Pregame Stuff: Florida at Texas Christian (Saturday, noon)
Friday, January 25, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
SEC/BIG 12 CHALLENGE
FLORIDA at TEXAS CHRISTIAN
When: Saturday, noon (EST) Where: Schollmaier Arena, Fort Worth, Texas Records: Florida (11-7); TCU (14-4) TV: ESPN2 (Dave Flemming and Dan Dakich) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)
STAKES (The Setup)
TCU's campus basketball facility is the intimate Schollmaier Arena, with a capacity of just 6,700. The Horned Frogs are 8-1 at home this season, but one of those losses came to Lipscomb, out of the Atlantic Sun Conference, which left Fort Worth with a 73-64 victory on Nov. 20 when TCU was ranked 18th in the country.
Since 2016, the Southeastern and Big 12 conferences have broken up their in-league schedules, at the behest of ESPN, to play the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, an event that began two seasons before, with the two leagues playing in early December. ESPN didn't like seeing these marque, non-conference matchups getting lost in the college and pro football narrative, so came up with the idea of moving the games to the Saturday between the NFL conference championship games and Super Bowl for optimum exposure. Good call. On Saturday, 10 games will be played over 11 hours on two different ESPN networks. ... Florida is looking to build on the momentum of two straight SEC wins, both of which required second-half comebacks, most recently being Tuesday's rally from 13 down to defeat Texas A&M behind one of greatest 3-point shooting displays (11-for-15 in the second half) in program history. After starting Big 12 play with a home win over a solid Baylor squad, Texas Christian dropped three of the next four league games, but the lone win was 98-67 emasculation of West Virginia, which was coming off a win over No. 2 Kansas. Go figure. The Horned Frogs evened their Big 12 mark at 3-3 Wednesday night be defeating Texas 65-61. ... UF is 4-1 in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, including 3-0 under Coach Mike White, with blowout wins over then-No. 9 WVU (in 2016), at Oklahoma (2017) and Baylor (2018). TCU is 3-2 in the Challenge, having lost last year at last-place Vanderbilt with a Frogs team that eventually reached the NCAA Tournament. ... Florida and TCU have met just twice, with the Gators winning both games, including a second-round NIT showdown in 1986, when Joe Lawrence hit a long jumper with one second left to give the Gators a 77-75 victory at the O'Connell Center.
There are TCU players with better scoring numbers than Alex Robinson, but make no mistake; Robinson is the one that makes the Horned Frogs go. His name may not be familiar to Florida fans, but Robinson actually faced the Gators twice during the 2014-15 season as a backup freshman point guard at Texas A&M, where he went scoreless and had five assists as UF and A&M split a series in the final season under Coach Billy Donovan. Robinson was a hotshot point guard recruit out of nearby Arlington, Texas, but opted out of College Station after sitting behind Alex Caruso. Now in his third season as the Frogs' playmaker, Robinson is just 16 assists shy of breaking the program's all-time record, currently held by Corey Santee (2001-05) with 575. Who knows? If Robinson is on his game he may break the record Saturday, given he has the TCU single-game assists mark with 17, set last year against Iowa State. He's at his best driving and dishing, but that's not the extent of his game. Robinson shoots 46 percent from the floor, 36.5 from the arc and had a run of six straight games in double figures before Wednesday's win over Texas.
STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)
Senior guard KeVaughn Allen had much to smile about Tuesday on his way to hitting eight of 10 shots from the 3-point line and scoring a season-high 31 points.
