Florida vs Ole Miss (Wednesday, 6:30 pm)

Florida vs. Ole Miss

* When: Wednesday, 6:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (13-12, 6-6) / Ole Miss (10-15, 2-10)
* TV: SEC Network (Dave Neal and Jon Sundvold)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Colin Castleton	F	6-1 / 240	5th-Senior	16.5 pts / 7.9 reb / 3.0 blk
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	10.2 pts / 4.5 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Freshman	7.4 pts / 2.7 reb
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 177	5th-Senior	4.9 pts / 2.9 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.0 pts / 3.0 reb / 3.2 ast

Ole Miss	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jaemyn Brakfield	F	6-8 / 220	Junior	10.0 pts / 5.4 reb
Myles Burns	F	6-6 / 210	Senior	7.2 pts / 6.2 reb
Robert Allen	F	6-8 / 230	Senior	4.0 pts / 3.0 reb
Matthew Murrell	G	6-4 / 200	Junior	14.3 pts / 3.5 reb / 2.5 ast
Ty Caldwell	G	6-4 / 180	Freshman	5.2 pts / 1.7 reb

The Breakdown

UF forward Colin Castleton (12) against Ole Miss in 2022

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Ole Miss square off in a Southeastern Conference game between two teams in their own versions of downward spirals. The Gators have lost three straight (four of the previous five) and are on the brink of elimination of NCAA Tournament consideration (if they're not there already). The Rebels have dropped six of seven and sit one game out of last place in the league standings. ... UF is coming off a devastating 88-80 home loss to Vanderbilt, a game the Gators desperately needed to get back on the winning track, but also to stay in their place on the NCAA bubble. Now, barring a run-the-table finish to the regular season, their postseason fate is likely out of their hands. The Rebels, meanwhile, had a chance to win a second straight, after upsetting Georgia on the road. They returned home and lost 64-61 to South Carolina, which sat in a last-place tie with LSU at the time. ... UF leads the all-time series 69-48, but the two teams split a home-and-home in 2022, with the Rebels smashing the Gators 70-54 on Jan. 24 at Oxford and Florida winning 62-57 in overtime at Gainesville on Feb. 5. In that one, senior forward Colin Castleton returned from a three-game absence due to a shoulder injury to score 17 points, grab seven rebounds and block three shots over a career-high 34 minutes, as Florida erased a nine-point halftime deficit for a third straight come-from-behind win. In the extra period, fifth-year point guard Tyree Appleby, who had a career-high 10 assists, knocked down seven of eight free throws, including two with 3.3 seconds remaining to seal the outcome. Graduate wing Phlandrous Fleming Jr. had 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals, while UF shot nearly 45 percent in the second half and overtime after just 36 percent (and 2-for-13 from 3) in the first half. ... This will be Coach Todd Golden's first game against Mississippi.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Ole Miss
71.5	Scoring	67.4
.433	Field-goal percentage	.423
.314	3-point percentage	.295
67.1	Scoring defense	68.1
.402	Field-goal percentage defense	.427
.328	3-point percentage defense	.347
50th	KenPom.com overall ranking	114th
140th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	158th
13th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	92nd
72nd	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	247th
53rd	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	126th
17th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	19th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

Just how the team responds from such a knee-capping defeat likely will depend on the leadership in the locker room, which means forward Castleton, the fifth-year grad, needs to shoulder that load too. Why not? He's basically carried the Gators over the last two weeks, but could use some help. Castleton has averaged nearly a double-double over the past three games -- 24.7 points and 9.5

rebounds -- while shooting just shy of 52 percent from the floor and 82 percent from the free-throw line. After posting 25 points and 11 rebounds in the Vandy loss, Castleton became the first Gator since Anthony Roberson in 2005 to score 25 points in three straight games, as well as the first in 34 years to post three games of at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in a single season. ... Defensively, the team has taken giant steps backward over the three-game losing streak. After going limiting all but one opponent in SEC play to shoot over 40 percent through the first eight conference games (and 13 of 15 overall), the last three games looked like this: Kentucky 45.2 percent overall and 45.5 from 3 (with five makes); Alabama 49.3 and 44.1 (with a season-high 15 makes); Vanderbilt 48.3 and 52.2 (12 makes). While opponents have buried a combined 32 shots from the 3-point line the Gators have countered by making just 12 over that span. That's a 60-point differential. ... Backup guard/forward Kowacie Reeves made both UF's 3-pointers against Vandy, finishing 2-for-8 from deep. His 14 points were his second-most in SEC play this season. The rest of the team was 0-for-12 Saturday. ... The Gators have to get more from guard Will Richard (7 points, 4 rebounds), even though they're asking him to play that undersized "4" spot. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton had 12 points, six assists and no turnovers against the Commodores. Imagine his assists if the Gators hit, say, 25 percent of their 3s, instead of only 10 percent. ... Guard Myreon Jones had a second straight scoreless game, going 0-for-3 in 22 minutes. Jones still leads the SEC in assist-to-turnover ratio in league play (and it's not even close) at 32 assists to just five turnovers. ... After reaching double-figure scoring just five teams in his first 22 collegiate games, rookie guard Riley Kugel has scored career highs in two straight games; 15 in the loss at Alabama and then 18 against Vandy, while making 14 of 25 field-goal attempts (56 percent). He's one of six from the 3-point line, falling in line with the rest of the team. ... Since leaving the Mississippi State game with an early second-half concussion, Alex Fudge (6.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg) has scored just eight points over the last five games.

