FLORIDA vs SAINT JOSEPH'S
CHARLESTON CLASSIC
When: Thursday, 2 p.m. (EST)
Where: TD Arena, Charleston, S.C.
Records: Florida (2-2); Saint Joseph's (2-2)
TV: ESPN2 (
Richard Cross and
Daymeon Fishback)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (
Mick Hubert and
Lee Humphrey)
THE BASICS
The USS Yorktown, a decommissioned aircraft career, is docked at Patriots Point at Mount Pleasant, S.C., and will host a reception for the eight teams participating in the Charleston Classic this week.
For the fifth straight year, Florida is in a holiday-season tournament, this time at the Charleston Classic. The event is now in its 12th season and is hosted by the College of Charleston, though the Cougars, the home team at TD Arena, are not in the field this year. ... On UF's side of the bracket: Saint Joe's, Missouri State and Miami. On the other side: 18th-ranked Xavier, Towson, Buffalo and Connecticut. Yes, the Gators could conceivably play one of the two teams they've faced during the last week (Towson or UConn). ... The UF-SJU game will follow the Missouri State-UM game, which tips at 11:30 p.m. ... The Gators are coming off a 62-59 loss Sunday at Connecticut, a game in which they scored just 20 points in the first half and trailed (except for two ties) the last 25 minutes. ... Saint Joe's, out of the Atlantic 10 Conference, last played Saturday night at Loyola-Chicago, an 85-68 loss, but three days earlier the Hawks went to UConn and beat the Huskies, 96-87, in a game they led by as many as 27 points in the first half. ... UF and SJU have played three times, with the Gators up 2-1 in the all-time series, though only one of those games has been in the last 52 years. Florida defeated Saint Joseph's, 74-63, on Nov. 21, 2016 in opening-round play of the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn. Senior forward
Dorian Finney-Smith scored 13 points and junior forward
Devin Robinson had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double off the bench. Senior point guard
Kasey Hill had 13 points and five assists. UF put the game away with a 21-4 run over the final 6:22 in what was the program's third game under Coach
Mike White. Defensively, UF did a terrific job on Hawks guard
DeAndre' Bembry, now a top reserve for the NBA Atlanta Hawks, holding him to 10 points on 2-for-11 shooting. ... White's teams at Florida are 5-1 against opponents from A-10, including a win over St. Bonaventure in first-round play of the 2018 NCAA Tournament at Dallas.
STARTERS (Probable Lineups)
| Saint Joseph's |
Pos. |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Class |
Per Game |
| Myles Douglas |
F |
6-5 |
210 |
Freshman |
10.0 pts / 2.3 reb |
| Lorenzo Edwards |
F |
6-8 |
215 |
Junior |
12.3 pts / 6.3 reb |
| Taylor Funk |
F |
6-8 |
230 |
Junior |
10.0 pts / 5.5 reb |
| Ryan Daly |
G |
6-5 |
225 |
R-Junior |
19.3 pts / 9.0 reb / 6.0 ast |
| Cameron Brown |
G |
6-5 |
210 |
Freshman |
9.0 pts / 4.8 reb |
ONE TO WATCH
Shooting guard Ryan Daly (1), out of Haverton, Pa., played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Delaware, where he led the team in scoring both years and earned third-team All-Colonial Athletic Conference honors after averaging 17.5 points and 6.2 rebounds in '17-18. In two seasons, Daly scored 1,000 points, then transferred to Saint Joseph's. After sitting out the '18-19 campaign per NCAA rules, Daly has been Scoring Option No. 1 for the Hawks and has taken full advantage of it, whether on point or not. In SJU's first two games (a home win over Bradley, a road loss at Old Dominion), Daly combined to go 0-for-11 from the 3-point line. The third game was at UConn, where Daly launched -- get this -- 27 shots, making 10, including 6-for-12 from deep, on his way to 30 points to go with eight rebounds in 36 minutes. On Monday, Daly was named the Big 5 Player of the Week (an honor that goes to the best performance from the five Philadelphia schools -- SJU, Villanova, Temple, LaSalle and Penn). For the season, Daly is at 19.3 points per game, shooting 33.8 percent overall and 7-for-28 from deep (25 percent), 9.0 rebounds and a team-best 6.0 assists, including 11 in the ODU loss. In other words, he's everywhere the ball is for the Hawks.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Reserve freshman point guard Ques Glover may get more court time at the Charleston Classic, is classmate Tre Mann is not cleared from concussion protocol.
