Pregame Stuff: Florida vs Utah State (Saturday, 2:30 pm)
Friday, December 20, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA vs UTAH STATE
When: Saturday, 2:30 p.m. (EST) Where: BB&T Center, Sunrise, Fla. Records: Florida (7-3); Utah State (11-2) TV: Fox Sports 1 (Rich Waltz, Bob Wenzel and Jessica Blaylock) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)
THE BASICS
The BB&T Center (capacity 20,737) sits on the outskirts of the Everglades in Sunrise, Fla., and is home to the NHL Florida Panthers.
Florida and Utah State meet in the second game of the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise, Fla. ... The Gators have won five of six, most recently their 83-51 blowout victory Tuesday night against Providence in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational, a neutral-site event held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. They were far from perfect in that outing, but it did serve as arguably the most complete game of the season (on both ends) and provided a nice confidence boost as the team continues to grow together while also reworking the offensive system. The Aggies, reigning co-champs of the Mountain West Conference, played Wednesday night in the Battleground 2k19, a six-team, tripleheader event (like the Naismith) on a neutral court in Houston. Utah State got a tip-in at the buzzer to beat South Florida, 76-74, in overtime. ... This is the 14th consecutive year the Gators have played in the OBC and 21st overall. UF has won 17 of the previous 19 after getting back on the winning side last season against Florida Gulf Coast one year after having a seven-game run of wins snapped by Clemson in 2017. ... Florida leads the all-time series with Utah State 1-0. The Gators defeated the Aggies, 60-58, on Nov. 22, 1999, in the Maui Invitational, the second game of a season that ended with a loss to Michigan State in the national-title game. In that one, senior shooting guard Kenyan Weaks scored 19 points, sophomore point guard Teddy Dupay had 11, and sophomore forward Mike Miller pitched in 10 points, four rebounds and five assists, as the Gators overcame 38-percent shooting by forcing 23 turnovers. ... Florida is 1-0 against Mountain West teams under Coach Mike White, with that lone game being UF's 70-61 upset of seventh-seeded Nevada in first-round NCAA Tournament play last March. 21 in Des Moines, Iowa. ... White's teams at UF are 3-1 in the OBC. ... No. 21 Florida State (9-2) and USF (6-5) will play in the event's first game, with that tip-off set for noon.
Senior guard Sam Merrill was not only a first-team All-Mountain West Conference selection last season, but the league's player of the year and tournament MVP after averaging 20.9 points (the fifth-most in school history). He scored 20 or more 18 times, including a career-high 38 in a win against Colorado State that clinched a share of the MWC title. The 6-foot-5, 205-pounder from Bountiful, Utah, graduated from high school in 2014 and spent the next two years serving a Latter Day Saints mission in Nicaragua, making Merrill, now 25 (and married), a veteran beyond his years. So far this season, Merrill is averaging 34 minutes, shooting 42 percent from the floor, 44 from the 3-point line (26 of 59), and nearly 86 from the free-throw line. He also has 46 assists to just 19 turnovers. Merrill fouled out in the game earlier this week against USF, but not before scoring 21 points, including four 3-pointers. With his quick release, combined with the ability to drive the ball and play angles, Merrill will be one one of the best and savviest offensive players the Gators face this season.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson leaves the Barclays Center floor Tuesday night after leading the Gators with 19 points and 10 rebounds (his second double-double of the season, fourth of his career) in their one-sided win over Providence in Brooklyn, N.Y.
