Thursday, November 28, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
No. 24 FLORIDA vs MARSHALL
When: Friday, 9 p.m. (EST) Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla. Records: Florida (5-2); Marshall (2-3) TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart and Mark Wise) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Bill Koss)
THE BASICS
UF guard Noah Locke, surrounded by his teammates, raises the championship trophy at the Charleston Classic after UF's 70-65 defeat of 18th-ranked Xavier in the title game Sunday night.
Florida returns to the O'Dome in a much better place than when it last left it, following a down-to-the-wire win over Towson State. The Gators followed that performance with a loss at Connecticut to fall to 2-2, but rebounded spectacularly with three wins and a tournament championship at the Charleston Classic, highlighted by Sunday night's 70-65 victory over 18th-ranked and previously unbeaten Xavier. The run through a decent tournament field moved the Gators back into the Associated Press Top 25 after they debuted at No. 6, dropped to 15th after a loss to Florida State the second game of the season, then out of the rankings altogether post-UConn. As for Marshall, out of Conference USA, it has not played for eight days, with the Thundering Herd's last outing a 91-63 win over Howard that snapped a three-game losing streak. ... UF and Marshall have never played in men's basketball. ... UF is 1-0 against C-USA teams in five seasons under Coach Mike White.
Taevion Kinsey, the 6-foot-5 sophomore point guard, was the team's third-leading scorer as a freshman last season, hitting 10.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. The Columbus, Ohio, prospect found his stride as the season progressed and played the finest game of his Conference USA All-Freshman season by going for 21 points and season-high 11 rebounds against Wisconsin-Green Bay in the title game of the College Invitational Championship (CIT). So far as a sophomore, Kinsey has reached double figures in all five games and logged no less than 35 minutes in the team's first four games (but only 28 against Howard, as Marshall emptied its bench). Though he's a guard by definition, Kinsey isn't going to fan out on the perimeter and hit 3s. Or even try to. He's only attempted six all season, but is shooting nearly 52 percent from the floor, which is to say he's getting his buckets by driving the basketball and finishing deep into a defense. Worth noting? He shot nearly 58 percent as a freshman, so he has a track record as a shot-maker. Kinsey was averaging four assists through four games, then dished a career-best 14 in the win over Howard.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard (2) and his UF teammates didn't handle the Xavier pressure very well in the final six minutes, but credit the Musketeers also for picking up their intensity and carving into a 17-point deficit.
ABOUT THE GATORS: If they could only bottle what they did in the first half of the Xavier game. Against a defense ranked in the nation's top 20, the Gators shot 64 percent to open a 10-point lead that eventually swelled to as many as 17, as UF upped those shooting numbers to 69 percent through roughly 27 minutes. When the Musketeers shifted into their full-court press, however, the Gators got a little too antsy, a little too loose with the ball, and a little too tentative. The last six minutes were a disaster,
Keyontae Johnson
as UF went 0-for-6 from the floor with five turnovers, and Xavier turned a 13-point deficit into a one-possession game, until Florida got a key stop, rebound and two Kerry Blackshear Jr. free throws with 7.5 seconds left to ice the game. Decision-making and spacing in close-out situations were on the to-do list at practice the last couple days, but the overall takeaway from Charleston was extremely positive. … UF was averaging 62.2 points and shooting 38 percent overall and 24 percent from the 3-point line before the three-game tournament. During the tournament, they averaged 72 points, 48 percent shooting and better than 40 from deep. … Offensively, Florida checks in at No. 47, according to KenPom advanced metrics and at No. 16 in adjusted defensive efficiency. … Forward Keyontae Johnson, named MVP in Charleston, averaged 16.3 points and was 20-for-33 shooting (61 percent), plus 8.0 rebounds in the three wins. … Throw out the Saint Joseph's game, where he was limited to three first-half minutes due to foul trouble and was ejected 90 seconds into the second half for a Flagrant 2 foul, and Blackshear's averages show 