ABOUT THE GATORS: No one could have foreseen the shooting struggles; specifically, what's gone on in the backcourt. Florida's guards have shot a collective 29 percent and 21.8 percent from the 3-point arc, with shooting guards
Noah Locke and
Tre Mann -- the deadliest on the team -- at 18-for-56, including seven of 34 from deep (20.5 percent). Mann, the freshman who has started the first four games, hit his head in a second-half collision at UConn and entered concussion protocol.
Kerry Blackshear Jr.
His availability for the tournament is questionable. ... Forward
Kerry Blackshear Jr. fouled out with just under five minutes left in a three-point game Sunday, but still finished with team-highs of 15 points and eight rebounds. He's getting to the free-throw line, where he's 20 of 25 (80 percent). ... With Blackshear in foul trouble and Mann out of the game, point guard
Andrew Nembhard took on a go-to guy role late against the Huskies, scoring all 14 of his points in the second half, including some big baskets and free throws down the stretch that gave the Gators a chance. He missed a 12-footer, though, inside two minutes when UConn led by one. Nembhard had seven assists in that game, and has 16 in his last two. ... Guard
Scottie Lewis is at 38 percent for the season, but the defensive specialist also leads the team in blocks with five. ... If Mann cannot play, freshman
Ques Glover will get more reps at the point. He played eight minutes at UConn and scored two points with an assist. Glover's speed, though, may play nicely into a game against the uptempo Hawks. ... Freshman forward
Omar Payne has made nine of his 13 field-goal attempts and is averaging 3.8 boards and a block per game. ... Florida has held all four of its opponents to 63 points or fewer, which is the second-longest such stretch in White's five seasons. The Gators held five straight opponents (West Virginia, Michigan State, Mercer, Florida Gulf Coast and Butler) to 63 or less from Dec. 4-29 last season. ...
ABOUT THE HAWKS: They're in first season under
Billy Lange, who took over for
Phil Martelli, who coached the Hawks to seven NCAA Tournaments and
Myles Douglas
six NITs during 24 seasons before being fired last March. Lange, who was head coach at Navy (where he went 93-114) from 2004-11, came across town from his spot as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers. He inherited a roster that went 14-19 last season, with a 6-12 mark in the A-10, but is benefiting from the eligibility of Daly, as well as a couple transfer players. ... Thus far, Saint Joseph's has beaten Bradley at home, lost by 13 at Old Dominion, followed by last week's win at UConn and loss at Loyola-Chicago. ... SJU is the second straight opponent UF will face that likes to play fast, as the Hawks rank ninth in the nation in adjusted tempo at 77.4 possessions per 40 minutes, according to
KenPom.com. Defensively, the Hawks check in at 230th. ... SJU is averaging 79.8 points per game, but giving up 83.8. The Hawks are shooting 39.8 percent from the floor and 34.1 from the arc, but giving up 42.2 and 43.8, respectively. The Gators will have scoring opportunities. ... The Hawks shot just 32 percent in their loss at ODU, then scored the first 14 points of the game at UConn on the way to shooting 52 percent in the first half. At LoC, they hit 51 percent in the first half and 27 in the second, as Loyola outscored SJU by 20 after the break on 61-percent shooting. ... They're second-leading scorer is 6-3, 205-pound freshman
Rahim Moore at 12.3 points per game on 63-percent shooting. ... Forward
Myles Douglass is a transfer from UCF.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
TD Arena in Charleston, S.C.
* .539 — Combined shooting percentage of UF's six frontcourt players, which is more than twice that of the five backcourt players (.253.).
* 62 — Assists by Saint Joe's this season.
* 63 — Turnovers by Saint Joe's this season.
* 345 — UF's ranking (out of 353 Division I teams) in adjusted tempo, according to
KenPom metrics, based on 66.1 possessions per 40 minutes. Only two high-major programs are playing slower, but those two are Purdue, at 346th, and seventh-ranked Virginia, which is dead-last at 353rd ... and also defending national champion.
* 5,170 — Seating capacity at TD Arena, with the tournament a general-admission event.
LAST WORD
Three games in four days. That's a bunch of chances to face down adversity. Which way will this group go?
