Florida vs South Florida (Saturday, 1 pm)

Florida vs. South Florida

* What: Orange Bowl Classic
* When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
* Where: FLA Live Arena, Sunrise, Fla.
* Records: Florida (7-3); South Florida (4-4)
* TV: Bally Sports Sun / Fox Sports App (Tom Werme, Mike Gminski and Jeremy Tache)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7 / 220	R-Senior	9.1 ppg / 4.0 rpg
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	15.0 ppg / 9.4 rpg / 2.8 bpg
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	11.0 ppg / 3.8 rpg
Brandon McKissic	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	7.7 ppg / 3.3 rpg
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	9.7 ppg / 3.5 rpg

Opponent	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jake Boggs	F	6-7 / 200	Sophomore	6.3 ppg / 4.4 rpg
Russel Tchewa	F	7-0 / 280	Sophomore	6.7 ppg / 6.0 rpg
Caleb Murphy	G	6-4 / 185	R-Freshman	12.7 ppg / 3.7 rpg
Javon Greene	G	6-4 / 195	Senior	8.7 ppg / 4.4 rpg
Jamir Chaplin	G	6-5 / 200	Sophomore	5.9 ppg / 4.7 rpg

The Breakdown

Since opening in 1998 and playing home to the NHL Florida Panthers, it's been called National Car Rental Center, Office Depot Center, BankAtlantic Center, and BB&T Center. Now, it's FLA Arena and it'll be hosting the Orange Bowl Classic for what will be the Gators' final appearance, at least for the immediate future.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

After opening the season with six straight wins and shooting to No. 14 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, Florida has lost three of four and fallen out of the rankings. The two losses last week were different in their disappointment, with previously winless Texas Southern spanking the Gators 69-54 at home to start the week and a 70-68 loss to Maryland, loser of three straight, to end the week in the Hall of Fame Invitational at Brooklyn. UF was defeated handily by the Tigers, while surrendering the game-winning bucket with 16 seconds left against the Terrapins. ... South Florida is coming off a 60-51 win Tuesday against Austin Peay in Tampa, a win that snapped a two-game losing streak. The second of those losses was a 65-64 upset at home at the hands of South Carolina State, which went to USF as the 351st-ranked team in the nation (out of 358) by KenPom.com metrics. Worth noting: Texas Southern was No. 188 when it beat Florida. ... The Gators and Bulls will play for the first time since 2002. That's fairly remarkable, considering the two schools are just 115 miles from one another, and back in the day they pretty much played annually during the '80s and well into the '90s. UF leads the all-time series 18-5, with a 1-0 record at neutral sites. The two last met on Dec. 8, 2002 at the O'Connell Center, where freshman guard Anthony Roberson came off the bench to hit all four of his first-half 3-point attempts on his way to 19 points and a 68-52 win for the Gators. Sophomore center David Lee had 16 points, five rebounds and four blocked shots, while senior forward Matt Bonner finished with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists. USF got 13 points from forward Jimmy Baxter, with center Will McDonald adding 11 points and nine rebounds. ... Florida will make its 22nd and final (at least for the immediate future) appearance in the OB Classic. UF is 17-4 in the event, with losses in the two of the previous three trips to Sunrise (against Clemson and Utah State). ... The Gators are 48-27 all-time against teams from the American Athletic Conference, including 1-0 under Coach Mike White. UF is 3-2 in the OBC under White. ... The UF-USF game will be the first of a double-header, with Florida State (6-4) taking on UCF (7-2) in the second game.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Opponent
73.5	Scoring	56.4
.424	Field-goal percentage	.370
.309	3-point percentage	.254
60.2	Scoring defense	57.1
.422	Field-goal percentage defense	.377
.298	3-point percentage defense	.300
29th	KenPom.com overall ranking	235th
46th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	320th
26th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	109th
158th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	344th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The advanced metrics say the offense is the 46th-best in the country, but the Gators are shooting just 40.8 percent over the past four games, and a mere 25.5 percent from the 3-point line. That said, UF banged 11 of 27 from deep in the loss to Maryland, good enough for nearly 41 percent, which would be good enough to beat plenty of really good teams. But not when the Gators made just 35.5 percent of their 2-point shots and allowed the Terps, who came in with worse season percentage than the Gators, to make 49 percent overall and 61.5 from the 3-point line.

Again, there were defensive lapses (especially biting on head fakes in the post) that led to too many easy baskets. ... Leading scorer Colin Castleton was held to a season-low nine points against the Terps on just 3-for-9 from the floor. If Castleton isn't scoring in the post, the Gators are going to struggle on offense, as everything goes through him. At the very least, the ball needs to come out of the post when he's double teamed and get defenses into rotations, which can lead to other guys getting better looks. ... Wing Phlandrous Fleming Jr. is coming off his first double-double in a UF uniform. He finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive end, to go with four assists (vs. three turnovers) and two blocks. Though he was just three of 12 from the floor, Fleming worked his way to the free-throw line eight times (making seven). He also equaled his season-high with two 3-pointers. Fleming has hit double figures in six of the last eight games. ... Guard Myreon Jones hit just one of eight shots (with a missed point-blank layup in there) and was 1-for-5 from the 3-point line. A career 39-percent shooter at Penn State, as well as 37.6 from the arc, Jones is sitting at the former (.388), but down significantly on the latter (.321). The last four games he's just three of 20 from distance (.150). ... Point guard Tyree Appleby (11.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg) took just one shot in the first half, but nailed five of his eight shots in the second -- all of them 3s. Had he made the last, a desperation 3-ball at the buzzer, the narrative for this team would be very different right now. Appleby, without question, is a streaky scorer, and kept the Gators in that game after going just three of 17 from the 3-point line the previous three games. His assist-to-turnover numbers remain an issue (25 assists, 24 turnovers), but the same could be said for entire team (125 assists, 123 turnovers). It's hard to tally assists when a team isn't shooting the ball well and struggling with ball movement. ... Forward Anthony Duruji was in foul trouble again in the Maryland game and played only 16 minutes; just six in the first half. He was spelled nicely, though, by backup CJ Felder (4.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg), who banged in three of his four attempts from the arc on his way to nine points. Duruji finished with nine points and one rebound. ... Guard Brandon McKissic had a season-low two points against Maryland, but only took four shots and also had three steals. ... Reserve center Jason Jitoboh spelled a foul-plagued Castleton in the first half and equaled his career high of six points, making three of his four shots, in nine minutes. He only played 20 seconds in the second half. ... Backup guard Elijah Kennedy has missed all nine field-goal tries over the previous three games, including all three in the UM game. Yet, he was a team-best plus-7 in on-court efficiency, so he was guarding and playing with good combos.

