No. 6 FLORIDA vs LYNN (exhibition)
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla. Â
Records:Â N/A Â
TV: SEC Network+ (
Kyle Crooks and
Mark Wise)Â
THE BASICS
Like their team, the Rowdy Reptiles also get a dress rehearsal when the Gators host the Fighting Knights in UF's annual exhibition game at the O'Dome.
Time for Gator Nation to get a sneak preview of what the buzz inside the basketball complex has been about the last few months. ... As far as exhibitions game go, this one should be as intriguing as any in some time, as UF will roll out seven players who weren't on the team during 2018-19 when the Gators went 20-16 and advanced to their third consecutive NCAA Tournament, this time as a No. 10 seed, before falling in the second round against No. 2-seed Michigan in the NCAA Midwest Region. Florida returns five players from that team, including a trio of freshmen starters. ... This will be the eighth consecutive season the Gators have faced a team from the Division II Sunshine State Conference in an exhibition at the O'Dome. Last year, it was Florida Southern. The year before, it was Tampa. Before that: Eckerd, Palm Beach Atlantic, Barry and FSC, respectively. Just one of the previous six SSC exhibitions was pseudo-competitive, with UF's average margin of victory being 28.0 points, including last year's 95-70 defeat of FSC when fifth-year senior guard
Jalen Hudson led seven players into double figures with 14 points, followed by 13 from sophomore guard
Deaundrae Ballard. ... Lynn, a private school in Boca Raton, Fla., with an enrollment of 3,000 students, is a very solid D-2 program.Â
PROBABLE STARTERS
ONE TO WATCHÂ
The impact of Kerry Blackshear Jr., the 6-foot-10, 240-pound graduate transfer from Virginia Tech, cannot be overstated. All the elements the Gators have been lacking from their post game the last few seasons show up in Blackshear's game, from scoring, defense, passing and all-around productivity in the paint. A 2019 All-Atlantic Coast Conference second-team selection, Blackshear already has tallied 1,152 points and 616 career rebounds and in his last season as a Hokie averaged 14.9 points and 7.5 rebounds in the nation's toughest league, while shooting 50.8 percent from the floor, 33.3 from the arc, and 73.6 from the free-throw line. He's worked hard since his UF arrival to make that 3-point shot even better and the Gators' coaching staff will encourage him to shoot it more often, thus making Blackshear a viable offensive threat from all three levels. As the oldest player on the team, his leadership has been organic and a perfect fit for the locker room. Blackshear is a huge reason for the optimistic preseason projections and sky-high expectations; maybe the biggest reason, actually.
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TEAM BREAKDOWNSÂ
High-flying sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson (11) played his best basketball in the final weeks of his freshman season and spent the offseason honing his overall game, including his markshmanship from the 3-point line, where he converted at 36.5 percent last season.
ABOUT THE GATORS: Coach
Mike White is set to enter his fifth season on the UF sidelines with an 83-53 record and .671 winning percentage to show for it, plus three straight NCAA Tournament berths. White's four straight 20-win seasons and three consecutive NCAA trips have been duplicated in the SEC by only perennial league power Kentucky during that time. ... Point guard
Andrew Nembhard, a Freshman All-SEC
Andrew Nembhard
selection, last season, plus shooting guard
Noah Locke and forward
Keyontae Johnson return for the Gators after starting a combined 82 games last season. ... Nembhard, who finished fifth in the league with 194 assists, was the lone UF player to start all 36 games. He spent the offseason toying, first, with the NBA underclassmen process before opting to return to school, then a good chunk of the summer playing for Team Canada at the FIBA World Cup. He is the guy who will make this team go. ... Locke's 81 makes from 3-point range last season set a record for a UF freshman. He finished at 37.9 percent from deep, but struggled with a chronic sports hernia that affected his all-around game the last month of the season. He's healthy now and in the best shape of his life. ... Johnson ended the season strong, becoming just the second freshman in program history to post a double-double at the SEC Tournament (and he did it twice). Johnson averaged 11.2 points and 9.8 rebounds the final five games. ... Guard/Forward
Scottie Lewis, from Hazlet, N.J, and combo guard
Tre Mann, out of Gainesville, are the first McDonald's All-America freshmen to join the program since
Kasey Hill and
Chris Walker in 2013. The impact of Lewis and Mann will be more significant than their predecessors because their roles will be much bigger. Lewis, a defensive dynamo and phenomenal athlete, will start, with while Mann either first or second player off the bench. ... Backup center/forwardÂ
Dontay Bassett, the only other player on the roster that suited up for the Gators last season, had some of his best minutes in the postseason last spring. A knee bruise will keep him on the sidelines for this game, along with fourth-year junior center
Gorjok Gak, who is out indefinitely after suffering a left shoulder dislocation in a preseason scrimmage. Gak missed all of last season recovering from knee surgery. Their absence will translate to more minutes for freshmen "bigs"
Omar Payne, who has made huge strides the last few weeks, and
Jason Jitobah, who has dropped nearly 25 pounds since showing up in July and now is expected to be a part of the rotation this season rather than a developmental redshirt. Â ... Point guard
Ques Glover, out of Knoxville, Tenn., will have to be patient with regard to his playing time, but he is going to be a very good player for this program over the next four seasons. He will play in the game despite a broken finger on his shooting hand. ...
