Florida Gators

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UF's 19-2 start ties for the best start ever in Gator basketball with out back to back national champions:

05/06 started 20-2
06/07 started 24-2

With Missouri and Alabama coming to UF on Wednesday and Saturday, the 13/14 Gators will have a chance to surpass the 05/06 national championship team. To tie or better the 06/07 national championship team, UF will have to win at Tennessee and at Kentucky the following week. I don't see that happening.

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By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Senior Writer


GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- These words actually came from Kasey Hill’s mouth.

“We can play better defense,” Florida’s freshman guard said.

Don’t tell Texas A&M that. Not after the No. 3 Gators practically froze the Aggies in their high tops during a 69-36 evisceration Saturday at sold-out O’Connell Center that instantly found a place in the UF and A&M record books.

Sophomore guard Michael Frazier tied his career-best with 21 points and senior center Patric Young celebrated his 22nd birthday by scoring nine points, grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds and blocking a pair of shots to set the tone for the back alley-like beating of a Southeastern Conference foe that marked UF’s 13th consecutive win.

But in matching the best 21-game start in program history (equaling the two 2006 and '07 NCAA championship teams), the Gators (19-2, 8-0) grabbed the Aggies by the throat on the defensive end and not only squeezed, they never let go. A&M, which entered the game ranked last in the SEC to begin with, came face to face with a white-jerseyed wall that surrendered just 25.9-percent shooting from the floor, 20 percent from the 3-point line and showed the opponent positively no quarter on the multitude of misses, courtesy of a 57-27 rebounding advantage.

“We were locked in [on defense] from the beginning of the game and stayed strong the whole game,” said Frazier, one of four UF players that finished with at least eight rebounds. “That was something we hadn’t done, but we did it tonight.”

When the carnage was over, Texas A&M (12-9, 3-5) had scored its fewest points in a game in 59 years. UF, meanwhile, equaled the fewest points it had allowed in SEC play since 1950.

“Florida is a great defensive team,” Aggies coach Billy Kennedy said. “We had our opportunities to score ... but not many.”

The Gators, who extended the school record for consecutive home victories to 27, set a goal each game for points allowed per possession at .90, and they’ve been very good at hitting that threshold and keeping it in the .80s and even high-.70s at home.

Saturday: .52

Donovan, though, wasn't ready to crown his team kings of the covered basket. It's only Feb. 1.

“It was one of those games where I don’t think the stat sheet tells the whole story,” Donovan said. "They missed a lot of shots. They missed a lot around the basket, jump shots, and had decent looks that didn’t go down.”

Funny. Donovan said practically the same thing two nights before at Mississippi State, where his team held the Bulldogs to 51 points, their lowest of the season. A week earlier, Tennessee was held to 41 points on 27-percent shooting and 5.3 percent from the 3-point line. The Volunteers missed a bunch of open shots, too, in Donovan’s estimation.

The common denominator, of course, is that Florida’s defense is on the other side of those shots -- and likely in the opponents’ heads these days, also.

“We were very good defensively for stretches there and for Texas A&M it wasn’t one of their better efforts,” said UF assistant coach John Pelphrey, who had the advance scout for the game. “Our defense probably was not as good as the stats say; their’s weren’t as bad. So the reality was probably somewhere in the middle.”

That’s certainly how the Florida coaches will frame it as they prepare the team -- including 6-foot-10 freshman center and former McDonald's All-American Chris Walke, set to make his debut -- for Tuesday night’s home game against Missouri. UF, though, put some pretty good defensive tape out there for the incoming Tigers to see.

Florida led by just five with just under eight minutes to go in the first half when Frazier stuck in an offensive rebound and kicked in a 16-4 run to end the half and send the home team into the locker room up 34-17.

Yes, 17 first-half points for the Aggies. And that was with the Gators going 1-for-12 from distance.

A 12-1 blitz to start out of the locker room opened up a 24-point spread that eventually swelled to 38 late. At the four-minute mark, A&M was still looking for its 29th and 30th points, but the Aggies managed to pitch in eight against the far end of the UF bench. Still, they finished with just 19 second-half points, meaning the Gators held A&M under 20 for both halves of basketball.

