Pregame Stuff: Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday, 7 p.m.)

FLORIDA vs SOUTH CAROLINA

When: Saturday, 7 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: Florida (8-4, 0-0); South Carolina (5-7, 0-0)
TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart and Sean Farnham)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Mark Wise)

STAKES (The Setup)

Time for the start of Southeastern Conference play.

The Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. Florida, coming off its best wire-to-wire performance of the season in blasting Butler 77-43 last Saturday, has won four of five, while South Carolina snapped a four-game losing streak the same day by beating Division II North Greenville 97-46. ... UF leads the all-time series 45-26. The two teams split a pair last season, with the Gators defeating the Gamecocks in the second of two, 65-41, at Columbia, S.C., behind 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists from point guard Chris Chiozza, and 12 points and five rebounds from guard Jalen Hudson. Florida raced to a 41-20 lead at the half and ended up shooting 46.2 percent for the game, while holding South Carolina to 27.8 percent and crushing the Gamecocks 46-24 on the glass. ... UF is 2-4 against USC under Coach Mike White, but also unbeaten in league openers in White's three seasons with the Gators. ... UF is opening its SEC schedule at home for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keith Stone	F	6-8	253	R-Junior	7.6 pts / 4.8 reb
Kevarrius Hayes	F	6-9	227	Senior	7.3 pts / 6.5 reb / 2.3 blk
Noah Locke	G	6-3	205	Freshman	9.4 pts / 2.1 reb
KeVaughn Allen	G	6-2	193	Senior	10.3 pts / 2.6 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Freshman	7.3 pts / 2.6 reb / 5.8 ast

South Carolina	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Felipe Haase	F	6-9	253	Sophomore	6.0 pts / 3.4 reb
Keyshawn Bryant	F	6-6	190	Freshman	9.3 pts / 3.7 reb
Chris Silva	F	6-9	234	Senior	12.5 pts / 6.8 reb
A.J. Lawson	G	6-6	172	Freshman	13.8 pts / 4.8 reb / 3.4 ast
Tre Campbell	G	6-0	183	G-Transfer	5.3 pts / 1.8 reb

STANDING OUT (One to Watch)

**Chris Silva** pretty much has been a Gator-killer most of his career and also one of the most admired players in the SEC, with UF coach **Mike White** among Silva's biggest fans. No one will play harder than the 6-foot-9, 234-pounder from Gabon and he will show up throughout the box score. Silva, statistically is not having the season like he did a as a junior a year ago -- when he averaged 14.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 46.7 percent from the floor and drew more fouls than any player on his way to first-team All-SEC honors -- but he's still more than capable of making life miserable for the Gators. He already has tallied three double-doubles and blocked 23 shots on the season. Last year, Silva came to the O'Dome and left with 24 points and 12 rebounds (hitting eight of nine free throws) in leading the Gamecocks to a 77-74 upset road win just four nights after UF had stolen huge road win at Kentucky. That game sent the Gators into string of thee straight league losses. Silva's motor likely will be humming Saturday night for the start of the conference campaign. The UF front court has to match that intensity.

STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)

**Jalen Hudson** (3) attacks the rack in his 11-point, 7-rebound outing in the win over Butler.

ABOUT THE GATORS: They'll head into SEC play outside the Associated Press Top 25, but a scan of the KenPom.com advance metrics rankings shows the Gators have far and away the conference's best defense, checking in at No. 6 in overall defensive efficiency. The next closest league team in that category is Auburn at 29th. UF's issues through the 12-game pre-SEC slate have been with scoring the basketball, where the Gators are the SEC's No. 8 team in offensive efficiency. That said, they're coming off a terrific, well-balanced scoring display

