PK85: Florida vs West Virginia (Sunday, 5:30 pm ET)

Florida vs. West Virginia

* When: Sunday, 5:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Chiles Center, Portland, Ore.
* Records: Florida (4-2); West Virginia (5-1)
* TV: ESPNU  (Doug Sherman, Cory Alexander and Brooke Weisbrod)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

The Breakdown

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and West Virginia will sq. off within the third and remaining sport for each groups within the Phil Knight Legacy aspect of the “PK85.” The sport, in essence, might be third- or fourth-place bragging rights after each have been overwhelmed of their opening-round video games Thursday and dropped into the comfort bracket. UF was defeated by Xavier 90-83 and bounced again Friday with an 81-68 win over Oregon State, whereas WVU was overwhelmed 80-68 by No. 24 Purdue and adopted that by whipping Portland State 89-71. … The sport will characterize a Quadrant-1 alternative for each groups, with every at the moment 0-1 in Q-1 possibilities. … The Gators lead the all-time collection 7-3, together with victories in 4 straight conferences, courting to 2003. The final three wins got here below Coach Mike White, with two of them coming in SEC/Big Challenge occasions, the latest being Florida’s 85-80 win over Eleventh-ranked West Virginia at Morgantown, WVa., on Jan. 30, 2021. In that one, UF ahead Colin Castleton scored 15 of his 21 factors within the second half, made all 9 of his free throws, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked 5 pictures. Junior guard Noah Locke dropped in a season-high 19 factors, making three of 4 3-pointers after the break, and junior level guard Tyree Appleby had 12 factors and 7 assists. UF used a giant second half of 55-percent taking pictures to offset a monster first half from Mountaineers large man Derek Culver, all 6-10 and 255 kilos of him, who big-bodied his approach to a career-high 28 factors and 12 rebounds, however was held to only seven after halftime. The sport featured 14 ties and 13 lead adjustments earlier than an old-time 3-point play by Castleton with simply over three minutes left gave UF the lead for good. … Florida is 26-19 all-time towards groups at the moment within the Big 12 Conference (with a dates towards Oklahoma and Kansas State arising over the subsequent two months). … UF coach Todd Golden has by no means coached towards a Big 12 opponent.  

Tale of the Tape

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They have two wins over high-major opponents, however neither the street victory at Florida State nor Friday’s victory towards Oregon State pack any NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) punch that each one groups have to construct resumes for postseason consideration. That’s why this may be a major “get” for the Gators,

particularly after their poor defensive efficiency within the opening-round PK85 loss to an excellent Xavier staff. … Forward Colin Castleton arrived right here because the nation’s No. 3 scoring chief at 25.3 factors per sport, however has been held to 23 factors within the two match video games. UF’s standout large, although, has proven up on the glass and with blocked pictures. … The Florida star of this match has been guard Trey Bonham, the Virginia Military Institute switch who obtained his first UF begin towards the Musketeers and within the two video games averaged 21.0 factors, hitting 16 of his 31 field-goal makes an attempt (51.6 %), made 5 of 13 pictures from the arc, together with 3.0 rebounds 2.5 assists and turned the ball over simply as soon as. … Guard Will Richard’s regular, high-efficient play traveled to Portland. The Belmont switch is the one UF participant in addition to Castleton to succeed in double-figure scoring in all six video games this season. Richard is taking pictures 58 % from the ground, 50 % from the arc (12 of 24) and is nonetheless excellent from the free-throw line (17 of 17). … Point guard Kyle Lofton, who’s now sharing ball-handling duties with Bonham whereas additionally sharing the ground on the identical time, had a season-high 5 turnovers towards Oregon State, which was another than he had within the staff’s first 5 video games. His ratio, although, remains to be a strong 25 assists to only 9 turnovers. … Freshman guard Riley Kugel arrived right here with simply 11 factors over the primary 4 video games, however scored 12 towards Xavier and located double-figures once more with 10 towards OSU. Yes, Kugel had a pair pivotal simple misses within the first match sport, however he is settling into a pleasant, comfy form of groove, with 9 makes in his final 19 field-goal tries. … Forwards CJ Felder and Alex Fudge (6.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg) proceed to take turns on the “4” spot, the place they’ve mixed to common 10.1 factors and 7.8 rebounds whereas going 11-for-11 from the free-throw line. … Backup middle Jason Jitoboh went 3-for-3 from the floorin 12 minutes towards OSU. … Guard Kowacie Reeves (7.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg), who began the primary 4 video games of the season earlier than being changed by Bonham, didn’t play within the second half at Florida State or the first-round loss right here to Xavier, however obtained eight minutes of reserve motion and scored two factors. … Fifth-year guard Myreon Jones (2.2 ppg, 2.0 rpg) hit his first 3-pointer of the season towards the Beavers. 

