Florida Gators

SEC TOURNAMENT
FLORIDA vs VANDERBILT 

When: Thursday, 2:30 p.m. (EST)
Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tenn.   
Records: Florida (13-8); Vanderbilt (9-15)  
TV: SEC Network (Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes and Marty Smith) 
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey) 



THE BASICS 
 
Second-round action of the Southeastern Conference Tournament pits Florida, the No. 5 seed, against No. 13-seed Vanderbilt, which advanced out of Wednesday night's opening-round game by defeating 12th-seeded Texas A&M 79-68. The winner will move into the tournament quarterfinals Friday and face fourth-seeded Tennessee (17-7), which beat the Gators 65-54 Sunday to secure the bracket's last double bye. ... UF is on a two-game tailspin, having dropped its home finale with a buzzer-beating defeat against Missouri four days before the Tennessee loss. The Gators, however, still have very good metrics (No. 29 in the NCAA Evaluation Tool) and are a lock for an at-large berth to a fourth straight NCAA Tournament. The Commodores dropped seven of their final eight league games, but did get a win at Cincinnati last week in a game the two programs added late to make up for COVID-canceled games. Vandy's three wins in SEC play came at home against South Carolina, at Mississippi State, and home against Ole Miss. ... Vanderbilt leads the all-time series 71-70, but Florida can even things with a seventh straight win and what would be a third victory this season over the Commodores. UF opened the conference season with a 91-72 rout of Vandy at Nashville on Dec. 30, then completed the regular-season sweep with a 78-71 triumph in Gainesville on Jan. 27. In that one, the Gators put five players in double figures, led by Tre Mann's 15 points, plus 13 points and five rebounds from Colin Castleton. UF shot nearly 52 percent for the game and led by 22 inside 10 minutes remaining (and by 15 with just over three minutes left) before allowing the Commodores to splash three straight 3-pointers and close within four with 37 seconds before putting the outcome away with late free throws. ... UF is 7-6 against Vanderbilt under Coach Mike White (after starting out 0-5), including a loss in the quarterfinals of the 2017 SEC Tournament. ... The Gators are 3-4 in the SEC Tournament under White, with the deepest run a trip to the semifinals (courtesy of an upset of top-seeded LSU) in 2019.
 

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Anthony Duruji	F	6-7	220	R-Junior	5.9 pts / 4.3 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11	231	Junior	12.7 pts / 5.7 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1	180	R-Junio	11.2 pts / 3.2 reb / 3.4 ast
Noah Locke	G	6-3	203	Junior	10.5 pts / 2.4 reb
Tre Mann	G	6-5	190	Sophomore	15.0 pts / 5.7 reb

Vanderbilt	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Clevon Brown	F	6-8	232	Senior	3.1 pts / 2.5 reb
D.J. Harvey	G	6-6	235	Senior	5.6 pts / 2.6 reb
Jordan Wright	G	6-5	226	Sophomore	9.1 pts / 4.6 reb
Scottie Pippin Jr.	G	6-1	170	Sophomore	20.6 pts / 2.8 reb / 4.9 ast
Maxwell Evans	G	6-2	190	Senior	8.5 pts / 3.1 reb

ONE TO WATCH  
 

TEAM BREAKDOWNS  
 
ABOUT THE GATORS: In the four previous SEC tournaments under White, they've twice advanced and twice been ousted in their first game. In 2016, the Gators beat Arkansas, but lost to A&M. In 2017, UF was the tournament's No. 2 seed, but was upset in the Friday quarterfinals by Vanderbilt. In 2018, again, the Gators were bounced in their first game, this time against Arkansas in St. Louis, but in 2019 beat the Razorbacks in second-round play, shocked top-seed LSU on Andrew Nembhard's 3-pointer with one second left in the quarters, then lost by three points 

