SEC Tournament: Florida vs Texas A&M (Thursday, noon)

Florida vs. Texas A&M

* What: Southeastern Conference Tournament
* When: Thursday, noon
* Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Fla.
* Records: No. 9-seed Florida (19-12); No. 8-seed Texas A&M (20-11)
* TV: SEC Network (Karl Ravech, Jimmy Dykes and Marty Smith)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

UF senior forward **Colin Castleton** (12)

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	16.4 pts / 9.1 reb / 2.4 blk
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	10.7 pts / 4.3 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	Graduate	11.2 pts / 2.0 reb / 3.7 ast
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	9.0 pts / 2.7 reb

Texas A&M	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Henry Coleman III	F	6-8 / 243	Sophomore	10.7 pts / 6.2 reb
Quenton Jackson	G	6-5 / 173	Graduate	14.5 pts / 3.4 reb
Manny Obaseki	G	6-4 / 189	Freshman	2.9 pts / 1.3 reb
Wade Taylor IV	G	6-0 / 186	Freshman	8.1 pts / 1.6 reb / 2.3 ast
Tyrece Radford	G	6-2 / 200	Junior	10.5 pts / 5.7 reb

The Breakdown

Amalie Arena (capacity 20,500 for basketball) is home to the two-time reigning NHL champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida, coming off Saturday's 71-63 home loss to No. 7 Kentucky, sits firmly on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament "bubble" and thus needs a run of (probably at least) two victories to change that, given the Gators' lack of quality Quadrant-1 victories on their current resume. UF is ranked 54th in the updated NCAA Evaluation Tool standings, which is seventh among SEC teams. Texas A&M is in a similar spot, at No. 57 in the NET, but actually has more Q-1 wins than the Gators. The Aggies, meanwhile, also came to Tampa thinking they can get in the tournament conversation if they can crash the party here first. ... Five teams tied for fifth place in the SEC standings. The tie was broken by winning percentages in head-to-head meetings against the opponents locked into the tie. UF came out as the No. 9 seed and A&M with the No. 8. The winner will play top-seeded and regular-season conference champion Auburn (27-4) in Friday's quarterfinal round. ... UF leads the all-time series 9-5, but had its four-game winning streak snapped in the lone regular-season meeting last month when A&M won 56-55 at College Station. In that one, the Gators overcame a miserable first-half offensive display (21.9 percent, including 2-for-15 from the 3-point line) by rallying from a dozen down with 11 minutes remaining to take a four-point lead inside two minutes to go. The Aggies, though, scored the game's final five points, including three free throws from guard Wade Taylor IV with 19.5 seconds left after he was fouled by Phlandrous Fleming Jr. -- with UF head by two -- on a 3-point attempt. Florida had a chance to retake the lead, but Fleming's pull-up jumper with three seconds left bounced away as time expired. A&M won that game despite shooting just 33.9 percent from the floor and two of 18 from deep. Instead, the Aggies made all 16 of their free throws. UF shot a season-low 28.8 percent and went seven of 27 from deep (.233). ... Florida is 4-3 against Texas A&M under Coach Mike White, including 0-1 in the SEC Tournament. The Gators are 4-5 in the tournament under White.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Texas A&M
70.5	Scoring	73.1
.428	Field-goal percentage	.444
.310	3-point percentage	.326
65.5	Scoring defense	66.7
.438	Field-goal percentage defense	.326
.321	3-point percentage defense	.330
54th	KenPom.com overall ranking	58th
35th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	75th
77th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	47th
300th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	198th
54th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	56th
77th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	98th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

UF's postseason resume has just two eye-popping victories: Ohio State on a neutral court and Auburn at home. Those are Q-1s over the No. 22 and No. 10 teams in the NET, respectively. Yes, the Gators did finish with a break-even mark in the nation's second highest-rated conference, but five of the nine wins came against teams that will play on the tournament's opening night; the league's bottom four, in other words. A win over A&M would improve UF to 7-11 in Q-1 and Q-2 games combined, but the bigger prize (and far more difficult challenge), obviously, goes to this game's winner.

