Florida Gators

FLORIDA vs VANDERBILT 

When: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.   
Records: Florida (8-4, 5-3); Vanderbilt (4-7, 0-5)  
TV: SEC Network (Mike Morgan and Debbie Antonelli) 
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey) 



THE BASICS 
 
The first Southeastern Conference rematch for Florida this season will send Vanderbilt, one of its three permanent home-and-home foes, to the O'Dome. ... The Gators are coming off a very good week, having smashed sixth-ranked Tennessee at home last Tuesday and following it with a solid 92-84 road victory Saturday at Georgia. The Commodores have gone the other direction, dropping their first five league games and having two dates postponed by COVID. Vandy's last outing was 92-71 home loss to Arkansas. ... Vandy leads the all-time series 71-69, but Florida has won five straight, and six of seven, after the Commodores reeled off a run of five in a row with two wins in 2016 and three in '17. ... The two teams opened their SEC schedules Dec. 29 at Nashville, where UF shot 61 percent, including 72 in the second half, and rang up the program's most lopsided road win since in four years. Five Gators scored in double figures, led by junior forward Colin Castleton's career-high 23 points, with sophomore Scottie Lewis adding 16 points and five rebounds. UF opened a 14-point halftime lead by holding the Commodores to just 36.7 shooting through the first 20 minutes and cruised to an easy win. ... Florida is 6-6 against Vandy under Coach Mike White, with the last loss in the series coming Feb. 18, 2018 on the road.  

STARTERS (Probable Lineups)

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7	220	R-Junior	6.1 pts / 4.1 reb
Omar Payne	F	6-10	230	Sophomore	4.4 pts / 3.8 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1	170	R-Junior	10.3 pts / 2.9 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-3	203	Junior	10.6 pts / 2.2 reb
Tre Mann	G	6-5	190	Sophomore	14.7 pts / 5.3 reb / 4.1 ast

Vanderbilt	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Myles Stute	F	6-7	215	Freshman	8.0 pts / 2.9 reb
Clevon Brown	F	6-8	232	Senior	2.2 pts / 2.4 reb
D.J. Harvey	G	6-6	215	Senior	8.3 pts / 3.1 reb
Scotty Pippin Jr.	G	6-1	170	Sophomore	20.6 pts / 2.9 reb / 5.3 ast
Jordan Wright	G	6-5	226	Sophomore	8.0 pts / 4.3 reb

ONE TO WATCH  
 

TEAM BREAKDOWNS  
 
ABOUT THE GATORS: A modest two-game winning streak has rocketed their resume up the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) and KenPom.com charts. The blowout of sixth-ranked Tennessee combined with the win at Georgia was good for a whopping jump of 21 spots in the NET, the metic used to seed the NCAA Tournament, all the way to No. 26. KenPom puts UF at No. 23, with an offense ranked 23rd, defense 44th and tempo 98th. That defensive number is no where near what

White and his staff are looking for and comes after a week when the Gators smothered the Volunteers into 29-percent shooting, but then allowed the breakneck Bulldogs to go for 54 percent, including 61 in a second half when they made nine of their last 11 field-goal attempts. ... UF is scoring 77.8 points per game, shooting 47.6 percent, including 37.2 from the arc. On defense, opponents score 70.3 on 42.2 percent and 34.4 from deep. ... The availability of sophomore guard Scottie Lewis (11.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg), out the previous four games due to health and safety protocols, will be a game-day decision. ... Over the past four games, Tre Mann has averaged 16.8 points, shot 17-for-20 (.850) from the free-throw line and added 16 assists and nine steals. He still is turning the ball over too much to the coaches' likings, with 13 over that stretch, five at Georgia, but those career-high 24 points last time out helped make up for the miscues. ... Forward Omar Payne replaced Colin Castleton in the starting lineup the last two games and has seized on the opportunity with (far and away) the best back-to-back games of his career, going a combined 9-for-10 shooting with 18 rebounds and seven blocks. The Gators have utilized his markedly improved ability (and willingness and improved motor) in screen-and-roll situations that end in lobs and dunks. ... The 6-11 Castleton, meanwhile, bounced back nicely from the game he missed with a sore ankle. He had 14 points off the bench at Athens and made seven of his nine shots. ... Payne has made 77.8 percent of his shots in SEC play, while Castleton is at 61.8. ... Guard Tyree Appleby started the last five games and averaged 12.4 points, shot 50 percent from the floor, 45 from 3, with 12 assists, 11 turnovers and nine steals, including four at Georgia. The turnover number is too high, but the transfer from Cleveland State is playing as well as anyone in a UF uniform right now. ... Shooting guard Noah Locke's four 3s at Georgia were his most in SEC play this season and one off his season high. He's averaged 15.0 points the last two games. ... Forward Anthony Duruji's minutes the last three games have been scaled back to 18.0, in good part due to foul trouble. His number of fouls in those games (10) approach his number of points (15) and rebounds (12). His energy and work around the basket, however, have remained high level. One of his replacements, junior-college transfer Osayi Osifo, has been really good off the bench the last two games, hitting all five of his field-goal attempts while averaging 5.0 points and 5.5 rebounds in 13.5 minutes. 