ABOUT THE GATORS: They'd like to take on the road some of the 3-point head they generated Tuesday when UF dropped 18 from the 3-point line (which tied an O'Dome record and came with one of the all-time team mark) on a season-high 37 attempts, including that 73-percent marksmanship after halftime. The assassins of record, of
Noah Locke
course, were guard KeVaughn Allen (31 points, 8 of 10 from deep) and guard Noah Locke (career-high 27 points, 7 of 13), who combined to make 10 of 12 long balls in the second half. ... Allen is averaging 17.8 points in SEC play on 50-percent shooting overall, nearly 54 from 3, and 91.3 from the free-throw line. Locke is at 15.3 against conference foes, including 40.4 from deep and nearly 87 percent from the free-throw line. ... Through 18 games, 45.9 percent of Florida's field-goal attempts have come from the 3-point line. Through six SEC games, that number swells to 52.3 percent. That's a nasty imbalance, but the Gators were short on options given their lack of offensive threats in the post. ... The win over A&M marked UF's first comeback from at least 10 points down since beating Missouri (See Chiozza, Chris) at the buzzer on Jan. 6, 2018. ... Center Kevarrius Hayes had eight points, six rebounds, three blocked shots and played his normal relentless, end-to-end energy against A&M. He's now five blocks from passing Joakim Noah (2004-07) and another eight from passing Al Horford (2004-07) and moving into second place on UF's all-time list. ... Forward Keyontae Johnson only had one field goal against the Aggies, but it was a big one, coming with a minute left, his team up just five, and on an offensive rebound and stick-back. He finished with nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end. In his two starts, Johnson is averaging 8.5 boards. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhardis coming off his second double-figure assist game. He equaled his career-best of 11 against A&M versus four turnovers. He continues to struggle with his shot, however. Nembhard hit just one of his seven field-goal tries, including 1-for-6 from deep, where he's 30.4 percent for the season. ... Fifth-year backup senior swingman Jalen Hudson hit two 3-pointers in a game for the first time in SEC play, and for the first time since making four in the win over Florida Gulf Coast in the Orange Bowl Classic on Dec. 22. ... ABOUT THE HORNED FROGS: They're in the third season under Jamie Dixon, who is 59-31 since leaving a successful run at Pittsburgh (328-123, with 11 NCAA Tournament berths) to become head coach at his alma mater of TCU. In his first season back with the Frogs, Dixon led the program to the 2017 NIT title and in 2018 was
Desmond Bane
back in the NCAA field, where TCU, as a No. 6 seed, was upset by 11-seed Syracuse in second-round play. ... The Frogs lost an early season home game to Lipscomb, out of the Atlantic Sun Conference, but are 9-1 at Schollmaier, including 3-0 against the Big 12. ... Statistically, the Frogs are a balanced bunch, with KenPom.com rating them as the nation's No. 22 overall team, armed with the 31st most efficient offense and 22nd defense. Regarding the former, all five starters are shooting better than 46 percent from the floor. Regarding the latter (and this could be bad news for the Gators), the defense ranks seventh-best in the country at guarding the 3-point line, where opponents are shooting just 27.7 percent. ... TCU has four starters averaging in double figures (two more than UF), with the emergence of forward Kouat Noi, who three games ago erupted for 30 points and bombed in eight of 12 3-pointers in a 76-74 loss to Oklahoma and Wednesday had a career-high 11 rebounds against Texas. Long, athletic and a product of Montverde (Fla.) Academy, the Australian Noi is shooting 49 percent overall, nearly 41 from 3 and better than 81 of his free throws. ... Desmond Bane is a physical guard who can post and shoot, evidenced by his 51.5 percentage for the season. ... Center Kevin Samuel isn't going to wow with his athleticism, but he did a have a career-high 13 rebounds against Texas and 42 percent of his rebounds this season have come on the offense end. ... Forward JD Miller is shooting 50 percent from the floor. ... Backup guard RJ Nembhard is not relation to UF's Andrew.
STATS (Some Numbers of Note)
UF guard Scottie Wilbekin dropped in a 25-foot trey at the first-half buzzer against Pittsburgh in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, the last time the Gators faced a team coached by TCU's Jamie Dixon.
* .000 — Dixon's winning percentage against the Gators, based on UF's 61-45 defeat of Pittsburgh in third-round play of the 2014 NCAA Tournament in Orlando, led by 21 points from senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin.
* .791 — TCU's home winning percentage in three seasons under Dixon, based on a 38-10 record.
* 17 — Consecutive games Noi has made at least one 3-pointer. The longest such streak by a Gator this season is Locke's current run of eight straight.
* 23.3 — Average margin of victory for Florida in its three SEC/Big 12 Challenge games under White.
* 1974 — First year Florida and Texas Christian met in basketball, with the Gators winning 73-61 at Fort Worth.
* 2014 — The year Florida lost its only game in five SEC/Big 12 challenges. The Billy Donovan-led Gators led No. 11 Kansas by 18 early in the second half at historic Allen Fieldhouse, but ultimately fell 71-65 after shooting just 35 percent in the second half. Wayne Seldon Jr. led the Jayhawks with 21 points.
STATEMENT (Random thought)
The Frogs look like the third best team (behind No. 1 Tennessee and No. 6 Michigan State) the Gators have faced this season. Tall task, especially staring down that stingy TCU 3-point defense on the road.