ABOUT THE 
FIGHTING KNIGHTS: They're entering the third season under Coach
Jeff Price, whose resume includes two stints as a D-1 head coach, as well as six seasons as charter coach of the Lynn program upon its startup in 1993. After the '98-99 season, Price became head coach at Georgia Southern, which he guided to an NIT berth, then after that served as interim head coach at South Alabama before returning to the Knights in 2017. ... They return one starter from a team that went 25-7 last season and advanced to the Division II Sweet 16, before falling to conference rival Nova Southeastern, 85-70, one win shy of the Elite Eight. A year ago, Lynn registered an exhibition victory over D-1 Florida Atlantic, but then got drilled, 100-67, a week later in its '18-19 opener by Maryland. ... Junior point guard
Brandon Bornelus only goes 6-foot and 140 pounds, but he averaged 10.9 points and hit 36 percent of his 3-pointers. ... The Knights have a pair of D-1 transfers who figure to be impact players. Forward
Christian Peevy will be in his first season with the Knights after coming from Incarnate Word, where he averaged 13.0 points, 4.4 rebounds and scored more than 20 points eight times, including a career-best 32 against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. Guard
Jordan Allen averaged 10.0 points at Rider last season, twice scoring 24 points against Washington State and Wagner. ... Lynn's tallest player is 6-9, 220-pound center
Kenneth Nwachukwu, who averaged just 1.6 points in 16 games last season, so the Gators figure to have a significant advantage in the front court (if not elsewhere).
NUMBERS WORTH NOTINGÂ
Last season, Noah Locke buried 113 of his 301 attempts from the 3-point line, good for 37.5 percent, on his way to setting a record for most 3-balls by a UF freshman.
* 5 — Players from UF's '18-19 team on rosters elsewhere across the nation: grad-transfer forward
Keith Stone (Miami), forward
Chase Johnson (Dayton), guard
Mike Okauru (UNC-Wilmington), forward
Isaiah Stokes (Memphis) and Ballard (South Alabama). Stone is recovering from a season-ending knee injury suffered in January and is expected to be back in time for the ACC season. Johnson was a midseason transfer but received a waiver to compete from the start of this season, while Okauru had his waiver for immediate eligibility granted. Stokes and Ballard are waiting word on waiver requests.
* 50 — Percentage of healthy/eligible players on the Florida roster who are freshmen.
* 338 — Most career points tallied in a Florida uniform by an active player. That would be Locke, the sophomore, with 243 of those points coming on 3-point shots (71.0 percent).
* 2012 — The last year UF did not play a Sunshine State Conference team in an exhibition game. Instead, the Gators played Nebraska-Kearney and won 101-71 behind 21 points from freshman shooting guard
Michael Frazier II.
* 5,000,000 — Dollars paid in salary to Lynn president
Donald E. Ross during the 2003-04 academic year, which at the time made Ross the highest-paid college or university president in the nation. Why is that important? It's not, but it's pretty amazing, if not unbelievable.
LAST WORD
When's the last time the UF fan base was this fired up for a basketball game that didn't count?
