Florida vs Mississippi State (Wednesday, 8:30 pm)

Florida vs. Mississippi State

* When: Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (12-6, 2-3) / Mississippi State (13-5, 2-3)
* TV: SEC Network (Mike Morgan and Mark Wise)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) / Stations list
* Ticket info

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	13.6 pts / 8.3 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	6.5 pts / 7.7 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	10.8 pts / 3.6 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	15.8 pts / 3.8 reb / 2.9 ast
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	14.6 pts / 3.3 reb / 4.7 ast

Mississippi State	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
D.J. Jeffries	F	6-7 / 217	Senior	6.9 pts / 5.7 reb
Tolu Smith III	F	6-11 / 245	5th-Senior	19.7 pts / 7.7 reb
Cameron Matthews	F	6-7 / 230	Senior	9.1 pts / 6.2 reb / 2.9 ast
Shakeel Moore	G	6-1 / 190	Senior	7.7 pts / 2.6 reb
Dashawn Davis	G	6-2 / 190	Senior	7.0 pts / 1.8 reb / 3.2 as

The Breakdown

Mississippi State forward **Tolu Smith III**

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Mississippi State face off in a game between two of the four teams currently tied for eighth place in the Southeastern Conference standings, but just one game out of fifth place. ... The Gators are coming off Saturday night's 79-67 win at Missouri, their first road victory of the season. Earlier that day, the Bulldogs snapped a two-game losing skid by defeating Vanderbilt 68-55 at home. ... Florida leads the all-time series 67-53 after splitting two meetings last season. UF went to Starkville and won 61-59 in a regular-season contest on Jan. 21, 2023. The two were matched in second-round play of the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn., where MSU won 71-69 in overtime when forward Tolu Smith III put in a go-ahead, game-winning layup with 4.8 seconds to play in overtime, spoiling an impressive UF comeback from 14 down in the first half. Gators guard Myreon Jones had a clean look at a 3 at the final horn, but the ball bounced off the back rim. UF trailed by seven in the OT, but stormed to an 8-1 run over 90 seconds to take the lead on a layup by backup guard Niels Lane with 11.8 seconds to go. The Gators, who forced 20 turnovers that day, needed a defensive stop to advance in the tournament, but couldn't get it done. Smith finished with 29 points on 9-for-19 from the floor and 10 of 17 from the free-throw line, plus 12 rebounds and three steals. UF got 14 points from freshman guard Riley Kugel and 11 each from Jones and backup wing Kowacie Reeves. The Gators, though, shot just 40.3 percent, went 8-for-35 from distance and 10 of 17 at the line.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Mississippi State
84.8	Scoring	74.9
.455	Field-goal percentage	.451
.311	3-point percentage	.320
76.0	Scoring defense	65.7
.428	Field-goal percentage defense	.403
.331	3-point percentage defense	.276
39th	KenPom.com overall ranking	34th
24th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	77th
75th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	15th
19th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	180th
45th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	40th
43rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	54th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

After splitting two road games last week, the Gators have a chance to flip a sub-.500 conference record, assuming they can hold serve on their home floor. ... UF has played

significantly better at home versus the road, but the win at Missouri was their best performance to date away from the O'Dome. UF shot nearly 45 percent for the game and dropped nine 3-pointers, while out-rebounding the Tigers 40-27, including 13-4 on the offensive glass. And after allowing the previous three opponents to make 54 percent in their home gyms, the Gators defended at 43 percent and allowed just three of 16 makes from the 3-point line. With the loss, Missouri remained winless in conference play, so a game against a very good and veteran Mississippi State squad, even at home, will be a different matter. ... Florida is 7-1 at the O'Dome this season, with the lone loss an 87-85 defeat against No. 6 Kentucky. ... The Gators have put five players in double-figure scoring in two of the last three games; Arkansas on Jan. 13 and at Missouri, where forward Tyrese Samuel led the way with 17 points and center Micah Handlogten posted his second double-double as a Gator (and first since Nov. 10 vs. Virginia) with 10 points and a game-best 13 rebounds. The two UF starting "bigs" combined to make 10 of 17 shots, but once again struggled at the free-throw line (7 of 14). ... Guard Walter Clayton Jr. was 4-for-11 from the floor, but hit a trio of 3s on six attempts on his way to 15 points and has a run of five consecutive double-figure scoring games. ... Guard Will Richard also was 4-for-11, plus two of seven from deep, for just his second double-figure scoring game in five SEC games. He was a game-best plus-12 for the night. ... Grad-transfer point guard Zyon Pullin had 11 points and a season-low one assist, but the Gators collectively had just 12 assists in great part because of a Mizzou defense that left the UF bigs in isolation situations and dared them to make one-on-one plays. On the flip side, UF had just eight turnovers on the road. ... Backup sophomore guard Riley Kugel (11.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg) had one of his better all-around games in his new reserve role with eight points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals in 21 minutes. ... Freshman reserve forward Alex Condon (8.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg) was solid in 15 minutes at five points (including his first 3-pointer in four games) and four boards.

