FLORIDA vs ARKANSAS
When: Tuesday, 7 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
Records: Florida (16-9, 8-4); Arkansas (16-9, 4-8)
TV: ESPNU (
Roy Philpott and
Dane Bradshaw)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (
Mick Hubert and
Lee Humphrey)
THE BASICS
Freshman forward Keyontae Johnson drives for two of his 20 points in last year's SEC Tournament win over Arkansas.
Florida and Arkansas meet in a Southeastern Conference game between two teams with identical overall records, but separated by four games in league standings. ... The Gators, winners of two straight and four of the previous five, are coming off an 84-66 defeat Saturday night of Vanderbilt in which they shot nearly 52 percent for the game and made 10 of 20 from the 3-point line. UF, in a tie with South Carolina for fourth place, is still very much in the picture for a top-four seed in the SEC Tournament, just one game out of third place and two behind first-place Kentucky. The Razorbacks, meanwhile, have dropped four straight since losing standout guard
Isaiah Joe to what is likely a season-ending knee injury. Their latest setback came at home Saturday when Mississippi State won 78-77 on a tip-in with one second remaining. ... Florida leads the all-time series 25-12, including 10 victories in the last 11 meetings. The Gators defeated the Hogs twice last season, starting with a 57-51 win at Fayetteville, then a 66-50 win in second-round play of the SEC Tournament. In the latter, freshman forward
Keyontae Johnson scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, tallying the first double-double of his career. The Gators held the Hogs to just 25-percent shooting in the second half and won the battle of the boards 41-26. ... UF is 7-1 against Arkansas under Coach
Mike White, including 3-0 at home.
STARTERS (Probable Lineups)
| Arkansas |
Pos. |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Class |
Per Game |
| Adrio Bailey |
F |
6-6 |
217 |
Senior |
6.6 pts / 4.5 reb |
| Reggie Chaney |
F |
6-8 |
222 |
Sophomore |
5.1 pts / 4.1 reb |
| Mason Jones |
G |
6-5 |
200 |
Junior |
20.8 pts / 6.0 reb |
| Jimmy Whitt Jr. |
G |
6-3 |
175 |
Senior |
14.6 pts / 4.8 reb |
| Desi Sills |
G |
6-1 |
196 |
Sophomore |
10.1 pts / 2.9 reb |
ONE TO WATCH
Florida didn't need to wait very long to see what Mason Jones was capable of after taking the junior-college route to the SEC. The Gators and Razorbacks opened the 2019 SEC schedule and Jones, by way of Connors State College in Oklahoma, dropped 30 while the rest of his teammates scored just 21 in UF's road win. Jones went on to finish third on the team in scoring (13.6 points per game), leading the Hogs in scoring 10 games, with his 76 3-pointers sixth-most in the league. Since the Hogs lost Joe to his injury earlier this month, Jones basically has become the team's first, second and third offensive options. In Saturday's heartbreak loss to Mississippi State he scored 38 points on 9-for-17 shooting and 18 of 21 from the free-throw line. Two weeks ago, in an overtime loss against a ranked Auburn team, Jones poured in 40 -- and that was three days after going for 30 against Alabama. Get the idea? He has six games of 30-plus points this season, including a career-high 41 against Tulsa. Jones will start the week as the SEC's scoring leader (20.8 ppg), shooting 43.2 percent from the floor, 33 percent from distance and 82.7 from the free-throw line.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
The Florida bench whoops it up during Saturday night's 84-66 defeat of Vanderbilt.
ABOUT THE GATORS: They jumped 10 spots in the all-important NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings last week and now sit at No. 35, but with plenty of work still to do relative to the their postseason opportunities. UF has three so-called "Quad 1" wins (that's not a lot), but is 6-9 in Q-1 and Q-2 games combined and figure to have four more Q-1 opportunities on the regular-season schedule (home and away vs. Kentucky; home vs. LSU; at Tennessee), plus whatever happens in the SEC Tournament. ...
