Florida at Oklahoma (Wednesday, 8 p.m.)

No. 14 Florida at Oklahoma

* When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
* Where: Noble Center, Norman, Okla.
* Records: Florida (6-0); Oklahoma (6-1)
* TV: Bally Sports Sun / North Central Florida; Bally Sports Florida / South Florida (with Chad McKee and Bryndon Manzer)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Gators senior forward Myreon Jones (0) hit four 3-pointers in the win Sunday over Troy and is shooting 41.7 percent from deep on the seaosn.

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7 / 220	R-Senior	10.2 ppg / 4.8 rpg
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	14.8 ppg / 10.0 rpg
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	F/G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	11.0 ppg / 3.2 rpg
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	R-Senior	11.3 ppg / 2.7 rpg / 3.2 apg
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	11.8 ppg / 3.8 rpg

Opponent	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jalen Hill	F	6-8 / 218	Junior	8.6 ppg / 6.7 rp
Tanner Groves	F	6-10 / 235	Senior	14.6 ppg / 6.3 rpg
Jordan Goldwire	G	6-3 / 194	R-Senior	9.9 ppg / 2.1 rpg
Umoja Gibson	G	6-1 / 169	Senior	11.3 ppg / 1.4 rpg
Elijah Harkless	G	6-3 / 194	Senior	8.3 ppg / 5.1 rp

The Breakdown

Backup forward **CJ Felder** (1) played a big role with eight points and five rebounds last week against Ohio State.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida, up to No. 14 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, is seeking its first 7-0 start since the 2012-13 season, something that has happened only five times in the program's 106-year history. The Gators are coming off Sunday's 84-45 win over Troy, an outcome and performance that pleased Coach Mike White because it showed his team had moved on, emotionally, from the dramatic, buzzer-beating defeat of Ohio State in the championship game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off four days earlier. ... It's a new era at Oklahoma (read on) and the Sooners are off to a good start against a relatively light schedule, with UF representing their first Power 5 conference opponent. ... The Gators and Sooners have played three times, with Florida holding a 2-1 advantage. The most recent meeting came in first-round play of the 2018 Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas. OU won that one, 65-60, behind 16 points and eight rebounds from guard Christian James. UF was led by 14 points from backup forward Dontay Bassett. The Gators shot just 39 percent for the game and a woeful 3-for-11 from the free-throw line, including one of five in the second half to get dumped into the tournament's loser bracket. They'd eventually finish fifth in the field of eight. In the two other meetings, Florida defeated Oklahoma 76-72 in the 1995 All College Tournament at Oklahoma City, and smashed the Sooners in the only trip to Norman, winning 84-52 at Noble Center in the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge. ... The Gators are 6-4 against teams currently in the Big 12 under White.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Opponent
76.8	Scoring	75.9
.434	Field-goal percentage	.501
344	3-point percentage	.339
55.8	Scoring defense	59.3
.390	Field-goal percentage defense	.399
.250	3-point percentage defense	.280
10th	KenPom.com overall ranking	44th
23rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	76th
10th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	33rd
169th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	238th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They already have a couple so-called "Quad-1" victories (Florida State, Ohio State) on the NCAA Evaluation Tool resume. Those numbers are fluid, obviously, but even so, UF has a

shot at a solid third Q-1 if it can steal a true road game against the Sooners, who figure to stick around in the NET top 75 this season. The more, the better, right? Florida didn't get its first Q-1 win last season until Jan. 16. ... Phlandrous Fleming Jr. got his first start in a Gators jersey against Troy and responded with 11 points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal. Fleming, who was technically playing a third guard position, is so valuable because of his ability to guard "1" through "4" (and even "5," in switch-off situations). He got the nod because of the hamstring strain that hit grad-transfer Brandon McKissic against Ohio State. McKissic, who was limited in practice Friday and again in Sunday's shoot-around, still scored 10 points, including a pair of 3s, against the Trojans and was full-go for practice Monday. ... Forward Colin Castleton had 10 points (he only attempted five shots), eight boards, two assists and a couple blocks last game. The Sooners have some bigs (one really good one, specifically) who may present Castleton's biggest challenge in the post to date. He's been awfully consistent thus far, but also believes he can play much better, especially in finishing around the rim. He's at 54.8 percent for the season vs. 59.7 last season. ... Four times out of 25 games last season forward Anthony Duruji reached double-figure scoring. He's done it three times already through six this season. There's more. In '20-21, Duruji shot 43.8 percent from the floor, 26.3 from the 3-point line and 48.3 from the free-throw line. In '21-22, he's at 59.5 overall, a team-best 62.5 from deep and 80.0 at the line. Right now, Duruji is the team's most improved player, by far. If he keeps it up, he'll be in the conversation for most improved in the Southeastern Conference. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby has just six assists the last three games (only one in a season-low 19 minutes vs. Troy), but the Gators pace of play has climbed from 244th two games in to 169th the last two weeks. The Gators want to go faster still, but they're getting there and launching the break when its there. ... Guard Myreon Jones had been mostly slow to get his offense going in the first five games. Such was not the case against Troy, as Jones buried two 3s in about the first 90 seconds and four in the first half. In fact, he didn't score at all in the second half. He's at 41.7 percent from deep on the season. ... Backup forward CJ Felder (4.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg) played 12 minutes in the opener against Elon, then just two against FSU, but his last four games have shown 16 minutes, 17, 19 and 17, respectively. He's made 61.5 percent of his shots those four games. ... ... Freshman backup guard Elijah Kennedy has hit at least one field goal in each of the last three games, including two 3s against Troy. ... Freshman guard/forward Kowacie Reeves, after playing just seven minutes in Fort Myers (with a DNP vs Ohio State) scored eight points in 13 minutes against the Trojans, with a couple 3s.

