No. 22 Florida vs. Dartmouth

 
* When: Monday, 6 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O’Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (8-4) / Opponent (5-6)
* Series/Last meeting: First meeting.
* TV: SEC Network (James Westling and Patric Young)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD / Stations list
  (with Sean Kelley, Brian Hogan and Steve Egan) 
* Ticket info

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Projected Starters

 

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Alex Condon	F	6-11 / 230	Junior	14.1 pts / 8.9 reb
Rueben Chinyelu	C	6-10 / 255	Junior	10.5 pts / 10.8 reb
Thomas Haugh	F	6-9 / 215	Junior	17.3 pts / 6.2 reb
Xaivian Lee	G	6-4 / 185	Senior	12.2 pts / 4.7 reb / 3.6 ast
Boogie Fland	G	6-3 / 185	Sophomore	11.5 pts / 2.0 reb

Dartmouth	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jackson Munro	F	6-8 / 220	Senior	7.8 pts / 5.7 reb
Brandon Mitchell-Day	F	6-8 / 205	Senior	11.5 pts / 8.6 reb
Kareem Thomas	G	6-5 / 195	Sophomore	19.7 pts / 2.8 reb
Jayden Williams	G	6-6 / 185	Senior	12.4 pts / 4.1 reb
Connor Amundsen	G	5-11 / 165	Sophomore	8.1 pts / 2.0 reb / 3.0 ast

The Setup

No. 22 Florida returns from the holiday break to face Dartmouth, a rare Ivy League opponent, in the team’s final tune-up before heading into Southeastern Conference play next weekend with a road date at Missouri. The Gators last took the floor Dec. 21 when they defeated Colgate 90-60. They adjourned for Christmas that afternoon and returned Friday. The Mean Green’s last outing, an 85-63 loss at Sacred Heart, was Dec. 19, and halted a two-game winning streak.
 

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Dartmouth
84.3	Scoring	76.5
.457	Field-goal percentage	.440
.282	3-point percentage	.377
70.3	Scoring defense	74.6
.402	Field-goal percentage defense	.441
.306	3-point percentage defense	.293
12th	KenPom.com overall ranking	253rd
24th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	246th
11th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	241st
64th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	49th
22nd	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	255th
25th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	332nd

The Breakdown 

About the Gators: The nation’s second-best offensive rebounding team and 36th-best in the 2-point area continues to be undermined by poor 3-point shooting (28.2%). The team goal, as far as metrics (and the staff is very big on metrics, you might have heard) is to be in the top 20 in both offense and defense efficiency. For that to happen, UF needs to improve on the lowest 3-point shooting percentage among the 79 teams in the four power conferences. … Xaivian Lee’s 19 points led the way in the Colgate win, marking the fourth consecutive game (and fifth of the last sixth) the Princeton transfer had topped the team in scoring. Lee has averaged 17.3 points with a team-high 13 makes from deep (at 34.2%) over that six-game stretch. His career-best game is a 33-point outburst at Dartmouth last season. … Center Rueben Chinyelu (16 points, 12 rebounds) and forward Alex Condon (16 points, 10 rebounds) had double-doubles last time out, as the Gators out-rebounded the Raiders 47-22. It marked the sixth time this season UF had at least two players with double doubles, with Chinyelu, the SEC leader in rebounds, netting his seventh and Condon his fifth. Condon became the first player since Chandler Parsons against Kentucky on Feb. 5, 2011 to post at least 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a game without a turnover. … Scoring leader Thomas Haugh, after netting a season-low five points against Saint Francis (his first single-digit outing of the season), had 17 points and hit a pair of 3s against Colgate. … Point guard Boogie Fland, with two steals vs Colgate, has multiple steals in six games, while backup guard Urban Klavzar, with a pair of 3s vs the Raiders, has multiple makes from deep in eight games this season. … Backup center Micah Handlogten (5.0 ppg, 6.1 rpg) is third in the nation in offensive rebounds per 40 minutes at 7.7.

About the Big Green: They’re in their 10th season under Dave McLaughlin. Of the previous nine, eight ended with losing records, with last season’s 14-14 mark his best to date. … Dartmouth is one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the nation at 37.9%. That rates 35th in the country. Defensively, the Green will be as sound as their athletic limitations allow and do not make unnecessary fouls. … Guard Kareem Thomas, the team’s scoring leader, is shooting 53% from the floor, but a ridiculous 23-for-39 from the 3-point line. That’s 59%, which is 24% better than the best 3-point shooter at the top of UF’s rotation. Thomas has reached double-figure scoring in every game this season. He had 27 points in a loss to Wyoming and went 5-for-5 from the arc in a win over Boston U. … Guard Jayden Williams is at 40% from deep, but he’s also attempted 26 more than Thomas. … The Green’s top assist leader works from the post. Brandon Mitchell-Green is at 51% from 2, but does a nice job as a facilitator with a team-best 36 assists (but also 34 turnovers) and leads the squad in steals, as well. … Point guard Connor Amundsen has turned the ball over just 10 times in as many games this season. 

 

Numbers of Note 

* 10 — All-time games for Florida against the Ivy League. The Gators are 8-2 against five different opponents, with three wins over Yale and one win each against Brown, Columbia and Harvard. UF is 2-2 all-time against Pennsylvania, but both of those victories came in the NCAA Tournament (in the 1994 second round at Uniondale, New York, on the way to the Final Four; and the ’99 second round at Seattle to reach the Sweet 16). The Gators’ two losses to Penn came in 1974 and 1996, both on neutral floors in holiday tournaments.

* 46.4 — Rebounds per game by the Gators, which ranks second in the nation behind Kennesaw State (47.0). 

* 2014 —The last year the Gators played a team from the Ivy. The date was Dec. 8. The opponent was Yale. The site was the O’Dome. The Gators, with an easy 85-47 victory, were led by sophomore point guard Kasey Hill’s eight points, 10 assists and three steals. They also got 18 points from senior guard Michael Frazier III, plus 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks from sophomore center Chris Walker.

 

Bottom Line

Welcome back, Gators. It’s are about to get real, as they say.

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.