Florida Gators

Florida at Vanderbilt

 
* When: Saturday, 4:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Memorial Gymnasium / Nashville, Tenn.
* Records: Florida (21-9, 11-5) / Vanderbilt (8-22, 3-14)
* TV: SEC Network (Roy Philpott and Pat Bradley)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD
  (with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) / Stations list 

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Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	13.7 pts / 7.8 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	6.0 pts / 7.4 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	11.4 pts / 3.8 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	17.1 pts / 3.7 reb
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	15.5 pts / 3.8 reb / 4.9 ast

Vanderbilt	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Ven-Allen Lubin	F	6-8 / 230	Sophomore	11.4 pts / 6.4 reb
JaQualon Roberts	F	6-8 / 220	Freshman	1.8 pts / 2.1 reb
Malik Presley	F	6-6 / 200	Freshman	1.8 pts / 1.5 reb
Tyrin Lawence	G	6-4 / 200	Senior	14.1 pts / 5.1 reb
Ezra Manjon	G	6-0 / 170	Senior	14.4 pts / 3.2 reb / 3.7 ast

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Vanderbilt, two teams in completely different end-of-season circumstances, will face off in their Southeastern Conference regular-season finale in the Music City just five days and about 2 miles from where the conference tournament will be staged next week at Bridgestone Arena. ... The Gators are coming off Tuesday night's 105-87 blowout of No. 16 Alabama in Gainesville, where they trailed for less than three minutes and staged maybe their best all-around performance of the season, given the opponent. ...The Commodores have lost five of six, including Wednesday's 93-77 defeat at 15th-ranked Kentucky. ... UF rests in sixth place in the SEC standings and is slotted into the No. 6 seed and second day of the SEC Tournament, while Vandy is assured of playing in Wednesday's dreaded bottom-four round. ... The Gators lead the all-time series 74-73, having taken the lead by virtue of their 77-64 home win on Feb. 24. In that one, guard Will Richard equaled his career high with five 3-pointers on the way to a game-high 21 points. Guard Walter Clayton Jr. added 19 points, forward Tyrese Samuel posted 15 points and six rebounds, with backup forward Alex Condon pitching in eight points and nine boards. UF scored the game's first five points, took an early eight-point lead, then withstood something of a drought before taking its first double-digit edge at 23-13 at the 7:30 mark while Vandy was missing 11 of 13 field-goal tries. The Gators led at halftime 35-20 after holding the Commodores to 26-percent shooting and their lowest-scoring first period of the season. Vandy never trailed by less than 10 in the second half. ... UF coach Todd Golden is 1-2 against the Comodores. 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Vanderbilt
85.1	Scoring	67.0
.456	Field-goal percentage	.396
.34-	3-point percentage	.279
77.5	Scoring defense	75.3
.436	Field-goal percentage defense	.454
.320	3-point percentage defense	.376
24th	KenPom.com overall ranking	198th
15th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	206th
78th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	208th
31st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	289th
27th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	218th
38th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	27th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They moved up seven spots in the NCAA Evaluation Tool rankings after shellacking Alabama, which came in that night at No. 7 in the NET. Florida jumped from 33rd to 27th in the

NET and has played itself into an opportunity for the sixth or seventh line in the 68-team NCAA field; maybe better than that, depending on what happens at the SEC Tournament. What happens with this trip to Nashville also is of consequence, with the Gators going in as solid road favorites. ... UF remains one of the best offensive teams in the nation (15th nationally; fifth in the high-octane SEC), but Golden and his staff hope the Gators took a big stride defensively in how they guarded the Crimson Tide, the nation's No. 1 offense, compared to the porous performance just three days earlier in surrendering 51 second-half points and 58-percent shooting in blowing a double-digit lead with 12 minutes left at defense-minded South Carolina. Yes, Alabama scored 52 points in the second half, but the Tide shot just 43 percent and were closed out on the 3-point line in going 5-for-23 (21.7 percent). Vandy isn't anywhere as explosive, not even close, but the Gators will want to be mindful of the scout and do what they can to take away the Commodores' strengths, especially on the road. ... Florida's road record is 3-6 this season. ... 
Wing Will Richard, just 28.7 percent from the 3-point line in SEC play, went 3-for-5 and led the Gators with 23 points in the Bama win. Richard is such an important element to the Florida offense because of his ability to space the floor for his backcourt mates. Too many times in big games this season, Richard has had a tough night shooting (he had a rare scoreless out the game before in a six-point loss at South Carolina, for example). If he can bang a couple 3s, he changes how defenses choose to guard. ... Walter Clayton Jr. was just three of 12 against the Tide, only one of five from 3, but he drew eight fouls and went 15-for-16 at the free-throw line. He's now at 84.9 percent on the season. ... Point guard Zyon Pullin played more than 33 minutes without a turnover against the handsy Tide, scored 19 points (including 8-for-8 from the free-throw line) and engineered an offense that scored 61 points in the second half. Pullin was a team-best plus-18 for the game. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel, a 56.4-percent free-throw shooter on the season, went 9-for-9 at the line. Samuel and center Micah Handlogten (2 points on two free throws) combined for just 10 rebounds in the Bama win. The Commodores are near the bottom of the league in rebounding, so this could provide a chance for the duo to get back on track, especially knowing how Vandy challenged the UF front court on the glass in the last meeting. ... ... Backup freshman forwards Alex Condon and Thomas Haugh combined for 12 points and 14 rebounds . ... Sophomore guard Riley Kugel played just 10 minutes and only scored three points, but had three rebounds and two assists. ... Sophomore guard Denzel Aberdeen (2.7 ppg), the ninth man in the rotation at just 9.0 minutes per game, made two huge plays, one in each half, in the Bama game -- a late shot-clock 3 pointer in the first, then a steal and run-out slam in the second -- that ignited the crowd at moments when the Tide were trying to stick around. 
 