ABOUT THE COMMODORES: They're in the second season under former NBA star Jerry Stackhouse, who lost his first eight SEC games last season and 14 of the first 15. In Stackhouse's defense, he also lost standpoint sophomore guard Aaron Nesmith to a season-ending foot injury in 2019-20, with Nesmith going on to become a NBA lottery pick

(the 14th overall choice) for the Boston Celtics. Stackhouse, who was an All-American at North Carolina and with no ties to Vanderbilt, has been in the news of late with reports of bad-mouthing fans via text and DM messages, so just where this experiment is headed is something that will play itself out. ... Vandy's seven losses have been by an average of 13.5 points, with all but two (at Kentucky and home against Mississippi State) decided by double digits. KenPom ranks the Commodores 148th overall (last in the league), 111th in offense, 103rd in defense and 140th in tempo. ... On offense, they score 72.5 points per game, shoot 42.8 percent and 33.7 from the arc. Defensively, opponents are scoring 73.5 points, shooting 46.9 percent overall and 33.3 from deep. ... For Vanderbilt, everything begins and usually ends with point guard Scottie Pippin Jr. The son of the NBA Hall-of-Famer occupies the ball 34.5 percent of the team's possessions, which ranks fourth in the nation, and takes nearly 32 percent of the shots (45th nationally). Pippin, the league's No. 2 scorer behind LSU's Cameron Thomas, is making 44.5 percent of his field goals, 34 of his 3s and is a committed driver who gets to the line and converts (82.4 percent). He had 18 points, six assists and three turnovers in the first meeting. ... Guard Jordan Wright is shooting 50 percent from the floor and arc and is capable of filling a stat sheet. He had 18 points and eight rebounds in Vandy's last-minute loss to Kentucky. ... Forward Myles Stute is a confident wing, who hit a trio of 3-pointers against the Gators and is at 43 percent from distance on the season. ... D.J. Harvey is coming off his best game of the season. He hit six of 10 shots and three 3s for 16 points and four rebounds in the loss to Arkansas. ... Junior backup Ejike Obinna doesn't score much, but at 6-10, 240 gives them some size off the bench. 


NUMBERS WORTH NOTING  
 
* .152 — Vanderbilt's combined winning percentage in SEC play over the last four seasons, based on a 9-50 record, with both Stackhouse and predecessor Bryce Drew sharing that mark. 

* .336 — Vanderbilt's combined winning percentage overall the last four seasons, based on a 36-71 record. 

* 5 — 3-point field goals needed by Locke to move into program's all-time top 10, where Matt Walsh (2002-05), with 192 career 3s, sits at the No. 10 spot. 

* 6.0 — Blocked shots per game for the Gators, which remains on pace to break the team record of 5.3 set by the 2005-06 NCAA championship team. Don't be surprised if that number inches upward, as long as Payne maintains the consistency and effort level that has kept him on the floor. 

* 2006 — The last year Florida won a sixth straight game against Vanderbilt. It came at Nashville, by a 74-64 count, on Feb. 15 of that year, and was the penultimate victory of a seven-game streak in the series that represents the longest by either team in a matchup that dates to 1931.


LAST WORD

The Gators would appear to be playing too well and having too much fun and allow themselves to slip into any false sense of security, which would only be natural given the opponent. And that's a dangerous place to be.