FLORIDA vs ARMY
Records: Florida (0-0); Army (3-0)
When: Wednesday, 2:30 p.m. (EST)
TV: ESPN2
(Kevin Brown and
Jon Crispin)
FLORIDA vs BOSTON COLLEGE
Records: Florida (TBD);
Boston College (1-2)
When: Thursday, 9:30 p.m. (EST)
TV: ESPN (
Joe Sciambi and
Jon Crispin)
Where: Mohegan Sun, Uncasville, Conn.
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (
Mick Hubert and
Mark Wise)
THE BASICS
Mohegan Sun is a casino resort on the Thames River in Uncasville, Conn.
"Bubbleville," as it is being called, was an ambitious brainstorm from ESPN to get the 2020-21 college basketball season off to a rousing start, while trying to maintain a safe environment amid COVID-19 quarantine protocols and such. Has it worked? Well, they're still playing games there, which certainly counts for something, but a bunch have been canceled and a bunch have become games (like the upcoming ones for Florida) no one anticipated. That's 2020. ... UF originally was scheduled to face UMass Lowell to open the season last Wednesday (and No. 4 Virginia two days later), but the Gators had to shut the program down for a week due to positive
COVID tests. Instead of an American East Conference opponent, UF will debut against the Patriot League. Army already has played a game at its home arena, plus two in "Bubbleville," both wins against Central Connecticut and Buffalo. ... Florida and Army will meet for just the second time and for the first time in nearly a half-century. The Gators defeated the Black Knights 80-71 on Dec. 18, 1971 in a neutral-site game at Madison Square Garden in New York. UF got 27 points and eight rebounds from forward
Mark Thompson, 21 points and nine boards from standout guard
Tony Miller, plus a double-double from center
Gary Waddell (10 points, 11 rebounds). ... No matter the outcome, Florida will have a quick turn-around to play Boston College, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, on Thursday at 9:30 p.m. The Eagles, who will be playing their fourth game in "Bubbleville," already have a pair of high-major games under their belts, albeit losses to third-ranked Villanova last week and Monday night against St. John's. ... This is the second time the Gators have been to Mohegan Sun, the last time coming in November of 2015 when UF was part of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic. The Gators opened the event by defeating Saint Joseph's 74-63, but lost in the tournament title game 85-70 to No. 21 Purdue. ... UF is 8-1 all-time against teams currently in the Patriot League, with its lone loss coming against Navy back in 1960 and the last victory coming against Navy, as well, when the Gators went to Annapolis for the Veteran's Classic and opened the 2015-16 season with a 59-41 victory in Coach
Mike White's first game. ... Florida and Boston College have some history, of course. The two programs first met in the 1994 Elite Eight at Miami, where the Gators, behind 21 points and five 3s from senior guard
Craig Brown, plus 16 points and 13 rebounds from junior forward
Andrew DeClercq, defeated the Eagles 74-66. Just eight months later, the two teams met again in a neutral-site regular-season game at Auburn Hills, Mich., where UF blasted BC 91-65. ... Florida is 148-138 all-time vs. teams currently in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
STARTERS (Probable Lineups)
| Army |
Pos. |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Class |
2020-21 stats |
| Charlie Peterson |
F |
6-9 |
233 |
Freshman |
6.0 pts / 4.7 reb |
| Alex King |
F |
6-8 |
210 |
Senior |
11.7 pts / 6.3 reb |
| Josh Caldwell |
G |
6-2 |
185 |
Junior |
12.7 pts / 7.0 reb |
| Jalen Rucker |
G |
5-10 |
180 |
Freshman |
7.0 pts / 2.0 reb / 5.2 ast |
| Lonnie Grayson |
G |
6-0 |
180 |
Senior |
14.0 pts / 4.0 reb |
| Boston College |
Pos. |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Class |
2020-21 stats |
| Steffon Mitchell |
F |
6-8 |
220 |
Senior |
7.7 pts / 9.3 reb |
| CJ Felder |
F |
6-7 |
230 |
Sophomore |
11.3 pts / 4.0 reb |
| Wynston Tabbs |
G |
6-2 |
193 |
Junior |
16.7 pts / 5.0 reb |
| Jay Heath |
G |
6-3 |
175 |
Sophomore |
14.5 pts / 2.5 reb |
| Makai Ashton-Langford |
G |
6-3 |
185 |
R-Junior |
10.7 pts / 3.o reb |
OPPONENT TO WATCH
Army forward Alex King is an Indiana boy, so basketball is in his blood. He's been a mainstay for the Black Knights since arriving as a freshman and averaging what remains his career season-best 9.3 points. Three games into his sophomore season, King was in the starting rotation and has been there ever since. So far, as a senior, he's making 62.5 percent of his shots. He's a career 35.7-percent shooter from deep, though is just 3-for-11 thus far, despite his "stretch-4" label. At 6-8, he'll also play some "5" for a team that is thin when it comes to size up front.
