This one will serve as Florida's opener in Southeastern Conference play after the Gators' originally scheduled Dec. 29 league debut was canceled due to health and safety protocols in the UF program. The Gators have not played since defeating Stony Brook 87-62 on Dec. 22. Alabama, the defending regular season and conference tournament champion, already has an SEC game (and win) under its belt. The Crimson Tide started league play last week with a 73-68 home victory against No. 14th-ranked Tennessee, which was without two of its starters due to COVID issues. ... Alabama leads the all-time series 76-70, despite the Gators chopping away at was once a dominant advantage for the Tide by winning 15 of the last 18 and 26 of the last 32. ... 'Bama won the only meeting of the '20-21 season with a decisive 86-71 victory at Tuscaloosa on Jan. 5 in what was UF's third game since losing forward Keyontae Johnson following his collapse three weeks earlier in Tallahassee. ... In that one, the Tide had five double-figure scorers, including 16 points, five rebounds and two steals from senior guard Herb Jones, the eventual 2021 SEC Player of the Year. Reserve forward James Rojas came off the bench with 15 points and eight rebounds, as Alabama out-shot Florida 46.3 percent to just 39.7, and doubled up the Gators on paint points 46-23. ... UF is 4-3 vs. the Bama under Coach Mike White, including 1-1 at home.
Tale of the Tape
Florida
2021-22 Stats
Opponent
74.0
Scoring
82.2
.430
Field-goal percentage
.469
.312
3-point percentage
.328
59.9
Scoring defense
72.9
.430
Field-goal percentage defense
.425
.287
3-point percentage defense
.295
28th
KenPom.com overall ranking
17th
44th
KenPom.com offensive efficiency
12th
27th
KenPom.com defensive efficiency
44th
146th
KenPom.com adjusted tempo
31st
41st
NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) Ranking
21st
126th
Overall Strength of Schedule
1st
Team Snapshots
The Gators
After beating Stony Brook, they broke for the holidays, returned the evening of Dec. 26 and got in two days of practice before basically shutting down the program (with the exception of some individual instruction workouts) due to COVID. Full practice routine (minus a full squad) resumed Saturday. ... This wil be just the third game for UF since facing Maryland in Brooklyn on Dec.
Kowacie Reeves
12, with the Gators currently riding a two-game winning streak (beating USF in the Orange Bowl Classic at Sunrise, followed by Stony Brook four days later). They managed to redirect since that loss to the Terrapins (albeit against inferior opponents) back to the blue-collar, defense-first identity they like to claim, but they basically have had to reset again after being inundated with illness. ... The numbers speak for themselves. In UF's nine victories, the Gators held opponents to 40.3 percent overall and 24.4 from the 3-point line. In the three losses (at Oklahoma, home against Texas Southern, neutral site against UM), those numbers ballooned to 50.9 and 44.7 percent, respectively. ... Florida will have back senior shooting guard Myreon Jones, who was scratched from the Stony Brook game, the first game he'd missed this season after starting the opening 11. Jones also had been ruled out of the Ole Miss game. He was replaced in the starting lineup by Phlandrous Fleming Jr., who has been in and out of the first five (he doesn't mind), and responded by scoring 20 points and hitting four of five shots from the 3-point line. Eight games into the season, Fleming was at 21.7 percent from the arc (5-for-23), but has gone 9-for-14 the last four games and now ranks third on the team at 37.8 percent. ... UF shot 53.3 percent as a team against SBU, thanks mostly to Fleming and forward Colin Castleton, who in scoring 15 points hit five of his seven shots in addition to grabbing seven rebounds and carding three assists. He also had four turnovers. ... Also aiding those percentage numbers was Castleton's backup in the post, 6-foot-11 junior center Jason Jitoboh, who put in five of his seven field-goal tries on the way to career highs of 12 points and seven boards. Over the last three games, Jitoboh has averaged 7.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 11 minutes. The Florida coaching staff would love to see that trend continue. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby scored just four points against the Sea Wolves, but finished with a season-best seven assists and just two turnovers. Since a five-game spell when he combined for just seven assists versus 14 turnovers, Appleby combined for 12 assists and four turnovers against USF and Stony Brook. Now he has to post those numbers against SEC rivals. ... Guard Brandon McKissic was held out of practice a couple days after taking a nasty spill against USF. In his first live action back all he did was lead the team with 30 minutes in the SBU game. ... Will Anthony Duruji be able to top that 360-degree dunk he executed late against the Sea Wolves? Pretty sweet. Duruji's backup, CJ Felder, has been a pleasant surprise shooting the ball from deep this season. Felder came from Boston College as a career 26.7-percent shooter from the arc, but he's 8-for-18 thus far (.444) and has made five of his last seven over three games. ... Freshman wing Kowacie Reevesscored eight points over 23 minutes against Stony, both career bests. He figures to get increased reps against the Rebels, especially if UF plays undermaned.
