NCAA Tournament: Florida vs St. Bonaventure (Thursday, 9:57 pm)

NCAA EAST REGION
FLORIDA vs ST. BONAVENTURE

When: Thursday, 9:57 p.m. (ET)
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas.
Records: Florida (20-12); St. Bonaventure (26-7)
TV: truTV (Spero Dedes, Steve Smith, Len Elmore and Ros Gold-Onwude)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Mark Wise)

STAKES (The Setup)

American Airlines Center (capacity 20,000) is home to the NBA Dallas Mavericks and NHL Dallas Stars.

Florida is making its 19th appearance in the NCAA Tournament (not including the vacated trips of the 1987 and '88 seasons), as well as the seventh in the last nine seasons. The Gators are the No. 6 seed in the East Region and will face the 11th-seeded Bonnies, who are in the tournament for the eighth time. ... UF is 42-16 all-time in NCAA play, including 3-1 under Coach Mike White after last season's run to the Elite Eight. White is the first coach in program history to guide the team to two NCAAs in his first three seasons. ... St. Bonaventure is 7-8 all-time in the tournament, a record that includes a 1-2 mark in consolation games in 1961, '68 and '70. ... The Gators are coming off a disappointing one-and-out showing in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. They went in as the bracket's No. 3 overall seed and a double-bye into the quarterfinal round, but lost 80-72 to sixth-seeded Arkansas, which had played the day before. A similar lackluster effort Thursday night will bring an end to the season. ... The Bonnies, meanwhile, got one of the two 11-seed "play-in" games at Dayton, Ohio, where they defeated UCLA 65-58 Tuesday night, marking their first victory in NCAA play since reaching the Final Four nearly 50 years ago. ... Florida is 2-0 all-time against St. Bonaventure, with the most recent meeting coming last season -- Nov. 17, 2016 -- when the Gators defeated the Bonnies 73-66 in a game played at the Lakeland Center while the O'Connell Center was undergoing its renovations. Guard KeVaughn Allen and reserve forward Canyon Barry each scored 16 points, while Devin Robinson had 14. The game was tied at 66 with less than a minute to play, when UF scored the final seven points and canceled out a monster night by a Bonnies backcourt that is still there (read on).

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Egor Koulechov	F	6-5	205	G-Transfer	13.6 pts / 6.5 reb
Kevarrius Hayes	C	6-9	225	Junior	4.9 pts / 5.1 reb
Jalen Hudson	G	6-6	192	R-Junior	15.3 pts / 3.9 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	193	Junior	11.3 pts / 2.4 reb / 2.3 ast
Chris Chiozza	PG	6-0	180	Senior	11.2 pts / 4.4 reb / 6.1 ast

St. Bonaventure	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Courtney Stockard	F	6-5	205	Junior	13.3 pts / 6.3 reb / 2.3 ast
Amedi Ikpeze	C	6-10	245	Sophomore	4.5 pts / 3.1 reb
Matt Mobley	G	6-3	285	Senior	18.4 pts / 5.0 reb / 2.5 ast
Idris Taqqee	G	6-4	195	Senior	5.4 pts / 5.0 reb
Jaylen Adams	G	6-2	190	Senior	19.4 pts / 3.4 reb / 5.3 ast

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

**Jaylen Adams** did not have a good game Tuesday night against UCLA ... and that should scare the hell out of the Gators. Adams, the senior point guard, is projected as a second-round NBA draft choice. As a shooter, he has unlimited range and the confidence to match. As a defender, he has toughness and tenacity. Adams leads the Bonnies in scoring at 19.4 points per game, to go with 3.5 rebounds and a team-best 5.3 assists. He was named Atlantic 10 Conference co-Player of the Year, alongside Davidson's **Peyton Aldridge**. Like his backcourt mate **Matt Mobley**, he rarely comes off the floor (37.3 minutes per game). Adams is shooting 43 percent overall, but 44 percent from 3, and when he drops in a 30-footer (which he will) he will make sure to tell his defender about it. Both he and Mobley excel at getting under the skin of the opponent, and compound that "skill" with constant pawing and clawing at the basketball on the defensive end. Adams, who twice this season scored at least 40 points in a game, was just 2-for-16 from the floor in the win over the Bruins, but the fact he was 1-for-15 when he pulled up and drained a huge late 3-ball speaks to his confidence. He finished the UCLA game with eight points, giving him 1,901 for his career, the sixth-most in school history and most ever by a guard. He went for 20 against the Gators last season, hitting seven of his 15 shots, including 3-for-10 from deep, plus six rebounds.

STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)

ABOUT THE GATORS: They'll try to recapture the energy and attention to detail that led to an impressive three-game winning streak to end the regular season and fueled such promise heading into the postseason. What unfolded against Arkansas in St. Louis was not encouraging, in terms of passion or execution. UF went through a nasty cold-snap late in the first half that carried over into the second, especially with its best offensive players. Swingman and leading scorer Jalen Hudson, guard KeVaughn Allen and forward Egor Koulechov combined to hit just eight of 31 shots (25.8 percent). Rare are instances when all three of those guys are clanging field-goal attempts, but it happened. Hudson picked up two fouls in the first half, and never got into any groove. Most of Allen's shots came in the second half. Koulechov hit his first two shots, both 3s, then missed his last nine of the game. How they started against the Bonnies could prove pivotal, especially to their confidence. ... If it wasn't for forward Keith Stone (22 points on 8-for-10 shooting), the Gators may not have even been in the Arkansas game. He had a hot hand from deep (5-for-6), made some nice drives (and decisions) attacking the basket and grabbed five rebounds. ... Point guard Chris Chiozza had 16 points and six assists last time out, and will have to play an exemplary floor game and excellent defense, whether on Adams or Mobley, for the Gators to succeed. ... Center Kevarrius Hayes had four points against the Razorbacks, which is half of the eight points he has scored over the previous four games. His shot-blocking will be key against the driving Bonnies, but he'll need to be disciplined in showing his hands, remaining vertical and staying out of foul trouble. ...

ABOUT THE BONNIES: They're in the ninth season under Coach Mark Schmidt, who joined the program after six years at Robert Morris. Schmidt has guided SBU to a 192-151 record, including two trips to the NCAA Tournament. The last one came in 2012 when the Bonnies, as a 14 seed, lost 66-63 to third-seeded Florida State in second-round play at Nashville, Tenn. ... The win over UCLA was the team's 26th, which set a single-season school record. ... Adams and Matt Mobley, without question, constitute one of the nation's top five backcourts, as together they average 38.3 points, 7.9 assists, 2.7 steals, while shooting 41.4 percent from the 3-point line, and 85.8 from the free-throw stripe. Both Adams and Mobley were first-team All-Atlantic 10 Conference selections. In so many ways, they're carbon-copies of each other, as far as the way they hunt shots and remain relentless on the defensive end. Mobley is not the hard driver that Adams is, but he is every bit the gunner. In last year's game against the Gators, he poured in a game-high 28 points, went 6-for-12 from three, grabbed six rebounds and played all 40 minutes. ... With Idriss Taqqee, an excellent rebounder from the backcourt, the Bonnies have three senior guards who have been through four years of wars. ... Forward Courtney Stockard may go just 6-5, but he's a high-energy guy, solid rebound and excellent defender. Against UCLA, when Adams and Mobley combined to go just six of 28 from the floor, Stockard played the entire game and finished with 20 points. He also is susceptible to fouling, with 106 fouls that have led to six disqualifications. ... SBU averages 7.1 steals per game. That's better than UF's 6.9, which led the SEC. .

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

* .562 — Florida's winning percentage against teams in the NCAA Tournament, based on a 9-7 record against Gonzaga (W), Duke (L), Florida State (L), Loyola Chicago (L), Cincinnati (W), Clemson (L), Texas A&M (W), Missouri (W), Arkansas (W and L), Kentucky (two Ws), Alabama (W and L), Tennessee (L) and Auburn (W).

* 4 — UF players who have scored at least 1,000 points in their collegiate careers, after both Chiozza (1,006) and Hudson (1,004) eclipsed the milestone in the loss to Arkansas. They joined Allen (1,283) and Koulechov (1,708) in that club. Hudson scored 515 points during his freshman and sophomore seasons (2014-16) at Virginia Tech, while Koulechov combined for 1,271 as a freshman at Arizona State (2013-14), then during his redshirt sophomore and junior seasons at Rice (2015-17).

* 98 — Combined points scored by Adams, Mobley and Stockard in a 117-113 triple-overtime win against Davidson to wrap STB's regular season. That's 83.7 percent of the team's total. Adams had 34, Mobley 33 and Stockard 31.

* 1970 — Year that St. Bonaventure reached the Final Four, only to lose future Hall-of-Famer Bob Lanier to a knee injury in a victory over Villanova in the East Region title game. Without the 6-11 superstar center, the Bonnies were upset by Jacksonville, led by another Hall-of-Fame center, Artis Gilmore, in the national semifinals.

* 1977 — First time the Gators and Bonnies played each other. It was in the Gator Bowl Invitational at Jacksonville. The date was Dec. 27 and UF was led by Larry Brewster's 22 points and Al Bonner's 16.

STATEMENT (Random thought)

You may think the Gators having a couple extra days of rest, versus the Bonnies butting heads in a hard-fought game in a different time zone two nights earlier, would be something of an advantage. Well, it wasn't last week when UF, on six days rest, didn't look as fresh in its SEC opener as Arkansas, which played the night before, took control late in the first half and never let up. So, who knows if the time off will help or hurt?

Gators Calendar

NCAA Tournament: Florida vs St. Bonaventure (Thursday, 9:57 pm)

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

Jalen Hudson

Egor Koulechov

Keith Stone

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NCAA Tournament: Florida vs St. Bonaventure (Thursday, 9:57 pm)

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KeVaughn Allen

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Egor Koulechov

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