He was the No. 2-rated prospect out of the Washington, D.C. metro area two years ago and the Eagles landed a good one in 6-3 guard Jay Heath, who as a freshman last season finished second on the team in scoring (13.1 ppg) and hit double figures 26 times, including the final 15 games. He scored 18 points in BC's season-opening loss to No. 3 Villanova, but sat out the second, a win over Rhode Island, with a foot injury. He was back in action Monday against St. John's, and scored 13 points. For the season, Heath is making 46.1 percent from the floor overall, but just five of 15 (33.3 percent) from long range. That latter stat figures to get better after Heath set a BC freshman record with 65 makes from distance. He had at least three 3s in 12 games last season, which ranked second in the ACC among newcomers, and became just the sixth freshman in program history to score 400 points.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Florida forward Keyontae Johnson (11) made a huge jump as a sophomore last season and has looked stellar at times during preseason practices, despite missing 10 days with a toe injury.
ABOUT THE GATORS: They return three starters, plus another three key rotational players from a team that went 19-12 last season, including 11-7 in the SEC, and was on its way to a fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid before the COVID pandemic struck. This will be White's sixth season at Florida, where he's 108-65 overall and 54-36 against SEC opponents. ... After two seasons of playing at a pace rated among the slowest in the country (326th in 2019 and 344th in '20), White has installed a 94-foot, pressing style the likes of which he used during his four seasons (2011-15) as head coach at Louisiana Tech and one he believes is better suited for a team that is
Noah Locke (10)
deeper, longer, faster and overall more athletic than the last couple seasons. ... Forward
Keyontae Johnson, who blossomed into a first-team all-league performer last season, was voted SEC Preseason Player of the Year after hitting 54.4 percent of his field goals, 38.0 percent of his 3s and 76.8 percent of his free throws. ... Shooting guard
Noah Locke, who led the conference by making 48.1 percent from distance in league play last season, missed two months of preseason practice recovering from hernia surgery, but has shown no signs of the layoff affecting his lethal stroke. ... Wing
Scottie Lewis and point guard
Tre Mann both appear ready to take their games to the next level. Lewis, a potential 2021 first-round NBA pick, played his best basketball late last season, a year in which his defense came as advertised, while shooting better than expected (43 percent from 3 in SEC play and a team-best 81.7 percent from the free throw line). Mann suffered a concussion early in the season and struggled with his confidence the rest of the way. Swag does not appear to be an issue for him after winning the starting point guard spot. Mann will be more of a score-first playmaker, but his passing has improved. ... How good Florida's low-post game will fall to the combination of fourth-year junior and Michigan transfer
Colin Castleton, who played limited minutes in 44 of 68 games the two seasons, and returning sophomore
Omar Payne (3.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg). The coaching staff believes both players have made significant strides to date and that their daily battles will carry over to games. ... Two more transfers, forward
Anthony Duruji and point guard
Tyree Appleby, will make their UF debuts Wednesday. Duruji averaged 12.2 points and 6.2 rebounds at Louisiana Tech two seasons ago, while Appleby scored 17.2 points, shot nearly 39 percent from 3 and dished 5.6 assists per game at Cleveland State in '18-19. Both players sat out last season, per NCAA transfer rules. ... Sophomore point guard
Ques Glover (4.4 points), 6-11, 300-pound sophomore center
Jason Jitoboh (1.8 ppg, 1.7 rpg), plus the newcomer class of junior-college transfer
Osayi Osifo and guard
Niels Lane and wing
Samson Ruzhentsev will vie for minutes in a rotation that will be culled during the non-conference season. Osifo, however, did not make the trip to Connecticut due to protocols.
