Pregame Stuff: Florida at South Carolina (Tuesday, 7 pm)
Monday, January 6, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA at SOUTH CAROLINA
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (EST) Where: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, S.C. Records: Florida (9-4, 1-0); South Carolina (8-5, 0-0) TV: ESPNU (Kevin Fitzgerald and Jimmy Dykes) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Bill Koss)
THE BASICS
UF won its last trip to Colonial Life Arena (capacity 18,000). That was back in 2018. The Gators, though, lost their previous two road games at Columbia, S.C., those coming in 2016 and '17.
It's the Southeastern Conference road opener for Florida and the just-plain league opener for South Carolina, which was idle over the weekend. ... The Gators are coming off an incredible 104-98 double-overtime home win Saturday night against Alabama, a game they trailed by 21 in the first half and eight with less than two minutes remaining before storming to victory. While the Gators were working overtime, the Gamecocks have not played since a disastrous 63-56 home loss to Stetson on Dec. 30. That shocking outcome came eight days after an equaling seismic one that worked in South Carolina's favor, as the Gamecocks went on the road and pretty much manhandled reigning NCAA champion and ninth-ranked Virginia, leaving Charlottesville with a 70-59 victory. ... UF leads the all-time series 45-27, but the Gamecocks have won three of the previous four (and five of the last seven, dating to 2016), including a numbing 71-69 heist at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center on Jan. 5, 2019. In that one, Gators nemesis and Gamecocks forward Chris Silva caught a length-of-the-court pass and (after what appeared to be, first, a push-off, then, a travel) threw down a dunk with one second left to complete a USC comeback from 14 points down. Silva finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. UF, which led for 35 minutes of the 40 minutes that night, got 17 points from Noah Locke, but shot just 33 percent in the second half. ... Florida is 2-5 against South Carolina under Coach Mike White, including 1-2 on the road, plus an 0-1 neutral-site mark, courtesy of Gamecocks' 77-70 win in the Elite Eight round of the 2017 NCAA East Region that earned the program its first Final Four appearance.
A.J. Lawson and Andrew Nembhard were teammates on the Team Canada squad that competed in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship in the months leading up to their 2018-19 freshmem seasons. The 6-foot-6, 178-pounder from Toronto went on to average 13.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists while playing 30.5 minutes over 29 games, missing three games due to an ankle injury that kept him sidelined until USC's brief stay at the SEC Tournament. Like Nembhard, Lawson was placed on the Freshmen All-SEC team in '19. Long and rangy, Lawson posted six 20-point performances, including a career-best 25 against Coastal Carolina. He's upped his game as a sophomore and is scoring 15.5 per, while shooting 44.3 percent overall, nearly 34 from the 3-point line and 78 from the free-throw line. He poured in 28 in a win over Cleveland State and knocked down four 3s in a road upset of cross-state rival Clemson. And while he wasn't at his best (far from it) in the upset at UVA (no 3s, four turnovers), he guarded, didn't force anything and let his teammates carry the day. Lawson is a threat at all three levels and his length causes problems on the defensive end. The matchup between he and his former Canadian teammate should be a good one.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Sophomore point guard Andrew Nembhard's 25 points Saturday against the Crimson Tide eclipsed his previous career-high of 21 (also against Alabama). He now has three career games of at least 20 points, with the one this season.
