Florida vs Vanderbilt (Saturday, 3:30)

Florida vs. Vanderbilt

* When: Saturday, 3:30 p.m.(ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (13-11, 6-5) / Vanderbilt (12-12, 5-6)
* TV: SEC Network (Paul Sunderland and Richard Hendrix)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 240	5th-Senior	16.1 pts / 7.8 reb / 3.0 blk
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	10.3 pts / 4.5 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Freshman	7.0 pts / 2.6 reb
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 177	5th-Senior	5.1 pts / 3.1 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.7 pts / 3.0 reb / 3.1 ast

Vanderbilt	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Quentin Millora-Brown	F	6-10 / 245	Senior	3.9 pts / 3.6 reb
Liam Robbins	F	7-0 / 250	Senior	13.4 pts / 6.4 reb / 3.0 blk
Tyrin Lawence	G	6-4 / 200	Junior	11.4 pts / 3.8 reb
Trey Thomas	G	6-0 / 160	Junior	6.3 pts / 1.9 reb
Ezra Manjon	G	6-0 / 170	Senior	8.5 pts / 2.8 reb / 3.3 ast

The Breakdown

Vanderbilt guard **Tyrin Lawrence** (0) is mobbed by teammates after his game-winning 3-pointer at the horn in the Commodores' 66-65 upset Wednesday night of sixth-ranked Tennessee.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Vanderbilt meet in a key Southeastern Conference game between two teams that statistically look an awful lot like each other. Just one game separates the two in both their overall records and, more importantly, the league standings, with the Gators holding a one-game lead and looking to put some distance on the Commodores in the first of their two meetings this month. ... UF got its teeth kicked in Wednesday at third-ranked Alabama, which hung 50 on the Gators and built a 29-point lead by halftime before eventually winning 97-69, marking the program's worst SEC defeat since 1999. Vanderbilt's experience that same night was completely opposite, as the Commodores shocked sixth-ranked Tennessee with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a huge, court-storming win at Nashville. ... The Gators sit in a three-way tie for sixth place in the standings (alongside Missouri and Arkansas), with the Commodores just a game back, alone in ninth place. ... Florida leads the all-time series 73-71, with a nine-game winning streak that dates to the 2019 season. Weird because before that streak, Vandy had won six of the previous seven, dating to 2016. The Gators' sweep of their annual home-and-home in 2022 included a 61-42 blowout home victory on Jan. 22, but then a much closer (and crazy) 82-78 road win at Memorial Coliseum on March 1. In that one, the Commodores hit 15 3-pointers and led by eight with less than four minutes to play. Then came a UF timeout followed by an orange and blue barrage. The Gators scored 14 of the game's final 16 points, including the last nine, highlighted by grad guard Phlandrous Fleming Jr.'s go-ahead 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds to play for a two-point lead. Vandy first-team All-SEC guard Scottie Pippin Jr. was fouled with 2.3 seconds to play, sending the league's scoring leader -- already with 29 points that night -- to the line for a one-and-one and chance to tie the game. Pippin, a 74-percent free-throw shooter, missed the front end. UF's Colin Castleton rebounded and iced the game with two free throws at the other end. ... Commodores coach Jerry Stackhouse is 0-9 against Florida, including 0-4 at Gainesville. This will be UF coach Todd Golden's first crack at the Commodores.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Vanderbilt
71.2	Scoring	70.5
.430	Field-goal percentage	.418
.323	3-point percentage	.324
66.2	Scoring defense	71.7
.398	Field-goal percentage defense	.437
.318	3-point percentage defense	.328
44th	KenPom.com overall ranking	95th
138th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	48th
11th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	180th
89th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	263rd
46th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	100th
14th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	2nd

Team Snapshots

The Gators

"Flush it." That's what Golden said about the beatdown his team took at Alabama after the Gators' defense surrendered a season-high 15 3-pointers and were never in the game in suffering the program's worse SEC loss since Billy Donovan's first NCAA Tournament team got clubbed by 35 at unranked Tennessee in 1999. Golden chalked the loss up to the Crimson Tide being on its best game and actually left Tuscaloosa feeling OK about how

