Pregame Stuff: Florida vs Georgia (Wednesday, 7 pm)
Tuesday, February 4, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA vs GEORGIA
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. (EST) Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla. Records: Florida (13-8, 5-3); Georgia (12-9, 2-6) TV: ESPNU (Tom Hart and Andy Kennedy) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)
THE BASICS
Kerry Blackshear Jr. (24) and his Florida teammates will try to make it two SEC wins in a row Wednesday night when the Gators get the Bulldogs at home.
Florida and Georgia meet in a game that will mark the halfway point of the Southeastern Conference season. ... The Gators are coming off a 61-55 road win Saturday night at Vanderbilt that snapped a three-game losing streak (two of those defeats in league play) and left them in a three-way tie (with Mississippi State and South Carolina) for fourth place in the SEC standings. The Bulldogs were on a four-game losing skid (all in conference) until stomping Texas A&M, 63-48, at home Saturday. ... Georgia and Florida are permanent home-and-home opponents, as assigned by the SEC, and the Gators lead the all-time series 114-103. The two teams split their meetings in 2019, both winning on the other's home floor. UF beat UGA, 62-52, on Jan. 19 at Athens. Six weeks later, the Dogs, with just one win in their first 15 conference games (including nine straight losses) came to Gainesville to face the red-hot Gators, winners of five straight, and promptly handed the home team a 61-55 loss. In that one, sophomore forward Nicolas Claxton scored a career-high 25 points by hitting nine of his 12 field-goal attempts, both 3-point tries and all five of his free throws, plus added a trio of blocked shots and a couple steals over 35 minutes. The Bulldogs, who came in ranked in the bottom third of the SEC in scoring offense (67.9 points per game) and field-goal percentage (.417), shot 56 percent for the game — their best in league play for the season — and went 5-for-5 from the floor over the last five minutes when the Gators desperately needed a defensive stop. UF shot just 37.5 percent and went five of 21 from the 3-point line (23.8 percent) against a team that came in ranked last in the league in scoring and defensive field-goal percentage. Fifth-year senior guardJalen Hudson, with 13 points, was the lone Gator to reach double figures, and he was just 4-for-13 on the night. ... Florida coach Mike White is 5-3 against Georgia, including 2-2 at home.
According to the Georgia athletics website, freshman guard Anthony Edwards is the program's "highest rated recruit in the internet age," which bests a current NBA standout in Los Angeles Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (No. 12 overall prospect in 2011). Edwards, the 6-foot-5, 225-pound athletic wonder from Atlanta, was the consensus No. 1 overall prospect by most recruiting services and is being talked about (alongside departed Memphis center James Wiseman) as the favorite to be taken first in the 2020 NBA Draft. Edwards was a McDonald's All-American after averaging 25.7 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 2.1 steals and 1.1 blocks shots per game as a senior. It didn't take long for him to translate productivity at the collegiate level. He scored 24 in his first game against Western Carolina, then 29 in his second against The Citadel. In a holiday tournament in Hawaii, Edwards poured in a career-high 37 in a loss to Michigan State, then the next night scored 24 and hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Chaminade. His first venture into the SEC came against Kentucky and their parade of freshman stars and Edwards went for 23 in defeat. His last two games, he's averaged 26 points and 12.5 rebounds, while taking 45 field-goal attempts, including 24 3-point attempts. This could be a show, folks.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS Sophomore guard Noah Locke is currently the runaway SEC leader among 3-point shooters at 52.2 percent in league play. ABOUT THE GATORS: After a rough first half of shooting at Vandy (34.5 percent), the Gators came alive for 48 percent in the second half, banging six of nine from the 3-point line, to help open an 18-point lead. The Commodores, though, also shook off a bad first half (28 percent) and made some late 3s to hack that 18-point lead to a two-possession game with two minutes to play, but UF ultimately survived. ... Florida is averaging 72.6 points per game, shooting 44.8 percent from the floor and 33.5 from the 3-point line. On defense, the Gators give up 66.6 points, 40.9-percent shooting and 31 from the arc. ... UF's KenPom.com numbers rate the Gators at No. 42 overall (that's sixth in the SEC), plus 30th in offensive efficiency and 69th on the defensive end. ... Sophomore shooting
Keyontae Johnson
