Florida at Georgia (Saturday, noon)

Florida at Georgia

* When: Saturday, noon
* Where: Stegeman Coliseum, Athens, Ga.
* Records: Florida (17-11, 7-8); Georgia (6-22, 1-14)
* TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart and Carolyn Peck)
* 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	8.8 pts / 4.2 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	16.3 pts / 9.0 reb / 2.6 blx
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	10.1 pts / 4.2 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	R-Senior	11.0 pts / 2.1 reb / 3.7 ast
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	8.8 pts / 2.8 reb

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Braelen Bridges	F	6-11 / 240	Senior	12.5 pts / 5.5 reb
Noah Baumann	G	6-6 / 215	Junior	8.7 pts / 3.8 reb
Kario Oquendo	G	6-4 / 225	Sophomore	15.1 pts / 4.4 reb
Christian Wright	G	6-3 / 185	Freshman	5.3 pts / 2.8 reb
Aaron Cook	G	6-2 / 185	Senior	10.1 pts / 2.6 reb / 5.6 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida let a signature, resume-building opportunity slip away in falling 82-74 at home Tuesday against 18th-ranked Arkansas. The Gators led by six with less than seven minutes to go, but gave up seven rapid-fire points, lost the lead and ultimately were outscored 18-4 to end the game and put themselves back on the wrong side of bracketology projections. Georgia, meanwhile, is mired in another dreadful season, having lost eight straight (all in league play), most recently Tuesday's 91-77 defeat at Texas A&M, and is firmly planted at the bottom of the Southeastern Conference standings. ... UF leads the all-time series 119-103, with a run of five straight wins that includes the 72-63 victory Feb. 9 at Gainesville. In that one, senior guard Myreon Jones, the transfer from Penn State, buried a career-high seven 3-pointers -- four in the first half, three in the second -- and added two assists, two blocked shots, a steal and a drawn charge. He finished seven of 11 from the floor, with all his attempts from beyond the arc. UF built a 16-point first half and was up by 14 with eight minutes to go before UGA made a run that cut the Gators' margin to just three with three minutes to go. The Gators made shots and free throws and got stops to close out the game. ... Florida is 9-3 against Georgia under Coach Mike White, including 5-1 on the road.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Georgia
69.9	Scoring	70.5
.422	Field-goal percentage	.445
.305	3-point percentage	.325
64.7	Scoring defense	78.1
.431	Field-goal percentage defense	.473
.308	3-point percentage defense	.342
56th	KenPom.com overall ranking	209th
63rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	103rd
62nd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	301st
294th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	85th
55th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	211th
61st	Overall strength of schedule ranking	167th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They've played themselves into a situation where, in all likelihood, they'll have to do something very much unexpected -- such as upset No. 6 Kentucky in the regular-season finale or make some kind of a run through the SEC Tournament -- if the Gators are to reach a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament. That scenario, of course, includes wins in the next two road games,

starting with this one against the Bulldogs. ... After two of its worst shooting spells of the season (a season-low 29 percent in the 55-54 loss at Texas A&M last week, followed by 26 percent in the first against second-ranked Auburn), Florida combined to make nearly 46 percent in the 60 minutes constituting the second half of the win over Auburn and loss to Arkansas. Most of the work was done in the paint, courtesy of forward Colin Castleton, who is at 59.3 percent from the floor and 79.7 from the free-throw line in SEC play. The last two games, Castleton has averaged 24.0 points, hit 17 of his 29 shots and 14 of 17 free throws while playing against two of the best low-post defenders in the country. Against a second consecutive undersized opponent, the offense has to go through him again. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby averaged 22.5 points on 13-for-29 from the floor and 8-for-19 from deep the last two games, but was also part of a Gators' shooting performance that went 1-for-9 from the arc in the second half against the Hogs (after making seven of 15 in first half). ... After Appleby and Castleton, wing Phlandrous Fleming Jr. was the next-most productive Gator, finishing with nine points, with a couple 3s on four attempts, eight rebounds and three assists. Fleming was born and raised in Athens and expects to have as many as 50 family and friends in the house. ... Jones, who had heated up of late after a two-month cold spell from the 3-point line, went scoreless against Arkansas, missing all four of his shots, including three 3s. He equaled his season high of five assists, though, and committed just one turnover. ... Forward Anthony Duruji had eight points, five rebounds and hit a couple 3s against the Razorbacks, but he still has not reached double figures in six consecutive games. He was the only UF player who did not finish with a negative plus/minus participation number. Duruji posted an even "0." ... Grad guard Brandon McKissic (6.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg) had a solid 17 minutes last time out. He made three of his shots, one of his three 3s, to finish with seven points, three rebounds and a block. ... Freshman wing Kowacie Reeves (4.6 ppg), after making at least one 3 in five straight games, has gone 0-for-9 over the last four, with just one rebound over 37 minutes. He's dropped from nearly 42 percent from 3 in SEC play to just shy of 32 percent. Might be dealing with the proverbial "freshman wall." ... Reserve forward CJ Felder (3.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg), still hampered by a sore hip, had his second consecutive scoreless game. He's failed to score in six of the previous nine games. ... Wouldn't be surprised to see more than six minutes from backup guard Niels Lane (1.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg) this time. He started the last UGA game and is a good matchup on the perimeter.

