Iona is the sixth collegiate stop for Rick Pitino, who has 807 career victories (930, if counting the ones the NCAA vacated from four of his seasons at Louisville for violations of NCAA rules).
Setup / Series / Last Meeting
Florida, beaten at the buzzer in second-round action in the Southeastern Conference Tournament last week in Tampa, is in the National Invitational Tournament for the first time since the end
Al Pinkins
of the 2015-16 season, which was also Mike White's first season coaching the Gators. White, of course, will not be around to see his former program go full circle (following four consecutive NCAA berths) after he resigned Sunday to become head coach at Georgia. The UF sideline duties will fall to associate head coachAl Pinkins, who will bear the "interim" head coach tag for as long as the Gators stick around. ... Iona, in its second season under Hall-of-Famer Rick Pitino, won the Metro Atlantic Conference regular-season title with a 17-3 mark in league play, and had a three-game cushion on runner-up St. Peter's, but was upset in second-round play of the postseason tournament by eighth-seeded Rider. ... Iona and Florida have played just once, with the Gaels defeating the Norm Sloan-coached Gators 71-70 in the Rebel Roundup at Las Vegas on Dec. 20, 1985. That Iona team was coached by Pat Kennedy, who left the next season for Florida State, and the Gaels of '86 reached the NCAA Tournament. In the UF game, sophomore guard Vernon Maxwell led the Gators with 22 points, but the big gun of the night was 6-foot-9 Iona center Bob Coleman, who led all scorers with 25 points. ... UF will be making its 10th appearance in the NIT, with a record of 13-12 in the event.
Tale of the Tape
Florida
2021-22 Stats
Iona
70.8
Scoring
75.3
.428
Field-goal percentage
.446
.307
3-point percentage
.333
66.1
Scoring defense
68.3
.439
Field-goal percentage defense
.414
.327
3-point percentage defense
.303
56th
KenPom.com overall ranking
94th
37th
KenPom.com offensive efficiency
88th
80th
KenPom.com defensive efficiency
108th
292nd
KenPom.com adjusted tempo
75th
59th
NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking
90th
82nd
Overall strength of schedule ranking
110th
Team Snapshots
The Gators
Who knows what would have happen had Texas A&M backup guard Hassan Diarra, a 17-percent shooter from the arc in league play, not banged that gut-punch 3-pointer from the top of the key with 0.4 seconds left overtime in the SEC Tournament? Doesn't matter. The Gators needed some kind of run through the conference tournament to reach a fifth straight NCAA. Instead, the program is
Niels Lane (44)
now in transition and set to push the reset button. Stay tuned. In the interim, they'll turn to their interim, Pinkins, who arrived at UF in 2018 when Dusty May left for the head spot at Florida Atlantic. Pinkins came from Texas Tech, with previous stops at LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Middle Tennessee State. ... Florida was a No. 1 seed in the 2016 NIT, but had to play its "home" games on the road because of renovations to the O'Connell Center that began as soon as the regular season ended. UF blasted North Florida 97-68 in first-round play, then defeated Ohio State 74-66, eventually losing at George Washington 82-77 one victory shy of the tournament semifinals. ... The status of forward Anthony Durujiwill be a game-time decision. Duruji has been dealing with a sore ankle that he played through the last two games, along the way totaling 12 points and five rebounds. The Gators definitely will be without backup forward CJ Felder, who missed the SEC Tournament (and played only one minute against Kentucky in the regular-season finale) due to a hip injury. Also, sophomore guard/forward Niels Lane, the 6-5 reserve who played the best game of his college career in posting career highs of 16 points and nine rebounds against A&M, was sick this week and held out of workouts Saturday and Sunday. He will be a game-day call also, which is unfortunate because Lane was really coming into his own. ... Forward Colin Castleton didn't have his best outing against the Aggies, but still managed to score 16 points and grab six rebounds over a career-high 41 minutes. Like several players on the team, this could be his final game at the O'Dome. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby had a rough go of his previous two contests, combining for six points (none against A&M), three assists and seven turnovers over 46 minutes. An 85-percent free-throw shooter on the season, he also missed three of his four attempts from the line. He's an emotional player who is ultra-hard on himself when not at his best. Sometimes that works against him. Maybe the last few days have allowed him to recenter. ... Combo guard/forwardPhlandrous Fleming Jr. hit some big shots in the tournament defeat on his way to 17 points, three rebounds, four assists and three steals, but also six turnovers. Fleming is on a six-game run of at least three assists. ... Look for Kowacie Reeves to get a bunch of additional minutes (maybe even the start, if Duruji can't go), given his magnificent breakout performance in Tampa. Reeves poured in a career-best 21 points, all in the second half, including seven on two 3s (one with free throw) in the final minute that got the game into overtime. Reeves finished 6-for-11 from the floor, hit three of seven from deep, six of eight free throws, and also had a career-best six boards against the Aggies. ... Guard Myreon Jones, after a stretch of some pretty good shooting from deep, made just three of 15 shots the last two games. ... Backup guard guard Brandon McKissic was pretty darn good last time out, replacing Appleby at the point guard and tallying seven points, a couple rebounds and three assists before fouling out in overtime after 33 minutes. ... Reserve forward Tuongthach Gatkek (1.5 ppg, 1.8 rpg) better be ready for extended minutes this game, given the situation with Duruji and Felder.
