SEC Tournament: Florida vs Arkansas (Friday, 9:30 ET)

Friday, March 9

St. Louis, MO

9:30 PM

Florida Gators

Arkansas

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SEC Tournament: Florida vs Arkansas (Friday, 9:30 ET)

Friday, March 9, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

A nuts and bolts look at UF's quarterfinal match against the Razorbacks in St. Louis.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

SEC Tournament (quarterfinal round)
No. 23 FLORIDA vs ARKANSAS

When: Friday, 9:30 p.m. (EST)
Where: Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Mo.
Records: Florida (20-11); Arkansas (21-10)
TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart, Jon Sundvold and Molly McGrath)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Mark Wise)

STAKES (The Setup)

Scottrade Center, which opened in 1994, is home to the NHL's St. Louis Blues. It seats 18,724 for hockey, but will expand to 22,000 for the SEC Tournament.

Pretty simple stuff. The winner moves on to the SEC Tournament semifinals, set for Saturday, and a very quick turn-around given the late-night nature of this game. ... Arkansas reached the quarterfinal round by defeating South Carolina 69-64 Thursday night. ... Both Florida and Arkansas are locks for NCAA Tournament at-large berths. The Gators are the tournament's No. 3 seed, having finished the regular-season with a three-game winning streak that included a defeat of conference co-champion Auburn, a road blasting of Alabama, and home defeat of Kentucky. All three of those wins qualified as so-called "Quadrant 1" (worth the most points in the NCAA Tournament selection committee's new seeding format). ... The Razorbacks, who own the SEC's fifth-best ranking in the Ratings Percentage Index (28th), lost their season finale 77-67 at Missouri, but before that had won five of six, including an 91-82 defeat of Auburn just nine days ago. ... Florida is 41-45 all-time in the SEC Tournament (including 1-2 under Coach Mike White) and have won the event four times (2005, '06 and '07, plus '14). ... The Gators were the No. 2 overall seed last season, but did a one-and-out, courtesy of 10th-seeded Vanderbilt's 72-62 overtime win that marked a three-game sweep of UF for the season. ... UF leads the all-time series 23-11, including a run of eight straight wins and 13 of the last 14, dating to 2009. ... The two met Jan. 17 in Gainesville, where the Gators built a 15-point first half margin and went on to an 88-73 victory behind a season-high 28 points from shooting guard KeVaughn Allen and 21 points from junior wing Jalen Hudson. The Hogs got 28 points from senior guard Jaylen Barford. ... Florida has not advanced to the semifinals of the SEC Tournament since winning it in '14.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Egor Koulechov	F	6-5	205	G-Transfer	13.8 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	15.6 pts / 3.9 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	193	Junior	11.3 pts / 2.4 reb
Chris Chiozza	PG	6-0	180	Senior	11.0 pts / 4.5 reb / 6.1 ast

Arkansas	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Trey Thompson	F	6-9	265	Senior	3.5 pts / 4.1 reb
Daniel Gafford	C	6-1	234	Freshman	12.1 pts / 6.2 reb
Jaylen Barford	G	6-3	202	Senior	17.9 pts / 3.9 reb
Daryl Macon	G	6-3	185	Senior	17.1 pts / 4.0 ast
Anton Beard	PG	6-0	185	Senior	9.6 pts / 3.0 ast

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

He was a top-40 prospect out El Dorado, Ark., and decided to go to the flagship school in his home state. Now, Razorbacks freshman center **Daniel Gafford** has blossomed into a top-40 NBA prospect and figures to be a handful for a Florida team that has been challenged all season by talented interior players. The 6-foot-11, 234-pound Gafford is averaging 12.1 points and 60.7-percent shooting from the floor, to go with 6.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game. Two games ago, in the Razorbacks' defeat of Auburn, Gafford may have been the best player on the floor. He finished with 21 points, hitting 10 of his 15 shots, plus 10 rebounds and seven blocks. In the first meeting with the Gators, he tallied 14 points and 11 rebounds in just 25 minutes. Keeping Gafford off the offensive glass will be a key, as will the potential to get him in foul trouble. His 104 fouls are 28 more than the next-closest teammate. He's also fouled out three times. If the Gators can get an early one on him, they need to attack the paint.

STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)

ABOUT THE GATORS: They're playing their best basketball at the best time of the season. At least that's what the head coach has said since the 80-67 blowout Saturday of Kentucky, a game they trailed for all of 56 seconds. It would appear Coach Mike White and his staff have broken through in communicating to their players how average this team came be when it does not sell out on the defensive end. ... Meanwhile, the Gators are coming off arguably their most complete offensive performance (especially given the opponent) since the run through the PK80 last Thanksgiving. UF had its four best offensive players in harmony against the Wildcats, with guard Jalen Hudson stringing together a second straight blistering performance shooting the ball, on his way to 22 points and Co-SEC Player of the Week honors. Forward Egor Koulechov had 16 points, while junior guard KeVaughn Allen stuffed his stat line with 11 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Point guard Chris Chiozza had four assists and became the school's all-time leader in that category, and now is just 10 points shy of becoming the program's 54th player to hit 1,000 points for his career. ... UF has fallen way off the pace it set early in the season as far as points and shooting production, but after failing to score at least 70 points in four straight games (three of them losses), the Gators scored 72, 73 and 80 in their final three games of the regular season; and after going nine straight SEC games without finding double-digit 3-pointers, Florida did so twice in the final two games, including 13 in a win over Auburn. ... Forward Keith Stone (8.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg) had a rock-solid effort against UK in scoring 12 points and grabbing six rebounds. ... Center Kevarrius Hayes has combined for just four points and 11 rebounds the last three games. ... Redshirt freshman center Dontay Bassett, who suffered a concussion five minutes into the Feb. 27 win at Alabama, has been cleared to return to action. ... ABOUT THE RAZORBACKS: They're 149-84 in seven seasons under Mike Anderson, including a 70-54 mark in SEC play, and have sewn up a third

(and second straight) NCAA Tournament berth. ... Last season, the Hogs reached the SEC Tournament title game, but lost 82-65 to Kentucky. ... Arkansas is the SEC's No. 2 scoring team at 82.0 points per game, but led the league in both field-goal percentage (.481) and 3-point shooting percentage (.402). The Hogs don't turn the ball over very often, with a 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio that led the conference. They give up a lot of points (75.7 per game) because they score a lot -- Thursday's 69-point output notwithstanding -- and want the game played at a brisk pace to take advantage of their athleticism and guard play. ... Jaylen Barford finished third in the SEC in scoring at 17.9 per game, as well as second in 3-point percentage (.437). Barford had 17 against South Carolina, including a dagger 32-foot late 3-pointer to help put the game away. He actually finished second on his team in 3-point percentage, as backcourtmate Daryl Macon led the conference at 44.3 percent. The duo can be a frightening scoring combo, if allowed to get going and in rhythm. Barford had it working in the loss at Florida when he hit 10 of his 15 shots, including five of six from the 3-point line on his way to 28 points. Macon was held to just 13 points on 6-for-15 overall and missed four of his five attempts from deep. In the win over South Carolina, he was just 2-for-10 overall and 0-for-5 from deep, which just may mean he's due. ... Point guard Anton Beard was a teammate of Allen's during their Arkansas prep days, as the two won a Class 6A state title together. ... Senior forward Dustin Thomas (5.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg), who started 17 games for the Hogs (including Saturday's regular-season finale), was dismissed from the team Monday for unspecified rules violations. A defensive specialist, Thomas scored four points and grabbed four rebounds in the first meeting against the Gators.

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

Joe Johnson is a Houston Rocket now, but he was a superstar Razorback back in the day.

* .466 — Arkansas's winning percentage away from Bud Walton Arena this season, based on a 7-8 mark. That's actually much, much better than usual for the program under Anderson, whose teams have been notoriously poor on the road. The Hogs went 3-1 in neutral-site games.

* 1.000 — UF's winning percentage vs. Arkansas under White, based on a 5-0 record over his three seasons.

* 136 — Career games for Chiozza, who has never missed one over his four seasons. He needs just one more to tie Kasey Hill (2013-17) for 10th place on the program's all-time list.

* 2000 — The last year, and only time Arkansas, won the SEC Tournament. The Hogs, led by future NBA standout Joe Johnson and tournament MVP Brandon Dean, showed up in Atlanta with a 15-14 record (the No. 3 seed out of the SEC West) and needed to win all four games at the tournament to make the NCAA field. So, of course, they beat Georgia in first-round play, upset reigning three-time champ Kentucky (which had won seven of the previous eight tourneys) in the quarterfinals, LSU in the semis, and Auburn in the title game.

* 2014 — The last year the Gators won the SEC Tournament, as then-No. 1 Florida capped an historic run through the league with a perfect 21-0 mark against conference opponents -- 18-0 in the regular season, plus wins over Missouri, Tennessee and Kentucky in the tournament -- and went into the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed. UF advanced to the Final Four before losing to Connecticut in the national semifinals in Arlington, Texas.

STATEMENT (Random thought)

A Saturday game could lock up a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Sticking around until Sunday potentially could move the Gators up another line.