Florida vs Georgia (Wednesday, 6:30 pm)

Florida vs. Georgia

* When: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (15-8, 5-5); Georgia (6-17, 1-9)
* 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	9.7 pts / 4.3 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	15.5 pts / 8.9 reb / 2.8 blx
Niels Lane	G	6-5 / 205	Sophomore	0.8 pts / 1.1 reb
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	10.5 pts / 4.0 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	R-Senior	10.8 pts / 2.2 reb / 4.0 ast

Georgia	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Noah Baumann	F	6-6 / 215	Junior	9.0 pts / 3.9 reb
Braelen Bridges	F	6-11 / 240	Senior	12.5 pts / 5.9 reb
Kario Oquendo	G	6-4 / 215	Sophomore	13.4 pts / 4.1 reb
Jaxon Etter	G	6-4 / 205	Senior	5.7 pts / 3.0 reb
Aaron Cook	G	6-2 / 185	Senior	10.5 pts / 2.4 reb / 6.0 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida has won three straight, including two in Southeastern Conference play, most recently Saturday's rally from nine points down in the second half to defeat Ole Miss 62-57 in overtime. Georgia has lost three straight and 11 of the previous 12, but the Bulldogs better have the Gators' complete attention after staring down No. 1 Auburn before losing 74-72 at home Saturday on a basket with just 3.3 seconds remaining. ... UF currently sits alone in sixth place in the SEC standings, a half-game behind Mississippi State. UGA is alone in last place, two games behind Ole Miss. ... Florida leads the all-time series 118-103, including wins in the last four meetings. Georgia is one of UF's three permanent home-and-home league opponents, along with Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Florida has swept the series the last two seasons. The Gators won 92-84 on Jan. 23, 2021 at Athens and again in the rematch on Feb. 20 by a 70-63 count. In that one, junior forward Colin Castleton, working his way back from a lengthy COVID pause in the program, came off the bench to hit all five of his field-goal attempts to lead a balanced UF scoring column with 14 points and seven rebounds. Fourth-year junior guard Tyree Appleby had 13 points and atoned for five turnovers by hitting four clutch free throws over the final 1:25 after the Bulldogs cut a 17-point lead to just five with 30 seconds to go. UGA got a career-high 27 points from point guard Savhir Wheeler. ... The Gators are 9-3 against the Bulldogs under Coach Mike White, including 4-2 at home.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Georgia
71.1	Scoring	71.0
.427	Field-goal percentage	.443
.305	3-point percentage	.320
63.9	Scoring defense	77.2
.435	Field-goal percentage defense	.464
.314	3-point percentage defense	.338
49th	KenPom.com overall ranking	197th
53rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	109th
57th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	282nd
243rd	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	82nd
44th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	207th
73rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	34th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

This time last month, they were at the bottom of the SEC standings, hanging out with Georgia, after starting the conference slate with three consecutive losses. Since then, UF has won five of seven (six of eight total), but all against opponents in the bottom half of the standings, with the exception of Mississippi State. Sometimes the Gators play good defense, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they

shoot it well enough, other times not. Right now, that's what UF is, with the last three games -- comebacks from 16 down against Oklahoma State at home; nine down with eight minutes left at Missouri; nine down to start the second half against Mississippi -- stressful comebacks of their own making. If Florida can figure out how to put two decent halves together, they might have a game with no drama. ... The return of Castleton was a boon Saturday. After their leader in scoring, rebounding and blocks missed six games with a shoulder injury, Castleton went for 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocks over a career high-equaling 34 minutes. Along the way, Castleton got his shoulder banged up some and even hit the deck with a wicked cramp late in regulation. But he soldiered through and helped secure a much-needed victory. ... As far as Appleby, you can focus on the 1-for-10 shooting from the floor, but don't overlook the UF career-best 10 assists and 7-for-8 performance from the free-throw line; all in overtime, by the way. His two with 3.3 seconds left closed out the game. Oftentimes, when Appleby is not on the floor, you wonder the offense is going to come from. You don't wonder, ever, if he's going to make free throws. He's 86.6 percent on the season, which ranks third in the SEC. ... Guard/Forward Phlandrous Fleming Jr. has hit double figures in four straight game. He made just four of 11 shots, but banged a couple really timely 3s, rebounded down for seven boards, to go with two steals and three blocks. ... Kudos to guard Niels Lane, who has taken his marching orders and run with them to the benefit of his team. Lane, an exceptional defender, was rewarded with the first start of his career Saturday. He played a career-high 29 minutes, took just one shot in going scoreless, but grabbed three rebounds, had a steal and posted a plus-10 in the participation column.
... Forward Anthony Duruji had just two points last game, halting a three-game run of double-figure scoring. Duruji only attempted two shots, but also dealt with foul trouble that limited to him less than half of the 45 minutes. To win without much contribution from Duruji speaks to contributions elsewhere. ... Guard Brandon McKissic (6.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg) had a run of seven straight starts end. He'd been struggling with his shot, but he had a pretty efficient game off the bench: seven points, two rebounds, an assist in a season-low 14 minutes that was hampered due to foul trouble. ... Backup guard Myreon Jones (8.9 ppg, 3.0 rpg) made a pair of mega-3s against the Rebels; one in the second half, the other in overtime. After a rugged stretch from all of December and well into January, Jones has gone 12-for-26 from deep over the last four games. That's 46 percent. ... Freshman guard Kowacie Reeves (5.2 ppg) had his string of eight consecutive starts snapped, but in 13 minutes he knocked down two of three 3s, both of them timely. Reeves is at 40 percent from distance in SEC play. Good for him.

