Pregame Stuff: Florida at Vanderbilt (Saturday, 8:30 pm)
Friday, January 31, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA at VANDERBILT
When: Saturday, 8:30 p.m. (EST) Where: Memorial Gymnasium, Nashville, Tenn. Records: Florida (12-8, 4-3); Vanderbilt (8-12, 0-7) TV: SEC Network (Richard Cross and Barry Booker) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)
THE BASICS
Memorial Gymnasium (capacity 14,326) opened in 1952 and remains the oldest active arena in the Southeastern Conference .
Florida and Vanderbilt face off in Southeastern Conference action, with both teams looking to halt losing streaks; one much longer than other. The Gators have dropped three straight, falling at LSU and at home against No. 1 Baylor last week, then blowing a 16-point first-half lead at home Tuesday against Mississippi State in a deflating 78-71 defeat that particularly alarming after UF shot just 29.6 percent in the second half and allowed the Bulldogs to hit 61. Vanderbilt's string of misery is far more daunting. The hard-luck, injury-plagued Commodores, whose last league win came on the final day of the 2017-18 regular season, have lost 25 straight SEC games, including an historic and infamous 0-18 mark a year ago. On Wednesday, they led by 10 nearly three minutes into the second half at Kentucky, but the 15th-ranked Wildcats rallied for a 71-62 win by holding the Commodores to just 2-for-13 shooting over the final nine-plus minutes. ... Vanderbit leads the all-time series, 71-66, but Florida, after six of seven, swept the two games between their permanent annual foe in 2019, winning 66-57 at home and 71-55 on the road on Feb. 27, 2019. In that one, the Gators' first win at Memorial since the 2014 Final Four season, UF shot 54 percent in the first half, including 6-for-12 from beyond the arc, to lead 41-29 at the break. Florida, behind red-hot freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard, stretched its lead to 18 midway through the second period. Vandy trimmed the margin to as few as 10, but the Gators were never threatened. Nembhard finished with 19 points, hitting seven of his eight shots, including all three 3-point attempts. Fifth-year senior guard Jalen Hudson came off the bench for his best game of the season to date, finishing with 17 points over 34 minutes. ... UF is 3-6 against Vandy under Coach Mike White, including 1-3 on the road.
There hasn't been much constant at Vanderbilt the past three seasons aside from losing, but one of the few positive in the program during that time has been point guard Saben Lee, the 6-foot-2, 183-pounder from Phoenix, Ariz. From his time as an All-Freshman SEC selection to last season when he scored in double figures 22 times and ranked among the league's top 10 in assists, free-throw attempts and free-throws made, Lee has been a fixture on the floor. As a sophomore, he started all 32 games, led the Commodores in scoring (12.7 per game) and was one of seven major-college underclassmen (and the only one in the SEC) to tally 400 points, 100 rebounds and 100 assists. Now a junior, Lee already has one SEC Player of the Week this season and early last month put up 27 points in a close road loss at fourth-ranked Auburn. He currently ranks eighth in the league in scoring at 15.9 points (shooting 48.1 from the floor and 29.6 from 3) and fourth in assists at 4.5 per game. In the loss at Kentucky, Lee scored 21 points, made eight of his 13 field goals, and dished four assists over 33 minutes.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Freshman forward Scottie Lewis got off to a hot start Tuesday, hitting his first four shots, including a pair of 3s.
ABOUT THE GATORS: They're looking to avoid a four-game losing streak that would match the longest of White's five seasons. Doing so will require a better combination of execution and effort than the Gators displayed their last 20 minutes on the floor in surrendering a 10-point halftime lead and losing at home to Mississippi State. In that defeat, as well as the loss three nights earlier to top-ranked Baylor, UF had spells of about four minutes when both opponents went on runs, seized momentum and never
Keyontae Johnson
gave it back. Maybe being away from home will help keep the Gators on edge. … UF is scoring 73.2 points per game, shooting 45 percent from the floor and 33.2 from the 3-point stripe. On defense, the Gators allow 67.2 points, 41-percent shooting and 31.2 from distance. As for KenPom.com metrics, Florida checks in at No. 40 nationally, 26th in offense and 77th in defense. … Point guard Andrew Nembhard has averaged 13.7 points and 7.0 assists during the three-game slide. He's taken a team-high 42 shots along the way, however, and made 17 (40.4 percent), including just 1-for-14 from the 3-point line (7.1 percent). … Shooting guard Noah Locke is hitting 40.9 percent from the arc for the season, including 50 percent (19 of 38) in SEC play, but cooled off in the MSU loss in at just one of five. Locke only took seven shots for the game. Probably needs more. … Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr.'sshooting percentages have taken a tumble amid an array of double and sometimes triple teams in the post. He's down to 44.4 percent for the season and 40 in SEC play. But he's also upped