The Commodores

It's their fifth season under former NBA star Jerry Stackhouse -- and quite possibly the last. After two losing seasons to start his Vandy stint, the program appeared to be moving forward when

Stackhouse guided the Commodores to back-to-back winning seasons, including last year's 22-15 campaign that included an 11-7 mark in the SEC and run to the NIT quarterfinals for the second straight season. Vandy lost its best to the pros and two more of its best players, Jordan Wright (LSU) and Myles Stute (South Carolina) to a couple conference rivals. The season opened with a home loss to Presbyterian and has been basically a downer since. Stackhouse has always been admired for his sophisticated NBA-like offenses, but the '23-24 Commodores just don't have the talent they had in the past. ... Vandy currently ranks last or next to last in the SEC in virtually every meaningful offensive category. Making matters worse, the Commodores also rate last or next to last in every meaningful defensive category, including guarding the 2-point (53.7 percent) and 3-point (36.8) areas. ... Vandy's tallest starter is 6-8, so Florida should have a significant advantage inside, but the Commodores not only held their own on the glass in the first meeting, but out-rebounded the Gators, if only by one (38-37 overall, 12-10 on offensive end) in the first matchup. In the two weeks since, Stackhouse has opted to start a pair of bigger freshmen, JaQualon "JQ" Roberts and Malik Pressly, in effort to get more size and production up front, even if they're only playing bench-like minutes. ...  Point guard Ezra Manjon, in his second season since coming from California-Davis, is at 32.6 percent from the floor and has made just 14 3s this season at 32 percent. Manjon, though, is an attacker who can draw fouls and make a bunch of free throws (83 percent percent on 131 attempts). ... Guard Tyrin Lawrence entered the transfer portal last spring (even had conversations with the Gators), but opted to return to Vandy. He's a four-year Commodore who is not shooting great 40.6 percent overall and only 26.5 from deep, but like Manjon he's a foul-drawer with a team-high 150 trips to the line (70.7 percent). ... Forward Ven-Allen Lubin was a standout at Orlando Christian Prep and originally signed with Notre Dame, where he played in all but four games last season before transferring to Vandy. He had 15 points and seven rebounds in the first meeting. As the Commodores' lone producing "big," he's at just shy of 50 percent on the season from the floor and had a career-high 25 points in an upset of Texas A&M. Lubin is not much of a 3-point threat (10 of 32), but gets after it on the glass. His 58 offensive rebounds are more than twice as many as the next-best Dore. ... Guard Evan Taylor, now coming off the bench, has 45 makes from deep on 144 attempts (31.3 percent), both team highs. The Lehigh transfer scored 25 earlier this season against Arizona State and 20 last month weeks ago against Kentucky. ...  Grad transfer Tasos Kamateros had just shy of 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in four seasons at South Dakota. He comes off the bench, but his 27 makes from 3 rate second on the team. 
 

Numbers of Note

* 1 — Where the Gators' current points-per-game average of 85.1 ranks in program history, not quite one point ahead of the 1986-87 Florida team that averaged an all-time UF best 84.2 per game.

* 2 — Coaches in UF history to beat five ranked teams in their first two seasons on the Gators' sideline, with Golden joining Tommy Bartlett as the lone pair to turn the trick. Bartlettt, hired in 1966, defeated No. 4 Kentucky, No. 10 Mississippi State, No. 9 Vanderbilt, No. 3 Vanderbilt and No. 4 Kentucky during his first two seasons (all at home). In the last two seasons, Golden has beaten No. 20 Missouri, No. 2 Tennessee, at No. 10 Kentucky, No. 12 Auburn and No. 16 Alabama. 

* 100.0 — Samuel's free throw percentage over the last two games, based on his 12-for-12 performance at the line (3-for-3 at South Carolina, followed by that astounding 9-for-9 against Alabama). Samuel was at 52.3 percent on the season through the first 28 games. 

* 356 — Where Vandy ranks nationally (out of 364 Division I teams) in 3-point shooting, based on its 28.1 marksmanship from deep. 

* 2017 — The last year the Gators won more regular-season games than the '23-24 team. That squad, coached by Mike White and led by the likes of KeVaughn Allen, Devin Robinson, Kasey Hill, Chris Chiozza, Kevarrius Hayes and Canyon Barry, finished the regular season 24-7. That team also advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to South Carolina in the NCAA East Region final at Madison Square Garden.
 

Bottom Line

Never an easy task going to Memorial, so consider this one a shot at providing another solid indicator on where this team's collective focus is heading into the postseason.