And they believe -- the Gators really do -- that they’re a work in progress on that end of the floor.

“It’s scary because I still think we can get a lot better defensively,” Frazier said. “It’s something that we work on every day at practice and something we’re going to have an opportunity to keep grinding away on.”

Young ran the floor like a man possessed (and ready to celebrate his “Big 2-2”). Senior Will Yeguete had 10 rebounds. Dorian Finney-Smith had eight points and nine rebounds. Frazier crashed the boards from the backcourt for eight himself.

The Aggies had just five offensive rebounds. It was as if they weren’t allowed to get them.

Florida is playing very well right now, but as Donovan likely will remind them they were on quite a roll -- especially on defense -- when the calendar flipped to February this time last year.

"We haven't even played half our league games yet," he said.

A lot of people will be talking nicely about the Gators in the coming days.

“We’re not going to stop and become complacent. We’re going to keep fighting, battling and striving for greatness,” Young said. “We have to continue to be greedy and push each other more and more.”

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Hoops Scoop

Beyond the arc: 3 takeaways from UF’s win over Texas A&M

Saturday, February 1, 2014 at 8:32 by Kevin Brockway



Some observations following UF’s 69-36 win over Texas A&M.

– Sophomore guard Michael Frazier II is doing a better job offensively mixing up his game. He started off with a shot-fake from the 3-point line and canned a mid-range jumper from the baseline as he was fouled for a more traditional 3-point play. Frazier matched a career high with 21 points but only got 9 of those points on 3-pointers (3-11 from beyond the arc). Frazier went to the free-throw line eight times and if he can do that while making 3-point shots, it will boost both his scoring and UF’s scoring.

– Florida is playing at a high level with its help defense. Senior center Patric Young described it as “five players playing defense as one unit.” UF is switching on defense perhaps as well as any team right now in college basketball.

– Still not happy with some of the shots senior forward Will Yeguete is taking. Young was the dominating force inside early and wound up with just two shot attempts, compared with Yeguete’s five. There were a few times when Young had his man sealed in the post and instead of dumping the ball to him inside, Yeguete tried wild runners in the lane. C’mon Will, get your buddy the ball.

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UF is losing 4 seniors after the 13/14 season. Three have signed with UF: PG, SG, SF/PF. I hope Billy D. is looking to bring in another big to replace Patric Young. Having Damontre Harris for one year should he make it back is too iffy. Current signed class for 14/15:

Pos Nat'l
Rank Nat'l
Rating Name
School, Hometown Video HT/ WT/ PPG Commit Date Signed LOI? Commit School
PF 5 Devin Robinson
(Christchurch School)
Christchurch, VA 6-8/200 10/30/2013
Florida
SG 8 Brandone Francis
(Arlington Country Day School)
Jacksonville, FL 6-4/205 06/27/2013
Florida
PG 11 Chris Chiozza
(White Station HS)
Memphis, TN 5-10/155 05/14/2013
Florida

Dorian Finney Smith is a SF/PF
Alex Murphy is a SF/PF and not currently available until mid December when the fall semester ends (pending NCAA appeal to play whole season)
Chris Walker is a PF/C, but will have to progress physically to play C (currently 213 lbs.)
Damontre Harris is a C, but a one and done IF he makes it back which is not now known

It would be nice to add a C to the class to replace Patric Young or give some depth to Harris and Walker.

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Mizzou at UF on Tuesday night at 9 PM EST on ESPN - projected starters:

FLORIDA PROBABLE STARTERS

# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. P/RPG
15 Will Yeguete F 6-8 230 Sr. 5.2/5.4
24 Casey Prather F 6-6 212 Sr. 16.2/5.3
4 Patric Young C 6-9 240 Sr. 10.6/6.6
5 Scottie Wilbekin G 6-2 176 Sr. 11.9/3.6a
20 Michael Frazier II G 6-4 199 So. 12.6/3.6

MISSOURI PROBABLE STARTERS

# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. P/RPG
3 Johnathan Williams F 6-9 223 Fr. 6.5/7.4
44 Ryan Rosburg F 6-10 252 So. 4.6/4.4
5 Jordan Clarkson G 6-5 193 RJr. 18.9/3.9
32 Jabari Brown G 6-5 214 RJr. 20.4/4.7
33 Earnest Ross G 6-5 228 RSr. 14.2/6.6

The tigers 3 starting guards are collectively as good as there is in college basketball.

