Florida at Vanderbilt (Saturday, 6 pm)

Saturday, February 25

Nashville, TN

6 PM

Florida Gators

Vanderbilt

Florida at Vanderbilt (Saturday, 6 pm)

Saturday, February 25, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

Florida at Vanderbilt

* When: Saturday, 6 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Memorial Gymnasium / Nashville, Tenn.
* Records: Florida (14-14, 7-8) / Vanderbilt (15-13, 7-8)
* TV: ESPN2 (Mike Morgan and Mark Wise)
* 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	2.6 pts / 1.3 reb
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	10.1 pts / 4.3 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Freshman	8.6 pts / 2.6 reb
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 177	5th-Senior	5.1 pts / 3.0 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.8 pts / 3.0 reb / 3.5 ast

Vanderbilt	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Myles Stute	F	6-7 / 215	Junior	9.1 pts / 5.1 reb
Liam Robbins	C	7-0 / 250	Senior	15.4 pts / 7.0 reb
Tyrin Lawrence	G	6-4 / 200	Junior	11.3 pts / 4.0 reb
Trey Thomas	G	6-0 / 160	Junior	6.0 pts / 1.9 reb
Ezra Manjon	G	6-0 / 170	Senior	8.7 pts / 2.8 reb / 3.8 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Vanderbilt meet in a the second game of their annual home-and-home Southeastern Conference series, with both teams in the middle of the pack of the SEC standings and looking like NIT fodder (at best), plus seeding at the NCAA Tournament at Nashville in two weeks. ... The Gators are coming off Wednesday night's 82-74 home loss against Kentucky, while the Commodores, one of the hottest teams in the league at week's start, had their five-game winning streak snapped with a nasty 84-77 loss at last-place LSU. ... Florida leads the all-time season 73-72, but Vandy stopped a run of nine straight wins for the Gators with their 88-80 victory at Gainesville on Feb. 11. In that one, center Liam Robbins destroyed the Gators by scoring a career-high 32 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, but it was the Commodores' long-range shooting that proved the difference. Vanderbilt went 12-for-23 from deep (compared to woeful 2-for-20 for the home team), with six different players hitting 3s, including Robbins going 3-for-4 despite coming into the game at just 21 percent on the season. Florida was led that night by forward Colin Castleton's 25 points and 11 rebounds, but he's done for the season with a broken hand. ... Vandy is 1-9 against UF under Coach Jerry Stackhouse, including 0-4 at home. ... Florida coach Todd Golden is 0-1 vs. the Commodores.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Vanderbilt
71.6	Scoring	71.4
.437	Field-goal percentage	.418
.321	3-point percentage	.333
68.1	Scoring defense	71.9
.412	Field-goal percentage defense	.436
.323	3-point percentage defense	.321
55th	KenPom.com overall ranking	88th
128th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	34th
24th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	175th
71st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	235th
55th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	91st
16th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	4th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They shot 50 percent for the game and made eight 3-pointers, which was the second-most the Gators had knocked down against a SEC opponent this season. Offensively, Florida was pretty solid in its

loss to Kentucky, but the Gators' rebounding was a crime against rebounding humanity. UF was pummeled on the glass 40-21 (two UK players combined for five more rebounds than the entire Florida team). The Wildcats smashed the Gators 13-2 on the offensive glass, which led to a 15-0 shutout in second-chance points; all that lopsidedness in what was a two-point game with less than a minute to go with Florida's defense in need of one stop for a chance to tie or win. The Gators got that stop, forcing a contested step-back 3-pointer. The Wildcats, of coursem, got the rebound and scored to help put the outcome away. ... Freshman Riley Kugel continued on his torrid pace, pouring in a career-high 24 points by making seven of 12 shots, four of six 3s and going 6-for-7 at the free-throw line. His output marked the most by a Florida freshman since Noah Locke dropped 27 on Texas A&M in 2019. He now has five straight games of double-figure scoring (he had five total the previous 22 games) and is shooting nearly 54 percent over that stretch. ... The low-post tandem of centers Jason Jitoboh and Aleks Szymczyk combined for just eight points and four rebounds against UK, which isn't so much an indictment of them as much as the Wildcats' superior depth and talent up front. Still, the Gators need more from those two guys, particularly when it comes to rebounding. Jitoboh had all eight of the points. ... Speaking of more, no one needs to tell Will Richard or Myreon Jones the expectations for those two starters -- with Castleton gone -- exceeds combining for eight points, four rebounds and three assists. The two average almost twice the points they scored against UK. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton had nine points and five assists and continues to be a steadying hand, especially in executing halfcourt offense. He also is one of the team's best at driving the ball and finishing. ... We'll see what Golden and his staff have in mind for the rotations this game after getting early cameos from junior wing Niels Lane (8 points, 2 rebounds, good energy and defense) and seldom-used freshman backup point guard Denzel Aberdeen (1 point), while junior guard Trey Bonham and senior forward CJ Felder were DNPs.