against a very solid Butler team, against which the Gators hit 10 of their first 13 field-goal attempts, opened a 21-0 lead through nine minutes and shot 54 percent for the game, including 10-for-21 from the 3-point line. ... UF's defense against Butler was every bit as savage. The Bulldogs were the second opponent this season the Gators held to at least 30 points below their season average. Butler came into the game at 74.8 per game and left with 43. The other opponent? West Virginia was averaging 86.4 and finished with 56. ... For the season, UF is averaging 71.0 points per game and giving up just 58.9. Five opponents have failed to hit 57 points this season, including three that finished with 49 or less. ... Florida had a very balanced box score in that Butler victory, with five players in double figures and none with more than 12 points. ... Guard Noah Locke not only has a run of three straight games in double figures, but three straight either leading or tying for team-high scoring honors. In that stretch he's averaged 15 points and shot 50 percent from both the floor and 3-point line. ... Shooting guard KeVaughn Allen continues to lead the team in scoring and remains the lone Gator averaging in double figures. His next closest teammate is backup guard DeAundrae Ballard (9.4 ppg), who went scoreless in 11 minutes against Butler. ... After a troubling run when he averaged just 3.0 points over six games, fifth-year senior swingman Jalen Hudson (6.6 ppg, 2.8 rpg) averaged 12.5 the last two to go 6.5 rebounds. He talks about shooting and playing with confidence and needs to do just that remain on the uptick. ... Though point guard Andrew Nembhard is averaging nearly six assists per game, he has just seven assists and five turnovers over his last two, and no more than four assists in three of his previous four outings. ... Center Kevarrius Hayes scored just two points last game, but made his only field-goal attempt, giving him seven straight converted shots over three games, and a season's field-goal percentage of .700. ... Forward Keith Stone made two of his three 3-point shots against Butler and is now at 46.7 percent on the season. Said it before (and before that) and now will say it again: Stone needs to shoot more.

ABOUT THE GAMECOCKS: They're 118-97 in seven seasons under Frank Martin, who famously (or infamously, if you're a UF fan) guided the Gamecocks to the first Final Four in school history, doing so at the Gators' expense with a victory in the NCAA East Region title game at Madison Square Garden. In the two seasons since (and especially after losing SEC Player of the Year Sindarius Thornwell), the Gamecocks are 22-23 overall and went 7-11 in SEC play last season. ... USC's resume is not impressive to date, with wins over USC-Upstate, George Washington, Norfolk State, Coastal Carolina and D-II North Greenville. The losses have come to Providence on a neutral floor, to both Stony Brook and Wofford at home, as well as Virginia and rival Clemson, plus on the road at Wyoming and Michigan. ... South Carolina is scoring more points than the Florida (74.1 pg), has out-rebounded its opponents and has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the season. ... The Gamecocks should have 6-11, 265-pound power forward Maik Kotsar (8.6 ppg, 4.9 rpg) back at full strength after sitting out two games and playing half of the last after being released from concussion protocol. ... Point guard A.J. Lawson, a freshman from Canada, leads the team in scoring, as well as field-goal attempts and 3-point tries. He's only shooting 39.4 and 32.8 from the two, respectively, but had 25 points and six rebounds in the win over Coastal and buried a trio of 3s last game. ... Backup senior guard Hassani Gravett (9.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg) is the team's No. 3 scorer and best long-ball shooter (38.8 percent). .. Tre Campbell transferred over the summer after graduating from Georgetown, where he average 3.4 points. ... Point guard T.J. Moss (6.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg) started has missed the last five games with an ankle sprain and remains questionable for this one, also. ... Forward Justin Minaya (knee) is out indefinitely.

STATS (Some Numbers of Note)

Freshman forward **Keyontae Johnson** (11) has proven to be a problem for opposing front courts in and around the basket.

* 0 — Times a UF players has scored at least 20 points in a game this season. This time last year, four different Gators had scored at least 20 points in a game, and done so a collective 11 times (including three in one game).

* .548 — Field-goal percentage for UF backup freshman forward Keyontae Johnson, whose minutes will continue to increase as long as he keeps crashing the glass on both ends. Johnson, who has been the first player off the Florida bench in eight of the team's 12 games, had a career-best eight rebounds against Butler.

* 3 — Blocked shots needed by Hayes, who's averaging 2.3 per game, to move past Andrew DeClercq (1991-95) and into fourth place on the UF all-time.

* 6 — Consecutive SEC openers won by the Gators, who have also won eight straight league lid-lifters at home.

* 1926 — First year Florida and South Carolina played in basketball. The date was Feb. 11. The place was Columbia. The winner was the Gamecocks by a score of 29-22.

STATEMENT (Random thought)

One of the few games you can look at on the Florida conference schedule and say, yes, the Gators should win this one without much drama. But when a team has struggled to score, and against an opponent known for its physicality, aggression and discipline, nothing should be expected to come too easy.

Gators Calendar

Pregame Stuff: Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday, 7 p.m.)

Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Keyontae Johnson

Noah Locke

Andrew Nembhard

Keith Stone

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Pregame Stuff: Florida vs South Carolina (Saturday, 7 p.m.)

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Players Mentioned

KeVaughn Allen

Chris Chiozza

Kevarrius Hayes

Jalen Hudson

Keyontae Johnson

Noah Locke

Andrew Nembhard

Keith Stone

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