FLORIDA at MISSOURI
When: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (EST)
Where: Mizzou Arena, Columbia, Mo.
Records: Florida (10-4, 2-0); Missouri (8-6, 0-2)
TV: SEC Network (
Dave Neal and
Joe Kleine)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (
Mick Hubert and
Bill Koss)
THE BASICS
Mizzou Arena (capacity 15,061) was built for $75 million and opened in 2004. The Tigers joined the SEC for the 2012-13 season, with the Gators playing there just three times since. UF is 2-2 in those visits, with losses in 2013 and '15, and a rather memorable victory in '18 (see below).
It's the first back-to-back Southeastern Conference road swing for Florida, which has won three straight, including its first two league games for the first time since 2018. The Gators opened the SEC slate by rallying from 21 down at home to defeat Alabama in double-overtime last week, then going to South Carolina and winning 81-68 on Tuesday night. UF is one of four conference teams (along with No. 5 Auburn, No. 17 Kentucky and LSU) to start 2-0 in league play. The Tigers, meanwhile, have dropped their first two SEC outings, losing at Kentucky last weekend, then Tuesday at home against Tennessee by a 69-59 count. ... Florida leads the all-time series, 7-2, with a four-game winning streak that includes the 64-60 victory Feb. 23, 2019 at Gainesville, Fla. In that one, the Gators trailed by 12 in the second half, but rallied behind senior guard
KeVaughn Allen, who scored 14 of his 17 after intermission, none bigger than his two clutch free throws with 5.5 seconds remaining to ice the outcome. After missing all five of his first-half field-goal tries, Allen went 4-for-5 from the floor after intermission and 9-for-10 from the free-throw line. Freshman forward
Keyontae Johnson added 13 points and a game-best seven rebounds, grabbing three of them in the final 1:18, the last two on errant Mizzou attempts for the lead in the final 30 seconds. ... UF coach
Mike White is 4-0 against the Tigers.
PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS
| Missouri |
Pos. |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Class |
Per Game |
| Mitchell Smith |
F |
6-10 |
221 |
R-Junior |
4.3 pts / 3.8 reb |
| Reed Nikko |
F |
6-10 |
240 |
Senior |
2.2 pts / 2.1 reb |
| Kobe Brown |
F |
6-7 |
240 |
Freshman |
5.6 pts / 2.9 reb |
| Mark Smith |
G |
6-5 |
220 |
Junior |
11.1 pts / 4.7 reb |
| Dru Smith |
G |
6-3 |
203 |
R-Junior |
11.3 pts / 4.4 reb |
ONE TO WATCH
Mark Smith, a four-star prospect out of Edwardsville (Ill.) High, was named both Illinois "Mr. Basketball" as well as the state's Gatorade Player of the Year in 2017 and originally signed with the Illini, only to transfer after his freshman season. Last year, when granted immediate eligibility with the Tigers, Smith averaged 11.4 points and 5.2 rebounds over 19 games before suffering a season-ending foot injury. Now a junior, Smith has been the best all-around player on a Mizzou team that has struggled offensively. He ranks second on the team in scoring at 11.1 points, but his 34 makes from the 3-point line (at 39.5 percent, which ranks eighth in the SEC) is 15 more than his closest teammate. At 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, he is a sturdy driver, but prefers to float the perimeter for 3s. Smith has gotten off to a slow start in SEC play, hitting just four of his 15 shots (all from beyond the arc), but he has four games of at least four makes from long range, including a career-high seven against Southern Illinois. He is certainly capable of breaking out and getting it going at home.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Since returning from the holiday break, sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard has averaged 16.3 points and 9.0 assists in leading the Gators to three straight victories.
