Gators travel to Starkville to face Bulldogs

Game 20: #3 University of Florida Gators (17-2, 6-0 SEC) at Mississippi State University Bulldogs (13-6, 3-3 SEC)
Humphrey Coliseum (capacity: 10,575), Starkville, Mississippi 7:00 p.m.

Broadcast Information

TV: ESPN2; Rece Davis (play-by-play) and Bob Knight (analyst)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network; Mick Hubert (play-by-play) and Bill Koss (analyst)
Streaming: ESPN3.com

Now ranked third in the country, Florida could easily get too over-confident and find itself in a dogfight with a pesky Mississippi State squad.  The Bulldogs have already eclipsed their win total from last season (10) and coach Rick Ray deserves consideration for SEC Coach of the Year if they keep their conference record around or above .500.  Ray's team is second in the conference and eighth in the country in steals with 8.8 per game.  They are 11-1 at "The Hump," where they average 27.2 free throw attempts.  In their last game, they lost to in-state rival Ole Miss, 82-63.  They are led, primarily, by three sophomores: Gavin Ware, Fred Thomas, and Craig Sword.  Ware is their tallest active player at 6'9" and it shows, as their rebounding margin is -1.4.  Mississippi State is only shooting 30.9% from 3-point range, making 4.6 per game.  They will have to improve in that area tonight if they want to avenge last year's losses to Florida, 82-47 (Starkville) and 83-58 (Gainesville).

Florida received good news this week with the announcement that freshman forward Chris Walker would become eligible for Tuesday's game at home against Missouri (9:00 p.m.).  The NCAA had been investigating Walker's amateur status, but he had been practicing with the team after enrolling in the university after the fall semester following his completion of high school credits.  As far as tonight's game is concerned, the Gators will be looking to extend their 11-game winning streak (longest since beginning 2005-2006 season 17-0), but don't think that Mississippi State will hand it to them.  The crowd will certainly be electric and it is key for the Gators to not play down to the Bulldogs' level.  The area where I'll be paying close attention to is turnovers.  The Bulldogs force 15.6 turnovers per game, so Kasey Hill and Scottie Wilbekin need to take care of the ball.

Projected lineups and reserves

Florida

#5 Scottie Wilbekin (6'2", 176 lbs. SR) Season stats: 12.5 points per game, 3.4 assists per game
#20 Michael Frazier II (6'6", 195 lbs. SO) 12.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg
#24 Casey Prather (6'6", 212 lbs. SR) 16.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg
#15 Will Yeguete (6'8", 230 lbs. SR) 5.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg
#4 Patric Young (6'9", 240 lbs. SR) 10.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg

Bench

#10 Dorian Finney-Smith (6'8", 212 lbs. RS-SO) 10.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg
#0 Kasey Hill (6'1", 181 lbs. FR) 6.5 ppg, 3.3 apg
#25 DeVon Walker (6'6", 195 lbs. SO) 3.0 ppg, 1.7 rpg
#30 Jacob Kurtz (6'6", 210 lbs. JR) 2.1 ppg, 2.0 rpg

Mississippi State

#4 Trivante Bloodman (6'0", 182 lbs. JR) Season stats: 5.8 points per game, 2.4 assists per game
#32 Craig Sword (6'3", 194 lbs. SO) 13.9 ppg, 3.6 rebounds per game
#1 Fred Thomas (6'5", 206 lbs. SO) 8.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg
#3 Colin Borchert (6'8", 231 lbs. SR) 10.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg
#20 Gavin Ware (6'9", 268 lbs. SO) 11.0 ppg, 8.2 rpg

Bench

#25 Roquez Johnson (6'7", 197 lbs. JR) 10.0 ppg, 4.8 rpg
#15 I.J. Ready (5'11", 170 lbs. FR) 6.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg
#24 Tyson Cunningham (6'3", 197 lbs. SR) 1.7 ppg, 0.4 rpg