Pregame Stuff: No. 7 Florida vs Stanford (Thursday, 10 pm EST)

No. 8 FLORIDA vs STANFORD

When: Thursday, 10 p.m. (EST)
Where: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Ore.
Records: Florida 3-0, Stanford 3-2
TV: ESPN2 (Doug Sherman and Dan Dakich)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Ted Emrich and Mark Wise)

STAKES (The Setup)

Portland, Ore., home to Nike, will be the site of some high-level basketball over the Thanksgiving weekend, as the PK80, a celebration of Nike found Phil Knight's 80th birthday, stages one of the most loaded holiday tournaments ever.

The PK80 is being billed as arguably the best holiday tournament field ever, and by sheer basketball brand power — a combined 23 national championships and 87 Final Fours — it's hard to argue the statement. … The tournament, which is divided into the Motion and Victory brackets, will be played at both Veterans Memorial Coliseum and Moda Center, home to the NBA Portland Trailblazers. Besides UF-Stanford, the Motion bracket first-round games will be Ohio State vs. No. 17 Gonzaga, Butler vs. Texas, and No. 1 Duke vs. Portland State. The Gators-Cardinal winner will face the OSU-Gonzaga winner. ... Teams in the other bracket: No. 4 Michigan State, No. 9 North Carolina, Oregon, Connecticut, Oklahoma, Arkansas, DePaul and Portland. … The Gators have opened with three straight wins for the third time in as many seasons under Coach Mike White, having survived a scare Sunday night in a 70-63 win over New Hampshire. This will be White's first game against a team from the Pac-12 Conference. … Stanford is dealing with some injuries and its lack of depth showed up Monday night when the Cardinal was leveled 92-72 at home by reigning NCAA champion UNC. … UF is winless in four games in its series against Stanford, including a pair of neutral-site contests. The two programs last played on Nov. 27, 2002, when the Cardinal won 69-65 in the preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden. Stanford's Rob Little hit a tie-breaking layup with 16 seconds to go and the Cardinal held on for the win, with help from a double-double from Justin Davis (14 points, 10 rebounds). Florida, which shot just 39.3 percent from the floor and 28.6 from the 3-point line, was led by Matt Bonner's 19 points, but also got 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists from freshman wing Matt Walsh.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Egor Koulechov	F	6-5	205	G-Transfer	20.3 pts / 8.3 reb
Keith Stone	F	6-8	245	R-Sophomore	6.3 pts / 2.0 reb
Kevarrius Hayes	C	6-9	225	Junior	6.3 pts / 5.7 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	193	Junior	10.7 pts / 4.3 reb
Chris Chiozza	PG	6-0	180	Senior	8.7 pts / 5.7 reb / 4.3 ast

Stanford	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Michael Humphrey	F	6-9	245	Senior	12.2 pts / 10.6 reb
Oscar Da Silva	F	6-9	210	Freshman	7.2 pts / 6.5 reb
Reid Travis	C/F	6-9	245	R-Junior	21.2 pts / 6.6 reb
Daejon Davis	PG	6-3	175	Freshman	6.5 pts / 4.2 reb
Isaac White	G	6-1	185	Freshman	12.8 pts / 1.8 reb

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

Senior center **Reid Travis**, the 6-foot-8, 245-pounder out of Minneapolis, will be a handful to deal with in the post. As a junior, he led the Cardinal in nine categories, including scoring, rebounding and field-goal percentage. He's not a threat to shoot 3s (only one attempt during the entire 2016-17 season, though 2-for-9 this through five games this year), but instead will work the paint area, bodying and muscling up on opposing centers and forwards and doing damage either by stuffing the box score or getting guys in foul trouble. Against the defending championship Tar Heels, Travis went for 21 points and six rebounds. He's a workhorse at his size, too, averaging 35 minutes. He's hitting 53.6 percent from the floor and 69.8 from the line, so far. Look for the Gators to try and use Travis's and the Cardinal's size against them with an emphasis on transition offense and driving and kicking to the wings, thus challenging Stanford's lateral quickness.

STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)

ABOUT THE GATORS: After a rip-roaring good time in the first two games — well over 50 percent from the floor, a combined 29 made 3-pointers — UF hit a wall on offense against New Hampshire, struggling to just 32-percent shooting and an ugly 3-for-18 (16.7 percent) from deep. The Gators actually trailed the Wildcats by a point midway through the second half, but Florida was able to retake the lead and hold it, thanks to a sensational scoring display by wing Jalen Hudson, the transfer from Virginia Tech. Hudson came off the bench to put down seven of his 12 shots and 11 of his 12 free throws on the way to 26 points, including 19 of his team's final 24. … UF is waiting for guard KeVaughn Allen (37.9 percent from the floor, 6-for-16 from 3) to break out in a big way in one of these early season games. He had 18 against North Florida, the team's second game, but went 5-for-19 overall and 2-for-9 from deep in the other two. … Florida's tough shooting night against UNH was not only exhibited by Allen, but also forward Egor Koulechov, the grad-transfer from Rice, who made just four of his 14 shots and one of six 3-point attempts. Koulechov, though, has double-doubles in two games already, which was good enough to be named the first 2017-18 Southeastern Conference Player of the Week. This will be Koulechov's first game where he's overmatched in overall size as far as front courts, but he tends to play bigger than he is. … Point guard Chris Chiozza is at 13 assists and just four turnovers so far, but was held without an assist against UNH for the first time in 63 career games. .. Power forward Keith Stone has grabbed just six rebounds thus far, but also has been in foul trouble much of the time. … After

hitting six of his seven shots in his first two games, center Kevarrius Hayes went 1-for-5 on Monday, but also blocked five shots. ... ABOUT THE CARDINAL: They're coached by Jerod Haase, who's now 17-19 in his second season since heading to Palo Alto, Calif., by way of Alabama-Birmingham. Haase actually faced the Gators as coach at UAB, with Florida defeating the Blazers 56-47 at the Battle4Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas, on Nov. 27, 2014. ... Stanford opened the season with wins over Cal Poly and Pacific, but lost 67-61 at home to Eastern Washington, then bounced back to beat Northeastern last week, in the run-up to facing Carolina. … As a team, the Cardinal have outshot their opponents, though barely, from the floor, but has a plus-3.2 edge in rebounds and have shot 58 more free throws. … Stanford started three freshmen against the Tar Heels. ... Senior 6-5 wing Dorian Pickens (10.5 ppg, 2.5 apg) is expected to miss the tournament with a stress fracture in his leg that he suffered in the second game. Junior guard Marcus Sheffield, who averaged 6.9 points last season and scored a career-high 35 against Arizona State, has not played this season with a foot injury. .… Three Cardinals besides Travis are averaging double-figure scoring, with forward Michael Humphrey posting at a double-double clip. Humphrey is shooting just 39 percent overall, but he's 6-for-11 from deep (.545) and can get to the free-throw, where he's 19-for-22 (.864). … Rookie shooting guard Isaac White has made nearly 47 percent of his shots from the floor and is 13-for-28 from the arc (.464). … While point guard Daejon Davis is second on the team in assists (17) and first in turnovers (17), backup Robert Cartright has a 3-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio (18-to-6).

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

* 11.6 — Advantage Stanford has enjoyed over its opponents in average free-throws attempted through five games.

* 4.25 — Combined average minutes logged by each of UF's four freshmen (Deaundrae Ballard, Chase Johnson, Mike Okauru and Dontay Bassett) against UNH.

* 13.25 — Combined average minutes logged by each of UF's four freshmen in the first two games.

* 13.25 — Combined average minutes logged by each of UF's four freshmen in the first two games.

* 2,930 — Miles from Gainesville to Portland, a 43-hour drive through 12 states, if you so desire.

STATEMENT (Random thought)

Portland is pretty cool and all (my first time here), but I wouldn't want to make that flight very often. Feel like I'm still on the plane.

Gators Calendar

Pregame Stuff: No. 7 Florida vs Stanford (Thursday, 10 pm EST)

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Deaundrae Ballard

Dontay Bassett

Chris Chiozza

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Chase Johnson

Egor Koulechov

Mike Okauru

Keith Stone

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Pregame Stuff: No. 7 Florida vs Stanford (Thursday, 10 pm EST)

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Deaundrae Ballard

Dontay Bassett

Chris Chiozza

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Chase Johnson

Egor Koulechov

Mike Okauru

Keith Stone

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