15.3 points and 11.2 rebounds, with five double-doubles in six games. … Noah Locke was 5-for-24 from the 3-point line pre-Charleston and 8-for-16 at the tournament site. Played some high-level defense also, with a career-high four steals vs. Xavier. … Minus Blackshear (like against SJU, as well as the loss at Connecticut when UF's post star fouled out), point guard Andrew Nembhard has taken on more of an offensive role. He had 33 field-goal attempts in those two games. In the wins over Miami and Xavier, Nembhard was 8-for-18 overall, 5-for-11 from 3 and had 14 assists. … Freshman backup point guardQues Glover missed nine of his first 10 field-goal attempts, but like the Gators discovered his touch in South Carolina. How 'bout 11-for-16, including two of four attempts from 3. Glover's change-of-pace skills are a big plus for UF, but if he's going to take reps at the point he has to work on that minus-5 assist-to-turnover margin (4 assists, 9 turnovers). He knows that. … Freshman Scottie Lewis leads the team in blocks with 11 and is second in steals with eight. Look for freshman combo guard Tre Mann to get additional minutes and be more assertive with his offense, after being limited to just six minutes against Xavier upon being clear from concussion protocol that cost him two games. ... ABOUT THE THUNDERING HERD: They're coached by Dan D'Antoni, the older brother of Houston Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni and one of best players in Marshall
Dan D'Antoni
history. D'Antoni took over the post five years ago and in 2018 and not only guided the Herd to their first NCAA Tournament berth in 31 years, but as a No. 13-seed upset fourth-seeded Wichita State in opening-round play. Marshall went 23-14 last season and won the College Insider Postseason Tournament (CIT), but during '18-19 faced just three Power Five conference opponents — Maryland, Virginia, Texas A&M — and lost those games by an average margin of 35.7 points. This season, Marshall opened with a win over Robert Morris, then lost at home to Toledo by 26, at Notre Dame by 10, and at College Charleston by 10, before snapping the losing skid with a 28-point rout of Howard. ... Marshall is averaging 71.6 points, shooting 44.7 percent overall and just 24.5 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Herd allow 73.8 points, 40.3-percent shooting and 33.9 from deep. KenPom.com metrics ranks them No. 12 nationally in adjusted tempo (75.9 possessions per 40 minutes), which means they're going to get shots up quickly. They're just 247th in offensive efficiency, though, due to some of those previously mentioned shooting numbers. ... Junior guard Jarrod West is scoring nearly 10 points more a game than he did as a sophomore. He's tied for the team lead in made 3-pointers, but with only seven. Like Kinsey, though, West is shooting at a high percentage overall (.500), so he's getting the ball to favorable positions and scoring. ... Forward Jannson Williams is the other Marshall player with seven 3s, but on 25 attempts (.280). ... Reserve forward Cam Brooks-Harris is third on the team in minutes, is shooting 33 percent, is just 2-for-15 from 3, and is tied for third in assists with 11 (but also with 10 turnovers).
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
UF freshman guard Ques Glover (0) hit four of five shots on his way to nine points in the win against No. 18 Xavier.
* 1 — Florida's non-conference strength-of-schedule among Power 5 conference teams, according to KenPom.
* 0.5 — Glover's scoring average through the first four games.
* 8.6 — Glover's scoring average in three wins at the Charleston Classic
* 14 — UF wins against ranked opponents since White's first season in 2015-16, which is tied with Alabama for second most in the SEC behind Kentucky's 18 in that span.
* 29 — Days until the next home game for the Gators. UF has four games during the month of December, but the next three are against likely NCAA Tournament teams: at Butler (Dec. 7), against Providence (Dec. 17) at Brooklyn, N.Y., and against Utah State (Dec. 22) at the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, Fla. The Gators' next home game is Dec. 28 against Long Beach State, which is also the final non-league game before opening Southeastern Conference play Jan. 4 at home against Alabama.
LAST WORD
It may be viewed by some as merely a distraction in the run-up to the Florida-Florida State football game (especially with the late start), but it's a big game for the Gators relative to momentum and building on all things good that came out of the Charleston Classic.