his 3-pointer game against the league to 37.5 percent. … Forward Keyontae Johnson is at his best when he's putting pressure on the defense with downhill drives from the perimeter and finishing strong or drawing fouls. He had just four free-throw attempts over the last four games, though. … Since his breakout 19-point, 11-rebound game in the win over Auburn, forward Omar Payne obviously has become a scouting focus for opponents. He has 11 points and nine rebounds total in the three games since. … Forward Scottie Lewis returned to the starting lineup against Mississippi State and responded with a 17-point game, 13 in the first half, and his always solid defense. His activity and energy are oftentimes infectious, but Lewis has just one rebound over his last 58 minutes. … Both backup guards Tre Mann and Ques Gloverappeared to play with more poise and confidence last game. Mann hit two 3s (just the second time this season the former McDonald's All-American had multiple 3-pointers in game), while Glover posted his second game with more assists (2) than turnovers (1). ... ABOUT THE COMMODORES: It's the first season for Coach Jerry Stackhouse, who had zero connections to Vanderbilt, but certainly fits a sexy trend around the country of hiring former NBA superstars -- Penny Hardaway (Memphis), Patrick Ewing (Georgetown) and Juwan Howard (Michigan) each returned to their alma maters -- ala Avery Johnson to Alabama a few years ago. Stackhouse, 45, played at North Carolina, but "Stack's" 16,000 points and 18-year NBA career were followed by a stint in the D
Jerry Stackhouse
League, where he was named Coach of the Year in 2017 after leading the Raptors 905 to the league crown. He was an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies last year when the cross-state Commodores came calling after the 0-18 league season and the firing of Bryce Drew. ... Stackhouse's chances to succeed in his first season took a disastrous hit when sophomore forward Aaron Nesmith suffered a foot injury during an early January practice that likely ended his Vandy career. Nesmith, the league's scoring leader (fifth nationally) and projected NBA first-round pick at the time of his injury, was pouring in 23.0 points per game on 51-percent shooting, 52 percent from 3 and 82.5 from the free-throw line. As a freshman last season, Nesmith lit up the O'Dome for a career-high 26 points, including 12-for-15 from the free-throw line. What would any team, especially a rebuilding one without a conference win in nearly two years, look like when you lose 23 points a game? … ... The Commodores also are without 6-8, 220-pound forward Clevon Brown (9.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg), who started the first nine games before suffering a knee injury. ... Worth noting: Last year, Vandy freshman point guard Darius Garland, a McDonald's All-American and projected one-and-doner, blew out his knee four games into the season. Garland eventually was a lottery pick by Cleveland, anyway. ... The Commodores are averaging 72.4 points, shooting 42.9 percent overall and 32.9 from the arc, but all those numbers are skewed minus Nesmith. How skewed? Try 56.3 points, 34.7 percent from the floor and 18.4 from distance in six games without him. … KenPom rates Vandy at No. 188 overall (lowest in the SEC), with an offensive efficiency of 145th and defense at 238. … The loss of Nesmith elevated freshman guard Scotty Pippen Jr. to Vandy's second-best offensive option after Lee. Pippen has not shot the ball at a very high percentage (36.9 floor, 32.2 from 3), but he's capable and is coming off a 12-point, five-rebound, 3-assist effort in his first visit to Rupp Arena. Not bad for a rookie. … Since losing Nesmith, Vandy has tried to go bigger, with Ejike Obinna (54.9 percent, team-high 30 offensive rebounds) pairing alongside Dylan Disu to give the Commodores a 6-10 and 6-9 pairing, Disu, though, is making less than 34 percent of his shots, the bulk of which have come from beyond the 3-point line. His 98 long-ball attempts rank second only to Nesmith, but he's hit just 27 of them (.276).
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
The last time Florida won a second straight game at Memorial Coliseum was in 2006, shooting guard Lee Humphrey, who will be there Saturday doing color for the Gator Radio Network, and his famous UF teammates were on their way to the program's first NCAA title.
* 5 — Vanderbilt players who have attempted at least 59 shots from the 3-point line. Florida has two (Locke and Nembhard).
* 10.5 — Nembhard's 3-point percentage the last six games since going 3-for-5 from deep in a big road win at South Carolina.
* 14 — Years since UF won at Vanderbilt in consecutive seasons. The Gators got an 82-65 victory there on Jan. 15, 2005, then a 73-68 win on Feb. 15, 2006 on the way to the program's first national championship. Florida is 3-8 at Memorial since, with the 2012-13 season (before the SEC assigned permanent home-and-home opponents post-expansion) the only one when the Gators did not face the Commodores on the road.
* 25.6 — Florida's combined 3-point shooting percentage in its three SEC losses, based on 19-for-73 from deep.
* 46.7 — Opponent's 3-point shooting percentage in Florida's three SEC losses, based on 21-for-45.
