NIT Round 2: Florida at Xavier (Sunday, 1 pm)

Wednesday, March 16

Gainesville, FL

9 PM

Florida Gators

20-13,9-9SEC

Iona

25-8,17-3MAAC

Iona

Florida

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NIT Round 2: Florida at Xavier (Sunday, 1 pm)

Saturday, March 19, 2022 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

Florida at Xavier

* What: National Invitational Tournament (second round)
* When: Sunday, 1 p.m.
* Where: Cintas Center, Cincinnati
* Records: Florida (20-13); Xavier (19-13)
* TV: ESPN (Mike Morgan and Tim Welsh)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	16.4 pts / 9.1 reb / 2.3 blx
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	11.2 pts / 4.3 reb
Kowacie Reeves	G	6-6 / 182	Freshman	5.2 pts / 1.5 reb
Brandon McKissic	G	6-3 / 185	Graduate	5.9 pts / 2.5 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	R-Senior	10.9 pts / 2.1 reb / 3.7 ast

Xavier	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Zach Freemantle	F	6-9 / 200	Junior	10.1 pts / 5.6 reb
Jack Nunge	C	7-0 / 245	Junior	13.4 pts / 7.4 reb /
Paul Scruggs	G	6-5 / 198	Senior	12.0 pts / 4.2 reb / 4.0 ast
Nate Johnson	G	6-4 / 192	Senior	10.1 pts / 2.5 reb
Colby Jones	G	6-6 / 207	Sophomore	11.1 pts / 7.5 reb / 3.1 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida shook off the disappointment of not making the NCAA Tournament and the shock of losing Coach Mike White to Georgia and put together an inspiring second-half comeback Wednesday night to defeat Rick Pitino-led Iona 79-74 in first-round National Invitational Tournament play to give longtime-assistant-turned-interim Coach Al Pinkins a win in his first career win. Xavier, like UF, also was a "bubble" tournament team, but flamed out late in the season, was ousted by Butler in first-round play of the Big East Tournament and had to settle for the NIT. The Musketeers took care of business Tuesday by beating Cleveland State 72-68 at home, but then, in a strange twist of events, fired Coach Travis Steele on Wednesday. XU will be led Sunday by assistant Jonas Hayes, the former Georgia star, making for a unique matchup of interim coaches. ... The Florida-Xavier winner will meet the winner of the bracket's other semifinal game, Vanderbilt (18-16) at Dayton (24-10), for a spot in the NIT semis at Madison Square Garden in New York. ... The two teams have played four times, with the all-time series locked 2-2. The last meeting came Nov. 24, 2019 in the championship game of the Charleston (S.C.) Classic, with the Gators defeating the 18th-ranked Musketeers 70-65. Sophomore forward Keyontae Johnson had 14 points, five rebounds and was awarded tournament MVP honors, but grad-transfer forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. did some big-time work in the tournament final with 14 points, 10 rebounds and two put-away free throws with 7.5 seconds. Sophomore guards Andrew Nembhard and Noah Locke each hit a pair of 3s, as UF won it's first holiday tournament in a decade. ... Florida is 22-20 all-time against teams currently in the Big East Conference.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Xavier
71.0	Scoring	73.9
.429	Field-goal percentage	.444
.307	3-point percentage	.322
66.3	Scoring defense	69.2
.439	Field-goal percentage defense	.425
.326	3-point percentage defense	.323
55th	KenPom.com overall ranking	63rd
36th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	51st
82nd	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	76th
285th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	104th
59th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	40th
74th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	13th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

UF announced Friday it had hired Todd Golden, by way of the University of San Francisco, to replace White, but this remains Pinkins' team and his players seem to