The Commodores

They were on a five-game winning streak (the program's longest in six seasons) and riding a ton of momentum in the fourth season under Stackhouse, only to crash and burn in a hideous loss at Baton Rouge to a team that had won just one of 14 games in league play. The Commodores were bludgeoned by LSU forward KJ Williams for 35 points and 10 rebounds, with Williams

stepping out to go 5-for-10 from the arc and help offset 11 makes from deep by the Dores. Before that loss, Vandy could dare to dream of postseason possibilities, but now is looking to hold serve on its home floor, albeit against an opponent the Commodores carved up with lights-out shooting just 14 days ago. ... Robbins, the 7-footer in his second season since transferring from Minnesota, worked the Gators silly in the first meeting and easily won his individual matchup against Castleton. Robbins hit his first six shots in the game's first six minutes, went 10 of 18 from the floor, 3-for-4 from deep and 9-for-11 from the free-throw line. ... Guard Tyrin Lawrence is the only other Commodore besides Robbins scoring in double digits. He's at nearly 47 percent overall, just 29 from deep, but his buzzer-beating 3-pointer in an upset of No. 6 Tennessee was the biggest shot of the team's five-game winning streak. ... Lawrence only scored four in the first UF game, but point guard Ezra Manjon (11 points, 6 assists), the Cal-Davis transfer, and off-guard Trey Thomas (16 points) helped cancel out Lawrence's off night. Thomas was 4-for-5 from the arc, with some killers at inopportune moments for the Gators. ... Backup forward Jordan Wright has knack for playing well against UF. He came off the bench in the first game and, while not particularly efficient offensively (3-for-10 from the floor, 3 of six from the line) posted a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. ... Forward Myles Stute has a team-high 65 makes from deep and is shooting at 38.7 percent out there. ... Reserve guard Colin Smith had a pair of 3s against UF in 13 minutes. ... Forward Quentin Millora-Brown has started 20 games, but is coming off the bench now and still crashing the offensive glass. He has more offensive rebounds (54) than defensive (47).

Numbers of Note

Memorial Gymnasium (capacity 14,135) on Vandy's campus

* 3 — Most rebounds grabbed a UF player in the Kentucky loss. Four players hit that number, compared to UK, which had two players in double-figure rebounding, led by freshman Chris Livingston, who had 15, including four on the offensive end (twice as many as Team Florida).

* 4 — Consecutive road wins for the Gators in the UF-Vanderbilt series, which ranks as the longest streak in program history. The previous longest was three, which happened once (2001-03).

* 12 — 3-pointers made by Vandy in the first meeting, which ranks as the third-most in a game against the Gators this season. Alabama made 15 in its 29-point blowout at Tuscaloosa on Feb. 8 and Florida Atlantic dropped 13 in its two-point win Nov. 12 at the O'Dome. Only two other UF opponents, Xavier (10 in a win) and Georgia (10 in a loss), hit double-digit 3s against the Gators this season. UF's 3-point percentage defense (.323) ranks eighth in the SEC.

* 17.2 — Kugel's scoring average during his run of five straight games reaching double-digit points.

* 5,251 — Career minutes for Lofton, who needs just 12 to move past Iowa's Jordan Bohanan and into second place all-time in college basketball history. He likely won't catch Richmond's Jacob Gilyard, who logged 5,749 career minutes from 2017-22.

Bottom Line

The stakes aren't particular high for either team, as far as postseason chances go, but UF, obviously, does not want to lose out after losing Castleton. How the Gators played against Kentucky was proof that does not have to happen.