ABOUT THE GATORS: Whether they were that much better than Providence (unlikely) or the Friars were just awful Tuesday night (very likely), the Gators put together their finest game of the season in pummeling PC by 32. Florida shot 51 percent overall, 44.4 from the 3-point line and led by double-digits the last 29-plus minutes on the way to a season-high 83 points. ... With the win, UF rocketed 16 spots up the KenPom.com rankings (from 38th to 22nd) and as of Friday sat at No. 23. Offensively, the
Tre Mann
Gators rate 42nd and defensively at 23rd. ... Florida is scoring 68.6 points per game, shooting 44.3 percent from the floor and 30.5 from the 3-point line. That second number is an encouraging one, considering UF was at 38.4 percent overall through four games. ... Forward Keyontae Johnson, after tallying 19 points and 10 boards against Providence, has scored in double figures in five of six games. The lone miss was at Butler, which is UF's lone loss over that time. Johnson is averaging 15.0 points over those six games. ... Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. was limited to just seven points and three rebounds in only 17 minutes against the Friars due to foul trouble. He's now been called for at least four fouls in half the team's 10 games. Blackshear's 26.9 minutes per game are five less than he averaged last year at Virginia Tech, where he rarely was in foul trouble. ... Shooting guard Noah Lockecontinues to trend upward after his slow start from deep. After starting 3-for-16 through three games, Lock has made 18 of his past 42 over the last six games (42.9 percent), averaging 2.6 makes per outing. ... After going three straight games with no more than five assists, point guard Andrew Nembhard had seven against the Friars (making shots helps assist totals, by the way). Speaking of making shots, Nembhard has knocked down 19 of his last 39 field-goal tries (48.7 percent). ... Backup freshman guard Tre Mann(6.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg) had his finest game as a Gator with 13 points on 4-for-8 shooting. He needs to bring the same confidence exuded against the Friars against this very experienced and deep Utah State team. Same goes for Ques Glover (5.2 ppg), another backup freshman guard who had a really good outing earlier this week (10 points). ... Freshman forward Scottie Lewis is the only player on the team with double-digit steals (15) and blocked shots (14). ... Lewis, Mann and Glover together are making just 22.4 percent of their 3s and have 15 assists versus 29 turnovers combined. ... Reserve freshman forward Omar Payne hit all three of his shots against Providence and fourth-year junior forward Dontay Bassetthad five rebounds in spelling the foul-plagued Blackshear. ... ABOUT THE AGGIES: They're in the second season under Craig Smith, who came to Logan, Utah, by way of South Dakota, where he coached the four seasons before that. His two-year mark at USU stands at 39-9. They went 28-7 last season and as a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament lost a first-round game to 9th-seeded Washington. ... The latest KenPom numbers put Utah State as the overall 52nd-ranked team nationally, with an offensive efficiency of 34 and defense at 74. In terms
Neemias Queta
of pace, the Aggies sit a middle-of-the-pack 173rd. They score just shy of 80 points per game (79.5), yield 61.9, while shooting 45.2 percent overall and 34.1 from 3. They defend those two shots at 39.3 percent and 30.5, respectively. ... Utah State hasn't played a particularly difficult schedule, but did beat LSU, 80-78, in the Jamaica Classic last month. The two losses came on the road at St. Mary's (by eight) and on a neutral floor in Salt Lake City against cross-state rival Brigham Young (by four last weekend). ... While Merrill is the heart and soul of the team, forward Justin Bean had the offensive rebound and putback at the horn Wednesday night to beat USF. The Gators have not faced a better rebounder to date, with Bean claiming 151 in his 13 games (11.6 per game ranks fifth nationally), including 56 on the offensive end. He also has 17 blocked shots at just 6-7. ... Neemias Queta missed the team's first 10 games while recovering from a knee injury suffered playing for the Portuguese National Team over the summer. The 7-footer was the 2019 Mountain West Freshman of the Year and MWC Defensive Player of the Year after scoring 11.8 points and pulling 8.9 boards per game. The win over USF was just the third game this season for Queta, but he went 6-for-7 from the floor and 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. ... Queta, by the way, is the second-tallest Aggie. The first is JuCo transfer Kuba Karwowski, from Poland, who goes 7-2, 220 pounds and is averaging 3.1 points and 4.1 rebounds. ... Point guard Abel Porter is shooting nearly 47 percent overall and 41 from deep (11 of 27). ... Utah State has seven players who average at least 7.2 points per game, six with at least 9.5 and four in double digits. Of the Aggies top five scorers, four shoot at least 82.7 percent from the free-throw line (and the fifth is at 78.0). ... Reserve guard Diogo Brito (9.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg) has started just one game, but his 53 attempts from 3 ranks second only to Merrill's 59.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
Fifth-year senior wing Jalen Hudson scored 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and was named Most Outstanding Player of UF's 77-56 defeat of Florida Gulf Coast in the 2018 Orange Bowl Classic.
* .850 — UF's winning percentage in the Orange Bowl Classic, based on a 17-3 all-time record.
* 0 — Points scored by Nembhard over 22 minutes in a 77-56 rout of Florida Gulf Coast in the OBC last Dec. 22, the only scoreless game for the UF point guard during his SEC All-Freshman season.
* 3 — Days off the Gators will have for Christmas break, which for the players officially begins Monday. The team will bus back to Gainesville after the game, practice Sunday morning, then be free to leave for the holidays. Players will return Thursday in time for a 6 p.m. practice.
* 78.2 — Average height of the Utah State team, which translates to 6-6 and change, and ranks the Aggies 24th nationally in that category. UF, in comparison, checks in at 77.3, which is 102nd nationally.
* 1997 — The first year Florida played in the OBC, as the Gators lost, 80-73, to Alabama-Birmingham. UF defeated Michigan, 79-63, in 1998 to start a nine-game win streak in the event over 11 seasons, as Florida skipped the event in 1999 and 2005. The Gators have played in the OBC annually since 2006, with the other two defeats along the way coming against Richmond in 2009 and Clemson in 2017.
LAST WORD
Wins right before Christmas are like presents under the tree for a coach. If the Gators can get this one, against a solid opponent, the holidays will be that much happier and festive at the White household.
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