Florida at Arkansas (Saturday, 2 pm)

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Florida at Arkansas (Saturday, 2 pm)

Friday, February 17, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

Florida at Arkansas

* When: Saturday, 2 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Bud Walton Arena / Fayetteville, Ark.
* Records: Florida (14-12, 7-6) / Arkansas (17-9, 6-7)
* TV: ESPN2 (Kevin Fitzgerald and Jimmy Dykes)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jason Jitoboh	C	6-11 / 300	Senior	2.4 pts / 1.3 reb
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	10.3 pts / 4.4 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Freshman	7.6 pts / 2.6 reb
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 177	5th-Senior	5.3 pts / 3.1 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.9 pts / 3.1 reb / 3.8 ast

Arkansas	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Makhi Mitchell	F	6-9 / 230	Senior	7.2 pts / 5.8 reb
Makhel Mitchell	F	6-10 / 240	Senior	4.7 pts / 3.6 reb
Ricky Council IV	G	6-6 / 205	Junior	16.5 pts / 3.3 reb
Davonte Davis	G	6-4 / 185	Junior	11.2 pts / 4.2 reb
Anthony Black	G	6-7 / 198	Freshman	13.0 pts / 5.2 reb / 4.3 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida heads to Arkansas for its first game since the season took a dismal turn Wednesday night with the loss of two-time All-Southeastern Conference forward Colin Castleton. The Gators defeated Ole Miss 79-64, snapping a three-game losing streak, but Castleton suffered a broken right hand on a fluky injury that took away the team's leading scorer, rebounder and rim protector. The Razorbacks, with their high NCAA Evaluation Tool rating (22nd,) and outstanding strength of schedule (6th), are in decent shape for a third straight NCAA Tournament berth, but they've dropped two in a row (at home last weekend against Mississippi State, then Wednesday on the road at SEC second-place Texas A&M) and figure to come with a little more desperation; and probably sense significant vulnerability in their short-handed opponent. ... The game will mark Florida's last chance at a Quadrant 1 victory in the regular season, per the NET rankings. ... UF leads the all-time series 26-14, but Arkansas has won the last two, including an 82-74 victory at Gainesville on Feb. 22, 2022. In that one, senior guard JD Notae, the transfer from Jacksonville U and second-leading scorer in the SEC, poured in 22 points, including a killer 3-pointer with just over a minute to go after Florida had closed within a point. Notae led five Arkansas teammates into double-figure scoring, with backup guard Davonte Davis hopping off the bench for 19 points (on 7-for-10 shooting) and six rebounds, plus forward Jaylin Williams tallying 15 points, 10 rebounds and three drawn charges. Three different Razorbacks had at least six rebounds, as Arkansas shot nearly 47 percent for the game and beat UF on glass, 39-31, with a 12-8 advantage on the offensive end that led to 16 second-chance points. The loss wasted a career-high 29-point performance from (guess who?) Castleton, who went 10 of 16 from the floor and 9-for-10 at the free-throw line. ... This will be Gators coach Todd Golden's first game against the Razorbacks.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Arkansas
71.8	Scoring	73.8
.438	Field-goal percentage	.477
.323	3-point percentage	.306
66.9	Scoring defense	65.6
.402	Field-goal percentage defense	.412
.326	3-point percentage defense	.326
48th	KenPom.com overall ranking	22nd
132nd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	68th
16th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	11th
79th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	85th
51st	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	21st
22nd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	6th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

After posting at least 25 points the three previous games, Castleton was held to just three (tying his season-low) in what all but certainly was his final game in a Florida uniform. Five of his teammates, however, hit double figures in their 15-point defeat of Ole Miss, so the Gators already have under their belt the kind of performance it's going to take to play without

Castleton. A little bit more from everybody will be needed. Of course, it didn't hurt that UF had its best shooting performance of the season, hitting 59 percent for the game and dropping 10 of 17 from the 3-point line (also 59 percent). Minus Castleton, the ball is going to have to move differently and the Florida coaches are going to have to tweak the system to get more sharing of the ball because the offense is not going to through Jason Jitoboh (2.4 ppt, 1.3 rpg), who figures to replace Castleton in the first unit. Jitoboh, whose game in no way resembles Castleton's, is averaging just nine minutes per, but played almost the entire final 14 minutes after Castleton left the Ole Miss game and finished with a season-high 17 minutes. Jitoboh had some great success subbing for Castleton during his shoulder injury last year, but eventually was lost for the season with an eye injury. He was playing well then. Can he be that guy again? ... Guard Myreon Jones led the team with 15 points last game, dropping five 3-pointers after going scoreless the previous two games. Jones is up to 37.3 percent from deep in SEC play. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton will continue to be the steady hand running the team. He had 10 points, four rebounds, seven assists, no turnovers, two steals and played to a team-best plus-18 against the Rebels. ... Guard Riley Kugel had five double-figure scoring games though the first 25 games, but has three in a row after going for 12 last time out. He's averaged 15.0 points and shot 57.5 percent in his impressive three-game scoring run. ... Will Richard and backup guard/forward Kowacie Reeves each tallied 13 points, combining to made 10 of 16 field-goal tries and three of seven 3s. Richard had five rebounds, Reeves had none. They both need to hit the glass harder now. Reeves, who was struggling mightily with his shot, has back-to-back double-digit scoring games, but did go just one of five at the free-throw line. ... Backup forward Alex Fudge (6.3 ppg, 4.7 rpg) has averaged around 13 minutes per game since returning from a concussion six games ago, but that number is about to go up. Fudge had seven points and five boards in 17 minutes vs. Ole Miss and took a couple questionable shots. He might just need to calm down a little on offense, kind of like what Reeves needed to do during his difficult run. ... Freshman center Aleks Szymczyk checked in with 44 seconds for just his seventh appearance of the season, but the 6-10 German needs to be ready just in case. Same goes for forward CJ Felder, who returned to the team two weeks ago after taking an extended leave for personal reasons, along with seldom-used guard Trey Bonham and guard/forward Niels Lane, as it's all-hands-on-deck time for the Gators.