... White will be coaching in his sixth SEC Tournament, with one advance to the semifinal finals in the previous five. Still, White stands with UK's John Calipari, Tennessee's Rick Barnes and Auburn's Bruce Pearl as the four active SEC coaches whose winning percentages in league games rank in the conference's all-time top 20. Calipari ranks third (.762), Barnes 16th (.600), White 19th (.581) and Pearl 20th (.579). FYI: Former UF coach Billy Donovan ranks ninth (.645). ... The Gators had been shooting the ball much better since that brickfest trip to College Station, but managed just 41 percent in the Kentucky loss and made only three of 20 from deep. ... Forward Colin Castleton, who earlier this week was named to the All-SEC second team for the second straight year, was not among the poor-shooting culprits against the Wildcats. Sticking mostly to his low-post ways, Castleton made 11 of 19 shots on his way to 23 points and 11 rebounds, giving him nine double-doubles on the season. Castleton will have a significant advantage with his height and length in this game. He worked the Aggies for 15 points and 15 boards in the last meeting over 37 minutes. And speaking of minutes, Castleton has averaged nearly 33 in conference play this season (those are point guard-like minutes), including 35.0 over the last six games. ... Forward Anthony Duruji, with 10 points and five rebounds over 24 minutes, had a decent bounce-back effort vs. UK after missing the wins at Georgia and Vanderbilt with an ankle injury. Duruji and Castleton were the lone UF players to reach double-figure scoring. A team can maybe get away with that sort of lack of production for a game in a tournament setting, but no more. Someone else has to step up. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby was on a run of averaging 19.5 points over four games before hitting a Big Blue wall Saturday: 6 points over 26 minutes with no assists and four turnovers. A team-best 84.9-percent free-throw shooter, Appleby even missed three of four against the Cats. Appleby only scored three points in the last A&M meeting (one 1-for-8 shooting), so he'll be looking to square that performance. ... Combo guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr., absolutely terrific in totaling 43 points, nine rebounds and 10 assists in the back-to-back wins at UGA and Vandy, missed all nine of his shots (including four from 3) over 26 minutes in the loss to Kentucky. He finished with seven points, all from the free-throw line. ... After two games of scoring 13 points and hitting three 3s in both, guard Myreon Jones went 2-for-9 from the floor and made just one of eight from deep against the Cats. Together, Fleming and Jones were 2-for-18 and 1-for-12 from 3. That's tough to overcome on the perimeter, especially when you throw in Appleby at two of seven and 1-for-4. ... Reserve guard Brandon McKissic (6.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg) had eight points (hitting four of six field-goal tries), four assists and a steal against UK. That equaled his highest scoring output over the last nine games. ... Backup wing Niels Lane is averaging 1.9 points on the season, but has scored 16 points over the last four games and made seven of 10 field-goal attempts. ... Backup forward CJ Felder continues to struggle with a nagging leg injury that has limited him to just seven combined minutes the last two games. He has two points over the previous five games. ... Backup freshman guard Kowacie Reeves was scoreless in nine minutes against the Cats. He's two fo 16 from the 3-point line over the previous seven games and is now down to just 31.5 percent on the season.

The Aggies

They're in the third season under Coach Buzz Williams, with a 44-35 record that includes a 21-25 mark in SEC play since Williams arrived in 2019 after five seasons at Virginia Tech. The Aggies opened the conference season with four wins, then tumbled into eight straight losses, but eventually finished 9-9 and in that five-way tie for fifth.

