Florida at Tennessee (Wednesday, 6 pm)

Wednesday, December 29

Oxford, Miss

5 PM

Florida Gators

Ole Miss

Chris Harry - Pregame Stuff Presented by Ticketmaster

Florida at Tennessee (Wednesday, 6 pm)

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

Florida at No. 18 Tennessee

* When: Wednesday, 6 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Thompson-Boling Center, Knoxville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (12-7, 3-4); Tennessee (13-5, 4-3)
* TV: SEC Network (Tom Hart and Jimmy Dykes)
* 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 / 4.4 reb
Jason Jitoboh	F	6-11 / 285	Junior	4.2 pts / 2.5 reb
Kowacie Reeves	G	6-6 / 182	Freshman	4.9 pts / 1.2 reb
Brandon McKissic	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	6.4 pts / 3.4 reb
Phlandrous Fleming	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	10.3 pts / 3.6 reb

Tennessee	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Olivier Nkamhoua	F	6-8 / 232	Junior	8.4 pts / 5.6 reb
Uros Plavsic	C	7-0 / 251	Junior	4.7 pts / 3.3 reb
Josiah-Jordan James	G	6-6 / 214	Junior	6.7 pts / 5.5 reb
Kennedy Chandler	G	6-0 / 171	Freshman	13.3 pts / 3.1 reb / 4.9 ast
Santiago Vescovi	G	6-3 / 191	Junior	14.1 pts / 4.7 reb / 3.2 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida had a three-game winning streak in Southeastern Conference play snapped Monday night in a 70-54 loss at Ole Miss. The Gators were playing a second game in three days, due to a COVID postponement, and looked and played like a tired, travel-weary bunch on both ends of the floor. Tennessee, meanwhile, has won two straight, most recently a 64-50 takedown Saturday of No. 13 LSU at Knoxville, which avenged a loss to the Tigers earlier this season. ... Tennessee leads the all-time series 53-13, including a pair of wins in three games during the COVID-smacked '20-21 season. The Gators pummeled the sixth-ranked Vols 75-49 at home on Jan. 19, lost on the road 65-54 on March 7 in the regular-season finale for both teams, then were eliminated by UT in the conference tournament quarterfinals 69-63 at Nashville, Tenn., in a game the Gators never led, despite a career-high 30 points from sophomore guard Tre Mann. In that one, sophomore guard Santiago Vescovi led five Vols into double-figure scoring with 14 points, including four 3s, to go with five assists. Forward Yves Pons, the 2020 SEC Defensive Player of the Year, tallied 11 points, eight rebounds and eight blocked shots. The game was notable for the ejection of UF sophomore forward Omar Payne, who was assessed a Flagrant-2 foul after throwing what was deemed n intentional elbow to the head of UT forward John Fulkerson, who left the game and was taken to the hospital with a concussion. Mann, remarkably, scored 28 of his 30 points in the second half and single-handedly kept the Gators in the game. He hit seven of 11 field-goal tries after intermission and nine of 10 free throws. ... Florida is 2-7 against Tennessee under Coach Mike White, including 0-5 on the road.

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Tennessee
71.3	Scoring	74.4
.429	Field-goal percentage	.437
.297	3-point percentage	.327
63.1	Scoring defense	62.6
.435	Field-goal percentage defense	.411
.296	3-point percentage defense	.329
42nd	KenPom.com overall ranking	12th
55th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	50th
44th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	5th
218th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	108th
44th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	11th
48th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	10th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They'll be without 6-11 forward Colin Castleton (15.9 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 2.8 bpg) for the third straight game. Castleton remains sidelined indefinitely with a left shoulder injury. The status of backup forward CJ Felder (4.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg), who the team sorely missed for depth purposes against Ole Miss, likely will be a game-time decision. Felder was held out to a non-COVID illness. ... For

the eighth time this season (and second straight game), the Gators shot under 40 percent in the loss Monday. For the ninth time (and second straight game), they were under 30 percent from the 3-point line. After hitting 38 percent overall and making just four of 29 from deep (13.8 percent), UF sits 11th in the SEC in field-goal percentage and tied for 11th in 3-point percentage. ... Florida had 14 turnovers that Mississippi converted into 23 points. Too many were of the loud, live-ball variety. In fact, the Rebels had eight points via the fastbreak, while the Gators had none. ... Center Jason Jitoboh, making his third start in place of Castleton, had another very solid game. He hit all six of his field-goal attempts and grabbed five rebounds in a career high-equaling 27 minutes. Over the past four games, Jitoboh has averaged 8.5 points, 5.2 boards and made 15 of his 18 shots. ... Forward Anthony Duruji had 11 points and four rebounds, but was saddled with first-half foul trouble that limited him to just six minutes. The Gators missed his inside presence during a nasty drought of just one basket (and three points) over the last eight-plus minutes of the period. ... The first-half foul bug also bit point guard Tyree Appleby, who played just eight minutes. As bad as the Gators were as a team from deep, Appleby went 3-for-8. ... Guard Kowacie Reeves had a streak of at least one 3-pointer during each of his starts snapped against the Rebels. In the previous three games, Reeves had made at least two from distance. He went 0-for-4 at Oxford. ... The grad-transfer starting backcourt of Phlandrous Fleming Jr. and Brandon McKissic combined for 12 points on 5-for-15 shooting and 1-for-7 from distance, five assists and four turnovers. ... Backup guards Myreon Jones, the senior, and Eli Kennedy, the freshman, were a combined 0-for-7 from the arc and did not score. Jones missed twice, while Kennedy went 0-for-5. The two are clearly dealing with confidence issues. Jones is at 23.9 percent from deep since December, while Kennedy has made only two of his last 24 over the previous 11 games (that's just over 8 percent). ... Reserve forward/project Tuongthach Gatkek has a field goal in each of the last four games he has played in.