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UF remains #3 in AP and Billy D gives injury update:

By Kevin Brockway
Staff writer



Published: Monday, February 3, 2014 at 12:34 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 3, 2014 at 12:34 p.m.


Florida stayed at No. 3 in this week's AP men's Top 25 basketball poll.


The Gators (19-2, 8-0 SEC) have won 13 straight and are coming off back-to-back wins over Mississippi State and Texas A&M last week. Florida next plays Tuesday night at home against Missouri (9 p.m. tip, ESPN).

Arizona (21-1) dropped just one spot to No. 2 despite a 60-58 loss at California on Saturday night. Syracuse (21-0) jumped to No. 1.

During Monday's news conference, Florida coach Billy Donovan downplayed the significance of being ranked this high at this point in the season.

“That's all fleeting to me,” Donovan said. “I think rankings, all that stuff, I look at, I feel bad for ... I mean Arizona has a very, very difficult loss and also lose a player (forward Brandon Ashley) to a broken foot supposedly. I don't know what all the things are. But it changes so quickly.”

Donovan said senior forward Casey Prather (mild ankle sprain) did not practice Sunday, but will practice today and is likely available for the Missouri game. Sophomore forward/guard DeVon Walker also is recovering from a hip pointer and should be available for Missouri, Donovan said.

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UF will pass the 05/06 national champion team for second best start in school history with a home win over bama Saturday. The 06/07 national champion team started 24-2. The Gators are 20-2 overall and 9-0 in SEC play with a 2 game conference lead over Kentucky:


By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Senior Writer


AT THE BUZZER -
FLORIDA 68, MISSOURI 58

WHAT HAPPENED: The Gators may have their offensive lulls, but as long as they can lean on that defense there will be games like Tuesday night when third-ranked UF found its scoring after halftime and went on to beat the Tigers for a 13th straight win. Sophomore guard Michael Frazier, who was 0-for-4 from 3-point range in the first half, sank four treys after intermission to finish with 14 points. Senior guard Scottie Wilbekin led UF with 19 points, including 13 of 16 from the free three line, with a bunch down the stretch to salt the game away.

WHAT IT MEANS: Florida remained unbeaten in the Southeastern Conference, two games up on Kentucky. The win also marked the 20th of the season for the Gators. Make that 16 straight seasons UF has hit the 20-win milestone, all under Coach Billy Donovan, of course. That’s the third-longest streak in the nation (behind Syracuse and Duke) for a team with the same coach.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Chris Walker, the 2013 McDonald’s All-American, made a splashy debut with two thunderous dunks on alley-oop passes from Kasey Hill in the first half. Note: Check out SportsCenter, they’ll be on there. The 6-foot-10 center finished with four points, one rebound, and two blocked shots in seven minutes.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: How manyDonovan teams have had trouble scoring. For the sixth straight game, the Gators failed to hit the 70-point threshold. Plus, a 1-for-11 start from the 3-point line is a trend that bears watching. The Gators are now 31.9 percent from distance in SEC play.

SUBPLOT: Big hand to the Rowdy Reptiles, who filled their lower bowl section two hours before the game in just 16 minutes, many dressed in “Suit and Tie” as part of the group’s push to get post star Justin Timberlake to the O’Connell Center for the season finale against Kentucky. Those student were fantastic during the game -- and during timeouts too. The highlight was a flash mob performance (wonderfully choreographed by the Dazzlers) to the song “Suit and Tie.”

UP NEXT: Florida (20-2, 9-0) is off until Saturday when it finishes off this three-game home stand with a rematch against Alabama (9-12, 3-5). The Gators defeated the Crimson Tide 68-62 on Jan. 23 at Tuscaloosa.

