Florida vs Texas Southern (Monday, 6 pm)

No. 14 Florida vs. Texas Southern

* When: Monday, 6 p.m.
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (6-1); Texas Southern (0-7)
* TV: SEC Network+ / ESPN app (Kyle Crooks and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida forward **Colin Castleton** (12) has four double-doubles in seven games.

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7 / 220	R-Senior	9.7 ppg / 4.6 rpg
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	14.7 ppg / 10.1 rpg
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	Graduate	11.3 ppg / 2.6 rpg / 3.0 apg
Brandon McKissic	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	7.6 ppg / 3.6 rpg
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	10.9 ppg / 3.4 rpg

Opponent	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
John Walker III	F	6-9 / 200	Senior	12.6 ppg / 5.1 rpg
Justin Hopkins	F	6-5 / 205	Graduate	6.1 ppg / 1.7 rpg
Brison Gresham	F	6-9 / 240	Senior	6.3 ppg / 7.5 rpg
Jordan Gilliam	G	6-6 / 175	R-Senior	4.0 ppg / 2.0 rpg
PJ Henry	G	5-10 / 175	Junior	9.9 ppg / 3.9 rpg

The Breakdown

Senior guard **Myreon Jones** (0) played 40 minutes in Wednesday's loss at Oklahoma, scoring just four points and missing five of his six shots from the 3-point line.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida, which surely will fall from its current place at No. 14 in the Associated Press poll, looks to get back on the winning track after suffering its first loss of the season Wednesday night in falling 74-67 at Oklahoma. Texas Southern is coming off an 87-60 blowout loss at Louisiana Tech and is looking for its first victory, as it navigates a brutal pre-Southwestern Athletic Conference slate of 13 road games, all but three of them out of the Tigers' home state of Texas. ... The Gators and Tigers have met just once. UF defeated TSU 75-50 on Dec. 13, 2014 at the O'Connell Center, behind a career-high 15 points from freshman forward Devin Robinson, who led five UF players in double figures. Sophomore center Chris Walker had 12 points and junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith was good for 11 points and seven rebounds. ... UF is 26-0 all-time against teams from the SWAC, with none of those games played during Coach Mike White's seven seasons.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Opponent
75.4	Scoring	61.1
.432	Field-goal percentage	.380
.320	3-point percentage	.255
58.3	Scoring defense	73.7
.406	Field-goal percentage defense	.427
.255	3-point percentage defense	.293
19th	KenPom.com overall ranking	240th
27th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	253rd
13th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	211th
144th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	161st

Team Snapshots

The Gators

A lot of what they did well through the first six games of the season wasn't there in the seventh. UF, in its first oad game of the season, had numerous defensive

breakdowns, a season-high 16 turnovers (converted to 19 points), was horrific from the 3-point line (4-for-24) and showed some a lack of poise, especially for an older team, against Oklahoma's defensive pressure and hostile crowd. It'll be weeks before the Gators test themselves on the road again (not until the Southeastern Conference opener Dec. 29 at Ole Miss), but in the interim they can get back to doing what they did well with back-to-back home games against low-major opponents, starting with Texas Southern. ... Florida used just seven players against Oklahoma, with five Gators logging at least 28 minutes, including all 40 for senior guard Myreon Jones. His minutes load may have had something to do with going 1-for-6 from the 3-point line. He came into the game at 41.7 percent. ... Forward Colin Castleton tallied his fourth double-double of the season against the Sooners, but also turned the ball over six times in 30 minutes. His giveaways usually come in attempting to dribble in traffic or when faced with double teams on the block. He leads the team with 21 turnovers. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby made just two of his 12 shots at OU and started 0-for-7 from the 3-point line. Appleby, though, banged back-to-back 3s in the final minutes to draw the Gators within two points, before the UF defense was unable to come up with a key stop. Appleby had just two assists in the game (versus three turnovers), and the Gators had a season-low seven assists. The ball was not moving like it had in previous games. UF needs to get back to that. ... Grad-transfer guard Brandon McKissic, recovered from his sore hamstring, and fellow grad Phlandrous Fleming Jr. flip-flopped their starter/reserve role against the Sooners. Both fared well enough, combining to make 11 of their 21 shots for 26 points, but they also were 1-for-5 from deep and McKissic had three turnovers. Fleming, off the bench, led the Gators with 17 points and is now the second-leading scorer on the team at 11.9 points per game. ... Forward Anthony Duruji got into early second-half foul trouble and had to sit for seven minutes. He finished with seven points and three rebounds in 23 minutes. ... After the top six rotational players (Castleton, Jones, Duruji, Appleby, McKissic and Fleming) only backup forward CJ Felder (3.9 ppg, 3.1 rpg) saw the floor. He was on for just 13 minutes, scored two points and grabbed five rebounds.