ABOUT THE BLACK KNIGHTS: Preseason projections placed them near the bottom of the Patriot League, but the Knights are off to a 3-0 start and, as we've seen so far,
weird stuff can happen in "Bubbleville." ... Army is in the fifth season under
Jimmy Allen, who has just a 54-70 mark to show for it, but is coming off a 15-15 campaign that included a 10-8 league record that was good enough to tie for fourth in the conference. Unfortunately, the Knights said goodbye to a pair of stalwarts in
Tommy Funk and
Matt Wilson, a duo that started their last 124 games at West Point. ... Army opened the season with a 93-32 home win over US Merchant Marine, which is not a Division I program, then came to "Bubbleville" and defeated Central Connecticut by 22 and Buffalo by four. ... The Knights are ranked 237th overall by
KenPom.com, including 295th in offensive efficiency and 168th on defense. Their adjusted tempo checks in at 95th, which suggests they'll be conditioned enough (no surprise, right?) to be a decent test for the Gators and their new full-court system. ... Army is shooting 52.2 percent as a team and giving up just 34.2 percent. The Knights' 3-point percentage stands at 36.8 vs. 15.6 for opponents. They're out-rebounding foes by 10 per game. ... Forward
Charlie Peterson has made 69.2 percent of his shots from the floor (without a 3-point attempt) and is one of three starters who is over 60 percent on this season, along with King (profiled above) and guard
Josh Caldwell (63.6 percent). ... The Knights list 24 players on their roster, 15 of whom have seen time om the floor.
ABOUT THE EAGLES: Coach
Jim Christian (7th season, 76-121) returned three starters from a team that went 7-13 last season and 7-13 in ACC to tie for
Wynston Tabbs
10th place in the league. In the season opener last week, BC led powerful Villanova by nine with just over 13 minutes to go before the Wildcats took off on a 28-10 game-ending tear to win 76-67. The Eagles bounced back with a 69-64 defeat of Rhode Island, without the services of Heath (profiled above), then were buried in a deep, 20-point hole in the second half against St. John's before climbing back for a respectable-looking 97-93 loss. In that one, the Eagles shot over 53 percent from the floor and 39 from deep, but still lost and surrendered nearly 100 points. ... BC currently posts decent
KenPom numbers in offense (80th) and defense (83rd), with a tempo among the top third nationally (110th). ... Though Heath is their most established player, given his breakout freshman season, keep an eye on guard
Wynston Tabbs, who leads the team in scoring after missing the entire '19-20 season while recovering from a torn ACL. In '18-19, Tabbs was scoring at a 13.9-point clip when a foot injury ended his season. BC was 10-5 with him and 4-12 without him that year. ... Forward
Steffon Mitchell led the team in rebounding, blocked shots and steals last season. He'll mix things up with the Gators inside, as will
CJ Felder, who bullied St. John's for 18 points and also hit a trio of 3s to open things up in the paint. ... The brother tandem
Makai Ashton-Langford, who transferred from Providence two seasons ago, and
DeMarr Langford (3.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg) were stars at the Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, with Ashton-Langford helping lead that boutique program to a 37-0 record and mythical prep championship. ... One of the first off the bench will be guard
Rich Kelly (10.0 ppg), who grad-transferred from Quinnipiac where he averaged 16.7 points, 4.5 assists and shot over 39 percent from the arc last season.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
Fourth-year junior point guard Tyree Appleby (1) in action during his time at Cleveland State.
* .833 — UF's all-time winning percentage against service academies, based on a 5-1 combined record (2-0 vs. Air Force; 1-0 vs Army; 2-1 vs Navy)
* 0 — Seniors on the Florida team this season. The Gators were rated not just the SEC's youngest team by
KenPom last season, but the seventh-youngest among the nation's 353 teams, as well as the youngest that was headed for the NCAA Tournament pre-shutdown. UF has six juniors on the '20-21 squad, but only two (Johnson and Locke) who have suited up for games as Gators.
* 1 — Times since joining the Patriot League in 1990 that Army has won at least 10 games in conference play. That one time occurred last season.
* 4 — Times UF has opened the season away from home during White's six seasons at Florida (with a 2-1 mark in those previous instances). Pre-White, the Gators opened only four times away from home over the previous 26 seasons.
* 6 — UF's ranking heading into the 2019-20 season versus an unranked start in '20-21.
* 172 — Combined college games of UF's three transfers, Duruji, Appleby and Castleton, including 106 starts.
* 899 — Career points for Appleby, which is the most for any player on the UF roster and, of course, none have been scored for the Gators.
LAST WORD
OK, let's get this UF season going ... and keep your COVID-hating fingers crossed that it can continue.