The Gaels
They're in the second season under Pitino, who was lured back to his native New York City following a high-profile fall from grace due the ugly, salacious NCAA scandal that not only cost
Tyson Jolly (25)
Pitino his job at Louisville, but resulted in the vacating of 123 victories, including the 2013 NCAA championship. Pitino was out of coaching for four years, save one season in Greece, but took the Iona post in 2020 and guided the Gaels to the NCAA Tournament his first year and was runaway favorite in the Metro Atlantic for a second straight until the upset loss to Rider in the league tournament. ... Iona is 37-13 under Pitino, including 23-6 in league play. The Gaels started the season 6-0, including a huge upset of then-unbeaten Alabama on Thanksgiving Day. ... Like all of Pitino's teams, the Gaels will be in total attack mode -- on both ends. They'll play fast, move the ball (seven players have at least 40 assists, compared to five for UF) and shoot a bunch of 3s on offense. On defense, Iona will be in press man after makes and on dead balls. ... Like every other program in the country, the Gaels have a handful of transfers, led by grad guard Tyson Jolly, by way of Southern Methodist. Jolly is the team's best offensive player on the perimeter. He's making 43.5 percent of his shots, including 38.3 from the 3-point line, with 49 makes from deep. ... Forward Nelly Junior Joseph will park himself in the post (just three 3-pointer attempts this season) and go to work. He's shooting better than 54 percent from the floor and 102 of his 260 rebounds have come on the offensive glass. That's over 39 percent, which rates 60th best in the nation. ... Elijah Joiner, a grad guard from Tulsa, will score (39.7 shooter, but just 29 from deep) and facilitate (team-high 95 assists). ... Forward Dylan van Eyck, a junior-college transfer from Florida Southwestern State in Fort Myers, is a rugged inside player, but also hits better than 37 percent from the arc. ... Backup forward Quinn Slazinski (8.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg) transferred from Louisville and is extremely productive in 20 minutes per off the bench. Slazinski is at 37 percent overall, 34 from from 3 and nearly 83 from the free-throw line.
Numbers of Note
The last time Florida had an "interim" coach floating the sidelines was at the SEC Tournament in 1990 at Orlando, when Don DeVoe (above) put the finishing touches on a 7-21 season after taking over for the fired Norm Sloan.
* 4 — Combined points scored by a trio of starters (Appleby, Duruji and Jones) in the loss to A&M, as the three went a collective 2-for-15 from the floor.
* 44 — Points scored by the Florida bench against A&M, thanks mostly to the combined 37 from Reeves and Lane.
* 116 — Career blocked shots for Castleton over his two UF seasons, which ranks 10th in program history. Castleton has played in 50 games as a Gator. Every player ranked in front of him on that block list played at least 108 career games.
* 1989 — The last year Florida had an "interim" coach on the sidelines. That UF team was reigning conference champion, but fell to pieces amid a NCAA investigation and firing of Coach Norm Sloan, which led to the hiring of Interim coach Don DeVoe, who went 204-137 in 11 seasons at Tennessee (1978-89), with one shared SEC championship. Under DeVoe, the Gators went on to finish 7-21 overall, 3-15 in conference play and were eliminated in opening-round play of the SEC Tournament at Orlando Arena. Along the way, DeVoe announced he would not seek the permanent post at UF, saying he was a "no-nonsense coach in a nonsense program."
* 2009 — The last year the Gators hosted a NIT game. They actually hosted three of them. UF defeated Jacksonville 84-62 in first-round play, Miami 74-60 in second-round play, but lost in the third round to Penn State 71-62.
Bottom Line
You just never know how a team will approach a NIT. Some, obviously, get more excited about it than others. Where the Gators are mentally for this one figures to rear itself fairly quickly.