The Razorbacks

It's the fourth season in Fayetteville for Eric Musselman, the journeyman and former two-time NBA head coach who won 110 games, three Mountain West Conference titles and went to three NCAA Tournaments at Nevada before being lured away by the Hogs in 2019. Musselman is 90-37 in his four seasons, including 39-27 in SEC play, with runs to the Elite Eight in each of the last two

years. The '22-23 team began the season in the Associated Press Top 10, but was rocked by early injuries, losing post man Trevon Brazile (11.8 ppg, 6.8 rpg) for good to a knee injury and five-star freshman recruit Nick Smith (9.9 ppg) to a knee injury as well. Smith, projected to be a top-five pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, returned two games ago, but the Hogs lost both, with Smith going scoreless in just four minutes in Saturday's loss at A&M. He played 17 minutes and scored five points last weekend in the home loss to Mississippi State. ... Arkansas had a big non-league victory over San Diego State, as well as a victory over Oklahoma. The Hogs opened the SEC season with a dreadful loss at LSU, also had a run of four consecutive league losses, but handed A&M one of its two defeats in conference play. ... Guard Ricky Council IV, transfer from Wichita State and the former American Athletic Conference Sixth Man of the Year, is the SEC's No. 2 scorer. Counsel is shooting 45 percent from the floor, just 29 from deep, but nearly 80 percent from the free-throw line, where he's visited 139 teams this season, third-most in the league. ... Point guard Anthony Black, a McDonald's All American out of Duncanville, Texas, has all the looks of a lottery pick. He's made 46 percent, 32 from deep and like Counsel is adept at getting to the line (130 attempts). His size makes for a huge matchup problem for most point guards, but Lofton is a physical and savvy player who may be able to take advantage of Black's penchant to turn the ball over (111 assists 83 turnovers). Black's length allows him to be an outstanding defender (50 steals leads the team and ranks in the SEC top five). ... Davis has played well in two games against the Gators. His 101 attempts from deep (33 percent) leads the team. ... The Mitchells are real-deal "Twin Towers." The brothers, Makhi and Makhel, transferred from Rhode Island. Makhi leads the team in rebounding and is second in blocks, while shooting 67 percent from the floor (just one attempt from 3). Makhel, the taller of the two, starts but only plays 14.5 minutes. His shooting percentage is the same as his brother's (with fewer attempts), but the Gators may want to foul him when appropriate, given his 46-percent from the free-throw line. ... Backup guard Jordan Walsh (7.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg) was part of the Arkansas freshman class rated among the best in the country. ...

Numbers of Note

**Mike Miller** scored 19 points in the UF-Arkansas 2000 meeting that marked the Gators' first win in five trips to Fayetteville.

* .393 — Richard's 3-point shooting percentage in SEC play. Maybe he should shoot it more.

* 28.3 — Percentage of possessions the Gators used Castleton for either a shot or pass, which ranks seventh in the SEC.

* 34.5 — Combined season's scoring average of the new projected Florida starting lineup.

* 1,162 — Career points at UF for Castleton, which leaves him at No. 41 on the all-time list. That'll leave Castleton, who came by way of Michigan, at No. 2 all-time among Florida transfers, falling 55 points short of the 1,220 scored by Dorian Finney-Smith (2013-16) after coming from Virginia Tech.

* 2000 — The year Florida won its first game at Fayetteville following four straight losses (1992, '94, '96, '98) after Arkansas joined the SEC for the 1991-92 athletic calendar. Sophomore forward Mike Miller scored 19 points and guard Kenyan Weaks added 13 for the 18th-ranked Gators, who were on their way to the second Final Four in program history and their first berth in a national-title game (a loss to Michigan State). Miller wasn't the only future NBA standout in the game. Forward Joe Johnston, a lottery pick who became a seven-time all-star and played in the league for 21 seasons (retiring last year), scored 19 for the Hogs.

Bottom Line

External expectations for this team are not very high. The internal expectations are different, as the Gators have no choice but to close quarters, band together and fight against the odds. Big odds now.