Pregame Stuff: Florida vs Oklahoma (Wednesday, noon)
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
BATTLE 4 ATLANTIS
FLORIDA vs OKLAHOMA
When: Wednesday, noon (EST) Where: Imperial Arena, Paradise Island, Bahamas Records: Florida (2-1), Oklahoma (3-0) TV: ESPN (John Sciambi and Dan Dakich) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)
STAKES (The Setup)
Imperial Arena is a 3,000-seat ballroom on the Atlantis property.
UF is back in the loaded three-games-in-three-days tourney at the exotic venue for the second time in four years. The Gators, ranked No. 18 at the time, came here in 2014, seven months after their last Final Four appearance (but minus the senior stalwarts of that class), and lost two of three games. UF fell to Georgetown 66-65 in overtime on a last-second shot, beat Alabama-Birmingham 56-47, then got bludgeoned 75-64 by fifth-ranked North Carolina in an outcome that was nowhere as close as the score might suggest. That season, of course, turned out to be the last of Coach Billy Donovan's 19-year run with the program. ... The 2018 tournament field includes only one ranked team, but features some marquee names in addition to UF and OU, with Wisconsin and Stanford on the same side of the bracket, and No. 4 Virginia, Butler, Dayton (coached by former UF assistant Anthony Grant) and Middle Tennessee State on the other side. The Gators, win or lose, will play either the Badgers or Cardinal in the second round Thursday, then one of the four opponents on the other side Friday. ... Florida and Oklahoma will meet for the third time in their programs' histories, with the Gators victorious in both previous meetings, including an 84-52 wipeout win Jan. 28, 2017 at Norman in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. In that game, sophomore center Kevarrius Hayes came off the bench for foul-plagued John Egbunu and scored a career-high 20 points, making seven of his 11 shots, to go with nine rebounds, three blocks and two assists. Graduate Canyon Barry had 15 points and senior point guard Kasey Hill had 12 points in eight assists, as the Gators handed the Sooners their worst home loss in 95 years. ... UF is 4-0 against the Big 12 under Coach Mike White, with all but one of the wins coming in the annual SEC/Big 12 event.
Oklahoma guard Christian James is a big and physical guard who started 31 games for the Sooners last season and, at least in the early goings, has taken on the role of go-to scorer, having poured in a career-high 29 in the opener against Texas-Rio Grand Valley. As a junior last season, James averaged 11.9 points and 4.4 rebounds, while shooting nearly 46 percent from the floor and 36.5 from the 3-point line, including eight games where he made at least three shots from deep. Against TRGV, he made four 3s and played a team-high 36 minutes. His size, particularly his girth, figures to challenge no matter what guard the Gators is sent his way on defense. He will probe and drive to get shots off the dribble (58 percent from the floor this season), and draw contact to get get to the line (90.5 percent).
STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)
Kevarrius Hayes was an absolute force when the Gators massacred the Sooners two seasons ago in Norman.
ABOUT THE GATORS: Wins over mid-majors Charleston Southern and La Salle put UF over .500, but those games (neither singly nor collectively) have made anyone in forget what happened in the season opener at Florida State. The showing against the Seminoles represents a small (if not concerning) sample size as to how the Gators stack up against the big boys, but that will change over these Thanksgiving holidays in the Bahamas against a paddle-wheel of solid competition. ... Offense was supposed to be the strength of the team this season, but the Gators -- in great part because of that blowout loss in Tallahassee -- are shooting just 46.3 percent overall and a woeful 26.2 from 3. On a team withJalen Hudson and KeVaughn Allen, who respectively are at 37 percent and 34 percent from deep in their careers, those long-range numbers aren't going to work. ... Hudson averaged 15.5 points in leading UF in scoring last season, but has yet to hit that number this season. ... Allen went 0-for-3 from the floor against La Salle, but was better than his 0-for-4 (and scoreless) game against FSU because he attacked the paint and got to the foul line, where he made all eight of his free-throw attempts. He had zero free-throw tries in the first two games. ... Hayes had one of his best all-around games of the last two seasons against La Salle. His 12 points were the most tallied since the aforementioned 20 scored at OU two seasons ago. He also had six rebounds. ... Forward Keith Stonechecked out of the last game early in the second half with a sore ankle. He's yet to get off in any way, and really needs to (especially with his marksmanship from deep) if the Gators are going to round into the best offense they can be. ... If point guard Andrew Nembhard can ever got that scoop layup working, he could be as dangerous a scorer as he is a passer. Instead, he's shooting just 38 percent from the floor (with a handful of missed bunnies), but has 13 assists, just two turnovers, and five steals the last two games. ... Backup guardDeaundrae Ballard (10.3 ppg) is second on the team in scoring and is shooting almost 62 percent overall. ... Keep an eye on the minutes of three key rookie reserves -- forward Keyontae Johnson (7.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg), guard Noah Locke (5.0 ppg, 36.4 percent from 3) and forward/centerIsaiah Stokes (5.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg) -- as individual roles are sure to be further defined in a tournament of this level. Of those three, Johnson is the one appears most camera ready. ...