The Bulldogs

It's Year 4 under Coach Tom Crean, who has a 47-71 overall record and 15-54 mark, including 1-6 versus UF. The program, which did lose one of its better players, forward Jailyn Ingram,(10.7 ppg, 6.6 rpg) to a season-ending knee injury in December, could be headed for an offseason of significant transition. . ... The Bulldogs are 1-6 at home and have had their most competitive

moments early on in SEC play at Stegeman, where they upset Alabama 82-76 on Jan. 25 and lost by just two points against Auburn on Feb. 5. UGA's last three home games, though, have been double-digit losses to Arkansas, South Carolina and Ole Miss. ... Guard Kario Oquendo , a Titusville, Fla., native and Florida junior-college product, leads the team in scoring and is shooting 46.4 percent from the floor. He had 22 points and went to the free-throw line 10 times in the first meeting. Oquendo is aggressive and, like the Bulldogs and their up-tempo mentality, will rebound and bust out looking to attack. ... Braelen Bridges, a transfer from Illinois-Chicago, is a big body for Castleton to contend with at both ends. He's second on the team in scoring, making nearly 64 percent of his shots, but has yet to attempt a 3-pointer. His 113 free-throw attempts are second on the team. ... Point guard Aaron Cook came from Gonzaga, chased away by former UF star Andrew Nembhard. He's got 152 assists (that's third in the SEC) against 86 turnovers. In the first meeting, the Gators turned him over four times, but Cook finished with 14 points. ... Guard Noah Baumann, a transfer from Southern California, tops the team in 3-point shooting, with 56 makes at 41.2 percent. Of his 176 shots, only 40 attempts have come from inside the arc, so there's no mystery where he'll be. Junior forward Jaxon Etter is a lesser version of Baumann in terms of a pure shooter, but the Gators can't leave him open; not at 41 percent from deep. ... Backup sophomore forward Jabri Abdur-Rahim (7.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg) who as a freshman was a member of Virginia's 2021 regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference championship team, had eight points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes against UF earlier this month.

Numbers of Note

UF forward **Egor Koulechov** (4) tries to get a shot over UGA's **Yante Maten** (1) in the 2018 meeting between the two teams at Stegeman, the last time the Bulldogs defeated the Gators in Athens.

* 4 — Consecutive games for the Gators without a third player reaching double-figure scoring; only Castleton and Appleby have so during that string. The last game UF had at least three double-figure scorers was the win over the Bulldogs, with Jones joining the duo.

* 14.5 — Georgia's average margin of defeat over its last four home games, a stat that includes a last-second, 74-72 loss to top-ranked Auburn.

* 47.0 — Season's percentage of Florida shots that have come from the 3-point line. Only one power conference program (Alabama) has a higher percentage. The team's collective 30.5 percent from the arc ranks 313th nationally and 12th in the SEC (ahead of Mississippi State and Missouri).

* 355 — Where the Bulldogs rank (out of 358 Division I teams) in blocked shots, according to KenPom. They're also 353rd in defending 2-point shots, meaning the Gators need to take advantage of Castleton in the post and be aggressive with drives to the basket. There won't be a Walker Kessler or Jaylin Williams waiting for them.

* 2018 — The last year the Gators lost at Athens. They went there on Jan. 30, ranked 23rd in the country and shot 36.5 percent against the SEC's top defense, at one point missing 15 straight shots in the second half (and 20 of 21) in what ended up a 72-60 defeat. UGA was led by Yante Maten's 20 points and seven rebounds, plus William "Turtle" Jackson's 16 points. Senior point guard Chris Chiozza led UF with 16 points and six assists over 35 minutes.

Bottom Line

The Gators have done nothing this season, especially on the road, to think -- regardless of Georgia's place at the bottom of the league standings -- this one won't be a another grind.

Gators Calendar

Florida at Georgia (Saturday, noon)