Tech 75-68 in overtime. ... UF leads the all-time series 18-11, including a 10-2 mark at home that includes 10 straight wins. ... In the last meeting, Michael Frazier II hit a pair of free throws with 1.6 seconds left to give Florida a 57-56 victory on Jan. 31, 2015. UF, which went just 4-for-22 from the 3-point line that day, was led by Dorian Finney-Smith's 16 points and nine rebounds, which helped offset a huge game from Razorbacks forward Bobby Portis (21 points, 10 rebounds), who later became a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls.
Dorian Finney-Smith>>> The rout of WVU was easily the best wire-to-wire game by the Gators this season. They not only were red-hot shooting the ball from everywhere (53 percent from the floor, 12-for-20 from the 3-point line and 77.4 from the line), but gave the defensive-minded Mountaineers a dose of their own in-your-face medicine. UF would be wise to bring that same mentality against an Arkansas team that plays a similar pressing system and is capable of scoring fast and in bunches. ... Finney-Smith (14.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg), the fifth-year senior, has hit his career-high of 24 points in two of the last three games and now is shooting almost 46 percent from the floor and 41.7 from long distance. ... Freshman guard KeVaughn Allen (11.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg), an Arkansas native, has hit double-digits in five straight games and 10 of his previous 12. Over the last five games, Allen averaged 16.4 points while making 58.3 percent of his field-goal attempts, 57.7 of his 3s (15-for-26) and 87.5 of his free throws (21 of 24). ... Sophomore point guard Chris Chiozza (7.0 ppg, 4.5 apg) had some really nice moments in the WVU game (10 points, 6 assists), but also had a career-worst six turnovers, albeit against the nation's best defense at forcing turnovers. ... The status of junior forward Justin Leon (4.9 ppg, 2.6 rpg), another Arkansas native, likely will come down to a game-time decision. Leon, who leads the team in 3-point shooting at 45.5 percent, missed the WVU game after suffering a head injury last week at Vanderbilt. ... Backup forward Devin Robinson's scoring average has incrementally declined over the season, but his seven points and five rebounds against the Mountaineers were key. Where Robinson (9.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg) needs to focus on improving is on the defensive end. He was very good in that area against WVU. ... By going 3-for-3 from deep against WVU, backup guardBrandone Francis-Ramirez took his 3-point shooting percentage from 12.5 to 18.6. His nine points were one off his career-high of 10 (vs. North Carolina A&T in the second game of the season).
Dusty Hannahs>>> The Razorbacks have won two straight. Before the defeat of Texas Tech, they handed then-No. 5 Texas A&M its first conference loss, prevailing 75-71 at home. ... Arkansas is the highest-scoring team in the league (81.6 ppg), thanks in great part to a 3-point shooting marksmanship (.424) that leads the SEC and ranks sixth in the country. The Hogs are an excellent passing team (17.5 assists pg) and also top the conference in fewest turnovers (11.3 pg) and assist-to-turnover ratio (plus-1.5). ... The last two wins mark the best of Arkansas' season, especially given the team's dismal 1-8 record away from Bud Walton Arena, which includes a loss to Mercer at Little Rock. The Hogs also have dropped road dates at Wake Forest, Dayton, LSU, Georgia and A&M, plus neutral-site games against Stanford and Georgia Tech. ... Arkansas will start four guards, none of whom are over 6-3, but two of whom average at least 16 points: junior Dusty Hannahs (17 ppg), a transfer from Texas Tech, plus senior Anthlon Bell (16.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg). Hannahs is shooting nearly 47 percent from the floor, 46 from deep and 88 from the free-throw line. Bell's numbers are equally as impressive: 45.5 floor, 46 from the arc, 71 from the line. ...The lone starting big man is 6-10, 230-pound junior Moses Kingsley (16.5 ppg, 9.4 rpg), who is converting 55 percent from the floor and also has 54 blocked shots.
SOME NUMBERS OF NOTE
Brandone Francis-Ramirez* .374 -- Road winning percentage for Arkansas in five seasons under Mike Anderson. "Homecourt Mike," as he's known in Fayetteville, took steps last season to erasing the program's reputation for road kill, as the Hogs went 7-5 away from Bud Walton Arena, but this season they're 1-5 in true road games.
* .769 -- Free-throw percentage for the Gators over the past three games, thanks to 50-for-65 efficiency at the line. UF was at 61.1 percent, but has inched to 63.2, thanks to those three games.
* .933 -- Combined free-throw percentage of Allen (9-for-9) and Finney-Smith (5-for-6) vs. WVU. It helps when you're best players -- and the guys with the ball in their hands a lot -- are making the free ones.
* 157 -- Bench points by Florida since the start of start of the calendar year, a run of nine games, compared to 114 for opponents. UF's bench outscored all but WVU's bench during that stretch.
* 1995 -- The last year Arkansas won at the O'Dome. The Razorbacks, under Nolan Richardson, were the reigning national champions that season and led by Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman. The Hogs won 94-85 on Feb. 28 and eventually fell one game shy of a repeat national crown, falling to UCLA in the NCAA title game.
WATCH FOR IT
This should be a game where UF center John Egbunu (10.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg) can capitalize on an undersized opponent, but it'll be up to Egbunu to keep himself available, given his penchant to get into foul trouble.
ARKANSAS at FLORIDA 
