Florida Gators

Florida vs. Central Florida

 
* What: National Invitational Tournament 
* When: 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (16-16) / UCF (18-14)
* TV: ESPN2 (Mike Morgan and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Kyle Crooks and Lee Humphrey)

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jason Jitoboh	F	6-11 / 310	Senior	3.1 pts / 1.5 reb
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	10.6 pts / 4.5 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Freshman	9.8 pts / 2.9 reb
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 177	5th-Senior	5.4 pts / 3.4 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.9 pts / 3.0 reb / 3.6 ast

UCF	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Taylor Hendricks	F	6-9 / 210	Freshman	15.3 pts / 6.9 rpg
Michael Durr	C	7-0 / 250	Senior	5.8 pts  4.7 rep
Ithiel Horton	G	6-5 / 200	Senior	12.4 pts / 3.7 reb
CJ Kelly	G	6-5 / 200	Senior	13.1 pts / 3.6 reb
Darius Johnson	G	6-1 / 190	Sophomore	10.3 pts / 3.1 reb / 4.4 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Central Florida meet in opening-round play of the National Invitational Tournament. The Gators, the No. 4 seed in their quarter of the 32-team field, are in the NIT for the second consecutive season and for the 12th time in program history, while the Knights will make their third appearance. The winner will advance to face either top-seed Oregon (19-14) or California-Irvine (23-11). If the Ducks win that game the second round will be played in Eugene, Ore. If the Anteaters win, Round 2 will be played on the home floor of the UF-UCF survivor. ... Florida leads the all-time series 10-1. The last meeting was Nov. 23, 2012, with the Gators defeating the Knights 79-66 at the O'Connell Center, but not without some second-half drama. In that one, UF built an 18-point halftime lead, only to allow UCF to shoot 57 percent in the second period, including a ridiculous 8-for-10 from the 3-point line, to trim the margin to seven. Ultimately, it was too much from the backcourt senior Kenny Boynton (24 points, 8 rebounds) and backup junior Scottie Wilbekin (17 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds), as well as enough defense in the final 10 minutes to hold off any miracle comeback. Despite the hefty second-half shooting numbers for the Knights, they also had 19 turnovers, including eight from point guard Isaiah Sykes. UCF was led by 20 points from forward Kasey Wilson, who hit five of six from deep. ... Florida is 14-13 all-time in the NIT, with three trips to the Final Four (1986, '92 and 2008), a record that includes two losses in consolation games that are no longer contested. UCF is 3-2 in the tournament, with a trip to the semifinals in 2017. ... UF coach Todd Golden joins Mike White as the only coaches in program history to reach postseason play in their first seasons on the Gators' sideline. White went to the NIT in his inaugural 2015-16 season. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	UCF
71.9	Scoring	72.2
.440	Field-goal percentage	.429
.319	3-point percentage	.359
68.7	Scoring defense	66.0
.411	Field-goal percentage defense	.421
.314	3-point percentage defense	.313
63rd	KenPom.com overall ranking	65th
112th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	89th
30th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	49th
70th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	319th
62nd	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	71st
23rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	79th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They had a chance to stick around the Southeastern Conference Tournament a little while longer, but instead it was Mississippi State that made the last play -- an uncontested layup with 4.8 seconds remaining -- and sent the Gators home with a 69-68 second-round overtime loss. Make that two consecutive years UF has exited the SEC Tournament with an OT second-round

defeat, only this time the turmoil of a coaching change did not follow. Golden, in his first season, will be there for the Gators' date against the Knights and the full allotment of players who suited up last week are expected to be available. ... UF gave Mississippi State, which was the eighth and final conference team to make the NCAA Tournament, all it wanted last week, despite just two players reaching double-figure scoring and the first off-shooting game from freshman guard Riley Kugel in a month. Kugel managed to extend his streak of consecutive double-digit scoring games to nine, but he hit just four of 13 shots, two of eight 3s and turned the ball over four times against one of the nation's best defenses. ... Guard Myreon Jones nailed a trio of late 3-pointers, including two in the final 90 seconds of regulation to put the game in the extra period. His harried 3-ball at the OT buzzer was off left. Jones finished the season at 36.1 percent from deep against SEC opponents. ... Guard Will Richard had a very un-Richard kind of shooting day against the Bulldogs, who clearly made he and Kugel marked men, based on Richard's 4-for-5 shooting from the 3-point line in Florida's 61-59 win Jan. 21 at Starkville. Richard, who went into the SEC Tournament at 50.7 percent from the floor on the season, 41.7 from 3 and 86.8 from the free-throw line, scored just six points. He made two of 10 shots, just one of seven 3s and split a pair of free throws. ... The center combination of Jason Jitoboh, Aleks Szymczyk and Alex Fudge almost provided enough offense. Almost. The trio combined to go 8-for-14 from the floor on the way to 19 points, including a big "Shimmy" 3-pointer in the second half, but the threesome also grabbed just five rebounds and got punished in the post by 6-11, 245-pound Bulldogs center Tolu Smith on his way to 28 points, 12 rebounds and the game-winning layup in the final seconds. Smith was 5-for-12 with 12 points facing All-SEC Defensive teamer Colin Castleton in the first game. ... Point guard Kyle Lofton had six assists in the game, but the post-Castleton Gators really need Lofton to keep defenses honest with his drives and occasional 3s. He had just six points against MSU. ... Reserve wing Kowacie Reeves (8.7 ppg, 2.7 rpg) had 11 points in 26 minutes off the bench, but went just 4-for-12 from the floor, 1-for-7 from deep and missed half his four free throws in a one-point game. Reeves is at just 28 percent from 3 on the season, including 20.5 against SEC opponents. ... The backup perimeter duo of Niels Lane and Trey Bonham combined for two points in 11 minutes against the Bulldogs, with those lone points coming on a Lane layup with 11.9 seconds to go in overtime that gave the Gators a (very) short-lived lead. 

