Florida Gators

OLE MISS at FLORIDA  

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.   
Records: Florida (10-5, 2-1); Ole Miss (9-6, 0-2)  
TV: ESPN2 (Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes) 
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey) 



THE BASICS  Florida returns home after back-to-back Southeastern Conference road games to take on Mississippi, which has played one league game each on the road and at home. ... The Gators got walloped Saturday night at Missouri, where they ran into a 3-point shooting buzz saw in the first half, trailed by 15 at the break and were never in the game in suffering their first SEC loss of the season. The Rebels, meanwhile, had a nine-point lead over Arkansas at home with just over seven minutes left, but got outscored 23-10 the rest of the way and were handed a 76-72 loss by the Razorbacks. ... Ole Miss is one of UF's two rotating home-and-home opponents for the 2019-20 season (along with LSU). ... Florida leads the all-time series, 66-56, including last season's 90-86 overtime win in Gainesville. In that one, senior guard KeVaughn Allen, after missing his first six 3-pointers of the game, buried an NBA 3-ball with 2.5 seconds left in regulation to put the game in OT, then scored four of his team's 14 points in the extra period to key the victory. Allen scored 11 of his 20 points over the final four minutes of regulation and OT, while freshman guard Noah Locke threw in a team-best 22 points, including six 3-pointers over 42 minutes. ... UF coach Mike White, who started at point guard for the Rebels for four seasons in the mid-1990s, is seeking his 100th win as Florida's coach. Getting it against his alma mater would be fitting. 

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keyontae Johnson	F	6-5	225	Sophomore	15.1 pts / 8.4 reb
Kerry Blackshear Jr.	F	6-10	232	G-Transfer	12.9 pts / 6.8 reb
Omar Payne	G	6-10	223	Freshman	4.1 pts / 4.3 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-2	193	Senior	10.0 pts / 3.2 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Sophomore	9.3 pts / 4.9 reb / 5.9 ast

Ole Miss	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Blake Hinson	F	6-7	229	Sophomore	11.0 pts / 4.6 reb
KJ Buffen	F	6-7	225	Sophomore	9.7 pts / 6.6 reb
Khadim Sy	F	6-10	224	Junior	8.8 pts / 5.1 reb
Breein Tyree	G	6-2	195	Senior	17.8 pts / 3.8 reb
Devontae Shuler	G	6-2	190	Junior	10.9 pts / 4.7 reb

ONE TO WATCH   TEAM BREAKDOWNS   ABOUT THE GATORS: UF got rapped in the mouth from the tip in the loss at Missouri, which led the game for all 40 minutes, including the last 32-plus by double digits. UF shot just 30.8 percent in the first half, compared to 60 percent for the Tigers, who went 8-for-11 from the 3-point line (then 4-for-8 in the second half). The defeat sent

the Gators tumbling statistically, as well, falling from 23rd to 31st overall in KenPom.com, as well as a staggering 32nd to 58th in defensive efficiency. ... Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. did hit part in the game with 22 points, including 10-for-11 from the free-throw line, but the Tigers fired him defensively in the post and did a great job boxing out, as "KJ" finished 5-for-12 from the floor with just four rebounds. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhard was on a roll over his previous three games, but was barely given room to breathe by a Mizzou defense that rates among the best in the league. After averaging better than 16 points and nine assists over a trio of games, Nembhard went for eight points and four assists (along with four turnovers). ... Shooting guard Noah Locke hit his first four 3-point attempts at Missouri and now has made multiple 3s in a program-record 12 consecutive games, tying former point guard Brett Nelson (1999-2003). Locke has made 17 of 33 long-ball attempts over the last six games. ... Forward Keyontae Johnson got in early foul trouble and had his string of three straight double-figure scoring games snapped, as he finished with just five points and five rebounds over 27 minutes. That rebound total was Johnson's fewest since grabbing three in the loss at Butler on Dec. 7. ... Freshman wing Scottie Lewis did not start the game, but came off the bench to score 11 points, grab four rebounds and go 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. He's 20-for-20 from the line over the last three games. ... UF hopes to have reserve center/forward Dontay Bassett back after the fourth-year junior did not make the trip to Missouri due to an illness. Bassett returned to practice Monday full go. ... ABOUT THE REBELS: This is their second season under Coach Kermit Davis, the Leaksville, Miss. native who came to Oxford after a successful run of 16 seasons at Middle Tennessee, where he won 332 games and went to three NCAA tournaments. The Rebels went 20-13 in their first season under Davis, including 10-8 in the league (good enough for

a sixth-place tie), and reached the NCAA Tournament for just the fifth time in the 2000s. They lost in the first round to Oklahoma. ... Ole Miss is averaging 69.7 points per game, shooting 43.5 percent from the floor and 32.3 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Rebels are giving up 65.9 points, 42.7-percent shooting and 29.6 from deep. KenPom place them 103rd overall, 97th in offensive efficiency and 119th on defense. ... Eight of Mississippi's nine wins have come against teams 219th or worse, but the Rebels did beat Penn State, currently ranked No. 20 in the AP poll, in the semifinals of the NIT Tip-off at Brooklyn. In that game, Ole Miss trailed by 21 in the second half, but came back to win on free throws from guard Brice Williams with 13 seconds left. The next night, the Rebels were thrashed, 78-37, by Oklahoma State. ... After Tyree, scoring has been a struggle of late for the Rebels, with their second-best perimeter option, guard Devontae Shuler, just 13-for-39 the last three games, including 3-for-19 from the 3-point line. The next-best option would be wing Blake Hinson, but he's 7-for-24 and 1-for-13 over the same period. ... Ole Miss is 15th in the country in assisted field goals (61.7 percent), which speaks to their unselfishness, and also among one of the better teams in the country at boxing out and preventing offensive rebounds and second-chance points. The Rebels are going to play extremely hard and, on the road, they're going to play desperate. That's a calling card of Davis-coached teams. The Gators need to be ready for that. 


NUMBERS WORTH NOTING   * .450 — Combined free-throw percentage of the Florida freshman class, excluding Lewis (.800), based on 32 of 71 by guards Ques Glover (8-17) and Tre Mann (11-19), forward Omar Payne (9-24), and center Jason Jitobah (4-11). 

* .723 — UF's team free-throw percentage for the season, in spite of the aforementioned freshmen, which ranks sixth in the SEC. 

* 5 — Teams on UF's 2019-20 schedule currently ranked in the Associated Press Top 10 (2-Baylor, 4-Auburn, 5-Butler, 9-Florida State, 10-Kentucky). The Gators are 0-2 against that group, with four games to go. 

* 154 — Games it took Billy Donovan to win 100 as Florida coach. 

* 157 — Games White, sitting on 99 wins, has coached at Florida. 

* 1,454 — Career points by Tyree, which ranks 15th in Ole Miss history and is 23 shy of passing Murphy Holloway (2009-13) for the No. 14 spot. His current scoring average puts Tyree on pace to become just the seventh Rebel to tally 1,700 points in a career. 


LAST WORD
Obviously, the Gators need to protect their home floor, as well as win games they're supposed to win. This one is crucial, given the opponents on the immediate horizon: home against Auburn (Saturday), at LSU (Jan. 21), back home against Baylor in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge (Jan. 25).