to eventual tournament champion Auburn, which advanced to the Final Four two weeks later. ... KenPom.com metrics put Florida at No. 30 overall, 37th in offense, 33rd on defense and 163rd in pace of play. UF scores 74.6 points per game on 47 percent from the floor and 35.5 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Gators surrender 69.8 points, 42.1 percent and 30.1 from deep. ... Florida figures to have combo guard Tre Mann, named Tuesday to the All-SEC first team, back in the fold after the team's leading scorer was scratched Sunday morning from the noon game at Tennessee due to a migraine. Without Mann's ability to create, the Gators struggled to score, outside of a 19-point performance from Tyree Appleby, who knocked down seven of his 14 shots and took on full-time point guard duties in Mann's absence. Appleby finished with three assists, but that was half of the UF enemic total of six on an afternoon the Gators shot 31.8 percent and made just six field goals in the second half. They were just 3-for-21 from the 3-point line (14.3 percent) for the game, as well. ... Forward Colin Castleton, named second-team All-SEC, was swarmed by the Tennessee defense and managed just six shot attempts. Florida has to have more from him downside, and definitely more from him on the defensive end. ... After grabbing 11 rebounds in the loss last week against Missouri, forward Anthony Duruji had just two in 28 minutes against the Volunteers. That was pretty much the theme of the day, as the Gators got blasted 38-29 on the glass and gave up 18 offensive rebounds. ... Shooting guard Noah Locke is the only player on the UF roster who has played in a SEC Tournament. In 2019, he went 1-for-9 from the floor in a second-round win over Arkansas and scoreless in the upset of LSU, but had eight points in 18 minutes in the team's loss to Auburn in the semifinals. ... ... Backup forward Omar Payne did not attempt a shot and grabbed two rebounds in 15 minutes at UT. He's taken just one shot in 34 minutes the last three games, despite shooting a team-best 75.6 percent from the floor (34 of 45 on the season). ... Backup guard Scottie Lewis was an uncharacteristic 0-for-4 from the 3-point line and 0-for-3 from the free-throw line last game. He finished with six points and three rebounds in 35 minutes, the most he's logged over the previous 11 games, with his playing time often impacted by foul trouble. 

ABOUT THE COMMODORES: They're 19-36 in two seasons under Jerry Stackhouse, including just 6-26 in conference play, but Vandy under "Stack" has been praised across the league  

for some of the creative actions they run on offense. Pippin would seem to have a lot of freedom to do his thing, but there is some structure to the offense, with Vandy tradionally being one of the most unselfish teams in the league. ... KenPom rates the Commodores 95th overall (pretty high for a team with nearly twice the losses as wins), including 69th in offensive efficiency, 135th in defense and 148th in pace. Vandy scores 71.8 points per game, shoots 43.3 percent and 35.2 from deep. Opponents score 72.7 points, shoot 46.0 percent and 34.2 at the arc. ... The Commodores will be without standout forward Dylan Disu, who suffered a season-ending knee injury Feb. 25. The 6-9, 220-pound sophomore was averaging 15.0 points and 9.2 rebounds, with a season-high of 29 in a loss at Kentucky. Disu worked the Gators pretty good in their two games, going for 14 points and eight boards in the first meeting, then 18 and nine in the second. He will be missed. ... Vanderbilt, even with an off-night from Pippin, hit 12 3-pointers against the A&M and defended the Aggies at 41 percent, including just seven of 25 from deep (28 percent). ... After Pippin, the Commodores really have to squeeze out scoring. Big guard Jordan Wright has made 49 percent of his shots this season, including 44 from the 3-point line. With Disu out, Wright's 4.6 rebounds per game is tops among available players, but he's also picked up his scoring of late, with six straight double-figure games. ... Vandy went with four guards in the starting lineup against the Aggies, with D.J. Harvey replacing 6-10 forward Quentin Millora-Brown (3.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg). Harvey finished with 17 points and five rebounds. ... Guard Maxwell Evans is at 45.3 percent overall and 36.8 percent from deep, respectively. ... Reserve guard Trey Thomas (5.6 ppg, 2.6 rpg) has 32 3s on the season, which is second behind Pippin's 41. .... Freshman guard Issac McBride has gotten some extra minutes with the injury situations to Disu and Pippin and is coming off a career-best 16 points against Ole Miss. He knocked down four 3s in that one. ... Reserve guard Trey Thomas is tied for the third-most 3s on the team behind Pippin and Disu with 23. ... Freshman forward Myles Stute (3.8 ppg, 2.3 rpg) hit a trio of 3s off the bench in the first game against the Gators.  ... Backup senior center Ejike Obinna (1.9 ppg, 1.9 rpg) is a huge, at 6-10, 243, but limited in his productivity. 


NUMBERS WORTH NOTING  
 
* .473 — UF's all-time record in the SEC Tournament, based on a 45-50 record. 

* 2 — Consecutive seasons the Gators have placed two players on the All-SEC team. 

* 2.5 — Point differential per game between Pippin, who finished second in the league in scoring, and SEC scoring champion Thomas (23.1) of LSU. At least for now. Thomas doesn't play until Friday.  

* 4 — SEC Tournament titles for Florida in its program history. The Gators won their first tourney championship in 2005 and made it three straight with titles in '06 and '07 on the way to those back-to-back NCAA championships. Florida did not cut the SEC nets down again until 2014 on the way to going 21-0 against conference opponents (18-0 regular season, 3-0 in tournament) and to the Final Four. 

* 1949 — The last year Florida played a team in the SEC Tournament it did not play in the regular season. The Gators lost to LSU in opening-round action at Louisville that year, having not faced the Tigers during the season.  


LAST WORD

Never good to enter the NCAA Tournament on a losing skid, and certainly not of the three-game variety. Florida needs to remember what it feels like not just to win, but to play with some passion.