The Knights

It's the seventh season under Coach Johnny Dawkins, who long ago was a superstar at Duke and 11-year NBA veteran after being a lottery pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 1986. Dawkins' first collegiate head job was at Stanford, which he guided to one NCAA Tournament (and 2014 Sweet 16) over nine seasons. He was hired by UCF in 2016 and his one NCAA appearance

there in 2019 featured an upset of fifth-seeded Virginia Commonwealth and 77-76 loss to Zion Williamson and top-seeded Duke when a game-tying shot rimmed out at the buzzer. Dawkins is 130-86 in his run with the Knights and this season went 8-10 in the American Athletic Conference. That record included big wins over Oklahoma State, Santa Clara and Memphis, but also a sweep at the hands of woeful and rival South Florida. UCF won its opener in the AAC Tournament, defeating SMU 76-70, then lost a close one to eventual tournament champ Memphis (which shocked top-ranked Houston in the final) by a score of 81-76. ... If this winds up being UCF's final game of the season, the next time the Knights take the court will be as members of the Big 12 Conference. Their basketball world is about to change. ... The Knights have four starters who average double-figure scoring versus just one for Florida. ... Freshman forward Taylor Hendricks has been the team's best player since he took the court for the Knights' opener and posted 23 points and five rebounds just eight months after leading Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian to its second of back-to-back Class 3A State championships. Now a year removed from those prep titles, Hendricks is projected as a potential lottery pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. In addition to leading UCF in scoring, he's also made 47.5 percent of his field-goal attempts, nearly 40 percent of his 3s and shot 78.5 from the free-throw line. Hendricks 220 boards are nearly twice as many as the next-best rebounder on the team and includes 78 on the offensive glass, which should be of concern to the rebound-challenged Gators. He also has 56 blocked shots. ... Guard C.J. Kelly, a transfer from Massachusetts, is the No. 2 scorer and has comparable shooting numbers to Hendricks; 44 percent overall, 39 from 3 and 81.5 at the free-throw line. ... Point guard Darius Johnson has a team-high 101 assists. Coupled with Kelly's 91, the two have nearly half of the Knights 454 assists on the season, which is 60 more than Florida. ... Guard Ithiel Horton gives the team five rotational players who convert at least 35 percent from deep. ... Seven-foot center Michael Durr is at 47.7 percent from the floor on the season, has attempted just eight 3s (made one) but is a 50-50 rebounder (54 offensive, 54 defense). Durr transferred from Indiana after transferring there from South Florida. ... Reserve point guard Jayhlon Young (4.7 ppg, 2.7 apg) announced Friday he had entered the transfer portal, so he won't play for the Knights.

Numbers of Note

* minus-36 — Offensive rebounding discrepancy for Florida over the six games since losing Castleton. The Gators have been out-rebounded on the offensive glass in all six games, including a combined minus-66 total on both ends of the floor.  

* 2 — May brothers (as in the sons of former UF assistant and current Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May) who will be on the benches. Jack, of course, is a redshirt sophomore walk-on for the Gators, while younger brother Charlie is a walk-on freshman who is redshirting for the Knights. Their dad will be coaching in the NCAA Tournament on Friday at Columbus, Ohio, where the No. 8-seed Owls, who defeated the Gators at O'Dome back on Nov. 14, will square off against No. 9-seed and AAC Tournament champion Memphis. 

* 97 — Made 3-pointers by Jones, which ties the former Penn State sharpshooter for third place on the list of career 3s made by a UF transfer. Jones pulled even with Tyree Appleby (2020-22 by way of Cleveland State) and Mike Rosario (2011-13 from Rutgers) and with three more would join Dorian Finney-Smith (159 from 2013-16 after coming from Virginia Tech) and Jalen Hudson (122 from 2017-19, also by way of Virginia Tech) as the only players to transfer to Florida and make at least 100 3s. 

* 1969 — The year of Florida's first NIT, which doubled as the program's first postseason berth of any kind in program history. The Gators, led by All-America center Neal Walk (24.0 ppg, 17.8 rpg) and forward Andy Owens (15.8 ppg, 8.5 rpg), were beaten 82-66 by Temple at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

* 2010 — The year the Knights beat the Gators for the lone time in series history. The date was Dec. 2. The place was the semi-neutral floor at Amway Arena in Orlando. Guard Marcus Jordan (yes, Michael's son) scored 18 points, but it was two free throws from guard Keith Clanton in the final seconds that helped put away a 57-54 upset of UCF's cross-state rival and national powerhouse. UF, ranked 16th at the time, came in with five returning starters from a NCAA Tournament team. The Gators had a chance to tie the game late, but turned the ball over before getting off a shot. Center Vernon Macklin led UF with 20 points on 10-for-11 shooting to go with eight rebounds, but the rest of the team went just 11 of 39 and turned the ball over 14 times. That Florida team, by the way, lost three weeks later at home to Jacksonville and went on to win the regular-season SEC championship and advance to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.
 

Bottom Line

It's not the tournament of choice, obviously, but it's the one the Gators earned. How they approach it will have everything to do with how they fare in it.