his players competed in the second half (in the face of a 29-point deficit), especially compared to the 29-point loss earlier in the season against West Virginia. In that game, the Mountaineers took it to the Gators from the tip, but only led by eight at halftime. When the second-half blowout began to take shape, Golden watched his players stop competing. Such was not the case Wednesday and that frame of mind needs to carry over, as the Commodores have some newfound confidence with two straight wins. ... UF shot a dismal 23.3 percent in the first half at Bama, without making a 3-pointer, while allowing one of the nation's best offenses to erupt for 56.3 percent overall and a sick 9-for-17 from distance. ... Forward Colin Castleton was a force again against the Tide, finishing with game highs of 29 points and 10 rebounds. He's averaged 24.6 points and made 24 of 47 field-goal attempts (51 percent) and 26 of 29 free throws (89.7 percent) over the last three games (against No. 3 Alabama, at Kentucky, No. 2 Tennessee). ... Guard Riley Kugel gave his coaches a performance to be encouraged about, finishing with a career-high 15 points and equaling his career best of six rebounds. Kugel made six of his 11 shots against the Tide and is improving as a defender. ... Guard Will Richard, in his fifth straight game starting at an undersized "4" spot, got off to a slow start, but managed to give the Gators a third player in double-figure scoring with 11 points. He also hit half of UF's four 3s. ... The fifth-year backcourt of Kyle Lofton and Myreon Jones had its toughest collective game since being paired together in the first unit last month. They finished a combined 0-for-10. Lofton, though, had six assists, one off his season high, without a turnover. ... Reserve sophomore wing Kowacie Reeves hit his eighth 3-pointer in conference play (he's still just 8-for-48) and seemed a little more under control in his decision making. ... The Florida bench was outscored 29-12 and hit four of 15 shots, but the Gators' individual performances across the board, with the exception of Castleton and Kugel, will be something they, indeed, will want to soon forget and move on from.

The Commodores

They're in the fourth season under Stackhouse, the former NBA all-star who the school took a chance on after his brief and solid stint in the then-D League, where he was named coach of the year after leading Raptors 905 to the league championships in 2017. Stackhouse, who took over a program coming off an 0-18 league season, is 51-66 during his time at Vandy, including

18-45 in SEC play. The Commodores had their first winning season in '21-22 under "Stack," going 19-17 and advancing to the NIT quarterfinals. ... Vandy has played the second-toughest schedule in the country, with 13 games against teams ranked in the current NET Top 60. ... The Commodores show up in the top half of just three of the 21 team statistics posted by the league each week: blocks per game (6th), defensive rebounding percentage (7th) and 3-pointers per game (3rd). The latter stat should get Florida's attention, given how the 3-ball has hurt the Gators the last two games, with the Commodores dropping eight per game on the season. ... Seven-foot center Liam Robbins is in his second season since transferring from Minnesota and he is a load in the post; a hard-playing, blue-collar dude. He was available for just one of the two games last season, but got in early foul trouble in UF's win at Nashville. Robbins is better than a year ago and will be yet another challenge for Castleton, who has answered quite a few of such challenges this season. Robbins is at 50.3 percent on the season, can make an occasional 3 (24 percent), has 45 offensive rebounds and leads the team with 60 blocks, which ranks third in the SEC. ... Lawrence, the hero of the upset against Tennessee, is hitting field goals at 47 percent, but just 30 from deep, so that game-winner the other night was something of an outlier. ... Backup forward Jordan Wright has had some decent games in three previous seasons against UF and is the team's third-leading scorer. He's made 23 3s on the season, which ranks third on the team. ... Robbins, Lawrence and Wright are all 74 percent from the free-throw line or better, so keep that in mind of the game is close late. ... Guard Trey Thomas is shooting only 31 percent overall and from the arc, but his 33 long balls are second-most on the team. ... Reserve guard Miles Stute is another guy who has had some success against the Gators, especially dropping 3s. He leads the team with 53 makes from deep (at 40.4 percent), but was 0-for-5 in the two of the last three games from out there. He was also 7-for-14 in a close loss to A&M two weeks ago. ... Point guard Ezra Manjon, transfer from Cal-Davis, leads the team with 80 assists. He is not a threat from deep (1-18 on the season). ... Forward Quentin Millora-Brown starts at the "4" but averages just over 17 minutes. Vandy gets its money's worth from him on the glass in his limited time, though. Millora-Brown has more offensive rebounds (50) than defensive (40).

Numbers of Note

**Jerry Stackhouse's** 18-year NBA career included two seasons alongside **Michael Jordan** with the Washington Wizards.

* .435 — Combined 3-point percentage of Kentucky and Alabama against the Gators the last two games, based on 20-for-46 shooting. Better close-outs will be on the UF checklist.

* 1,080 — Points scored by Stackhouse during his All-America career at North Carolina from 1993-95 before being taken with the third overall pick in the 1995 NBA Draft by Philadelphia.

* 1,137 — Career UF points for Castleton, who overtook four more former Gator greats with his 29-point outburst at Alabama. He now sits at No. 42 on the all-time scoring list, after passing Sonny Powell (1,108 from 1951-55), Reggie Hannah (1,114 from 1977-80) and two pretty accomplished guys in Al Horford (1,123) and Joakim Noah (1,133), who some may recall from 2004-07 seasons.

* 2022 — The year Florida finally overtook Vanderbilt in their all-time series that dates to 1931. The Commodores won the first three meetings and it took 91 years for the Gators to catch and eventually pass them, courtesy of a 32-14 record since 2001.

* 16,409 — Points scored by Stackhouse over his 19-year NBA career (1995-2013) spanning eight different teams.

Bottom Line

The next four games are markedly more forgiving than the previous four, but make assumptions about outcomes at your own peril. The Gators, if not on point, can overlook no one, starting with the Commodores.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Vanderbilt (Saturday, 3:30)