Alex Fudge (3), here boxing out a Georgia Bulldog alongside teammate Riley Kugel (24), will be thinking more about winning than reminiscing Tuesday when the Gators go to LSU, where Fudge played as a freshman last season.
Lots of Sub-Plots, Only One Objective
Tuesday, January 10, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. — Florida sophomore forward Alex Fudge is going back to the place where he began his college basketball career last season. The fact Fudge will be on the floor for the Gators (8-7, 1-2) when they take on the LSU Tigers (12-3, 1-2) Tuesday night at the Maravich Assembly Center certainly is worthy of note.
"I liked my time there, for sure, but I'm in a better place now," said Fudge, the 6-foot-10 Jacksonville, Fla., product who was a 13-minute-per-game role player who averaged 3.3 points and 3.2 rebounds as a freshman in 2021-22. "It'll definitely feel good to go back to where it started for me, but it's more important for us to get the 'W' "
There. That'll do it for the Fudge angle. Not that it couldn't be flushed out some more (and might be when the two teams player later this season). In this new age of the transient college athlete there is all kinds of cross over, to the point Fudge's so-called homecoming in the Bayou State will reunite him with only three players who were on last year's LSU team.
The fact is, when it comes to college sports these days, the "Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon (or Alex Fudge)" game could be played with just about anybody.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "Pregame Stuff" setup here]
Take this Florida/LSU matchup, for example.
* The game will pit two coaches, UF's Todd Golden and LSU's Matt McMahon, in their first seasons at their respective programs. The two actually faced off last March in their NCAA Tournament game at Indianapolis, where Murray State (McMahon) defeated San Francisco (Golden) 92-87 in overtime. That was Golden's last game with the Dons.
* In that NCAA Tournament matchup, a trio of Racers — forward KJ Williams, plus guards Trae Hannibal and Justice Hill — combined for 51 points. Golden will see them again Tuesday, as all three accompanied McMahon to LSU.
* Gators guard Will Richard faced all three of the aforementioned players (plus McMahon, obviously) twice last season when he was at Belmont, which lost twice against Murray State on its way to the Ohio Valley Conference title.
* Hannibal, meanwhile, will have a chance to get reacquainted with a trio of Gators in Colin Castleton, Jason Jitoboh and Niels Lane, each of whom played against him when Hannibal was — get this — at South Carolina (two teams ago) his first two collegiate seasons.
* Tigers starting forward Derrick Fountain can go say "Hey" to Gators associate head coach Korey McCray. The two were together last season at Mississippi State.
* And then there's LSU freshman forward Jalen Reed, who may not have any direct ties to the '22-23 Gators, but he could have since he signed with UF in fall of 2021, but opted out after the change in staffs a few months later.
Fifth-year point guardKyle Lofton (11), the transfer from St. Bonaventure, had his finest all-around game as a Gator Saturday.
That's a lot of connections, both direct and indirect, but not exactly headline material like what the Gators had to deal with Saturday when former coach Mike White brought his first Georgia team to town. UF's players (old and new) handled that sideshow pretty well, winning 82-75 for their first Southeastern Conference victory of the season.
Now they want to keep a good thing going.
"A lot of familiar faces," Golden acknowledged Monday, starting with the beastly Williams, who at 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds ranks second in the SEC in scoring, while shooting 55 percent from the floor and a red-hot 49 from the 3-point line. "We know these guys pretty well. Matt runs good stuff, they're always going to have good actions with their shots and going to find ways to take advantage of having a player like KJ who can shoot it from the front court position. He's a good coach and they're a good team."
Against Georgia, the Gators were better than they'd been of late. They still had issues on the glass (a third straight game getting dominated on the offensive glass), but continued to shoot it well from 2-point range (59 percent), had a second straight game of serviceable 3-point accuracy (7-for-23) and after turning it over a season-worst 20 times three days earlier in a home loss to Texas A&M had only 11 giveaways versus 15 assists, courtesy of better ball movement.
In a game where they opted to play most of the second half with a smaller lineup (the 6-5 Richard played most of the second half at the "4" spot), five different players finished in double-figure scoring, with fifth-year point guard Kyle Lofton (18 points, 3 assists, no turnovers), the transfer from St. Bonaventure, playing his best game in a UF uniform.
It was the third straight game the Gators were in a one-possession situation with a minute to go. The first two didn't go their way, but now they have a successful close-out to use as a reference point.
"It was our will to win," Richard said. "We all locked in on the scout and made sure we made every possession count."
The next charge: Do it again.
As far as this game, that's the only familiarity storyline the Gators are concerned with.
Florida Men's Basketball | Rueben Chinyelu THROWS IT DOWN for the Two-Handed Slam 💪Florida Men's Basketball | Rueben Chinyelu THROWS IT DOWN for the Two-Handed Slam 💪