Lon Kruger then (with Gators at the top) and now (with Sooners) ABOUT THE SOONERS: He took Florida to what were unfathomable heights at the time. Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger, who rescued the Gators from the seedy underbelly of the Norm Sloan regime, led a band of overachievers (and their fan base) on a wild ride that ended in the 1994 Final Four and a hard-fought, narrow loss to Duke in the NCAA semifinals. UF was placed on probation five months after Kruger was hired, by way of his Kansas State alma mater, and one year removed from a 7-21 season. In his second year, the Gators won 19 games and reached the semifinals of the NIT. In his fourth year, they won a school-record 29 games on the way to the Final Four, then chased that with a second straight NCAA berth in '95. After a 12-16 campaign in 1995-96, Kruger bolted for Illinois and began an odyssey that included a disastrous turn with the NBA Atlanta Hawks, one year as an assistant with the New York Knicks, a good seven seasons at UNLV, followed by the move to OU, which he guided to the Final Four in 2016. Kruger is 143-91 in his nine seasons in Norman, 620-395 in 33 collegiate seasons overall. ... The Sooners snuck into the NCAA Tournament last season, despite an 8-10 league record, thanks to score-first point guard Trae Young. He's gone, having been taken with the third overall pick of the NBA draft. ... OU is averaging 84.3 points and shooting 48 percent from the floor, plus nearly 42 percent from deep, all numbers significantly better than what the Gators have done so far. The Sooners' best win of those three was Sunday's defeat of Wofford, a solid mid-major. ... After James, the other returning starter is forward Brady Manek, who is most dangerous on the perimeter when he can square up in space and shoot. The best way to neutralize what Manek's does best is to make him put the ball on the floor. Better box him out, also. Manek has double-doubles in all three games this season. ... Aaron Calixte, by way of Maine, fits the ideal mold of an impact, battle-tested grad transfer. In three seasons, he scored 1,125 points in 97 games for the Black Bears and averaged 11.6 points, 3.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds during a career of 89 starts in the America East Conference. Last year he led Maine at 16.9 points per game. He's a crafty player with a gift for drawing fouls. When he gets to the line he's an 88.3-percent career shooter. ... Forward Kristian Doolittle lost his starting job during the season last year, but regained it in the fall. ... Center Jamuni McNeace came into the season with 99 career games, almost exclusively as a backup, including as a member of OU's Final Four team as a redshirt freshman.
STATS (Some Numbers of Note)
UF point guard Andrew Nembhard.
* .320 — Opponent's 3-point field-goal percentage, which is 6 percent better than what the Gators are shooting. UF has made 17 treys this season versus 24 for their opponents.
* 1.000 — White's record in first-round games of holiday tournaments since coming to UF for the 2015-16 season. The Gators defeated St. Joseph's in the 2015 Hall of Fame Tip-off Tournament at Uncasville, Conn., beat Seton Hall in the 2016 AdvoCare Invitational at ESPN's Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., and defeated Stanford at the 2017 PK80 Invitational at Portland, Ore.
* +6.5 —Nembhard's assist-to-turnover ratio. Not bad for a rookie, but he's about to get a look at some competition that will rival what he saw at Florida State, where he had four assists and four turnovers.
* 12 — Number worn by Lee Humphrey during his sharp-shooting playing days on his way to scoring 1,080 points (48th in school history) and hitting a combined 47.5 percent from the 3-point line during UF's back-to-back NCAA title seasons of 2006-07. Humphrey will take a turn this week as color analyst, alongside play-by-play man Mick Hubert, on the Gator Radio Network, subbing in for Mark Wise and Bill Koss.
* 125,000,000 —Cost (in dollars) of Paradise Island when sold in 1994 to resort developer Sol Kerzer, who initiated the concept for Atlantis.
STATEMENT (Random thought)
So, how (and where) are you spending your Thanksgiving?
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