The Mountaineers

Coach Bob Huggins is the second-winningest lively coach in school basketball (behind Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim), with a profession report of 920-399 in stops at Division II Walsh, Akron, Cincinnati, Kansas State and his alma mater of West Virginia, the place he is gone 331-189 over 16 seasons, with 10 journeys to the NCAA Tournament, together with a run to

the 2010 Final Four. … His groups have all the time been identified for his or her physicality and talent to defend, however this WVU staff (in addition to some current ones) may be very environment friendly on the offensive finish, due to 58.7 % on 2-pointers, which charges twentieth nationally. … The Mountaineers, who went 16-17 final season and didn’t make the postseason, rebuilt the roster via the switch portal, with their most attention-grabbing acquisition being ahead Emmitt Matthews Jr. He performed at WVU from 2018-21, then transferred to Washington, the place he began all 31 video games and averaged 11.7 factors and 4.7 rebounds throughout ’21-22. After the season, he transferred again to West Virginia and is at the moment fourth on the staff in scoring on 50-percent taking pictures from the ground and 37.5 from deep. … Another attention-grabbing switch story is that of guard and main scorer Erik Stevenson, who averaged 11.6 factors and 4.7 rebounds at South Carolina final 12 months after transferring from Washington after transferring from Wichita State. Confused? Yeah, that is proper. This is Stevenson’s fourth college in 5 seasons. … Forward Tre Mitchell, the switch from Texas, is at 63.4 % from the ground this season. He was six of seven and made all 4 free throws within the Portland win. … Point guard Kedrian Johnson, a junior-college product in his third WVU season, is second on the staff with 19 assists to only eight turnovers and leads the staff with 13 steals. … Backup guard Joe Toussaint (11.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg) transferred from Iowa and is the Mountaineers’ No. 3 scorer, help chief with 20 and high participant off the bench. The next-best reserve is 6-10, 225-pound ahead Mohamed Wague (7.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg), who’s a staggering 18-for-22 from the ground. That’s 81.8 %. … Stocky backup sophomore guard Seth Wilson (5.0 ppg) has made six of 10 from 3 on this match. 
 

Numbers of Note

* .856 — Jitoboh’s field-goal share this season, based mostly on his 6-for-7 taking pictures via the six video games. 

* .984 — Stevenson’s free-throw share throughout his lone season with the Gamecocks, based mostly on 61-for-62 from the road. If it is shut late, do not foul him.

* 7 — Coaches in school basketball historical past with extra profession Division I wins than Huggins’ 849. They are Mike Krzyzewski, Boeheim, Roy Williams, Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Jim Calhoun and Adolph Rupp. 

* 11 — Consecutive double-figure scoring video games for Richard, together with his final 5 at Belmont, the place he was a named to the 2022 Ohio Valley Conference All-Newcomer Team as a freshman final season. Richard has averaged 14.6 factors per sport over these 11 video games (and two faculties), which is simply 0.1 off his present UF common of 14.5 factors. Consistency. 

* 23.0 — Average margin of victory in WVU’s 5 wins over Mount St. Mary’s (plus-18), Pittsburgh (25), Morehead State (20), Penn (34) and Portland (18). They obtained beat up on fairly good by a wonderful Purdue squad, although, which three nights in the past obtained 24 factors and 12 rebounds from 7-4, 290-pound middle Zach Edey. The Boilermakers shot 56 % for the sport, whereas holding the Mountaineers to 41.3 % and simply 5-for-22 from the 3-point line (22.7 %).

* 2002 — The final 12 months West Virginia beat Florida. The Gators have been ranked eighth once they confronted the unranked Mountaineers at Charleston, W.Va.. Guard Joe Herber hit an 18-foot jumper with 50 seconds left to provide WVU the lead for good in a sport it trailed by 9 within the second half and ultimately received 68-66. Since then, UF defeated WVU 4 straight at 4 completely different venues: ’03 (at Miami), ’16 (Gainesville), ’18 (New York) and ’21 (Morgantown). 

 

Bottom Line

Xavier was a extremely, actually good staff … however West Virginia may be the perfect staff the Gators face on this match (and an ideal barometer for some extra very troublesome video games on the close to horizon).