want to keep the season going as long as they can. No one knows which of the current Florida players will be around for Golden's 2022-23 debut campaign, but if any intend on furthering their Florida time they can consider this game an extended tryout. Golden, no doubt, already has watched tape of the Gators this season, but he'll be watching the likes of freshman wing Kowacie Reeves and defender delux/sophomore guard Niels Lane a little more closely against the Musketeers. ... Forward Anthony Duruji (8.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg) again is expected to miss the game, opting to rehab the sore ankle that kept him out of two games late in the season. Reserve forward CJ Felder (hip) will not play either, leaving the Gators at a significant disadvantage in size. ... Speaking of Reeves, he's averaged 17.5 points the last two games, made 52 percent of his field-goal tries, 40 percent from the 3-point line and totaled 12 rebounds. After hitting something of a freshman wall a few weeks ago, Reeves has become re-energized and not only is playing his best basketball of the season as a scorer, but also as a defender and rebounder. ... Forward Colin Castleton posted his ninth double-double of the season in the win over Iona, finishing with 18 points and 13 rebounds. With Duruji out, look for the Musketeers to pay particular attention to firing the low-post when Castleton has the ball and maybe sending two guys at him for box-outs. ... After scoring just six points in the regular-season finale against Kentucky, then going scoreless in the Southeastern Conference Tournament loss to Texas A&M, point guard Tyree Appleby bounced back with 14 points and five assists in the NIT victory. He hit three 3s, including back-to-back bombs during UF's rally to take the lead. ... Phlandrous Fleming Jr. started at the "4" spot for the first time this season against Iona. Throw out his three missed 3-pointers and he finished 8-for-13 from the floor and tied Castleton for team-high scoring honors with 18, plus hit a couple game-sealing free throws late. He also had five rebounds, two steals and played like a fifth-year guy who had never been in a postseason tournament before. ... Senior guard Myreon Jones (8.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg) had a string of seven straight starts snapped against Iona, but still played 27 minutes off the bench on his way to five points. He made just one of four shots, but the lone make was a 3-pointer at a huge point in the game and his two free throws with 10:49 to play started the Gators on their rally from six down and a run of 19-3 to take control of the game. ... UF is going to need some minutes from 6-9 reserve forward Tuongthach Gatkek, who had four points and two boards in six minutes against the Gaels. ... Reserve guard Brandon McKissic started against Iona, but was held scoreless over 19 minutes. He did have three assists and played his usual terrific defense. ...

The Musketeers

This will mark Hayes' debut as a head coach of any kind. He starred at UGA from 2001-04 alongside twin brother Jarvis Hayes, a future NBA lottery pick. Upon entering the coaching

profession the 40-year-old Hayes spent 11 seasons working with the two past Bulldogs coaches, Mark Fox and Tom Crean, before leaving for Xavier in 2018. During his four his seasons in Cincy, the Musketeers have gone 70-50, but this starts a new (at least) mini-era for the program, which has announced it will launch a national search for Steele's successor. Hayes, who was mentioned as a top candidate for the Georgia job before the White development, figures to be in the Musketeers mix. ... ... Xavier posted some great wins over the first half of the season, defeating Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Marquette, Creighton and UConn. The Musketeers also had some bad losses, especially in conference play, when they dropped five straight late, thus turning up the heat on Steele, who in four seasons after taking over for Chris Mack (who went to Louisville) failed to reach the NCAA Tournament. ... With a couple starters that go 7-0 and 6-9, Xavier ranks 19th in the country in overall roster height, but the team is also well balanced, with all five starters averaging in double figures. ... Center Jack Nunge will be a problem, and not just for Castleton, but for the Gators as a unit. Not only is he shooting 54 percent from the floor, but at 7-0 he will take his man to the 3-point line, where he's made 31 of 88 on the season (.352). ... Guard Paul Scruggs is the Musketeers' all-around best player and playmaker. His shooting percentages aren't great (43 overall, 31.6 from 3), but he's dangerous at all three levels. Scruggs scored 24 against UF in their Charleston Classic meeting, but also had six turnovers. ... Guard Nate Johnson's 61 makes and 158 attempts from deep (nearly 39 percent) lead the team. He dropped 30 in the win over Va Tech. He's also from Miami McArthur High, so he'll be pumped up for this one. ... Guard Kolby Jones, who is making nearly 47 percent of his shots (just 27 from 3) will share facilitator duties with Scruggs. The two combine to average better than seven assists per game. ... Backup guard Adam Kunkel (8.6 ppg, 2.1 reb) came off the bench to score 14 points over 27 minutes and dropped three 3s in the first-round win over Cleveland State.

Numbers of Note

**Keyontae Johnson** (11) averaged 16.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and shot 61 percent shooting over a three-game run to win MVP honors at the 2019 Charleston (S.C.), the last time the Gators faced the Musketeers.

* .538 — UF's all-time winning percentage in 11 NIT appearances, based on a 14-12 record.

* 1.000 — Pinkins' all-time winning percentage, which ranks first in UF history (yeah, yeah, we know), just ahead of C.J. McCoy, who went 5-1 (an .833 clip) during his lone season of 1915-16.

* 5 — Transfers players in UF history who have scored at least 450 points in a season, with Castleton needing just seven points to reach the mark, despite missing six games with a shoulder injury. The others: Dorian Finney-Smith (530 in 2015-16); Jalen Hudson (528 in '17-18); Egor Koulechov (468 in '17-18) and Mike Rosario (450 in '12-13).

* 13 — Different starting lineups used by the Gators this season.

* 2019 — The last year the Gators and Musketeers faced off, with a joyous Keyontae Johnson capping an outstanding Charleston Classic with a terrific three-game run in wins over St. Joseph's, Miami and Xavier on his way to tournament MVP honors.

Bottom Line

The Gators seemed to have some fun Wednesday night (anyone see that post-game locker room celebration with Pinkins?), so why not try and keep the fun going?