Florida Gators

FLORIDA vs ALABAMA 

When: Saturday, 6 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.   
Records: Florida (8-4, 0-0), Alabama (7-5, 0-0)  
TV: ESPN2 (Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes) 
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey) 



THE BASICS   Southeastern Conference play opens around the league Saturday, with the Florida-Alabama game one of five to get things started. ... The Gators aren't pleased with how the non-conference portion of their season played out, but along the way they've played the second-toughest slate among SEC teams to date, according to KenPom.com advance metrics. The Crimson Tide, says KenPom, has played the hardest, with seven of their 12 games either neutral-site or road games (same as UF). Bama will come to town having won five of the previous six. ... Florida trails the all-time series, 75-69, but the Gators have won 14 of the previous 16 dating to the 2008-09 season. That run includes a 71-53 smashing of the Tide at Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Feb. 16, 2019. In that one, freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard went 9-for-9 from the floor on his way to a career-high 21 points in 32 minutes. Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson added 14 points and 13 rebounds for his first career double-double. UF shot 54 percent for the game and never trailed during what was the second game of a five-game winning streak. ... UF is 3-2 against Alabama under Coach Mike White. 
 

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keyontae Johnson	F	6-5	225	Sophomore	13.3 pts / 6.4 reb
Kerry Blackshear Jr.	F	6-10	232	G-Transfer	14.2 pts / 8.4 reb
Omar Payne	F	6-10	223	Freshman	4.3 pts / 4.0 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-2	193	Sophomore	9.5 pts / 3.3 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Sophomore	9.4 pts / 3.0 reb / 5.9 ast

Alabama	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Javian Davis	F	6-9	242	R-Freshman	8.3 pts / 4.7 reb
Herbert Jones	F	6-7	205	Junior	8.5 pts / 5.4 reb
Alex Reese	G	6-9	245	Junior	9.1 pts / 5.1 reb
Kira Lewis Jr.	PG	6-3	165	Sophomore	16.6 pts / 5.5 reb / 4.8 ast
John Petty Jr.	G	6-5	184	Junior	16.4 pts / 7.4 reb

ONE TO WATCH     TEAM BREAKDOWNS   ABOUT THE GATORS: Their last outing was a 102-63 destruction of Long Beach State last Saturday. While the game marked the first time UF had hit 100 points since the PK80 Invitational at Portland more than two years ago, the opponent was not particularly strong. That said, the Gators' ball movement was as brisk as any time this

season and eventually netted a season-best 54 percent from the floor to go with a season-high 12 made 3s. Not to state the obvious, but if Florida can hit shots (as opposed to, say, the 33 percent and 22 from deep that showed up two weeks ago against Utah State in the Orange Bowl Classic, the Gators should be fine; especially if that improved ball movement continues. ... UF is averaging 70.8 points per game, shooting 44.1 overall and 31.2 from long range. The team is giving up 62.6 points, 39.2 from the floor and 28.6 from deep. KenPom's numbers put the Gators at No. 24 nationally, 41st in offensive efficiency and 31st in defense. ... Freshman guard Scottie Lewis (8.1 ppg, 4.2 rpg), who missed the LBSU game after sustaining a concussion in practice, was cleared from protocol Thursday and worked out on a non-contact basis. He'll be full-go Friday and be ready to go against the Tide. ... Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr., who had 21 points, eight rebounds and sat the last nine minutes against LBSU, will enter the first SEC game of his career ranked 13th in the league in scoring and fourth in rebounding. ... Whether forward Omar Payne makes his second start will depend if the coaching staff opts to go back to Lewis at the wing. The lineup of Blackshear, Payne and Keyontae Johnson at the small forward, rather than "4" spot, is the best combination of size and athleticism the Gators can go with. In his first career start, Payne hit five of his six shots for a career-best 11 points and tied his career-high of nine rebounds over 22 minutes. ... Johnson came within one point of his career best in scoring 21 points against the 49ers. ... Speaking of career performances, Andrew Nembhard had his finest game as a distributor in tallying 13 assists (teammates making shots helps) and just one turnover. In the first half alone, he had 10 and zero, respectively. ... Shooting guard Noah Locke is coming off the first game of the season when he drilled at least four 3-pointers. He had eight such games through his first 26 last season before a painful hip pointer took hold and plagued his shot the rest of the way. ... Backup freshman guards Tre Mann and Ques Glover combined for 21 points on 9-for-20 shooting against the 49ers. ... ABOUT THE CRIMSON TIDE: At Buffalo, Nate Oats went 96-43 and took the Bulls to the NCAA Tournament all three seasons. In 2018, they were a 13-seed and smashed fourth-seeded Arizona by 21 in the first round. Last season, Buffalo went 31-3, earned a sixth seed, beat Arizona State in first-round action, but was beaten convincingly by No. 3 seed (and eventual NCAA runner-up) Texas Tech. A week later, Oats was in Tuscaloosa being introduced as the 24th head basketball coach at Alabama and the successor to Avery Johnson. He