... Since losing eight straight in the middle of the league season, the Aggies have won five of the last six, including a four-game streak to end the regular season that included a 16-point road blowout of Alabama. They shot 54 percent or higher in three of the last four victories. Opponents shot a combined 48 percent in the games. ... A&M will play almost exclusively out of a four- or five-guard lineup, what with Harry Coleman III, the transfer from Duke, the only forward on the roster that averaged double-digit minutes in SEC play. Just because the Aggies are smaller, do not mistake them for an opponent that doesn't play bigger. Their rebound margin in SEC play was a mere minus-1.3, meaning those guards (all of them) are going to the glass. ... While few talk much about the Aggies in terms of their ability to score, they do have four players who hit at least 31 3-pointers during the season. That's one more than the Gators had. ... Leading scorer Quenton Jackson had a game-high 16 in the first meeting against UF, but he missed all six of his 3s. Jackson, though, drew seven fouls and made his hay at the line, where he was 8-for-8. He's shooting 48.3 percent on the season and better than 35 from deep. ... Coleman is nearly 56 percent overall on the season, with just two attempts from beyond the arc. He's going to stay in the post, where he's got 79 offensive rebounds this season, which is as many as Castleton has amassed. ... Taylor is second on the team with 36 makes from deep, but only made 28.6 percent on the season. ... Guard Tyrece Radford transferred from Virginia Tech. He never played for Williams there, but was recruited by him to go there. He is the Aggies' most reliable scorer on the perimeter, having shot just shy of 50 percent overall and 37 from the arc. ... Marcus Williams (93 assists, 72 turnovers) has been coming off the bench, but will play starters' minutes and do the bulk of the ball-handing for the Aggies. He transferred from Wyoming, where he was the 2021 Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year after averaging 14.8 points and 4.3 rebounds in 24 starts for the Cowboys. This season, he's at 7.9 points, 2.2 assists and sub-par shooter percentages (36.2 and 28.3). ... Backup guard Andre Gordon (6.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg) is at 39.8 percent from distance on the season. ... The Aggies, who joined the SEC for the 2012-13 season, made their deepest league tournament run in 2016 when as co-regular-season champion and the No. 1 seed they eventually lost to Kentucky 82-77 in overtime in the title game at Nashville, Tenn.

Numbers of Note

Clockwise from left: **Dorian Finney-Smith**, **Casey Prather**, **Will Yeguete**, **Patric Young**, **Scottie Wilbekin** and **Kasey Hill** hug it up on the Georgia Dome floor during the post-game celebration following their one-point win over Kentucky in the 2014 SEC Tournament title game.

* .333 — Texas A&M's all-time winning percentage in eight SEC tournaments, based on a 4-8 record.

* .474 — Florida's all-time winning percentage in 55 SEC tournaments, based on a 46-51 record.

* .666 — UF's postseason record in Tampa. The Gators went 1-1 in the 2003 NCAA Tournament (defeating Sam Houston State and losing to Michigan State), 1-1 in the 2009 SEC Tournament (beating Arkansas and losing to Auburn), and 2-0 in the 2011 NCAA Tournament (beating Santa Barbara and UCLA) to advance to the Sweet 16.

* 8 — Ranked opponents the Gators played during SEC play, all of which were ranked 18th or higher at the time. UF went 1-7 in those games, with the lone victory coming against No. 2 Auburn.

* 2014 — The last year the Gators won the SEC Tournament, as they defeated Kentucky 61-60 in the championship game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. UK guard James Young, trying to drive around UF guard and defensive wiz Scottie Wilbekin for a game-winning shot attempt, slipped and lost control of the ball, allowing time to expire and giving top-ranked Florida its fifth tournament title in program history. Not only that, the outcome capped a perfect season against league competition (18-0 in the regular season, 3-0 in the tournament) for the first such finish in SEC history. The win win also was the Gators' third over the Wildcats that season, marking just the second time (and first since Tennessee in 1979) that Kentucky lost to the same team three times in a season.

Bottom Line

Florida's NCAA Tournament chances are remote, but they'll be gone without a win over the Aggies. It's that simple.

Gators Calendar

SEC Tournament: Florida vs Texas A&M (Thursday, noon)