The Rebels

It's their fifth season under Kermit Davis and it might be the last. Davis, who averaged nearly 26 wins and went to three NCAA tournaments over the final seven of his 16 seasons at Middle Tennessee State, is 74-76 in Oxford, including 32-52 in SEC play. His lone NCAA berth came in '19, Davis' first season, with an NIT in '21. Now that the Rebels are flirting with a

second straight losing season (and third in four seasons), the Davis era may be in the final weeks, especially with rival Mississippi State on something of a midseason surge under a first-year coach. ... Two weeks ago, sophomore point guard Daeshun Ruffin, who last year became the first McDonald's All American ever to sign with the program, announced he was leaving the team to focus on his mental health. Ruffin was averaging 9.5 points and 3.2 assists and the time. Last season, he worked the Gators silly in the Rebels' home win, with a career-high 21 points, plus six assists and four steals. ... Regardless of the Rebels' obvious struggles, they're still capable of coming into the O'Dome and winning, especially given the Gators' recent retreat from the outstanding defense they played throughout January. Guard and leading scorer Matthew Murrell had 20 points and hit a trio of 3s in the win over UF last year. He's shooting 37 percent from the floor and just 29 from 3, but his 43 makes from deep are a team high and needs to be honored. He also leads Ole Miss in free-throw attempts (79) and percentage (83.5). ... Forward Jaemyn Brakefield is in his second Mississippi season since transferring from Duke, where he played sparingly as a freshman. He's probably the Rebels' most consistent offensive player at nearly 54 percent overall and 37 from deep. ... TJ Caldwell is a three-level scorer, though struggling in his freshman season with his percentages; except from the free-throw line, where he's 24 of 30. ... Amaree Abram (7.2 ppg, 2.3 rpg) doesn't start, but he'll play starter minutes (20-plus per game) and will share playmaker duties with Murrell, as the Rebel who has mostly replaced Ruffin. ... Myles Burns in a high energy dude on the wing. His long-distance shooting numbers are poor, at 7-for-46 (15.2 percent), but he's at 51 percent from the 2-point area and crashes the glass at both ends (team-high 57 offensive rebounds). Same can be said for backup forward Jayveous McKinnis, who transferred from up-the-road Jackson State, where he was the two-time Southwest Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year. McKinnis is at 63 percent on the season, has not attempted a 3 and 41 percent of his rebounds have been on the offensive end. ... Senior Tye Fagan, in his second season since transferring from Georgia, only plays 10 minutes per game, but needs to be accounted for at the arc (11 makes at 33 percent).

Numbers of Note

* .700 — UF's winning percentage against Ole Miss during seven seasons under former Coach Mike White, based on his 7-3 record that included a 6-0 mark at home. White started for four seasons as a point guard for the Rebels from 1995-99, so he took that subplot with him to Georgia, where he's 0-1 against his alma mater.

* 1 — Projected Quadrant 1 games remaining on the Florida regular-season schedule (Saturday at Arkansas), with the other five either Q2 or Q3, The Gators will be favored in all five of the former, but they were also favored by eight against Vanderbilt. UF is 2-9 in Q1 games this season.

* 3 — Where the Gators ranked nationally in defensive efficiency through nine SEC games.

* 255 — Where the Gators rank nationally in defensive efficiency over their last three SEC games.

* 1989 — The year 7-foot-2 center Dwayne Schintzius tallied three games in the same season of least 25 points and 10 rebounds, a feat not achieved by a Gator until Castleton this season. Schintzius had 25 and 13 against LSU (in the same game Chris Jackson set the O'Dome record with 53 points), then 28 and 12 and 27 and 11 in two games against Tennessee.

Bottom Line

Just win the game.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Ole Miss (Wednesday, 6:30 pm)