Florida and 18th-ranked Xavier will meet in the championship game of the 12th Charleston Classic. The Gators got here by defeating Saint Joseph's, 70-62, in Thursday's opening round and drilling Miami, 78-58, in Friday's second round. The Musketeers, out of the Big East Conference, smashed Towson, 73-51, and beat Connecticut in double-overtime, 75-74, to advance. ... UF and Xavier have played three times, with the Musketeers having won two of the three. The teams agreed to a home-and-home series for the 2009-10 and '10-11 seasons, with each winning on the road. Xavier won at Gainesville, 76-64, in a rare February non-conference affair. The Gators returned the favor 10 months later, when they went to Cincinnati and ended the nation's longest home winning streak at 30 games with a 71-67 victory. UF got 18 points from junior point guard Erving Walker, 15 from junior guard Kenny Boynton and five points, 11 rebounds and seven assists from senior forward Chandler Parsons to help offset XU guard Tu Holliday's 26 points. ... UF coach Mike White is 2-1 against teams from the Big East during his five seasons, with a win over Seton Hall and split of two games against Butler.
Musketeers forward Tyrique Jones (0) is a 6-foot-9, 240-pound load who plays with incredible energy and constantly reminds his opponents how he's beating up on them and isn't going anywhere. The Connecticut product, who did a year of prep school at Vermont Academy, was an All-Big East selection last season after finishing third in the league in field-goal percentage (.641) and fourth in rebounding (7.7 per game). He 10 carded double-doubles as a junior and already has three through Xavier's first six games, including two in the Charleston Classic. Jones went for 17 points and 11 rebounds in the win over UConn, after temporarily leaving the game with a rolled ankle. Thus far, he's shooting 51.6 percent from the floor for the season and has not attempted a 3, which says a lot about where he makes his living; as in the paint. Of his 54 rebounds this season, 23 have come on the offensive end. That's 43 percent. The guy is a beast and the Gators will have their hands full with him.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Freshman Jason Jitoboh (33) and fourth-year junior Dontay Bassett (21) cheer on their teammates late in the Friday victory over Miami.
ABOUT THE GATORS: UF is coming off its best all-around game of the season, having trounced Miami with heavy does of offense and defense. The Gators shot nearly 54 percent and held the Hurricanes to 33 percent in a second half that included a 21-2 run that put things away. ... Florida will get back freshman guard Tre Mann (6.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg), who missed the first two games of the tournament while in concussion protocol after taking a blow to the head in the team's loss last Sunday at Connecticut. He was cleared following tests Saturday and took part in the team's afternoon practice. ...
Scottie Lewis
Against Miami, UF had four players reach double figures, led by forward Kerry Blackshear Jr.'s fourth double-double of the season (20 points, 11 rebounds). Blackshear's averages took quite a tumble, courtesy of the the first-round win over SJU when he played just three first-half minutes due to foul trouble and less than two in the second half when he was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul. He had just one point and two rebounds that game. ... Forward Keyontae Johnson has put together two really solid outings, averaging 17.0 points and 9.5 boards while shooting 61 percent in the two wins. ... Guard Scottie Lewishas been a complete player in Charleston. He's shooting 50 percent, scoring 10.5 points, grabbing 6.0 rebounds, with five blocks and four steals. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhardhad a pretty nice floor game (8 points, 9 assists, 4 steals) against UM, after taking a career-high 19 shots against Saint Joe's. He did have four turnovers, though, a couple of them just by being too loose with the ball. ... Noah Locke came here shooting 22.7 percent from 3. He's made five of 11 through the two games (.454). ... Freshman backup point guard Ques Glover had something of a breakout game against Miami in scoring a career-best 11 points. With Mann out, Glover was needed to take additional reps and capitalized on his 17 minutes by giving the Gators' offense a different, quicker look. ... Freshman forward Omar Payne is averaging 5.2 points and 4.8 rebounds. His 12 offensive boards are the second most on the team, despite playing only 16.5 minutes per game. ... ABOUT THE MUSKETEERS: They're in the second season under Travis Steele, who came to Xavier as director of basketball operations under Sean Miller, became an assistant coach under Chris Mack after Miller bolted for Arizona, and was elevated to head coach in April 2018 when Mack left for Louisville. Steele's first team went 19-16 last season and
Naji Marshall (13)
finished third in the Big East with a 9-9 mark (thanks to wins in eight of the last 11 games) and played in the NIT. ... Xavier averages 71.2 points and gives up 59.9. The Musketeers are shooting almost 42 percent from the field and 27.3 from deep, while giving up 35.9 and 26.3, respectively. They'll be one of the best defensive teams the Gators face this season. ... The Musketeers have a ton of experience, with a starting unit of all juniors and seniors, plus a bench that includes a veteran transfer. Of Xavier's top eight players, seven of them have combined to play in 435 college games, including 302 starts. ... Forward Naji Marshall could just as well have been the player profiled above. He went for 21 points, five rebounds and a trio of 3-pointers against UConn. Where Jones doesn't leave the paint very often, Marshall will float the perimeter. He hasn't shot the ball well from deep this season (21.2 percent), but is capable of getting hot and needs to accounted for out there, which makes his penetration skills more dangerous. ... Guard Paul Scruggs has played in 110 games, with 85 starts. He's shooting nearly 53 percent from the floor. Like Marshall, he's not been great from distance yet (8 of 25), but could be a game away from getting it going. Excellent defender, also, as Nembhard likely will find out. ... Jason Carter, the team's second-leading rebounder, is a transfer from Ohio University, where he started 46 games. He's 15-for-15 from the free-throw line this season. ... Guard Bryce Moore (6.2 ppg) is a top reserve having grad-transferred from Western Michigan, where he was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Defensive Team.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
UF center Kevarrius Hayes (13) battles with Duke's Marvin Bagley (35) during the championship game of the 2017 PK80 Invitational, the last time the Gators played for a title in a holiday-season tournament.
* 2 — Overtime games for Xavier this season. In addition to the Friday win over UConn, the Musketeers needed an extra period to beat Southeastern Conference foe Missouri, 63-58, on Nov. 12. Two nights later, Xavier was in a tussle with Missouri State, also in the field at the Charleston Classic, before getting by with a 59-56 victory in regulation. Four of their six games have been close.
* 3 — Holiday tournament championship games the Gators have reached over the last five seasons. UF lost to No. 21 Purdue, 85-70, in the 2015 Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic at Uncasville, Conn., and were beaten by No. 1 Duke, 87-84, in the PK80 Invitational final at Portland, Ore., in 2017.
* 14 — Xavier's ranking, according to KenPom.com, in defensive efficiency. That's one spot better than Florida at 15th.
* 27 — All-time NCAA Tournament wins for Xavier, the most by any program in the country to never reach a Final Four.
* 63.0 — UF has held all six of its opponents to 63 points or less, the longest such streak since limiting seven straight teams to 63 or fewer during the 2013-14 season that ended in the Final Four.
* 1959 — The first year Florida and Xavier played, with the Musketeers winning, 86-74, in the Gator Bowl invitational at Jacksonville.
LAST WORD
Bringing home the hardware from this beautiful port city would be a nice confidence boost for the Gators, but it's going to be really, really difficult to do so.
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