brought with him a breakneck offense that that ranks fourth in the nation in tempo and has taken more 3-point attempts than all but two teams in the country. ... Alabama is scoring 82.8 points per game, shooting 44.5 percent from the floor and 36.8 from deep. The Tide are surrendering 77.7 points, 42.1-percent shooting overall and 30.2 from the 3-point line. KenPom ranks Bama 62nd overall, 44th in offensive efficiency and 81 in defensive efficiency.  ... The Tide's best win to date came against Furman, currently No. 73 in KenPom. Their five losses have been to Penn, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Iowa State and Penn State, with the last three rated among the top 55. ... Because of their pace, the Tide is susceptible to turning the ball over. Hence their minus-2.3 turnover margin. ... Guard John Petty Jr. had something of a disappointing sophomore season after a freshman year when he shined alongside one-and-done point guard Collin Sexton. Petty, though, has picked up his game as a junior, averaging better than six points more a game, while shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor and better than 52 from the arc. ... Backup freshman shooting guard Jaden Shackleford, a hotshot prep standout who averaged 34 points a game in California, is third on the team at 13.2 points per game, and though he's making 3s at just 31.8 percent on the season, he's taken more than all but three other players in the SEC. He's coming to the O'Dome locked and loaded. ... Forward Javian Davis has attempted just one 3 this season, but he's converting field goals at 61.8 percent. ... Guard Herb Jones is a player the Gators recruited hard out of Greensboro, Ala. He's not much of a 3-point threat, but he's transitioned well into the uptempo Oats system in shooting at 47.4 percent. ... Backup forward Galin Smith, who goes 6-9, 240, is only averaging 12.3 minutes, but leads the team in blocked shots with 16. 

NUMBERS WORTH NOTING   .900 — Blackshear's free-throw percentage over the last five games, based on his 36-for-40 proficiency at the line. 

* 6 — Consecutive games won by the road team in this series, dating to Alabama's 52-50 win at Tuscaloosa on Jan. 27, 2015. 

* 12 — The number formerly worn by UF center Gorjok Gak, who left the team over the holiday break with the intent to graduate in the spring and play next season elsewhere as a grad-transfer. The 6-11 Gak, who missed all last season recovering from knee surgery, played in just two games this season, including a scoreless six minutes against Long Beach State. 

* 14.9 — Average possession length for the Tide, in seconds, which puts them as the 10th-quickest shooting team out of the 353 in Division I.

* 17.6 — Average possession length for the Gators, in seconds, which puts them as the 310th-quickest shooting team in D-1. 

* 1927 — The first year Florida and Alabama played a basketball game. The date was Jan. 17 and the Crimson Tide won 49-44 at Tuscaloosa.


LAST WORD
At home to open SEC play. Need to get off to a good, solid start and build on it from there, especially with back-to-back road games up next.