The Bulls

Their strength of schedule ranks dead-last in Division I, but a neutral-site date against the Gators should give the Bulls a bump from bottom. On the docket to date, USF gave Auburn a good

game before losing by just six. The Bulls also were beaten by 15 at Boston College. Those are the lone power conference opponents South Florida has faced thus far, with the rest of its slate dotted with low-major fodder: Bethune-Cookman (win), Georgia Southern (loss), North Carolina A&T (win), Hampton (win), South Carolina State (loss) and, most recently, a 60-51 win Tuesday over Austin Peay (win). The game before that, when SC State threw in a game-winning 3 with 0.8 seconds left, USF lost to an opponent ranked 345th by KenPom. ... USF is coached by Brian Gregory, who is 61-70 in his five seasons, including 23-46 in AAC play, after a couple successful stints as head coach at Georgia Tech and Dayton. ... South Florida has eight transfers on its roster. ... The Bulls are prone to turnovers. They have 101 in eight games, which is four more than their 97 assists, but a team shooting 37.7 overall and 30.0 from deep isn't going to get a bunch of assists. Kind of like the Gators. ... Guard Caleb Murphy is listed as a freshman, but he played 21 games last season and opted to restart his eligibility clock courtesy of COVID. He's their leading scorer and shooting 48.3 percent on the season, but Murphy has missed all six of his 3-point attempts after going 6-for-31 last season (.194). ... Guard Javon Green, by way of George Mason, is hitting at a clip of 32.1 percent overall and 34.5 from deep, with his 10 makes from 3 tied for tops on the team. ... Center Russell Tchewa came from Texas Tech, where he barely played. His a big dude at 7 feet and 280 pounds, but has trouble putting the ball in the basket (41.9 percent). He has yet to attempt a shot from the arc this season, so he won't be hard to locate. ... Forward Jake Boggs scored in double-digits nine times last season at UNC-Wilmington. ... Reserve guard Jalyn McCreary averaged 4.5 points, 2.9 points and 12.4 minutes per game at South Carolina during '20-21. The only start of his career came in the SEC Tournament against Ole Miss, with McCreary scoring a career-high 15 points. ... Backup guard DJ Patrick is tied with Green with 10 converted 3s this season.

Numbers of Note

Longtime college basketball followers in the state recall USF's **Charlie Bradley** (30), who scored 42 in a Florida Four game at the O'Dome and ripped UF for 38 in Tampa.

* .417 — Percentage of Florida field-goal attempts this season that have come from beyond the 3-point line. That may seem pretty high for a team hitting just shy of 31 percent from deep, but they've been overwhelming good looks.

* .765 — UF's free-throw percentage against Maryland, based on 13-for-17. Two of those four misses, however, were Castleton front ends, which proved costly in what turned out to be a two-point loss. The Gators have worked their way up to 72.0 percent from the line for the season.

* 1971 — The year USF and Florida played for the first time, with the Gators defeating the Bulls 116-87 at Alligator Alley behind a career-high 39 points from guard Tony Miller.

* 1981 — The first year USF defeated Florida in men's basketball (in their fourth all-time meeting), with the Bulls downing the Gators 58-56 on Dec. 4 of that year in the inaugural Florida Four, a weekend tournament that brought the state's top four programs (Florida, Florida State, South Florida and Jacksonville) to one site for a two-day, four-game event. The first FF was played in Tampa (at the then-new Sun Dome) and the second in Gainesville (in 1982 at the then-new O'Dome), with the Bulls winning both events (beating FSU in the '81 title game and UF in '82 title game). The Florida Four was discontinued after just two stagings.

* 1995 — The last time USF defeated Florida in men's basketball, with Bulls guard Chucky Atkins scoring 24 points and dishing four assists in their 73-58 triumph at the Sun Dome. UF got 14 points and six boards from Greg Stolt. That was the second game of the '95-96 season, and what turned out to be the final seasons for both UF coach Lon Kruger and USF coach Bobby Paschal. They were replaced, respectively, by Billy Donovan and Seth Greenberg.

Bottom Line

The Gators have two games to figure out how to get back to the unselfish, defensive-mind, team-first style of play they exhibited the first six games of the season. After that, they break for the holidays and upon returning have just two days to ready for the start of Southeastern Conference play; on the road, no less.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs South Florida (Saturday, 1 pm)