Pregame Glance: Florida

The Buckeyes travel to Gainesville to take on the #11 Florida Gators.  This marks the first time since the 2007 season that the Bucks and Gators have knocked heads on the hardwood – a game that ended with a 62-49 OSU win in Columbus.  Let’s look at the stats:

The Gators are coming off a 21-13 season that ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  They put up a good fight with Brigham Young (don’t laugh) before falling 99-92 in double overtime.  Not exactly the way you want to end your season.

Florida is looking at a very good season this year, starting out ranked #11 in the nation.  Billy Donovan has his team back on the right track towards making headway in the NCAA Tournament again.  In order to get there, though, they’re going to have to run through a challenging schedule that includes games against Florida State, Xavier, #3 Kansas State, #20 Tennessee and #10 Kentucky.

The Gators are lead by standout sophomore guard Kenny Boynton (6-2, 183).  Boynton is a three point shooting machine, taking 245 attempts last season in his freshman outing.  He only hit 29.4% of those shots, but he had several games where he was absolutely torrid from outside.  Don’t let his last game’s stats this season fool you.  He may have gone 0-6 from outside, but his shot may turn on against the Buckeyes.

His partner in crime in the backcourt is junior Guard Erving Walker (5-8, 171).  His size is surprising for an upper level D-1 athelete.  He is the #2 shooter on the Florida team, taking 193 three pointers and hitting 34.7% of them.  He’s not the greatest overall shooter in the world, hitting only 33.9% of his shots from the floor, but he is the assist leader for the Gators averaging nearly 5 per game last season.

Unlike Matta, Donovan prefers to run a more classic 2 guard, 2 forward, 1 center rotation.  His front court is lead by senior Center Vernon Macklin (6-10, 240).  He’s not the most dominant center ever, but he does pull down his fair share of rebounds (5.5 avg last year).  His compatriots in the front court both averaged near 7 rebounds per game.  Senior Forwards Chandler Parsons (6-9, 218) and Alex Tyus (6-8, 220) round out the starting five.  They were both the #2 and #3 scorers for the Gators last year behind Boynton.  This year they’re hoping to continue that, currently averaging 16 and 13 points respectively.

This is the first big test for the Buckeyes this year.  It will be critical to see how the freshmen play against a more experienced team.  Sullinger, Lauderdale, Thomas and Lighty will have to work together down low to control Florida’s big men, clearly one of the strengths of that team.  If the OSU frontcourt can match the Gator’s, there’s a good chance the Buckeyes will be able to pull out the victory on the strength of an excellent and deep backcourt.

I honestly believe the Buckeyes are the more talented team top to bottom, and that means more in basketball than in some other sports.  Unlike in Football, an individual can take over a basketball game with above average play.  However, that also makes it easier to shut a team down if they only have one good player.  Right now there are at least 7 players on this OSU team that I believe safely capable of taking a game over along with 3 others that we’ve seen play but haven’t yet seen to their full potential.

This game will give us a sense for where this OSU team is early on in the season and should give us a feeling for how the preseason will go.  I expect that we will all be pleasantly surprised.

The game will be played in Gainesville, Florida on Tuesday, November 16th.  You can see the game on ESPN at 6:00 pm Eastern Time.