The Volunteers

It's the seventh season under Coach Rick Barnes, who has a 136-78 overall record (65-49 in SEC play), with three NCAA Tournament berths and a regular-season league title. Barnes, 67, is in his 35th season total, with stops at George Mason (1 season), Providence (6), Clemson (4) and Texas (17) before arriving in Knoxville in 2015. He has a Hall-of-Fame resume with a career record

of 740-392, but just one Final Four (Texas in 2003). ... Once again, Tennessee has one of the nation's best defenses, checking in No. 5 overall in KenPom metrics, and third among power conference teams (behind only LSU and Texas Tech). ... The Volunteers have played a schedule rated among the toughest in the country. It includes non-league wins over North Carolina and Arizona, plus losses to Villanova and Texas Tech. Five games into SEC play, UT already had losses to three of the league's top teams (Alabama, LSU and Kentucky on the road by a whopping 28), similar to Florida, then Saturday did a number on LSU in a match with the Tigers in what was one of the chipiest league games of the season. Tennessee shot 43 percent for the game and dropped 10 3-pointers, while holding LSU to 39 percent and just 4-for-21 from deep. ... Guard Santiago Vescovi showed up in the middle of the season two years ago, by way of Uruguay, and had an instant impact on the program. He's no longer the guy running the UT show (he shares the point duties), but he's the team's scoring leader and stuffs the stat sheet on the way to making 43 percent of his shots and better than 38 from deep. ... Guard Kennedy Chandler was a 2021 McDonald's All American from Memphis and now second on the team in scoring and tops in assists and steals (2.3 pg). He went for 27 points in a win over Colorado earlier this season. UT lost twice earlier in the season when Chandler was out with COVID. ... The heart and soul of the program the last four seasons has been Fulkerson, the 6-9, sixth-year forward whose loss in the postseason, due to the Payne-induced concussion, was a crushing blow to the Vols. A No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, they were ousted in the first round by 12-seed Oregon State with Fulkerson on the sidelines. This season, Fulkerson (7.9 ppg, 5.3 rpg) has struggled to find his All-SEC form; so much, in fact, he was benched from the starting lineup after the blowout loss at Kentucky in favor of 7-foot Uros Plavsic, who has responded by making 11 of his 14 shots and averaged 23.5 minutes in his two starts. Fulkerson has played just 31 minutes combined the last two games. ... Guard Josiah-Jordan James arrived in 2019 with McDonald's pedigree and one-and-done hype. He's been a very good player over his three seasons (James led the team in rebounding as a sophomore at 6.5 per game), but has not met the lofty expectations. He's capable of big games, however, any night. Great athlete, too. ... Forward Olivier Nkamhoua, the team's No. 3 scorer and leading rebounder, played just 16 minutes and had his first scoreless SEC game of the season against LSU. He posted 15 points and five rebounds against Alabama. ... Backup guard Justin Powell, the transfer from Auburn, is a really good shooter off the bench at just over 40 percent from the 3-point line. ... Guard Victor Bailey Jr., who transferred from Oregon two years ago, has seen his minutes decline of late (single digits in five straight, and six of previous seven games).

Numbers of Note

Senior guard **Scottie Wilbekin** led the Gators to a 67-58 road win at Knoxville en route to the Final Four in 2014, the last time UF defeated UT on the road.

* .00476 — Percentage shot by Florida 3-point shooters not named Appleby at Ole Miss, based on 1-for-21.

* .833 — Jitoboh's shooting percentage over the last four games, based on that aforementioned 15-for-18 from the floor.

* plus-9.0 — Average margin of victory of Tennessee's current five-game home winning streak against Florida. Twice the Gators have come within five.

* 1989 — The year Florida shot an all-time program worst percentage from the 3-point line at 30.5. The 2022 Gators, currently at 29.6 percent, are on pace to break that record.

* 2014 — The last year the Gators defeated the Vols on the road. Senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin, the eventual SEC Player of the Year, scored 14 of his then-career high 21 points after halftime, putting those numbers alongside six assists, four steals and zero turnovers to lead the third-ranked Gators to a rugged 67-58 come-from-behind beating of the Vols. It was UF's 16th straight victory -- and the 11th of what became a perfect 18-0 run through the league -- and just the third in the previous 12 visits to Thompson-Boling Center.

Bottom Line

Just about everything is lined up against the Gators in this one. A deep and talented opponent. The home crowd at a place they rarely win. UF's offensive struggles and a seeming lack of confidence shooting the ball. All of it makes for a difficult bounce-back situation.