The Bulldogs

It's Year 4 under Coach Tom Crean, who has a 47-66 overall record and 15-49 mark (.234), including 1-5 versus UF. ... Preseason projections placed them near the bottom of the SEC standings, and the Bulldogs lived up to them by dropping five of their first seven, including a run of consecutive losses (two at home, two at neutral sites) against Georgia Tech, Northwestern, Virginia and

Wofford. UGA then put two wins together, starting with an upset of Memphis, but in the follow-up victory against Jacksonville lost one of their top players, grad-transfer forward Jailyn Ingram (10.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg) to a season-ending knee injury. The 6-foot-7, 225-pound Ingram came from Florida Atlantic, where he was just the second player in program history with at least 1,000 points and 600 career rebounds, plus a 36-percent 3-point shooter. The Bulldogs have gone 2-12 since, with some ugly losses (George Mason, East Tennessee State, Gardner-Webb). The wins came against Western Carolina and a stunner over Alabama on Jan. 25 at home. The Bulldogs have been far better at home than on the road, but the Dogs did put two very different results on the floor in Athens last week, losing Tuesday night by 26 against Arkansas, then taking No. 1 Auburn to the final possession. ... Despite the record, UGA ranks sixth in the league in field-goal percentage at 46.4 and second in percentage at the free-throw line (.740), where the Bulldogs visit frequently because they're constantly on the attack, what with the sixth-highest pace of play in the SEC. ... Guard Kario Oquendo leads the team in scoring and is shooting nearly 47 percent from the floor. He had 25 points, five rebounds and four steals against the Tigers. ... Braelen Bridges, a transfer from Illinois-Chicago, will be a big body for Castleton to contend with at both ends. He's second on the team in scoring, making nearly 62 percent of his shots, but has yet to attempt a 3-pointer. His 93 free-throw attempts is second on the team. ... Point guard Aaron Cook came from Gonzaga, chased away by former UF star Andrew Nembhard. He's got 133 assists (that's third in the SEC) to just 68 turnovers. ... Guard Noah Baumann, a transfer from Southern California, tops the team in 3-pointer shooting, with 48 makes at 42.1 percent. He's only attempted 33 shots from inside the arc, so there's no mystery where he'll be. ... Backup sophomore forward Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who as a freshman was a member of Virginia's 2021 regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference championship team, is averaging 7.3 points and 3.1 rebounds off the bench. He's from New Jersey, where he grew up playing against UF's Lane, as well as former Gator Scottie Lewis. Abdur-Rahim is the son of former California star Shareef Abdur-Raheem, who was the No. 3 overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft and went on average 18.1 points over his 12 seasons playing with Vancouver, Atlanta, Portland and San Diego, plus a gold-medalist for Team USA in the 2000 Olympics. The elder Abdur-Rahim is now president of the G League.

Numbers of Note

**Tyree Appleby** has made 36 of his last 38 free throws over a seven-game stretch.

* .000 — Georgia's winning percentage on the road this season, based on its 0-6 record, with an average margin of defeat at 14.0 points.

* .726 — UF's free-throw shooting percentage on the season, which ranks sixth in the SEC (with Auburn leading at 74.2).

* .798 — UF's free-throw percentage during the current three-game winning streak, based on 67-for-84.

* .947 — Appleby's free-throw percentage, based on 36-for-38, during a seven-game run of double-figure scoring when he's averaged 14.7 points per game.

* 2019 — The last season Georgia defeated Florida, a horrific loss that snapped a five-game UF winning streak. The Bulldogs, in the first season under Crean, came in on a nine-game losing streak (and were 1-14 in SEC play), but got a career-high 25 points from sophomore forward Nicolas Claxton, who went 9-for-12 from the floor, hit both his 3s and all five of his free throws, to go with three blocks and three steals. UGA shot a season-high 56 percent and made all five of its shots over the final five minutes when the Gators desperately needed a defensive stop.

Bottom Line

The Gators have proven there are no gimmes, so we might as well expect this one to be another trip to the dentist's office, as well. Starting this weekend, the schedule turns brutal, with a run of four consecutive games (including at Kentucky and home against top-ranked Auburn) that could all be Quadrant-1 opportunities, by the NCAA Evaluation Tool standards.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Georgia (Wednesday, 6:30 pm)