ABOUT THE GATORS: White won the 200th game of his nine-year career as a head coach Tuesday, and Saturday will mark his first crack at winning No. 100 at Florida. If he can do so, White will reach the century mark faster than anyone in UF history other than
Billy Donovan, who hit 100 wins in 154 games. White will be coaching his 157th Saturday. It's worth noting, though, that White's winning percentage with the Gators is .634, which is three points better than Donovan's (.631) through 14 games of his fifth season at UF. ... Over the last two games, both wins SEC play, Nembhard has hit 16 of his 23 shots overall, four of his 10 from the arc, 10 of 12 from the free-throw
Noah Locke
line and averaged 23.0 points and 39 minutes. His aggressiveness in the halfcourt has been a game-changer in those two games and needs to continue for this offense, restructured and remade on the fly by White and his staff, is to continue to improve. To think, before a couple weeks ago, Nembhard had only once scored at least 20 points and just twice had double-digit assists in his 47-game career. In the last three games, he had a career-high 25 points against Alabama, then 21 at South Carolina, plus has a career-high 13 assists (Long Beach State) and 10 (at South Carolina). ... Forward
Keyontae Johnson had another terrific outing against the Gamecocks in scoring 19 points and tallying eight rebounds. As a freshman last season, Johnson hit 19 points just once. This season, he's done so five times. He's now shooting 53.7 percent from the floor; and a year after making just 64.3 percent of his free throws, Johnson is at 75.0 percent this season. ... Shooting guard
Noah Locke made a pair of 3s against the Gamecocks and extended his streak of multiple 3s in a game to 11. That's the longest since
Lee Humphrey went 11 straight during the 2006-07 and one behind the team record of 12 straight, set by
Brett Nelson during 2000-01 season. Locke is 13-for-26 from the arc (50 percent) after the last five games. ... Rookie wing
Scottie Lewis, back in the starting lineup for the first time in three games, came one rebound shy of following up his double-double with a second, but he settled for 15 points and nine boards in his first road conference game. Not bad. Over the last three games, Lewis is average 13.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per. ... Though scoring will be difficult against Missouri, the recent offensive outputs of Locke and Lewis have the Gators flirting with all five starters averaging in double figures. Check back in a week or so. ... Forward
Kerry Blackshear Jr. played just two minutes due to foul trouble at USC, but still scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and went 7-for-10 from the free-throw line after intermission. He's now made 40 of his previous 46 free throws over seven games. ... Backup bigs
Omar Payne, the freshman, and fourth-junior
Dontay Bassett were instrumental in holding down the low-post fort while Blackshear sat for 18 first-half minutes. Eight of Payne's career high-equaling nine rebounds came in the first period, while Bassett had two of each of the following: baskets, rebounds and drawn charges. ...
ABOUT THE TIGERS: They're 43-36 in three seasons under Coach
Cuonzo Martin, who came to Columbia by way of California, and before that Tennessee and Missouri State. Martin, who was a standout player at Purdue in his day, has a solid .593 winning percentage in his 12 seasons, but has never been at one place for more than three seasons. Along the way, his teams have been to three NCAA tournaments (one each at Missouri, Cal and a "Sweet 16" run with the Volunteers in 2014), as
Dru Smith
well as four NITs. Wherever Martin has been, his teams have had a reputation as hard-nosed, especially on the defensive end. His record in league play over three seasons with the Tigers is 15-23. Not so good, especially considering its 5-15 the last two seasons. … Missouri is scoring 66.7 points per game, shooting 42.6 percent from the floor and 30.5 from the 3-point line. The defense is a different story. The Tigers give up just 57.7 points, 37.6 percent overall and 27.6 from the arc. The bulk of those numbers (12 games worth) were amassed with 6-10, 260-pound center
Jeremiah Tillmon (9.0 points, 4.3 rebounds), but the Tigers' big man suffered a stress fracture in his foot in the team's final non-conference game and is out indefinitely. …
KenPom.com ranks Missouri at 56th nationally, meaning this is a game that could potentially have Quadrant-1 status. ... The Tigers may be offensively challenged (131st in efficiency), but defensively the metrics say they're the 32nd-best in the country, with a tempo (321st) that makes a Florida game look like a track meet. …
Dru Smith is no relation to Mark, but their numbers look awfully similar. Dru sat out last season after transferring from Evansville, where he averaged 13.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 2.0 steals and led the Missouri Valley Conference in 3-point shooting (48.2 percent). While with the Purple Aces, he also led the league in both field-goal (.578) and free-throw percentage (.862), so the last thing the Gators need is to let this Smith (either one, actually) get going and get some confidence. … The Tigers do not have a player averaging more than 4.7 rebounds, but they own a plus-4.1 rebounding margin per game, which speaks to the collective effort on the glass. The Gators will need to match that.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
Chris Chiozza, in the most famous play of his first-team All-SEC senior season, lays up the game-winner at the buzzer two years ago at Missouri. Check out the UF bench in the background.
* .01 — Seconds on the clock when senior point guard
Chris Chiozza finished off his steal-layup on the game's final possession in UF's stunning 77-75 win at Mizzou on Jan. 6, 2018, as the Gators scored the game's final seven points over the last 1:10.
* 1 — SEC teams (out of 14) without a player ranked among the top 30 scorers in the league. That team is Missouri, with
Dru Smith checking in at No. 32.
* 2 — Opponents that have scored at least 70 points against Missouri. Oly Oklahoma, which defeated the Tigers, 77-66, on a neutral floor, and Kentucky, a 71-59 winner at home, have done so.
* 3 — Smiths (guards Mark and Dru, along with forward
Mitchell) in the Mizzou starting lineup. Can't find a stat on that and where that ranks nationally; not even on
KenPom.
* 5.9 — Points per game improvement by the Gators over their last three outings. UF came back from the holiday break averaging 68.0 per game, but has scored 102, 104 (in double-overtime) and 81 the last three games, for an average of 95.7 over that span, and now 73.9 for the season.
* 75.8 — Opponents' free-throw percentage against the Tigers, which is a tough (and unlucky) number to account for. That ranks 339th nationally, meaning only 14 teams watch free throws fall at a higher rate. How does a team improve on those digits? Foul less, presumably.
LAST WORD
The Gators are playing very well (the Tigers, not so much), and need to take advantage of it by continuing the unselfish and focused approach of the last game and a half.