The Bulldogs

They're in the second year under Chris Jans, who averaged 26.2 wins (with four NCAA berths) in his five full seasons at New Mexico State, then did a tremendous coaching job as a SEC rookie in

'22-23. His first MSU squad started 11-0, but then lost seven of its first eight SEC games, only to rally to an 8-3 finish to reach the play-in round of the NCAA Tournament, where the Bulldogs lost to Pittsburgh. ... MSU's strength is defense, both overall (5th nationally) and guarding the 3-point line (4th at just a 27.6 yield). The Bulldogs move the ball well on offense, with a 58.2 assist percentage on field goals, which is 42nd nationally. ... Mississippi State is 0-3 on the road this season, losing the ACC/SEC Challenge at Georgia Tech and league games at South Carolina and Kentucky. They won the Hall of Fame tournament at Mohegan Sun back in November (beating Washington State and Northwestern (which beat Purdue 10 days later), but the eye-opening win on the resume came against Tennessee, which has looked like world-beaters of late. ... Fifth-year forward Tolu Smith III, as the Gators well know, is a two-time first-team All-SEC star and just a beast on the block. Smith suffered a preseason injury that kept him on the sideline until his debut Dec. 31 against Bethune-Cookman. He has 1,440 points for a career that started at Western Kentucky, but has been at Mississippi State the last four seasons. Smith is shooting 65 percent from the floor and without a 3-point attempt this season there is no mystery where he'll be in the halfcourt. ... Freshman guard Josh Hubbard (14.2 ppg) comes off the bench, but is the team's No. 2 scorer. He's only 5-10, but he's a 190-pound Earl Boykins clone who is shooting 39 percent from the floor, nearly 37 from 3 and 80.3 from the free-throw line on a team-high 61 attempts. Hubbard, out of Madison, Miss., finished high school as the No. 1 all-time scorer in state history with 4,367 career points. Hubbard originally signed with Ole Miss, but flipped after a coaching change there. Hubbard has logo range, so if he's across halfcourt, he needs to be accounted for. He had a career-high 27 in the upset of Tennessee. ... Forward Cameron Matthews is another low-post-or-bust guy (1-for-15 from 3). He's very productive in the paint area, though, at 59.8 percent and also is second on the squad with 52 assists. ... Forward D.J. Jeffries is a really solid player, but not a great long-range shooter. He makes plays, though, shooting at 37 percent with 35 assists. ... Guard Dashawn Davis, by way of Oregon State last season, leads the team with 57 assists. ... Guard Shakeel Moore, at nearly 48 percent from the field and 34 from 3, is in his second season after transferring from North Carolina State. ... Backup forward Jimmy Bell Jr., who goes 6-10 and 280, is making 50 percent of his shots (without a 3, so another Bulldog who knows his role) and has a team-high 45 offensive rebounds. He played at West Virginia, where he had five points and six rebounds in a 29-point blowout of the Gators last season in Portland. ... Guard Trey Fort (6.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg) has 21 3s in a reserve role.

Numbers of Note

UF forward **Tyrese Samuel** has shot a team-high 96 free throws, but at just 54.2 percent.

* .100 — Combined winning percentage of the two teams Florida has beaten in SEC play, based on Arkansas (1-4) and Missouri (0-5) combined records of 1-9. The Gators need to show they can beat better teams.

* 4 — Current MSU starters who stuck around after their former coach, Ben Howland, was fired following the '21-22 season and now are thriving in Year 2 under Jans. That's an impressive holdover feat for a head coach in this fickle-player transfer portal age.

* 8 — Double-doubles by Samuel this season, which is tied with six other players for the eighth-most in the program since the 1996-97 season. His next double-double will pull him even in seventh place with Al Horford's nine in 2005-06.

* 37.5 — Points-per-game average of the last two individual scoring leaders in games against the Gators, based on the outputs from Tennessee's Dalton Knecht (39 points) and Missouri's Tamar Bates (36). Smith and/or Hubbard are probably thinking big.

* 71.3 — UF's team free-throw percentage in SEC play, which ranks ninth in the league, but also is an improvement from the league-worst 65.4 the Gators took into conference play.

Bottom Line

If the Gators want to extend their season well into March, they need to win their home SEC games. It's that simple. They're 1-1 on that front to date.

Gators Calendar

Florida vs Mississippi State (Wednesday, 8:30 pm)

Florida vs. Mississippi State

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The Bulldogs

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Myreon Jones

Riley Kugel

Niels Lane

Zyon Pullin

Kowacie Reeves

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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Florida vs Mississippi State (Wednesday, 8:30 pm)

Florida vs. Mississippi State

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

The Bulldogs

Numbers of Note

Bottom Line

Players Mentioned

Walter Clayton Jr.

Alex Condon

Micah Handlogten

Myreon Jones

Riley Kugel

Niels Lane

Zyon Pullin

Kowacie Reeves

Will Richard

Tyrese Samuel

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