#16 Ole Miss Rebels (17-3, 6-1 SEC) at #4 Florida Gators (17-2, 7-0 SEC)
Stephen C. O'Connell Center (capacity: 11,548), Gainesville, FL 7:00 p.m.
Broadcast Information
TV: ESPNU; Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Matt Doherty (analyst)
Radio: WRUF/Gator IMG Sports Network; Mick Hubert (play-by-play) and Mark Wise (analyst)
Streaming: ESPN3.com
Head Coaches
Ole Miss: Andy Kennedy (142-81, 7th season at Ole Miss; 163-94 overall, 6th season)
University of Florida: Billy Donovan (403-160, 17th season at Florida; 438-180 overall, 19th season)
Probable Starters
Ole Miss Rebels
#32 Jarvis Summers (6'3", 184 lbs SO) Season stats: 8.9 ppg, 3.9 apg
#22 Marshall Henderson (6'2", 175 lbs JR) Season stats: 19.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg
#10 LaDarius White (6'6", 210 lbs SO) Season stats: 5.5 ppg, 2.3 rpg
#23 Reginald Buckner (6'9", 235 lbs SR) Season stats: 9.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg
#31 Murphy Holloway (6'7", 240 lbs SR) Season stats: 14.6 ppg, 10.3 rpg
Bench
#20 Nick Williams (6'4", 212 lbs SR) Season stats: 9.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg *injured, but will play
#3 Derrick Millinghaus (5'10", 170 lbs FR) Season stats: 5.5 ppg, 1.8 apg
#1 Martavious Newby (6'3", 210 lbs FR) Season stats: 2.3 ppg, 1.6 rpg
#13 Anthony Perez (6'9", 205 lbs FR) Season stats: 2.1 ppg, 1.5 rpg
Florida Gators
#5 Scottie Wilbekin (6'2", 176 lbs JR) Season stats: 9.1 ppg, 4.9 apg, 2.8 rpg, 1.7 steals per game
#1 Kenny Boynton (6'2", 190 lbs SR) Season stats: 13.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.0 apg
#3 Mike Rosario (6'3", 183 lbs RS-SR) Season stats: 11.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.3 apg
#33 Erik Murphy (6'10", 238 lbs SR) Season stats: 12.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg
#4 Patric Young (6'9", 249 lbs JR) Season stats: 11.0 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.8 blocks per game
Bench
#15 Will Yeguete (6'7", 240 lbs JR) Season stats: 6.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg
#20 Michael Frazier (6'4", 200 lbs FR) Season stats: 5.5 ppg, 3.3 rpg
#24 Casey Prather (6'6", 208 lbs JR) Season stats: 6.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg
Injury News and Team Notes
- Junior guard/forward Casey Prather, who had missed the last four games due to a high ankle sprain, played three minutes against South Carolina. He's averaging 14.4 minutes per game; look for him to see similar minutes in tonight's game.
- The Gators are going for their 10th straight win tonight.
- The game has been declared a sellout. This will be Florida's second sellout of the season, the other one being the Missouri game on January 19.
- Courtesy of Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo! Sports: "The Gators have now beaten their seven SEC foes by an average of a ridiculous 28.3 points per game, never trailing in three of the victories and leading for all 140 second-half minutes besides the first 43 seconds after halftime at Georgia."
- Senior forward Erik Murphy leads the SEC in 3-point shooting at 48.7% (38/78).
- The Gators shot 7/16 from the free throw line in Wednesday's game. I'm sure Coach Donovan made sure that they put in some extra work during the last few days.
- Sophomore walk-on Jacob Kurtz has scored in three out of the last five games that he's played in.
- The Gators held an opponent under 40 points for the second time this season, holding South Carolina to 36 points.
- In addition, the Gators held an opponent under 50 points for the 11th time this season.
- Ole Miss reserve forward Aaron Jones suffered a torn ACL in Tuesday's loss to Kentucky. Jones was playing 16.9 minutes per game, so the Rebels will need freshman forward Anthony Perez to take some of Jones' minutes.
- Ole Miss star guard Marshall Henderson is averaging 19.3 ppg (#1 in the SEC in ppg) and has made 76 out of 218 three-pointers. 74.6% of his shots come from behind the arc (attempted 292 shots overall). Needless to say, he's never seen a shot that he doesn't like and he's not afraid to pull up from anywhere.
- Henderson is averaging 21.3 ppg in SEC play.
- Murphy Holloway is the only SEC player averaging a double-double at 14.6 ppg and 10.3 rpg.
- Ole Miss has the SEC's top-scoring offense (fifth nationally), averaging 80.0 ppg.
- The Rebels also have the top 3-point defense in the conference, allowing 27.9% from behind the arc.
Last Game for Both Schools
Ole Miss: Lost to Kentucky (home) on Tuesday, 87-74 (the Rebels' first SEC loss).
Florida: Defeated South Carolina (home) on Wednesday, 75-36.
Florida All-Time Versus Ole Miss
Florida leads the all-time series versus the Rebels, 60-42. The Gators are 13-6 under Donovan versus Ole Miss. The Gators have won four straight and 10 of the last 11 meeting in the series. UF is 35-11 all-time at home versus the Rebels, including 6-2 under Donovan. The Gators have won six straight at home versus Ole Miss. Four of the last five games have been decided by six points or less.
Last Meeting Between Schools
The Gators escaped with a four-point win (64-60) in Oxford, Mississippi, in January 26, 2012. The Gators overcame a 16-point deficit to steal a road win. Patric Young scored 15 points, Kenny Boynton had 12, and Erving Walker chipped in 10.
What I'm Wondering
1. I think that the overriding question for tonight's game is whether the Gator defense will be able to contain Marshall Henderson. He scored 21 points in Tuesday's loss to Kentucky, but needed 19 shots (made five shots). Scottie Wilbekin will take the challenge of guarding the Rebels' best player. Simply put, will the Gators be able to contain Henderson? I'm confident that they will. The Wilbekin-Henderson matchup will be one to die for!
2. The Gators shot 7/16 from the free throw line in Wednesday's game. As a team, they're shooting 69.7% from the line this season. However, two Gators need to improve in that area: Will Yeguete is shooting 57.4% (31/54) and Patric Young shoots 50.0% (37/74). Will the Gators improve their fortunes at the charity stripe? After all, that's why they're called a "free" throws.
3. A big key tonight will be the frontcourt matchups. Ole Miss has two senior forwards in Buckner (6'9", 235 lbs) and Holloway (6'7", 240 lbs). Florida counters with Murphy and Young, with Yeguete off the bench. Holloway averages a double-double and Young has been fairly consistent on both ends of the floor. What a matchup down low it's going to be! Which team will have the inside advantage?
Records to be Broken in the Near Future
- Kenny Boynton (1,848 points) is third on the all-time scoring list (Ronnie Williams leads with 2,090 points).
- Boynton (307 threes) is the all-time leader in three-pointers made in school history.
- Boynton (124 games started) is just 5 starts away from passing Andrew DeClerq (128 starts) for the all-time record in school history.
- Boynton (4,103 minutes played) passed Eugene McDowell for second on the all-time list. Erving Walker leads with 4,358 minutes played.
- Patric Young (103 dunks) is tied for sixth on the all-time list.
Final score prediction: Florida 77 - Ole Miss 68
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