Florida vs Maryland (Sunday, 4:30 pm)

No. 20 Florida vs. Maryland

* What: Hall of Fame Basketball Invitational (third of four-game hoops extravaganza)
* When: Sunday, 4:30 p.m.
* Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.
* Records: Florida (7-2); Maryland (5-4)
* TV: Big Ten Network (Brandon Gaudin, Robbie Hummel and Andy Katz)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

UF guard **Brandon McKissic** tallied seven points, five rebounds, three assists, two steals and multiple grimaces/smiles in his team's 85-55 win Wednesday night against North Florida.

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7 / 220	R-Senior	9.1 ppg / 4.3 rpg
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	15.7 ppg / 9.3 rpg
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	10.6 ppg / 3.0 rpg
Brandon McKissic	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	8.3 ppg / 3.4 rpg
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	10.4 ppg / 3.4 rpg

Opponent	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Donta Scott	F	6-8 / 230	Junior	10.2 ppg / 7.7 rpg
Qudus Wahab	F	6-11 / 240	Junior	11.1 ppg / 6.8 rpg
Hakim Hart	G	6-8 / 205	Junior	8.2 ppg / 3.6 rpg
Fatts Russell	G	5-11 / 165	Graduate	12.1 ppg / 4.1 rpg
Eric Ayala	G	6-5 / 205	Senior	13.1 ppg / 4.7 rpg

The Breakdown

The Barclays Center (capacity 17,732), built for $1.1 billion and home to the NBA Brooklyn Nets, will host four games Saturday for the Naismith Hall of Fame Invitational: Fordham vs Miami, 11:30 a.m.; No. 1 Purdue vs NC State, 2 p.m.; No. 20 Florida vs Maryland, 4:30 p.m.; Iona vs Yale, 7 p.m.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

After Monday's knee-capping home loss to previously winless Texas Southern, Florida, which almost certainly will tumble out of the next Associated Press Top 25 poll, got back on the winning track two nights later by defeating North Florida 85-55 in a performance that looked much closer to the high-effort, defense-first games that earmarked the six-game winning streak to open the season. Now comes a neutral-site date against Maryland, which is dealing with a barrel of adversity of its own. Not only have the Terrapins dropped three straight games, but they're still reeling from the sudden/shocking resignation of Coach Mark Turgeon, who stepped down Dec. 3 just eight games into his 11th season. Turgeon was 226-116 at UM and led the program to five NCAA tournaments the last seven seasons, including a share of the Big Ten championship in the pandemic-halted 2019-20 season. The Terps elevated assistant coach Danny Manning, the former superstar at Kansas and head coach at Tulsa and Wake Forest, to an "interim" post. ... Florida and Maryland have played three times in their histories, with the Gators holding a 2-1 advantage. The last meeting came Dec. 10, 2003, with the Terps defeating the Gators 69-68 in overtime at the O'Connell Center. UF erased a 17-point first-half deficit and began chipping away at the lead behind 20 points from guard Anthony Roberson, plus 13 points and seven rebounds from forward Christian Drejer. The Gators led by four inside a minute to go in the extra period, but the Terps scored the game's final five points. UM forward Nick Caner-Medley led his team with 22 points and 14 rebounds, followed closely by center Jamar Smith's 14 points and 12 boards. ... Florida is 25-36 all-time against teams from the Big Ten, including 3-3 under Coach Mike White. ... This will be UF's second appearance in the Hall of Fame Invitational. The Gators bombarded Providence 83-51, behind 19 points and 10 rebounds from sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson on Dec. 17, 2019.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Opponent
74.1	Scoring	68.6
.429	Field-goal percentage	.410
.297	3-point percentage	.289
59.1	Scoring defense	66.7
.415	Field-goal percentage defense	.354
.268	3-point percentage defense	.408
27th	KenPom.com overall ranking	54th
50th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	92nd
18th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	45th
107th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	106th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The 30-point win against UNF was need, of course, but the sight of numerous UF players diving across the floor, switching and committed on defense, and boxing out and chasing rebounds did more for White, his staff and the Gators. Beating up on a bad team from the Atlantic Sun Conference doesn't mean the Florida problems that reared themselves are fixed, but the manner in which

