Florida vs Vanderbilt (Saturday, 1 pm)

Florida vs. Vanderbilt

* When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (11-6, 2-3); Vanderbilt (10-7, 2-3)
* TV: SEC Network (Roy Philpott and Mark Wise)
* 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	9.5 pts / 4.2 reb
Jason Jitoboh	C	6-11 / 285	Junior	3.4 pts / 1.8 reb
Kowacie Reeves	G	6-6 / 182	Freshman	4.7 pts / 1.3 reb
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	10.8 pts / 3.5 reb
Brandon McKissic	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	6.2 pts / 3.4 reb

Vanderbilt	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Myles Stute	F	6-7 / 210	Sophomore	8.4 pts / 3.2 reb
Quentin Millora-Brown	F	6-10 / 235	Senior	5.4 pts / 5.9 reb
Jordan Wright	G	6-6 / 215	Junior	12.5 pts / 5.9 reb
Trey Thomas	G	5-11 / 160	Sophomore	6.7 pts / 1.2 reb
Scotty Pippen Jr.	G	6-3 / 185	Junior	18.8 pts / 3.4 reb / 3.2 ast

The Breakdown

Vandy point guard **Scottie Pippen Jr.** (2) was a first-team All-SEC performer last season.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

After opening the Southeastern Conference slate with three losses against ranked teams, Florida has won two straight and will try to even its league mark with a win at home. UF beat South Carolina on the road last week, then chased that victory with a second-half comeback from eight points down Wednesday night to beat a very good Mississippi State squad 80-72, despite the absence of leading scorer, rebounder and rim-protector Colin Castleton, who remains sidelined indefinitely with a shoulder injury. The Commodores have dropped three of four, most recently Tuesday night's 68-60 loss to cross-state rival Tennessee, which scored the last eight points to take a win on Vandy's home floor. ... The all-time series between the two programs is tied at 71-71, but Florida has won the last seven meetings, including a three-game sweep during the 2020-21 COVID-configured season. The Gators won on the road 91-72 in the SEC opener for both teams, defended their home floor 78-71 a month later, then eliminated the Commodores in second-round SEC Tournament play 69-63 on March 11 at Nashville. In that one, UF had to survive a late second-half barrage of Vandy 3s that gave the Commodores, who rallied from a dozen down, a brief lead before sophomore guard Tre Mann scored nine of his 16 second-half points over the final eight-plus minutes. Mann, who was scratched from UF's season finale at Tennessee four days earlier due to a migraine, went seven of 12 from the floor, seven of eight free throws, and had team highs of 22 points, seven rebounds and six assists. The win advanced the fifth-seeded Gators to the tournament quarterfinals, where they lost to No. 4-seed Tennessee. ... Florida is 8-6 against Vandy under Coach Mike White, including 4-2 at home.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Vanderbilt
72.9	Scoring	69.6
.435	Field-goal percentage	.411
.312	3-point percentage	.313
63.9	Scoring defense	63.9
.437	Field-goal percentage defense	.413
.305	3-point percentage defense	.305
36th	KenPom.com overall ranking	82nd
39th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	120th
48th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	50th
171st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	237th
40th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	86th
52nd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	69th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

It's a small sample, but it's a sample nonetheless. After mostly struggling to put the ball in the basket this season -- 42.5 percent through the first 15 games, including 30.5 from the 3-point line -- the Gators combined to shoot 53.2 percent overall and 37 from the 3-point line the last two games. The fact one of those came with Castleton out of the lineup suggests there could be