ABOUT THE GATORS: For their sake, hopefully they learned a lesson last game about being ready to compete at the jump ball. Anything remotely similar to the first 15 minutes against Alabama will be met with severe consequences on the SEC road. ... UF is 0-2 in true road games this season (Connecticut and Butler) and 4-3 in games away from the O'Dome. ... With back-to-back 100-point games for the first time since November of 2017, the Gators are now averaging 73.4 points per game, shooting 44.0 percent overall and 31.5 from the 3-point line. Opponents are scoring 69.5 and shooting 43.7 and 38.1, respectively. UF's KenPom numbers check in at
Scottie Lewis
29th overall, 40th in offensive efficiency and 35th in defense. ... Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. has averaged 22.3 points and hit an astounding 33 of 36 free throws (91.7 percent) over the previous three games. Against Alabama, he became the first UF player (and just the 10th from the SEC) to tally at least 24 points and 16 rebounds in a league game over the last 25 seasons. .. Guard Scottie Lewis came off the bench to post his first career double-double (17 points, 10 rebounds) against Bama, with his energy both on defense and the offensive glass providing a jarring lift when the Gators desperately needed one. He's now hit double-figure scoring in consecutive games for the first time. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhard's career scoring game also was his first scoring in double figures since posting 11 at Butler. His aggressiveness in attacking Alabama's defense netted two old-fashion 3-point plays in the second half and nine free-throw attempts. ... Noah Locke's timely steal and clutch layup to tie the game with 21 seconds left obviously was one of the biggest plays, but how 'bout the fact he logged 44:35 for the game and still hit six of nine field goals (2-for-5 from 3) on the way to a season-best 18 points. ... Forward Keyontae Johnson got two fouls barely six minutes in and had to take a seat, but was on the floor some when UF scored the final seven points of the half to get back in the game. Johnson didn't hit his first field goal (it was a timely 3) until the 6:59 mark of the second half and then hit a huge one just inside two minutes to start the comeback from eight down in regulation. Johnson's double-double was his fourth of the season. ... Forward Omar Payne, who started his second straight game, is shooting 62.5 percent from the floor, played a career-high 30 minutes against the Tide and showed some terrific discipline in guarding (and not fouling) on a potential game-winning shot by Bama in regulation. ... ABOUT THE GAMECOCKS: They're 137-111 in eight seasons under Coach Frank Martin, but have not been back to the NCAA Tournament (or the NIT, for that matter) since that Final Four run of '17. It's been a week since the Gamecocks laid their mega-egg against Stetson and it's probably felt like an eternity for USC players, given the renown practice routine of the program on Martin's watch. … South Carolina is scoring 69.5 points per game while shooting 43.7 percent from the floor and 28.6
Maik Kotsar
from the 3-point line, the latter ranking next to last in the SEC. Defensively, opponents are scoring 64.8, shooting 38.1 percent and 31.4 from deep. The Gamecocks' KenPom metrics placed them 106th in the country (that's 13th of 14 league teams), with an offense that checks in at 159th in efficiency to go with a defense at 86th. Those numbers may not be that impressive (sort of like the team's losses to Boston U, Northern Iowa or Stetson), but consider what USC is capable of after going to Virginia and winning by shooting better than 55 percent and becoming one of just three teams the last two seasons to score at least 70 against a vaunted Cavaliers' defense ranked No. 1 in the nation over that time. What in the world? ... Forward Maik Kotsar has played against UF six times and always seems to make a play or two (or three) that makes a difference. The league's all-time active rebounder is shooting 51 percent for the season, with nearly a third of his rebounds on the offensive end. … Guard Jair Bolden is in his first season of eligibility at USC after transferring from George Washington, where he averaged 11.2 points and led the team in assists and 3-point attempts as a sophomore in '17-18. Bolden probably was the biggest X-factor in the upset at UVA when he scored a career-high 22 points and dropped four 3s. What did he do next time out against Stetson? Went scoreless. … Forward Keyshawn Bryant is an elite athlete who had a nice freshman season in averaging nine points and nearly four rebounds a game, while starting the team's final 26 contests. Bryant suffered a knee injury in an exhibition game Oct. 30 and missed a month of action, but returned in early December and has started the last three games. … Backup guard Jermaine Couisnard, who played with Nembhard at Montverde (Fla.) Academy, is the team's No. 4 scorer (8.5 ppg) despite coming off the bench.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
Whether UF coach Mike White's fourth technical as a Gator sparked something with his team, well, we'll never know for certain, but the numbers worked in UF's favor after the words exchanged with an official.
* .223 — Combined 3-point shooting percentage of UF's trio of perimeter freshmen in Lewis (6 of 24), Ques Glover (5 of 24) and Tre Mann (6 of 28), based on 17-for-76 marksmanship.
* 4 — Technical fouls called on White during his five seasons at UF, with the most recent coming at the 12:17 mark of the second half against Alabama when he protested (rather, um, passionately) a violation-of-the-cylinder call against Glover.
* plus-19 — Florida's scoring edge against Alabama after White's technical Saturday. When play resumed, the Gators trailed, 63-50, but they outscored the Tide 54-35 over the last 12:16 of regulation and two overtimes.
* 24.6 — Percentage of game minutes played by UF's reserves, which ranks 312th, according to KenPom. That's a lot of starters logging a lot of minutes, with Nembhard, Johnson and Locke each averaging at least 30.0 per game.
* 2005 — The last year Florida had three players card double-doubles in the same game, ala Blackshear (24/16), Lewis (17/10) and Johnson (10/12) against the Tide. It should come as no surprise that the previous trio to do so was Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah and Al Horford, who turned the trick in a 101-58 beating of Jacksonville on Dec. 18, 2005 on the way to the program's first NCAA title. In that one, Brewer had the first triple-double in school history with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, while Noah had 21 points and 10 rebounds to Horford's 20 points and 11 boards.