the Gators went about their business was an encouraging sign. Now, they better have the same mindset (times 2) when they face the wounded-animal Terps, who will be looking to make a statement of their own. ... Forward Colin Castleton had a career-high 26 points and hit eight of 11 free throws in nearly 27 minutes against UNF. He was not at his best, far from it, against Texas Southern and took it personally, as the Tigers pummeled the Gators in the post and on the glass. The energy UF showed last game was good because Castleton was part of it. He needs to be that guy every night, even when things aren't going his way in the scoring column. ... Guard Myreon Jones remains the top 3-point shooter among the UF perimeter players, but that's not saying much considering Jones, a career 37.6-percent shooter for three seasons at Penn State, sits at 33.3 percent as a Gator. Though he scored 14 points against UNF (his most since the season opener against Elon), Jones went 1-for-5 from deep and is now 2-for-15 over the last three games. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby played more under control than he had the two previous games. He took a season-low three shots, but twice drew fouls attempting 3-pointers, and also had three steals. He still has just four assists in the last four games, but that has just as much to do with Florida's struggles to put the ball in the basket. Every UF players' assists totals are down. ... Forward Anthony Duruji still leads the Gators in 3-point shooting percentage at 50.0 percent (7-14), but also now tops the team in overall field-goal percentage at 57.4 percent. The more he's around the basket, the more active he is, the better the Gators. ... The graduate duo of Brandon McKissic and Phlandrous Fleming Jr. got its second straight start. McKissic was his usual bundle of fiery energy (7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) over 30 minutes. Fleming was in early foul trouble and really never seen in sync. He played just 17 minutes on his way to seven points and a couple steals. ... This could be a game where more minutes are needed from backup forward CJ Felder (3.7 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 14.2 minutes pg). Felder had his best game of the season in the win over Ohio State. ... Backup freshman guard Elijah Kennedy (2.5 ppg) struggled shooting the ball (2-for-9, 0-for-5 from deep), but does everything asked of him and is in the right position. But what about fellow freshman Kowacie Reeves? Theough the 6-6 wing, like Kennedy, can't buy a bucket, he saw his first action in three games against UNF, logged a season-high 11 minutes and flashed some defensive want-to. ... White called on 6-11, 300-pound junior center Jason Jitoboh for a season-high seven minutes last game. He scored three points and fouled out, giving him 17 fouls in 39 minutes for the season.

The Terrapins

They're now under the reins of Manning, who is in his third head coaching job (albeit on an interim basis, for now). Manning, the MVP of the 1988 NCAA Tournament after leading Kansas to

the national title, coached Tulsa for two seasons, beating one of White's Louisiana Tech squads to win the Conference USA Tournament and the league's subsequent NCAA berth, then went a dismal 78-111 in six seasons coaching Wake Forest, making one NCAA Tournament along the way (2017). He inherited a team that was 17-14 last season and was a No. 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament, but had four players transfer and one taken in the second round of the NBA Draft. ... The Terps have size. They're ranked 55th nationally in height, according to KenPom.com. That size translates to one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country (the Gators struggled with that against Texas Southern) and a defense that allows just 44.4 percent shooting inside the 3-point line (where the Gators have needed to score lately, due to their blind shooting eye beyond the arc). Across the board, UM is very talented (maybe as talented as any team UF has faced this season), but searching to put all that talented together. ... Leading scorer Eric Ayala tops the team with 18 makes from the 3-point line, but Maryland (28.9 percent) actually shoots 3s worse than Florida (29.7 percent). Ayala has taken 120 shots this season. That's 20 more than Castleton, UF's leader in field-goal attempts. He hunts. ... Point guard Fatts Russell, a grad transfer from Rhode Island, is no threat from deep (only six makes this season, 26 percent), but he's quick, can drive and draw fouls. He's already shot 48 free throws. ... Qudus Wahab, a transfer from Georgetown, is long and lanky inside; and he'll stay down there in the post. Wahab has yet to attempt a 3 this season, but he's at nearly 61 percent from the floor and also is shrewd in drawing fouls (36 free throws, 72.2 percent). ... Guard Hakim Hart, at 6-8, figures to have a defensive edge on whichever of the UF perimeter players he matches up against. He's shooting 55 percent from the floor and is third on the team with 10 made 3s. ... Donta Scott is at 38 percent overall and 28 from deep, but he finds ways to score. His 89 fields are third on the team. ... Backup forward Julian Reese, a 6-9 forward, is scoring 7.3 points, clearing 4.8 rebounds and leads the team with 13 blocked shots in just 18.2 minutes per game.

Numbers of Note

* .603 — Castleton's free-throw percentage after going 8-for-11 against UNF. He made a sterling 78.1 percent last season, but started slowly (51.5 percent through five games) and is inching his way back to where he needs to be. Castleton draws a ton of fouls (his 58 attempts are 23 more than the next-closest teammates) and needs to capitalize at the line.

* 6 — Games the Gators have played in the New York-New Jersey area in White's seven seasons (this will be the seventh). UF is 4-2 in those games. Florida lost to No. 1 Duke in the Jimmy V Classic in 2016 at Madison Square Garden; beat Wisconsin (see Chiozza, Chris) and lost to South Carolina in the 2017 NCAA Tournamen, also MSG; beat Cincinnati in the 2017 Never Forget Tribute Classic at Newark, N.J.; beat West Virginia in the 2018 Jimmy V Classic at MSG; beat Providence at Brooklyn in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational.

* 1,594 — Points scored by UM's Russell during his four seasons at Rhode Island, where he also left as that program's all-time leader in steals with 221.

* 1932 — The first time Florida and Maryland played. The teams met in the consolation game of the postseason Southern Conference Tournament, with the Gators prevailing 39-24. The next year, UF left the Southern Conference to become a charter member of the Southeastern Conference.

* 17,000,000 — Dollars Turgeon, had he not resigned, stood to make after signing a three-year contract extension last April that tied him to Maryland through 2026. The vacant Terps post will be one of the most coveted in the country next spring.

Bottom Line

Did the Gators really, truly learn their identity lesson last week? How they play in this game (under the big Big Apple lights) will shed some light on that answer.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Maryland (Sunday, 4:30 pm)