another side (another face or style, perhaps), to this team. There's been no bigger factor in those improved numbers than the play of rookie wing Kowacie Reeves, who after averaging barely 2.8 points and 9.2 minutes (with five DNPs) over the first 15 games has averaged 14.0 points, hit eight of 14 shots, including five of nine 3-balls in starting the last two games. His ability to knock down shots from the perimeter will be a plus for an offense that now must manufacture points after basically running everything through Castleton for half a season. If Reeves can continue being a threat from the outside, it'll open things up for UF drivers. ... ...Forward Anthony Duruji is coming off his finest game as a Gator, finishing with 22 points. He went 6-for-8 from the floor, two of three from deep to go with three rebounds and a career-best five steals. His energy on the defensive end was infectious and reminiscent of how he played (and how his teammates played, collectively) earlier in the season. ... Not to be outdone, as far as "best games" as a Gator, was fifth-year senior point guard Tyree Appleby, who came off the bench for a second straight and provided a huge lift. Four days after playing a solid floor game (4 points, 6 assists, 2 turnovers) in the win at South Carolina, Appleby combined scoring (17 points) and play-making (5 assists, 2 TO, 1 steal), and had one of the key plays of the game when he dropped a 3-pointer (one of four), was fouled and converted a four-point player during the Gators' second-half comeback. Consistency has been Appleby's issue. Can he play a third consecutive such game running his team? ... Imagine if guard Brandon McKissic could rediscover the shooting touch that had him at nearly 43 percent from the 3-point line (30-for-70) during his senior season at Missouri-Kansas City a year ago. He's at 17-for-64 this season (.266), but still busting his tail on defense and taking turns running the offense. ... Phlandrous Fleming Jr. is quietly giving Appleby a run for his money as the team's best free-throw shooter. Appleby leads the squad at 82.8 percent, but Fleming, after going 6-for-7 from the line against Mississippi State, is at 81.7 percent. He's 24-for-27 (.888) over the previous seven games. ... Junior center Jason Jitoboh made the first start of his career and spent most of it on the bench, after picking up three fouls in five first-half minutes, then his fourth four minutes into the second. The 6-11, 285-pound Jitoboh, however, returned to the floor with nine minutes to go and scored eight points, including a pair of clutch free throws, and was in the middle of the action as UF seized control of the game. In the back-to-back wins, Jitoboh has played 29 minutes, scored 14 points, hit six of his eight shots, grabbed six rebounds and blocked three shots. ... After shuffling multiple players into the post, and switching liberally on defense and allowing Mississippi State to match against smaller players down low, this could be another game where backup junior forward CJ Felder (4.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg) distinguishes himself. He scored five points and had a rebound in 17 minutes against the Bulldogs. ... Senior guard Myreon Jones (9.1 ppg, 3.1 rpg) came off the bench for the second straight game, but did not attempt a shot during his season-low 17 minutes. He had gone four straight games with multiple 3-point makes, but was still 10-for-33 during that stretch. ... Sophomore forward Tuongthach Gatkek, forced into action due to the Castleton injury, received some nice praise from White for the 16 minutes of work he put in against the Bulldogs that netted a plus-5 in the box score. Had a nice dunk, too.

The Commodores

Former NBA standout Jerry Stackhouse took over the program in 2019, after a successful stint as a G League coach (followed by one year as an assistant for the Memphis Grizzlies), and has guided the Commodores to a 30-44 record that includes an 8-31 mark in SEC play. In each of his first two seasons, Vandy won just three conference games, but now they're just one away from

equaling that total in the third week of the conference season. Stackhouse has been universally praised for some of the actions the Commodores run, but he's had a tough time attracting marquee talent to Nashville. ... Vandy's best win of the season was its triumph at Arkansas to open SEC play. The Commodores also have a very good win against BYU at the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii. Oddly, they're 2-0 on the road in SEC play and 0-3 at home. ... One piece of talent Stackhouse did woo to the Music City is Scotty Pippen Jr., son of the Hall of Famer, who approaching halfway through his junior season already has tallied 1,160 career points. Pippen currently leads the SEC in scoring (just ahead of Arkansas guard JD Notae) after finishing second last season. He can do damage at all three levels. Pippen is shooting 43 percent from the floor, nearly 33 percent from the 3-point line and is one of the best in the league at driving and drawing fouls, where he makes almost 78 percent. His 118 free-throw attempts is first in the conference (just ahead of Castleton). ... Jordan Wright can do a little bit of everything from his spot on the wing. He shoots at almost a 40-percent clip overall, 33 from 3 and 87 from the free-throw line. In last season's SEC tourney game against UF, Wright bombed a trio of 3s over a two-minute span to help erase the UF lead. The Gators, one of the best 3-point defensive teams in the country, will make it a priority he does not get comfortable out there. ... Myles Stute is Vandy's most consistent threat from the arc at 43 percent on the season. ... Forward Quentin Millora-Brown is the Commodores' only true "big." He plays hard at both ends (56 defensive rebounds, 44 on the offensive side), but shoots just 51.6 from the free-throw line. ... Backup forward Jermaine Mann (5.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg) gives Vandy a lift, but it's all inside and around the basket. He's taken seven 3s this season and missed them all.

Numbers of Note

The Gators huddle during their win over Vandy in the 2021 SEC Tournament.

* .698 — UF's winning percentage in the series since February 2001, based on a 30-13 advantage. At that time, Florida trailed the all-time series 41-58, but made up the 17-loss deficit over the next 20 years.

* 2 — Former All-SEC players on scholarship and on the Gators' bench and unavailable (Castleton and Keyontae Johnson).

* 5 — Winning streak against the Gators enjoyed by the Commodores during White's first two seasons (2016-17) on the UF sidelines (including a three-game sweep in '17 that preceded the team's Elite Eight run). That represents the longest for any SEC team during White's seven overall seasons.

* 7 — Current winning streak against the Commodores, which represents the longest against any SEC opponent during White's seven seasons. It's also the longest winning streak against Vanderbilt in program history.

* 1,700 — Next career scoring milestone for Fleming, who needs just six points to get there. He scored 1,510 in four seasons at Charleston Southern and has 184 in his 17 games at Florida.

Bottom Line

Erasing that 0-3 start to the SEC would be a pretty inspired accomplishment, given the circumstances. It's also not a given; not in this crazy and competitive conference season.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Vanderbilt (Saturday, 1 pm)