guard Noah Locke, after a couple off nights, took eight shots (all 3s) and made a season-high five at Vanderbilt, on his way to 17 points. It was the fifth time over the last 10 games that Locke had made at least four 3s in a game. He's now shooting 52.2 percent from distance, which leads the SEC by nearly 15 percentage points. The next-closest to Locke is Alabama's John Petty at 37.9 percent. ... While his teammates fought to make shots in the first half last game, forward Keyontae Johnson scored 12 of UF's 26 points through that opening period to help stake the Gators to a five-point lead. Johnson finished with 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting (with a couple 3s) and seven rebounds, giving him two 20-point outings over the previous three games. ... Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. had a quiet night in Nashville of just six points and seven rebounds, his smallest scoring output since playing five minutes and getting ejected after scoring one point in a win earlier this season against St. Joseph's at the Charleston (S.C.) Classic. ... Point guard Andrew Nembhard tallied nine points and four assists at Vandy. He went 1-for-2 from the 3-point line after going 2-for-19 from deep the previous six games. ... Wing Scottie Lewishad just two points last game, on 1-for-5 shooting, and really never got into much of the flow on offense over his 20 minutes. Lewis, though, is Florida's clear-cut best defender and likely will draw the task of guarding Edwards, his fellow McDonald's dude. ... Reserve freshman forward Omar Payne (4.7 ppg, 4.2 rpg), who has rotated with Lewis as the fifth starter since the holiday break, played just four minutes against the Commodores after averaging 26.2 minutes the previous five games. He did not score in the game and finished with two rebounds. ... Backup freshman guard Tre Mann dropped a very timely 3 in the second half for his only basket at Vandy and finished 1-for-6 shooting for the game. He's now at 35.6 percent overall and 23.9 from deep (11 of 46). ... Reserve freshman point guardQues Glover has inched his all-around shooting percentage up to 42.6 percent on the season after making five of seven shots the last two games. ... ABOUT THE BULLDOGS: This is their second under Tom Crean, the former Marquette and Indiana coach who is 23-30 with the Bulldogs after going 11-21 last season, including 2-16 in
Rayshaun Hammonds
SEC play (and, yes, one of those wins was against the Gators at the O'Dome. ... Georgia is scoring 75.5 points, shooting 44.8 percent and 30.1 from 3. Defensively, the Bulldogs give up 73.4 points, 44.4 percent overall and 32.4 from long range. ... Their KenPom metrics place the Bulldogs at No. 97 overall, which is 10th among SEC teams. They're No. 84 in offensive efficiency and 121st on defense (11th in the league). As far as tempo, UGA is 63rd nationally, with only four other conference teams playing faster. The goal will be a track-meet kind of game. ... The ease with which Georgia defeated Texas A&M over the weekend should certainly get UF's attention. The Bulldogs held the Aggies to 32 percent for the game and allowed just 5-for-25 from the 3-point. The Bulldogs shot just over 40 percent for the game, but hit five of their nine 3s after halftime and ultimately smashed the Aggies on the boards, 44-34. ... Edwards has taken 111 more shots (and 43 more 3s) than his next-closest teammate. That would be backup senior guard Tyree Crump (7.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg), who has been a thorn to the Gators the last two seasons on both ends. ... Forward Rayshaun Hammonds is UGA's best big. He's at 44.1 percent on the season, but is capable of stepping out making enough 3s to draw the defense. He's got 23 on the season at 33 percent. ... Sahvir Wheeler (7.7 ppg, 2.5 rpg) is a freshman who has started the last six games at point guard. He had five assists against the Aggies, but also turned it over six times. Though he's shooting just under 31 percent from deep, Wheeler is at better than 47 percent from the floor. He can get in the lane and finish. ... Guard Donnell Greshman Jr. is a grad-transfer from Northeastern, where last season he started 33 of 34 games for the Huskies, averaged a team-high 33.7 minutes per game as well as 9.7 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 steals, while helping the team to a 23-11 record overall and NCAA Tournament bid.
NUMBERS WORTH NOTING
Georgia's Nicolas Claxton (33) enhanced his NBA draft profile at Florida's expense last season when he dominated the Gators at the O'Dome. Claxton eventually was drafted in the second round by the Brooklyn Nets and now plays for their G League affiliate. That game was the 217th between UF and Georgia, the most for either against any other program.
* 8 — Games that Locke has made at least three 3-pointers in a game this season.
* 24 — Converted 3-point attempts by Locke in SEC play this season, which ranks second in the league. He's needed 46 attempts to get there.
* 27 — Converted 3-point attempts by Arkansas guard Isaiah Joe in SEC play this season, which ranks first in the league. He's needed 81 attempts to get there.
* 79.7 — Percentage of Florida's points scored by sophomores or freshmen this season. Those two classes have combined for 1,226 of UF's 1,525 points, with Blackshear (294 points) and fourth-year junior Dontay Bassett(5 points), who has been sidelined the last four games with a leg injury, accounting for the other 299.
* 217 — All-time meetings between Florida and Georgia, the most-faced opponent of both programs, with their first game coming sometime (the exact date unknown) during the 1924-25 season. The Bulldogs won, 45-24, at Athens.
