Two of the league’s top title contenders meet in Nashville on Saturday as No. 19 Florida travels to 10th-ranked Vanderbilt.
The Commodores looked flat in an 80-64 loss at Texas on Wednesday. They got clobbered on the boards (42-24), shot a season-low 36.7% from the field and spent most of the evening with their front court in foul trouble thanks to Longhorns 7-footer Matas Vokietaitis, who scored 22 points and pulled seven rebounds.
“(Texas) played at a very high level, and losing to a team that plays that way, at that level, was tough to overcome,” Vanderbilt coach Mark Byington said.
The loss denied the Commodores (16-1, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) a shot to break a record 16-game winning streak to start the season, shared with the 2007-08 squad.
Vanderbilt was also sluggish much of the previous game in an 84-73 win over LSU in which it shot 26.7% in the second half.
The visiting Gators (12-5, 3-1), meanwhile, are playing their best basketball of the season, riding a three-game winning streak consisting of wins over Georgia (92-77), Tennessee (91-67) and Oklahoma (96-79), the last coming on the road on Tuesday.
Florida’s struggles have come at guard, but Boogie Fland has pieced together a pair of terrific games entering this one. He’s scored 38 points and dished out 12 assists to three turnovers in his last two, while hitting a respectable 4 of 11 from 3-point range.
“And he’s definitely playing freer, playing with more confidence, and taking advantage of what the defense gives him,” Gators coach Todd Golden said of Fland after the Oklahoma game. “When him and X (guard Xaivian Lee) are playing well, we’re going to be good.”
Florida might be the team Vanderbilt least wants to see after its struggles inside on Tuesday.
Texas exposed Vanderbilt’s biggest weakness — front-court depth and foul proneness — on Wednesday. Six-foot-10 reserve Jalen Washington (the Commodores’ biggest rotation player) was held scoreless and had two rebounds before fouling out. Six-foot-7 forward Devin McGlockton, their leading rebounder (7.4), has picked up 11 fouls over 69 minutes in the last three games.
The Gators feature an array of skilled returning big men from last year’s national title team that few can match in 7-foot-1 Micah Handlogten (4.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg), 6-foot-11 Alex Condon (14.3, 8.3), 6-foot-10 Rueben Chinyelu (11.4, 10.7) and 6-foot-9 Thomas Haugh (17.4, 6.6). They’re the reason Florida ranks second nationally in offensive rebounding percentage (43.7%) per Ken Pomeroy.
Vanderbilt, however, has perhaps the league’s best all-around guard duo in Tyler Tanner (17.2 ppg, 2.6 spg) and Duke Miles (17.5, 2.8). Forward Tyler Nickel (14.7 ppg, 47.2% on 3s) is also one of the league’s toughest covers on the wing.
One key for Vanderbilt will be to keep the ball out of the hands of Florida’s bigs. Vanderbilt’s 13.2% steal rate ranks 21st in the country while the Gators (with a 17.2% turnover rate) have been prone to coughing it up.
A game of outside marksmanship and foul-shooting would favor the Commodores. Vanderbilt hits 36.8% of its 3s and 76.2% from the line, compared to 27.9% and 70.9% for Florida.
–Field Level Media