The Crimson Tide
It's their third season under Nate Oats and the Tide already have ascended to among the best programs in the country; 52-25 to date and a legit national-championship contender in his third season. ... Alabama has played a scheduled ranked the hardest in the country, with 10 games against opponents in the KenPom top 100, including three in the top 12. Of the latter, the Tide
Keon Ellis (14)
won all three, starting with a win over then top-ranked Gonzaga in Seattle, followed by a one-point win over '21 Final Four participate Houston a week later, and then the victory over short-handed Tennessee last Wednesday. The Tide's losses came against Iona (in Orlando), at Memphis, and against Davidson in a so-called semi-neutral site game at Birmingham. ... Oats wants to play at a breakneck pace at all times and jack as many 3s (they average more than 29 attempts per game) as are available. The Tide will come in ranked second in the SEC in points per game and third in field-goal percentage. ... Guard Jaden Shackelford, a hotshot California recruit two years ago, toyed with the transfer portal last spring, but decided to return to Tuscaloosa. He's the SEC's fourth-leading scorer, shooting 42.4 percent from the floor and nearly 40 percent from the 3-point line. Shackelford has hit double figures in 12 of the team's 13 games. He is a tremendous rebounder from his guard position, but he can get careless with the ball (17 assists, 28 turnovers). ... Point guard Jahvon Quinerly is struggling from the 3-point line (27.0 percent on the season, 1-7 in the UT game), but he's still the team's No. 2 scorer and had 18 against the Vols, making all six of his 2-point shots. He missed last year's game against UF, but the Tide still rolled easily... Guard Keon Ellis, out of Eustis, Fla., led Leesburg High to back-to-back Class 6A titles, but went virtually unrecruited and ended up at Florida Southwestern State College, where he became a two-time JuCo All-American. Now he's as valuable as any player on the Tide squad. He's at 46.3 percent overall, 35.2 from deep and a team-best 86.8 from the free-throw line. He also tops the squad in steals. ... If center Charles Bediako gets the ball in a favorable place on the block, the Gators might be best off just fouling him. He's at nearly 70 percent on the season, but has hit just 15 of 30 free throws. The 7-footer is only at 19 minutes per game, as Bama much rather player smaller and faster. ... Juwan Gary knocks down 54 percent of his shots, but isn't much of a threat from the arc (just 6 of 21). He'll tag-team the forward spot with 6-8, 215-pound Furman transfer Noah Gurley (7.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg), a portal player the Gators were much in on last spring. Gurley was an 1,100-pound scorer and three-time Southern Conference first-team selection. ... Backup freshman guard JD Davison (8.0 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.4 apg) has had a roller-coaster start to his collegiate career after arriving at Bama with McDonald's All-America pedigree, a top-10 national ranking and one-and-done label. He had 20 points in the upset of Gonzaga, but has gone four straight games without hitting double figures, averaged just 5.25 points in that span and hasn't made a 3 in five games. He already has two games of 10 assists, though. Look for Davison to make at least one dynamic play that will leave the O'Dome crowd gasping. ... Backup sophomore guard Darius Miles hits 3s at nearly 37 percent, having made the first six he took this season.
Numbers of Note
The last game for Jason Williams as a Florida Gator came against Alabama on Valentine's Day 1998.
* 1 — Games Shackelford has failed to hit double figures. That outlier was an odd one. It came in a surprisingly close 65-59 win over Jacksonville State when he went scoreless over 34 minutes.
* 14 — Days since Florida's last game.
* 28.7 — Percentage of field-goal attempts surrendered by Florida that have been 3-point tries. That's the seventh-lowest percentage in the country and No. 1 among all power conference teams.
* 46.4 — Percentage of Alabama field-goal attempts that are 3-pointers. That's the 28th-highest percentage in the country and second only to Villanova among power conference teams.
* 1998 — The last year Alabama won a second consecutive game against Florida. The Tide eliminated the Gators from the '97 SEC Tournament, then won their next regular-season meeting, 80-66, at Tuscaloosa on Feb. 14, 1998, in what turned out to be the final game of flamboyant point guard Jason Williams' memorable (oftentimes electrifying) 20 games in a UF uniform. Coach Billy Donovan dismissed Williams from the team in the days to follow, citing violation of team rules. The Gators are 26-6 against the Tide in the 22 years since.
Bottom Line
A brutal opener for a team that hasn't played in game in more than two weeks and is coming off a COVID. Oh, and how 'bout the Gators' games to follow: Saturday at No. 9 Auburn, then back home next week against No. 21 LSU. It may be as difficult a three-game run to open a league season as any team in the country.
