Florida Gators

FLORIDA vs AUBURN 

When: Saturday, 1:30 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.   
Records: Florida (11-5, 3-1); Auburn (15-1, 3-1)  
TV: CBS (Spero Dedes and Clark Kellogg) 
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey) 



THE BASICS  
Florida and fourth-ranked Auburn meet in a showdown of two teams locked in a four-way tie for second place in the Southeastern Conference, one game behind LSU, which sits atop the standings as the league's lone unbeaten through two weeks. ... The Gators are coming off Tuesday night's 71-55 home victory over a short-handed Ole Miss team that was missing its leading scorer, shooting guard Breein Tyree, and used 54-percent shooting for the game (62 in the first half) to build a double-digit lead before intermission and never looked back. The Tigers, meanwhile, began the week as one of just two undefeated teams in the country, but got ambushed Wednesday night by rival Alabama, which defended at 32 percent and forced 21 turnovers on the way to a 83-64 win. ... Auburn leads the all-time series, 89-79, including two wins last season. The Tigers defeated the Gators, 76-62, at Auburn Arena during the 2019 regular season, then escaped the SEC Tournament with a 65-62 victory in the semifinals, behind 20 points from guard Jared Harper, including four in the final 11 seconds. UF shot 60.5 percent for the game, but the Gators knee-capped themselves with 19 turnovers that turned into 20 Tigers points. Florida had a chance to tie the game on its final possession, but freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard was famously mugged by a trio of Auburn defenders as he dribbled into the frontcourt. No foul was called as time expired. ... UF has won 12 straight in the series at the O'Dome. ... UF coach Mike White is 3-2 against the Tigers, including 2-0 at home. ... Auburn coach Bruce Pearl is 10-9 all-time against UF, which includes a 2-4 mark during his six seasons with the Tigers and 8-5 record during six seasons at Tennessee (2005-11), a stint that at one time included eight out of nine wins against Billy Donovan and 3-1 mark against Florida's back-to-back NCAA championship teams. Pearl is 3-5 all-time at the O'Dome. 

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keyontae Johnson	F	6-5	225	Sophomore	13.0 pts / 6.8 reb
Kerry Blackshear Jr.	F	6-10	232	G-Transfer	15.0 pts / 8.4 reb
Omar Payne	F	6-10	223	Freshman	4.3 pts / 4.1 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-2	193	Sophomore	9.9 pts / 3.1 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Sophomore	11.1 pts / 2.8 reb / 5.9 ast

Auburn	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Danjel Purifoy	F	6-7	230	Senior	9.6 pts / 5.3 reb
Isaac Okoro	F	6-6	225	Freshman	13.2 pts / 4.5 reb
Austin Wiley	C	6-11	260	Senior	10.7 pts / 9.2 reb
Samir Doughty	PG	6-4	195	Senior	15.7 pts / 4.0 reb
J'Von McCormick	G	6-0	185	Senior	11.6 pts / 3.9 reb

ONE TO WATCH  
TEAM BREAKDOWNS   ABOUT THE GATORS: After becoming just the fifth coach in UF history to win 100 games, White hopes to begin padding that number with a signature victory over a program that has ascended to elite status in the SEC. The Gators, to date, are winless in three tries in so-called "Quad-1" games, as measured by the NCAA Evaluation