The Sooners

Lon Kruger, who will forever be credited with cleaning up the Florida program during his six years (and 104 victories from 1990-96) in Gainesville, was an equally beloved coach at Oklahoma for 10 seasons. He guided the Sooners to 293 wins, seven NCAA Tournaments and the 2016 Final Four. Kruger retired last offseason and OU landed an A-grade replacement in Porter Moser, who

worked wonders in eight seasons at Loyola Chicago, five times winning at least 20 games, including a stunning 32-victory run to the 2018 Final Four, as well as an appearance in the 2021 Sweet 16 last March. Moser inherited a team that went 16-11 last season, including 9-8 in Big 12 play, but only four returning players. ... So far, the Sooners have feasted on a schedule of all mid-major programs, defeating Northwestern State, Texas-San Antonio and Houston Baptist at home, beating Indiana State and East Carolina in the Myrtle Beach Invitational before losing to Utah State in the tournament championship game, then escaping UCF with a 68-65 win Saturday in their first true road game of the season. They're average point margin is plus-16.6. ... OU's two returning starters are guards Umoja Gibson and Elijah Harkless, both of whom transferred in during Kruger's regime; Gibson from North Texas and Harkless from Cal State-Northridge. Gibson is shooting 40 percent on the season, but 38 from 3. Harkless isn't a shooting threat, but he's physical and has hit 64 percent of his 2s. ... Forward Jalen Hill was a four-star recruit for Kruger who struggled to find his game his first two years, but he's now shooting 71 percent from the floor, 50 on his limited 3s and 91 from the free-throw line. ... Anyone who watched Duke the last four seasons will recall Jordan Goldwire, who was a defensive stalwart on teams that featured Zion Williamson, RJ Barrett and Marvin Bagley Jr. Goldwire, whose career-high scoring season for the Blue Devils was 5.8 points, got to Norman and was handed the point guard job. He's the team's No. 3 scorer, shooting 52 percent from the floor, and has 30 assists to just 16 turnovers. ... The twin-tower brother tandem of Tanner and Jacob Groves transferred from Eastern Washington. Tanner, the 2021 Big Sky Player of the Year, averaged 17.2 point and 8.0 rebounds, shot 56 percent overall, nearly 35 from 3 and 79 at the line for the Eagles. This season, he's the Sooners' scoring leader and making 56.9 percent overall, 38.5 of his 3s and better than 71 percent of his free throws. His matchup with Castleton should be a terrific one. Jacob is averaging 4.1 points off the bench. ... Forward Ethan Chargois, a 6-9, 230-pound transfer forward from SMU, is averaging 8.3 points and 5.1 boards off the bench. ... Grad transfer Marvin Johnson was a first-team All-Ohio Valley guard last season who averaged 15.3 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists at Eastern Illinois, but at 3.2 points and 1.2 boards as a Sooner is waiting for his breakout high-major moment.

Numbers of Note

Florida forward **Kevarius Hayes** (13) dominated Oklahoma on both ends of the floor when the two teams met in the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge at Noble Center.

* minus-.228 — Percentage difference in Castleton's free-throw shooting last season vs. this season. Castleton was superb from the line in '20-21, knocking in 78.1 percent. This year, he's at 55.3 percent, with 21 makes on his team-high 38 attempts (the next closest Gator is Fleming with 25 attempts). He was four of five last game, though.

* .618 — Sooners shooting percentage on 2-pointers, which ranks second in the country behind only Gonzaga's .669.

* 3 — Consecutive games this season the Gators have registered double-digit steals: 10 vs. California and 13 vs. Ohio State in Fort Myers, then 11 against Troy.

* plus-35 — Assist-to-turnover margin for OU's five starters, based on 89 assists and just 54 turnovers. They won't easily be rattled, even less so at home.

* 1922 — The year OU suffered its worst loss in program history, as the Sooners fell to Missouri 66-22. We bring that up because the 32-point bludgeoning the Gators hung on the Sooners in the 2017 SEC/Big 12 Challenge, courtesy of a career-high 20 points, nine rebounds and three blocks from sophomore forward Kevarrius Hayes, marked OU's worst loss since that Mizzou debacle 95 years before.

Bottom Line

First road game of the season will be a significant test for the Gators, but not a be-all, end-all.

Gators Calendar

Florida at Oklahoma (Wednesday, 8 p.m.)