Pregame Stuff: Florida at South Carolina (Saturday, noon)
Friday, February 9, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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A nuts and bolts look at UF's road date and rematch against the Gamecocks.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA at SOUTH CAROLINA
When: Saturday, noon (EST) Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, S.C. Records: Florida (16-8, 7-4); South Carolina (13-11, 4-7) TV: CBS Network (Carter Blackburn and Jim Spanarkel) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Bill Koss)
STAKES (The Setup)
Florida has lost the last two times it's visited Colonial Life Arena (capacity 18,000).
Florida will play its first rematch of the 2017-18 season, as well as the first of three straight Southeastern Conference rematches. The two teams met Jan. 24, with South Carolina winning 77-72 at Gainesville, as the Gamecocks raillied from down eight with just over 15 minutes left. That game sent the Gators on a tailspin of three straight losses in league play, until they snapped that run Wednesday night with a 73-64 home defeat of LSU. The Gamecocks, meanwhile, are winless in four games since leaving Exactech Arena victorious, most recently losing Tuesday night at Arkansas 81-65. ... UF will start the day alone in third place in the SEC standings, one game ahead of fourth-place Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Missouri, but just one game behind second-place Tennessee, and two back of first-place Auburn. USC sits in a four-way tie for 10th place alongside Georgia, LSU and Ole Miss. ... Florida leads the all-time series 44-26, but South Carolina has won four of the previous five. ... The Gators are 21-15 all-time at Columbia, with their most recent trip coming last Jan. 18, when they lost 57-53 loss and went 0-for-17 from the 3-point line.
Going into the first meeting, Florida's No. 1 focus was containing beastly forward Chris Silva, who Coach Mike White called the hardest-playing player in all of college basketball. He could not control the game. Meanwhile, USC guard Wesley Myers, the graduate transfer from Maine, showed up in the scouting report, but what he did when he showed up at the O'Dome was pretty unlikely. Myers went into the game averaging 9.0 points and having gone 13-for-36 from the 3-point line for a USC team that ranked 11th in the league in long-distance field-goal percentage. Of course, against UF's generous perimeter defense, the Gamecocks dropped 11 of 21 shots from deep, with Myers going 5-for-7 on his way to a game- and season-high 22 points and 8-for-15 marksmanship overall. Now, are you ready for the punch line? In the Gamecocks' four games since (all losses), Myers has attempted just 15 shots, only made five, and has totaled a combined for 16 points. Oh yeah, he's also 0-for-5 from the 3-point line in that span. He probably can't wait to face the Gators again.
STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)
Jalen Hudson (3) and Kevarrius Hayes (13) hit the glass against LSU.ABOUT THE GATORS: This game will be a test of their toughness (which has been under scrutiny all season), as well as the Gators' commitment to carrying over the energy they claimed to have unearthed following a clear-the-air team meeting Monday, followed by a high-energy effort versus LSU. ... Florida shot 51.9 percent in the win over LSU, which marked the highest percentage since bombing 58.5 percent (and 15 makes from 3) in a 108-87 blowout of Stanford in the PK80 Invitational at Stanford on Thanksgiving night. ... Remember when the strength of the Gators was their ability to rain 3-point shots? Well, UF has shot just 26.4 percent from the arc over its previous five SEC games (32 of 121), which explains how well opposing defenses are challenging shots on arc. The problem with that? The Gators rank 247th nationally in 2-point offensive efficiency. Translation: They're not shooting very well from anywhere. ... After making just six of 24 shots the previous two games, swingman and leading scorer Jalen Hudson got the start against the Tigers at responded with 18 points, hit seven of his 13 attempts, grabbed nine rebounds and played his finest game of defense all season. ... Forward Egor Koulechov took just eight shots against LSU, but made four, including a pair of huge 3s early in the second half to get the Gators going. Koulechov has single-digit shot attempts in five games this season and UF is 4-1 in those games. ... Point guard Chris Chiozza was fantastic on defense against LSU, but he's made just three of his previous 14 field-goal tries and is 0-for-5 from 3 the last two games. ... ForwardKeith Stonehad a highly efficient offensive game in scoring 15 against the Tigers and making really good decisions with the ball. ... Shooting guard KeVaughn Allen (11.0 ppg) has shot above 43 percent in only two SEC games, and 33 percent or less in five games, but is coming off his first back-to-back games of at least 40 percent (41.7 vs. Alabama; 42.9 vs LSU) since the first two league
Chris Silva
games. Allen did not start against the Tigers because he was late for the team's shoot-around earlier in the day. ... Reserve guard Mike Okauru helped lift the UF bench last game with nine points. He'd scored one point the previous five games combined.... ABOUT THE GAMECOCKS: They're 109-85 in six seasons under Frank Martin, but USC has flipped the script in a series once decisively tilted to UF. Martin lost his first four cracks at the Gators, but he's now 4-5 against them. ... Since beating Florida a little more than two weeks, the Gamecocks lost at home to Texas Tech in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, lost at home to Mississippi State, lost at Texas A&M and, most recently, Tuesday night at Arkansas. Those last two road losses were by 23 and 16 points, respectively. ... South Carolina is shooting 36.6 percent in SEC play, which ranks last in the league by more than 3 percentage points. ... Forward Chris Silva is having a first-team All-SEC season and added to his postseason honors resume at the Gators' expense in the first meeting with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Silva is shooting 46.4 percent from the floor, leads the nation in free-throw attempts with 215 (he's made 74.4 percent of them), and of his 185 rebounds, 40.5 percent have come on the offensive end. He is a nightmare matchup for Florida because of his low-post work and uncompromising work ethic (and UF's depleted corps of bigs). ... Guard Frank Booker, the transfer from Florida Atlantic, is up to 40 percent from the 3-point line with a team-best 54 makes, while rookie forward Justin Minaya is at 37.2 percent with 29 makes, which ranks second on the team. ... Forward Maik Kotsar has been a thorn in the Gators' side each of the last two meetings, starting with USC's win in the NCAA East Region title game last spring. Kotsar had nine points and six rebounds in the game last month and 12 points in the tournament game. ... Guard Evan Hinson is now a starter after joining the team at the end of the Gamecocks' football season. Hinson played tight end, as if the roster needed more toughness.
STATS (Some Numbers of Note)
Egor Koulechov
* .416 — Florida's record in rematch games in three seasons under White, based on a 5-7 mark. The Gators have five such games over their final seven regular-season matchups: at South Carolina (Saturday), Georgia (Wednesday), at Vanderbilt (Feb. 17), at Alabama (Feb. 27) and Kentucky (March 3). UF went 2-3 against those teams the first time through.
* .465 — Defensive field-goal percentage for South Carolina, which for all the program's rep as a tough and physical grouip (and it is) ranks 12th in the SEC and is actually worse than Florida, which checks in 10th (.436).
* 7 — Times the Gators have led in the second halves of games this season and lost, including the first game against the Gamecocks. The others? Duke (up 17 with 10:15 to play), Loyola Chicago (one with 17:02 to play), Clemson (10 with six minutes to play), Ole Miss (eight with 12:53 to play), Georgia (five with 13:52 to play) and Alabama (six at start of second half).
* 77 — Points scored by South Carolina in the first meeting, which is the most the Gamecocks have scored in any SEC game this season.
* 850 —Consecutive games the Gators had hit a 3-point shot, a 25-year run dating to January 1992, until going 0-for-17 in that brickfest at South Carolina 13 months ago.
STATEMENT (Random thought)
Will the Gators' hustle, energy and defensive commitment travel? It better.
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