Tool (NET). The team's next three games will all be Q-1 opportunities. ... Florida is scoring 73.8 points per game and shooting 44.4 percent from the floor and 32.3 from the arc. Those numbers are trending upward of late. Defensively, the Gators are giving up 66.4 points, 40.6 percent overall and 31.0 from deep. Those numbers have trended downward some. ... KenPom.com puts UF at No. 34 nationally, plus 30th in offensive efficiency and a disappointing 61st on defense. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhard (10 points, 6 assists vs Ole Miss) did not practice Thursday or Friday due to the flu. His status for the game was in doubt Friday afternoon, putting a lot more on the plate of freshman backup point guards Ques Glover (5.4 ppg) and Tre Mann (5.4 ppg), who combined have 18 assists and 36 turnovers this season. ... Forward Keyontae Johnson, after early foul trouble in the loss at Missouri last weekend, bounced back by making six of his seven shots against the Rebels on his way to 15 points, five rebounds. His three assists were one shy of his career best. He's now at 54-percent shooting on the season. ... Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr., with 13 points and nine rebounds, came one board shy of his seventh double-double of the season. He ranks 12th in the SEC in scoring and fourth in rebounding. ... Shooting guard Noah Locke went 2-for-5 from deep against the Rebels and is 19-for-38 over his last seven games. ... Forward Omar Payne made all four of his shots and had a couple steals. ... Freshman wing Scottie Lewis had his first game without a field goal since Nov. 10 against Florida State, but his two blocked shots in the second half made for highlight reel material. ... ABOUT THE TIGERS: It's Season 6 under Bruce Pearl and it's all but certain to end in the NCAA Tournament like the two before. Pearl is 115-73 since taking over the Tigers in 2015, but 71-18 (a

winning percentage of.806) the last three seasons. That's best record in the league during that time. Before going to Tuscaloosa, the Tigers had won 27 of the previous 28 games, a streak that included a run to the 2019 SEC Tournament title and defeat of Kentucky in the Elite Eight, with the lone loss coming against Virginia in the Final Four. … Auburn's 15 consecutive victories to open the season included a dozen in a non-conference schedule that was ranked 162nd, according to KenPom, in great part because the Tigers played just one true road game. That was at South Alabama, where Auburn won with a putback at the buzzer. The Tigers' best pre-SEC win came at home against North Carolina State, but opened with the league season with wins at Mississippi State (by 12), then at home against Vanderbilt (by 4, before standout Commodores guard Aaron Nesmith suffered a season-ending injury), and Georgia (by 22). … They're scoring 82.1 points per game, so the the 64 vs. Bama was an outlier. KenPom puts them at No. 19 overall, with offenses and defenses just inside the top 30. … Auburn is the oldest team in the league, with five of their top six scorers being seniors, including two fifth-year guys. Besides Doughty, the other fifth-year guy is center Austin Wiley, a potential first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft. Wiley is the conference's No. 2 rebounder and shooting 58 percent from the floor. He's attempted just one 3-point shot on the season, so there's no secret where to find him. … Forward Isaac Okoro was a five-star signee out of Powder Springs, Ga., where he led McEachern High to a 32-0 record, state championship, a No. 1 national ranking, and had his jersey retired. As a freshman, Okoro is the team's second-leading scorer and making 56.5 percent of his shots. He's crazy-wild athletic, so don't be surprised if he does something that makes the O'Dome groan. … Point guard J'Von McCormick has 77 assists to 31 turnovers. … A pair of backups, forward Anfernee McLemore and Jamal Johnson, both are 3-point threats. … Forward Danjel Purifoy struggled last season following a year-long suspension (along with Wiley) due to NCAA violations, but he's playing well and is a threat to score inside and out.


NUMBERS WORTH NOTING    * .588 — Payne's field-goal percentage for the season, which leads the Gators. 

* 1 — Unbeaten teams remaining in college basketball after Auburn went down Wednesday. Take a bow, San Diego State, which at 18-0 is off to its best start since opening the 2008-09 season with 20 straight wins, thanks to a dude named Kawhi Leonard. 

* 3 — Teams that UF will have faced, after the Auburn game, currently ranked in the AP Top 10, with the Tigers joining No. 5 Butler and No. 10 Florida State. Don't look now, but No. 2 Baylor rolls into town next weekend.  

* 78.0 — Points per game surrendered by the Gators in SEC play, which ranks next-to-last in the league (behind Alabama's 78.2). 

* 82.8 — Points per game scored by the Gators in SEC play, which ranks second in the league (behind Alabama's 84.5). This season makes no sense. 

* 1996 — The last year Florida lost at home to Auburn, which was the last season under then-Coach Lon Kruger. Backup guard Ray Donald banged a 3-pointer with 1.9 seconds to go to give the Tigers a 73-70 win, despite 25 points and nine rebounds from UF freshman forward LeRon Williams. 


LAST WORD
Gators need this one. For their confidence. For their record. For their postseason résumé.