Stuff: Florida at Mississippi State (Saturday, 4 pm)

Saturday, January 16

Starkville, MS

4 PM

Florida Gators

Mississippi State

Chris Harry's Pregame Stuff presented by Ticketmaster

Stuff: Florida at Mississippi State (Saturday, 4 pm)

Friday, January 15, 2021 | Men's Basketball

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

FLORIDA at MISSISSIPPI STATE

When: Saturday, 4 p.m. (EST)
Where: Humphrey Coliseum, Starkville, Miss.
Records: Florida (6-3, 3-2); Mississippi State (8-5, 3-2)
TV: ESPN2 (Beth Mowins and Chris Spatola)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

THE BASICS

The Mississippi State campus in Starkville.

Florida looks to make up some ground in the Southeastern Conference standings with what figures to be a difficult challenge at Mississippi State. ... The Gators are coming off Tuesday's comeback 72-63 home win against Mississippi, when they erased a nine-point deficit behind a 20-2 run over the final 6:15, including the last 14 points of the game. The Bulldogs are coming off a 55-54 home loss to Texas A&M, a game they led by six inside five minutes to go. MSU had the the final possession of the game, but turned the ball over. Those two outcomes put Florida and Mississippi State in a two-way tie for fifth place in the SEC standings, a half-game behind fourth-place Kentucky and Tennessee, and full game behind third place LSU. ... UF leads the all-time series 65-51, but the Bulldogs have won each of the last two meetings (after an eight-game Gators win streak, dating to 2012), including a maddening (for the home team) comeback 78-71 victory at the O'Dome last season. In that one, Florida built a 16-point first half lead behind 58-percent shooting, including 8-for-14 from the 3-point line line. The margin was 10 at halftime, but MSU went on a run of nine straight points midway through the second half, then a 12-4 run inside six minutes to seize control of the game. Forward Reggie Perry led all scorers with 27 points, including three 3-pointers, and eight rebounds. Forward Robert Woodard II had 16 points. Combined Perry and Woodward (both second-round picks in the 2020 NBA Draft) destroyed UF up front in going 15-for-22 overall, 5-for-5 from distance and 8-for-9 from the free-throw line. Florida shot 27.7 percent in the second half and went 0-for-7 from the arc. ... The Gators are 3-2 against the Bulldogs under Coach Mike White, including 2-1 at home.

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7	220	R-Junior	6.4 pts / 4.1 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11	231	Junior	12.2 pts / 5.6 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1	170	R-Junior	8.6 pts / 2.9 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-3	203	Junior	9.9 pts / 2.1 reb
Tre Mann	G	6-5	190	Sophomore	14.0 pts / 5.8 reb / 4.0 ast

Mississippi State	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Abdul Ado	F	6-11	255	R-Senior	X pts / X reb
Tolu Smith	F	6-10	245	R-Sophomore	X pts / X reb
Jalen Johnson	F/G	6-6	210	R-Senior	X pts / X reb
Iverson Molina	G	6-3	190	Sophomore	X pts / X reb
D.J. Stewart Jr.	G	6-6	205	R-Sophomore	X pts / X reb

ONE TO WATCH

As a freshman, Bulldogs guard **Iverson Molinar** (left) was a bit player off the bench who averaged 5.9 points and barely a rebound and assist per game for a team that was headed for an NCAA Tournamend bid pre-COVID. Now a sophomore Molinar may be the most improved (and one of the most offensively explosive) in the league. After tallying 16 points in Wednesday's loss against Texas A&M, the 6-3, 190-pounder and former Calabasa, Calif., prep star is averaging nearly 19 points per game, shooting 51.4 overall and 53.1 from the 3-point line. Good luck defending him. Talk about picking your poison. In MSU's win against Georgia to open league play, Molinar scored a career-high 24 points and made four of his six attempts from the 3-point line. Last week, in beating Vanderbilt, Molinar equaled that career-high of 24 and did not attempt a 3-pointer. He can beat you in a variety of ways and UF with be down its best defender.

TEAM BREAKDOWNS

Junior forward Colin Castleton is averaging 16.8 points and 6.4 rebounds in the Gators' five SEC games.

ABOUT THE GATORS: They already were searching and tinkering with the best way to play and the best rotations minus their best player (Keyontae Johnson) when a second such process began last game after losing sophomore guard Scottie Lewis (11.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg) due to health and safety protocols. UF will be without Lewis for a second consecutive game, which means the Gators will start undersized again, with both Tyree Appleby and Noah Locke in the first unit. ... KenPom.com's advanced metrics rank Florida 37th overall, 32nd in offense, 51st in defense and 134th in tempo. UF is shooting 47 percent overall and 38.8 percent from the 3-point line.

