Pregame Stuff: Florida vs. No. 10 Michigan State (Saturday, noon)
Friday, December 7, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA vs. No. 10 MICHIGAN STATE
When: Saturday, noon (EST) Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla. Records: Florida (5-3); Michigan State (7-2) TV: CBS (Carter Blackburn and Clark Kellogg) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)
STAKES (The Setup)
The Gators will be back playing before the home O'Dome crowd for the first time in 11 days.
UF returns to action for the second part of one of the toughest non-league back-to-backs of Coach Mike White's four seasons. After winning a defensive/turnover slugfest against West Virginia in the Jimmy V Classic Tuesday night in New York, the Gators are home to face 10th-ranked Michigan State, a game that will complete a home-and-home contract that sent the Gators to East Lansing three years ago in White's first season on the UF sidelines. ... The Spartans lead the all-time series 4-3, with the most significant of those games, of course, MSU's 89-76 win in the 2000 NCAA championship game at the Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis that gave the Spartans their second national crown in school history. ... This will be Michigan State's second visit to the O'Dome. The Gators, then No. 6, defeated the 24th-ranked Spartans 74-70 at home on Dec. 5, 2001. ... As for the last meeting between the two, it came Dec. 12, 2015 when MSU was ranked No. 1 in the nation. It was the ninth game of White's first season, and came four nights after a road loss at 17th-ranked Miami. The Spartans defeated the Gators 58-52 behind 17 points and five rebounds from Denzel Valentine. Both teams struggled to score (MSU shot 37 percent overall and just 5-for-25 from the 3-point line; UF was 33 percent and 4-for-18), with the Spartans leading just 27-25 at the break. A run of seven straight points by the Gators, capped by a Dorian Finney-Smith 3-pointer, had Florida up 45-42 with just under 10 minutes to play, and later by one point, 47-46, on a Devin Robinson stick-back inside seven minutes. The Spartans, though, retook the lead on the next possession and never trailed again. Finney-Smith had 13 points and six rebounds for the Gators, while Robinson had 10 points and nine boards. ... White is 2-2 vs. teams from the Big Ten Conference during his tenure at UF.
Any one of three Spartans could have been profiled here, what with a trio of guys at least 16 points per game. The nod, though, goes to Nick Ward, who figures to be a handful in the post against a UF team that will be challenged (if not out-manned) by front-court threats throughout the season. Ward is a three-year starter who already has eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone despite averaging under 20 minutes per game his career. This season, he's shooting 63.3 percent from the floor and is coming off a 26-point, 9-rebound effort in a win against No. 18 Iowa during which he made -- get this -- all 10 of his field-goal attempts. Ward is a conventional big (just one 3-point attempt for his career), an average free-throw shooter (61.6 percent), but good luck moving his 6-9, 245-pound body off the block. The Gators will likely double-team (or "fire") him in the post, but unlike bulky West Virginia center Sagaba Konate, who UF completely neutralized Tuesday night, Ward has reliable 3-point shooters to kick the ball to on the perimeter. Plus, he's an extremely high-IQ player, which means he can out-smart a lot of things the Gators will throw his way.
STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)
Andrew Nembhard has struggled to make shots when driving to the basket (39 percent overall this season), but he's 50 percent from the 3-point.
ABOUT THE GATORS: So the win over West Virginia was just their second in five games against opponents from high-major conferences. The Mountaineers, frankly, were a turnover-plagued, brick-shooting mess and UF gets credit for helping make that happen. But now comes a game against a bona fide national-championship contender that will better gauge a Gators defense that ranks sixth nationally in efficiency. ... Shooting guard KeVaughn Allenhas come alive (sort of) the last two games, earning
KeVaughn Allen
praise from White for his aggression and confidence. Allen took nine shots in the win last week over UNF (not enough), then jacked 13 against WVU (much better) and ended with a season-high 19 points. By scoring 32 points the last two games, Allen is now the Gators' lone starter averaging in double figures (though barely). Allen, by the way, needs three 3-point field goals to become the eighth player in UF history to make 200 in his career. ... Reserve guard DeAundrae Ballard still ranks second on the team in scoring (9.9 ppg) despite going 0-for-6 from the floor against WVU. Don't expect that goose egg to deter him from getting the ball up. Ballard is still shooting over 50 percent from the floor and 39 from the arc. ... Guard Noah Locke had a tough offensive outing in New York. He banged his first shot of the night, a 3-ball, but finished 1-for-6. He still rates third on the team in scoring and is playing solid defense, especially for a rookie. ... Speaking of rookies, point guard Andrew Nembhard is proving to be the program's best freshman since Bradley Beal in 2011-12. Though shooting just 39 percent, he's made nine of his 18 from distance and continues to be uncanny with his assist-to-turnover ratio (4.73, which ranks 12th in the nation). Nembhard has just two turnovers over the previous three games. ... The front court tandem of Kevarrius Hayes and Keith Stone need to earn their scholarships in this one. The action in the paint won't be for the squeamish. That was the case against WVU, also, and both acquitted themselves well in combining for 14 rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Frankly, the Gators will need more (much more) from both against the Spartans, and that means staying out of a foul trouble. ... Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson (6.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg) did a better job Tuesday in answering the challenge from his coaches to go to the glass. He's to athletic to float around the perimeter when the ball goes up. He had maybe his best all-around game Tuesday in going 4-for-5 from the floor, with five rebounds and four steals. ... Redshirt freshman forward Isaiah Stokes (4.2 ppg, 1.2 rpg) played just five minutes
Tom Izzo
against WVU. He's slowly working himself back into conditioning, but the more up-tempo the game, the less he'll be out there. ... Forward Chase Johnson (head) and center Gorjok Gak (knee) will not play. ... ABOUT THE SPARTANS: Now in their 24th season under Hall-of-Famer Tom Izzo, the Spartans remain among the elite programs in the country and have yet another squad capable of winning Izzo (581-227 all time) his second national championship. ... Michigan State opened the season with an 82-77 loss to then-No. 1 Kansas at Indianapolis, but has since won seven of eight, including double-digit wins over UCLA and Texas, followed by an 82-78 road loss at Louisville. The Spartans already have two Big Ten victories under their belt, winning 78-67 at Rutgers and smashing No. 18 Iowa 90-68 at home Monday. ... MSU is averaging 87.2 points per game, ranks 13th nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency, 19th in 3-point shooting percentage (40.5), and plays as fast as any team in the country. The Spartans, who own a plus-18.6 per-game scoring margin, have been dominant on the glass all season, with a plus-11.9 rebounding margin, which dwarfs what the Gators have been able to do on the glass (plus-0.1). Where Michigan State has been uncharacteristically sub-par is with the ball, which shows up in its minus-1.8 turnover ratio. ... The status of senior guard Matt McQuaid (thigh bruise), who started the team's first six games, remains uncertain. McQuaid (7.3 ppg) is one of MSU's best 3-point shooters (37.8 percent for his career) and passers (3.0 apg this season). He went through warm-ups Monday before the Iowa game, but was held out. Izzo has termed McQuaid "day-to-day." ... The backcourt duo of Joshua Langford and Cassius Winston figures to give the Gators all they can handle. Both are over 43 percent overall from the floor and at or better than 43 from the 3-point line. They also get downhill, drive the ball into the paint and get to the free-throw line, where both are over 81 percent. ... Kyle Ahrens has replaced McQuaid in the lineup and has been a commensurate 3-point threat (36 percent). ... Kenny Goins is a terror on the glass, with 25 offensive rebounds.
STATS (Some Numbers of Note)
Dorian Finney-Smith looks like the filling of a Spartan sandwich, flanked by Javon Best (2) and Denzel Valentine (45), in the last meeting between the two teams on Dec. 12, 2015. Finney-Smith had 13 points, six rebounds and three assists in the game.
* minus-8 — Where Michigan State stands in steals comparisons against its opponents. The Spartans have 52 to their foes' 64. The Gators will need all the extra possessions they can get to score in this game. In contrast, UF has 76 steals versus 44 by opponents, yet another tribute to Nembhard's ball-handling.
* .500 — Florida's free-throw percentage through the first 34:30 against West Virginia, based on 13-for-26 at the line.
* .750 — Florida's free-throw percentage over the final 5:30 against WVU, based on 15-for-20 at the line.
* .900 — Florida's free-throw percentage over the final 1:35 against WVU, based on 9-for-10. Obviously, the Gators can make them (and practice shooting tons of them), but their 63.9 percent as a team is unsustainable.
* 3 — Top 10 opponents to roll into the O'Dome during White's four seasons. First came West Virginia for the 2016 SEC/Big West Challenge (UF won by 17), then came No. 8 Kentucky in 2017 (UF won by 22). Enter the Spartans.
* 7 — Final Four appearances for Izzo (1999, 2000, '01, '05, '09, '10 and '15). Michigan state, though, has failed to survive the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament in each of the previous three seasons, losing in 2017 to Syracuse and in 2016 to Kansas, and as a No. 2 seed to 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee State in the biggest upset of the entire tournament that year.
* 1987 — The first year the Gators and Spartans played, with eighth-ranked UF winning 83-59 on Dec. 30 in the consolation game of the Fiesta Bowl Classic at Tempe, Ariz. The Gators lost to ninth-ranked Duke, 93-70, in the event semifinals the day before.
STATEMENT (Random thought)
More than the Florida State, more than the trip to the Bahamas, and certainly more than the last outing against West Virginia, this game looms as a barometer for where this team stands in a much bigger picture, given the game is at home (this means you, Rowdies!), and that individual roles are coming more into focus.
