Pregame Stuff: Florida vs Long Beach State (Saturday, noon)

Saturday, December 28

Gainesville, FL

12 PM

Florida Gators

Long Beach State

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Pregame Stuff: Florida vs Long Beach State (Saturday, noon)

Friday, December 27, 2019 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

FLORIDA vs LONG BEACH STATE

When: Saturday, noon (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: Florida (7-4); Long Beach State (4-10)
TV: SEC Network (Mike Morgan and Jon Sundvold)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Mark Wise)

THE BASICS

Florida will play its first game at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center since facing Marshall on Nov. 29.

Florida is back in action and looking to tag one more non-league win on its record before diving into Southeastern Conference play next week. Long Beach State, out of the Big West Conference, has lost six of seven and comes to town for an odd cross-country trip of just one game, having lost Monday at Seattle, coming to Florida for this single stop, and heading back west after this game for a Jan. 4 date against Cal State Los Angeles. ... UF has not played a home game since facing Marshall on Nov. 29, the eve of the Florida-Florida State football game. ... The Gators had won six of seven before dropping a 65-62 decision to Utah State in the Orange Bowl Classic at Sunrise, Fla, last weekend. The loss was UF's fourth against teams ranked among the nation's top 54 teams by KenPom.com, part of a non-conference schedule that is ranked the 16th hardest in the nation (with a date against No. 7 Baylor still to come in late January). ... This will be the first meeting between UF and LBSU. ... The Gators are 2-0 all-time against teams currently in the Big West, including a 79-51 defeat of UC Santa Barbara in the 2011 NCAA Tournament at Tampa, Fla.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keyontae Johnson	F	6-5	225	Sophomore	12.5 pts / 6.5 reb
Kerry Blackshear Jr.	F	6-10	232	G-Transfer	13.5 pts / 8.5 reb
Scottie Lewis	G	6-5	187	Freshman	8.1 pts / 4.2 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-2	193	Sophomore	8.9 pts / 2.7 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Sophomore	9.8 pts / 3.2 reb / 5.3 ast

Long Beach State	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Jordan Roberts	F	6-9	200	Junior	4.4 pts / 3.3 reb
Max De Geest	G	6-3	185	Freshman	4.5 pts / 1.9 reb
Michael Carter III	G	6-5	175	Sophomore	12.1 pts / 2.6 reb / 3.1 ast
Chance Hunter	G	6-6	190	Sophomore	13.2 pts / 4.9 reb
Colin Slater	G	6-1	190	Junior	10.6 pts / 2.3 reb

ONE TO WATCH

Long Beach State's top player is guard **Chance Hunter**, who transferred into the 49ers' program after one season playing at Cerritos College, the same school that was home to UF softball coach **Tim Walton**, then a baseball star, in 1992-93. Hunter scored 19 points and made all four of his 3-point attempts in his Division-I debut, a 69-65 loss at UCLA. He went for 21 points in his next game, a win at home over San Diego, but then fell off to just five in a loss at Stanford. In the 49ers' last five games, Hunter has reached double figures twice, including a scoreless outing in a 65-46 loss against Pacific, but has some very nice shooting numbers for the young season: 48 percent overall and 46 from the 3-point line. Hunter will attack the basket, but struggles from the free-throw line (just 55 percent). He also may try to do a little too much at times, which shows up in the assist/turnover margin (16/33). What the Gators don't want is to let him get into any kind of rhythm early on, like they allowed some earlier home opponents to do, thus leading to some unnecessary nail-baiting in the O'Dome.

TEAM BREAKDOWNS

Freshman guard **Scottie Lewis** backs down his defender in UF's last home game, a 73-67 defeat of Marshall on Nov. 29.