The Tigers

They play in the SWAC, yet the Tigers have played a schedule ranked seventh-toughest in the country. They do it every year, as a means to build their athletic budget through buy games.

Texas Southern already has played at Oregon, St. Mary's, Washington, Air Force, North Carolina State, Brigham Young and La Tech. Now comes Florida, then off to UT-Rio Grande, Cincinnati and TCU. That's 11 games in nine different states, with eight of them against KenPom Top 100 teams. Oh, and the Tigers' first two league games are on the road, also. TSU's first home game is Jan. 8 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. ... Despite the winless record, the Tigers' KenPom numbers are in the top two-thirds nationally. That's what playing all road games can do to adjusted metrics. Plus, four of their seven losses have been by single digits. ... Texas Southern is coached by Johnny Jones, who is 57-46 in his four seasons, including a trip to the 2021 NCAA Tournament, where the Tigers defeated Mount St. Mary's in the First Four, then were eliminated by No. 1-seed Michigan. Jones, of course, coached LSU for five seasons (2011-16), guiding the Tigers to one NCAA berth and failing to make the tournament with prized freshman Ben Simmons, the eventual No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. ... All five Tigers starters are transfers. Sound familiar? Forwards John Walker III and Justin Hopkins are from Texas A&M and Samford, respectively. Center Brison Gresham came from Houston. Guards Jordan Gilliam and PJ Henry bolted UC-Riverside and Hartford, respectively. ... They're not a great outside shooting team, with just two players with at least five makes from the 3-point line (the Gators have five). ... Backup forward Joirdon Karl Nicholas, a 6-9, 220-pound transfer from Stephen F. Austin, is second on the team in scoring (11.1 ppg) and rebounding (5.9 rpg) and tops in field-goal percentage (.525).

Numbers of Note

Freshman backup guard **Elijah Kennedy** (10) has made four of his 11 3-point attempts this season.

* 0 — Combined minutes against Oklahoma for UF reserves Jason Jitoboh, Elijah Kennedy, Kowacie Reeves, Niels Lane and Toungthach Gatkek. For Jitoboh (5.5 minutes per game coming in) and Kennedy (7.1 mpg), it marked their first DNPs of the season.

* 4 — Consecutive games Florida has been underwater in assist-to-turnover margin. Against California, Ohio State, Troy and Oklahoma, the Gators went 39-to-54. That's a minus-15 and that's not only unsustainable, but it's trending toward last year's alarming ratio when the team had 82 more turnovers than assists.

* 7 — Points needed by Fleming to hit 1,600 for his career. He totaled 1,510 during his four seasons at Charleston Southern, the second-most in program history.

* 10 — Division I programs that sent transfers to Texas Southern. They are: Georgetown, Hartford, Houston, McNeese State, Stephen F. Austin, Texas A&M, Texas-San Antonio and UC-Riverside.

* 36.8 — Percentage of rebounds the Tigers grab on the offensive end. That ranks 19th in the country. Four different TSU players have double-digit offensive rebounds (compared to three for Florida). That shows the team is playing hard (and doing against terrific competition), even if the scoreboard has been unfriendly.

Bottom Line

Their poor play in Norman, no doubt, frustrated the Gators, who need to use the next two games (both at home) to get back to the identity they forged pre-OU. After that, they're next significant gauge game comes Sunday in Brooklyn against Maryland.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Texas Southern (Monday, 6 pm)