... The Gators would almost certainly be under-.500 in league play were in not for junior Colin Castleton, the transfer from Michigan who has provided the team with some of the best all-around, both-end minutes by low post player in several seasons. Castleton is coming off a historic performance against Ole Miss when he scored 21 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and tied the school record with eight blocked shots, the most ever by a Gator in SEC play. He's shooting 61 percent and averaging 16.8 points against league opponents. He struggled two games ago against Kentucky's length and athleticism and will face a similar challenge relative to front court size against Mississippi State. ... After being replaced by Appleby in the starting lineup against UK, Locke replaced Lewis in the first unit and responded with 15 points, 3-for-6 shooting from 3 and four rebounds. In his second UF start, Appleby scored five points, grabbed a season-best seven rebounds and had two assists, two turnovers and two steals. He remains in minus territory with his assist/turnover ratio (23/26). ... Point guard Tre Mann had one of his most complete games of the SEC campaign against Ole Miss, with 17 points, seven rebounds, three assists, just one turnover and three steals. He also went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, including 4-for-4 in the final minute when the Rebels were trying to rally. ... Florida is still looking for some punch from the bench after Ole Miss outscored the UF reserves 28-11. It's worth noting, of course, the Gators' bench has shrunk due to maladies to arguably the two best players. ... UF was 22-for-26 from the free-throw line last game (16-for-18 in the second half) after hitting 64, 57 and 54 percent in three of the first four conference games. ... ABOUT THE BULLDOGS: They're in the sixth season under Coach Ben Howland, with a 106-72 record (including 46-49 in SEC play) to show for it. Howland guided State to a NCAA Tournament berth in 2019 and was headed their in '20 before COVID hit, thus costing his most talented team a shot at a second straight postseason. ... They'll come in ranked No. 73 overall in KenPom, plus 53rd in offense, 112th in defense and a plodding 331st in tempo. ... State opened the season with losses

against Clemson and Liberty, then pulled off consecutive wins against a trio of low majors (Texas State, North Texas and Jacksonville State) before dropping another against Dayton. It was back to the low-major path for a couple wins (Central Arkansas and Mississippi Valley State) before the Bulldogs got off to a good start in SEC play by beating Georgia, losing in double-overtime to Kentucky, pounding No. 13 Missouri and beating Vanderbilt. Then came Wednesday's disappointing defeat to an A&M squad that struggles to score but excels at defense. ... State will present a size disadvantage for the Gators, what with the 6-11 Abdul Ado and 6-10 Tolu Smith, a transfer from Western Kentucky roaming the paint. Both are shooting over 50 percent from the floor without attempting a 3-pointer, so there's no mystery as to what they'll be doing on offense. They'll be posting. ... Regarding that MSU size, the team is averaging a plus-9.1 per-game rebounding advantage this season. ... D.J. Stewart Jr. is an inside/out threat at the shooting guard spot who is making 45.5 percent from the floor and 40.4 from the 3-point line. He started last season, but much like Molinar played in the shadows of a veteran backcourt led by Nick Weatherspoon and Tyson Carter, who were a couple Gator-killers their last two years. Now a focal point alongside Molinar, Stewart has increased his scoring average by nine points per game. ... Small forward Jalen Johnson is making nearly 43 percent of his 3s, giving the Bulldogs a trio of really good long-range shooters in the starting lineup. ... Backup forward Javian Davis (4.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg), a 6-9, 245-pound transfer from Alabama, has almost as many offensive rebounds (23) as defensive (31), thus furthering the matchup concerns for the Gators underneath. ... MSU relies on a pair of backups, guards Deivon Smith (4.1 ppg, 3.3 rpg) and 6-7 wing Cameron Matthews (2.9 ppg, 2.7 rpg), to initiate offense off the bench. Combined, they're plus-19 on assist-to-turnover margin. Their combined 51 assists is just 17 fewer than Molinar and Stewart's total of 68.

NUMBERS WORTH NOTING

* 24 — Points needed by Appleby to reach 1,000 for his collegiate career, after arriving at UF with 899 points scored during his two seasons at Cleveland State.

* 5 — Players during the last 25 years (encompassing the Billy Donovan/Mike White eras) to score more than 20 points in three of their first five SEC games in a season, as Castleton has done to date. The others: Brett Nelson (2001-02), Anthony Roberson (2004-05), Taurean Green (2005-06) and Erving Walker (2009-10).

* 38 —Combined blocked shots for Ado (24) and Smith (14), who figure to pose some problems for any Gator looking to post or attack the interior.

* 86.1 — Percentage of his team's minutes Stewart (35.9 per game) is on the floor for the Bulldogs, which ranks 105th among Division I players, including first among SEC players and 11th among players from the six power conferences.

* 1983 — The last year Florida lost a third straight game to Mississippi State. Back then, the SEC's 10 teams played each other twice during their regular conference season. The Bulldogs beat the Gators in the second game of the '81-82 season, then swept UF the following season.

LAST WORD

The Gators played with some urgency over the final six minutes Tuesday. That same urgency, especially being down in numbers and heading on the road, needs to travel.