ABOUT THE GATORS: Those stone-cold shooting ways that plagued them early in the season returned in the loss to Utah State, as the Gators missed their first 14 field-goal attempts against the Aggies and had just two points through the first nine minutes. Defense, though, kept UF in the game and even had the Gators up six in the second

half until a veteran team with some very good offensive players heated up. The Aggies shot 50 percent in the second half to UF's 35.5 and pulled away in the final six minutes. ... Florida is averaging 68.0 points per game, shooting 43.1 from the floor and just 30 from the 3-point line. On defense, the Gators give up 62.5 points, 39.3 percent overall and 28.2 from deep. KenPom converts those numbers to 49th in offensive efficiency, 24th in defense and an overall No. 26 ranking, the latter number a testament to the Gators' strength of schedule. ... How cold was Florida against Utah State? Unfortunately, the Gators that can least afford to be cold were the coolest. Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. (despite season highs of 22 points and 15 rebounds), forward Keyontae Johnson and shooting guard Noah Locke combined to make just nine of 39 shots. That's 23.1 percent. ... Blackshear was 3-for-14 in the game, including 1-for-4 from the 3-point line, meaning he shot better from the arc (1-for-4) than inside it (2-for-10). ... Locke, who had made 44 percent of his 3s the previous six games, was a decent 2-for-6 from deep last time out, but just one of six on the rest. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhard has reached his assist average of 5.3 only once in the last five games, carding four against the Aggies. Obviously, assists are products of made shots, and there was some poor shot selection from his teammate in the last game. ... Nembhard and guard Scottie Lewis combined to hit eight of 15 shots in the Utah State game. Lewis also pitched in five rebounds, three steals and two blocks. ... After really good outings in the 32-point blowout of Providence, backup guards Tre Mann and Ques Glover had their struggles against the Aggies. They combined to go just 2-for-6 shooting, missed both 3 attempts, had no assists and turned the ball over three times. ... ABOUT THE 49ERS: They're in the 13th season under Coach Dan Monson, who is 204-206 during that time, with five winning seasons, three NIT appearances and one NCAA Tournament berth (2012). UF fans may recall Monson as the coach at Gonzaga when the Bulldogs shocked the Gators, 73-72, in the West Region "Sweet

16" round of the '99 NCAAs. Monson parlayed that Elite Eight run (the Zags lost to eventual national-champion Connecticut) into the head coach's post at Minnesota, but struggled there and was fired after the '06-07 season. ... LBSU, which also goes by the "Beach," has played a very competitive schedule (33rd most difficult by KenPom), including four cracks at the Pac-12 Conference, with losses to UCLA, Stanford, Arizona and USC. The 49ers' best win to date was a 66-65 defeat of Providence in the Wooden Classic. That would be the same Friars team the Gators blasted by 32. ... LBSU will try to play fast (68th nationally in tempo), which may give the Gators an opportunity to play a little faster if the 49ers aren't making shots; especially if the visitors play to their minus-1.6 assist-to-turnover team ratio. ... The 49ers have one of the nation's worst 3-point defenses, so the Gators can expect some solid looks from deep. But can they make them? ... For the second straight game, UF will face one of the tallest teams in the country. LBSU, though, doesn't start its biggest lineup (not even close), but rather goes with four guards. ... Guard Michael Carter III is the team's No. 2 scorer, with the second-most shot attempts (behind Hunter), but is hitting at just 36.6 overall and 29.3 from deep. ... Backup freshman center Joshua Morgan goes 6-11. He's made 65 percent of his shots and leads the team in rebounding at 5.6 per game, despite being fourth in minutes.

NUMBERS WORTH NOTING

Forward **Dorian Finney-Smith** posted eight double-doubles during his 2015-16 senior season, a number Kerry Blackshear Jr. figures to eclipse early in 2020.

* 1 — Florida players (Nembhard) with more assists than turnovers this season.

* 6 — Double-doubles posted by Blackshear through just 11 games, already the most by a UF player since senior forward Dorian Finney-Smith had eight over 37 games in 2015-16.

* 16 — UF's non-conference strength-of-schedule ranking, one of only two so-called "Power Six" conference teams (along with Kansas at No. 10) that show up in the Top 20. Taking on an ambitious slate is admirable, of course, but the Gators have just one win over a KenPom top-50 team (Xavier at No. 28). Plenty more opportunities will come.

* 29 — Days since UF last played a home game, believed to be the longest such stretch between O'Dome dates since the building opened in 1981.

* 1985 — The first year the Gators faced a current Mountain West Conference team. UF defeated Hawaii, 115-83, that year on the Rainbows' homecourt in the Maui Classic.

LAST WORD
Long Beach has really struggled for the better part of this season, so this one really needs to be free of any drama whatsoever (as opposed to earlier non-league home games against supposedly overmatched Towson and Marshall). Are the Gators capable of an outing like that in what figures to be a light holiday home crowd?