Noah Locke
UF is averaging 72.8 points per game and shooting 45.0 percent from the floor and 34.4 from the 3-point line. The Gators are defending at 66.8 points per game, 41.3 percent overall and 32.2 from deep. ... Florida's
KenPom.com rankings show the Gators at 38th overall, 31st in offensive efficiency and 70th in defense. ... Shooting guard
Noah Locke averaged 20.0 points, made 14 of his 25 field-goal attempts and went 11-for-18 from the 3-point line in the wins over Texas A&M and Vandy last week. He's now shooting 51.4 percent from long distance in SEC play and has made at least one 3-pointer in 23 consecutive games, now the eighth-longest streak in program history. ... Forward
Keyontae Johnson played just six minutes in the first half against Vandy due to foul trouble, then totaled all but two points and one rebound of his 11/6 output in the second half, running his streak of double-figure scoring games to eight straight. He also had three assists and three steals. ... Point guard
Andrew Nembhard, also in first-half foul trouble, played a season-low 19 minutes and finished with just five points, two assists and three turnovers -- and yet the Gators won going away. Credit freshman backup
Ques Glover for picking up the slack, especially in the first half. He came off the bench for eight points and three assists, but still needs to clean up the turnovers (3). ... Reserve forward
Omar Payne also was summoned for extra minutes because of Johnson's foul issues and responded with his best game in weeks. Payne had been doing a lot of sitting as of late, as UF's coaches expected more effort as far running the floor and on the glass from their 6-foot-10 freshman. Payne delivered with five points and five rebounds in the first half. ... Forward
Kerry Blackshear Jr. had 15 points and three rebounds against Vandy, which equaled his most points over the previous 10 games. Three games into the SEC season, Blackshear was averaging 15.1 per game, but his point production has fallen off after becoming such a focal point of opposing defensive plans. That said, he equaled his season-high of five assists against the Commodoes. ...
ABOUT THE RAZORBACKS: It's their first season under Coach
Eric Musselman, whose career tracked mostly through the NBA before a wildly successful four-season run at
Jimmy Whitt Jr.
Nevada, where he went 110-34, with three Mountain West Conference titles from 2015-19. Musselman and the Wolfpack won the CBI his first season in Reno, then went to three straight NCAA tournaments, advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2018. In '19, Nevada was a No. 7 seed in the West Region, but was upset in first-round play by No. 10-seed Florida, 70-61, in Des Moines, Iowa. ... The Razorbacks are averaging 74.4 points, shooting 43.7 percent overall and 31.7 from 3. On defense, they give up 67.2 points, 41.7 percent and 25.3 from distance, with that latter number ranking No. 1 in the country. Those digits, especially on offense, get a little skewed because of the impact of Joe's injury. ...
KenPom places Arkansas at No. 44 nationally, as well as 94th in offense and a solid 23rd on defense. ... The Hogs lead the league in steals (8.2 per game) and turnover margin (plus-4.6). They will guard. What they struggle to do is rebound. Arkansas rates last in rebounding margin at minus-10.1 and next-to-last in offensive and defensive rebounding. ... Guard
Jimmy Whitt Jr. is a fascinating story. He started his career at Arkansas in 2015-16 and averaged 6.1 points, but transferred to SMU afterward. Whitt sat out the '16-17 season, per NCAA rules, averaged in double figures for the Mustangs the next two seasons, then left SMU as a grad transfer and came back to Arkansas. He's the team's No. 2 active scorer and his shooting 49.3 percent from the floor. Whitt has not attempted a 3 this season. ... Forward
Adrio Bailey is a really good defender and a threat from the 3-point line. In fact, might be better to foul him when he's shooting from the arc, where he's converting at 46.2 percent, and send him to the line, where he's hitting just 51.9 percent.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
UF senior shooting guard KeVaughn Allen (5) sizes up Arkansas's Mason Jones (13) during the 2019 SEC Tournament in Nashville.
* .278 — Opponents' 3-point shooting percentage in SEC play, which is actually fourth in the league behind South Carolina (.257), Alabama (.269) and Mississippi State (.273).
* .826 — Freshman
Scottie Lewis's free-throw percentage, which leads the team. Lewis was summoned to the line Saturday when Commodores coach
Jerry Stackhouse was hit with two technical fouls and ejected. Lewis made all four free throws. He's now made 10 in a row, and 36 of his previous 38 (that's 94.7 percent), dating to Dec. 17 win over Providence.
* 19 — First-half points surrendered by the Gators in Saturday's win over Vanderbilt, the fewest by the UF defense in a half this season.
* 41 — Consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer by former UF shooting guard
Michael Frazier II (2012-15), who has the record that Locke currently is chasing. Frazier's string went from Jan. 23, 2014 to Jan. 24, 2015.
* 2015 — The last time the Gators faced the Hogs without Arkansas native
KeVaughn Allen, who averaged 16.0 points over his eight games against the Ozark State's flagship university.
LAST WORD
The Gators are coming off a very good week, but will they handle this mini-dose of prosperity better than they did earlier this season?