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Going for 2nd best start in Gator history - Probable Starters:

FLORIDA-ALABAMA GAME NOTES: This is the seventh time the Gators have had a 14-game winning streak in the Billy Donovan era … Donovan has won 20 games for the 16th straight season … The last two times the Gators started a season 20-2 they won the NCAA championship … Florida has five players averaging double figures: Casey Prather (15.7); Michael Frazier (12.6); Scottie Wilbekin (12.4); Patric Young (10.7) and Dorian Finney-Smith (10.0) … Finney Smith is Florida’s leading rebounder at 7.8 per game while Young averages 6.6.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUPS

ALABAMA (9-13, 3-6 SEC): Shannon Hale (6-8, 220, FR); Carl Engstrom (7-1, 265, JR); Trevor Releford (6-0, 190, SR); Rodney Cooper (6-6, 215, JR); Retin Obasohan (6-1, 205, RSO)

FLORIDA (20-2, 9-0 SEC): Will Yeguete (6-8, 230, SR); Casey Prather (6-6, 212, SR); Patric Young (6-9, 240, SR); Scottie Wilbekin (6-2, 176, SR); Michael Frazier (6-4, 199, SO)

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The Gators achieved the second best start in Gator history with the win at home over bama today. UF is now 21-2 (10-0) and is chasing the 06/07 national champion record start at 24-2. I don't think the team will make it although they'll give it the old college try. Four of the next five games are on the road against teams that stand to gain a lot by beating UF. The Gators will get every teams best shot:

at UT
at UK
AU
at Ole Miss
at Vandy

I just don't see the Gators winning all of those games. This is the article from Gatorzone on the bama game today:


By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Senior Writer


GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Ball movement has been a prominent subject with the Florida Gators this season. Oftentimes, the offensive was stagnated when the ball was held too long, guys have dribbled too much and the result has been a team in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference in assists at just 12.7 points per game.

So after the third-ranked Gators posted their most assists of the season -- the most in 33 games, in fact -- senior forward Will Yeguete was asked about the team’s improvement on offense and specifically about those 22 assists in a hard-fought 78-69 win Saturday at the sold-out O’Connell Center.

“I didn’t even know about that,” Yeguete said.

Of course, he didn’t. That’s because it never came up in Coach Billy Donovan’s post-game chat, not after the Gators surrendered season-worsts of 55-percent shooting from the field and 54.5 from the 3-point line.

“No, it was not a good defensive performance,” senior center Patric Young said. “We gave up too many easy baskets and let them score too many points. They’re a good team and did a lot of things we couldn’t handle at times, but thankfully we were able to pick it up in the second half.”

For Florida (21-2, 10-0), this was a day of offense picking up a sub-standard effort on the other end of the floor. UF placed all five starters in double-figures, led by senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin’s 16 points and senior forward Casey Prather’s 15 points on 7-for-11 shooting and six rebounds.

The Gators hit a blistering 62 percent for the game and erased an early second-half deficit with some timely 3-point shots, using bursts of 17-3 and 8-2 to open up 15-point lead with eight minutes to go, then staving off the stubborn Crimson Tide and red-hot point guard Trevor Releford.

That UF hit 19 of its first 28 shots and only led by six after five minutes of the second half speaks to what was happening -- or wasn’t -- on defense.

And that’s where Donovan chose to focus.

“Alabama did a good job of putting us in some binds where we had to guard a lot of straight-line drives, hard drives,” Donovan said. “We were late reacting, we didn’t handle a lot of their drives and we fouled too much.”

Florida’s defensive efficiency rating (or points per possession) was a woeful 1.24 in the first half after the Tide (9-14, 3-6) hit 61 percent of its field goals and 71.4 of its 3-point shots (5 of 7). That DER was well over UF’s goal of .90 per possession and didn’t get much better after halftime, even though the Gators clamped down on Bama’s open shots from distance.

Releford poured in a game-high 25 points to go with four assists and four steals. He scored 16 before halftime, but was limited to just one field in the second, though like several teammates he managed to find his way to free-throw line and bunch to keep the Tide within reach.

“We let him get open for some 3s, and that’s partly on us,” Wilbekin said. “But he’s a good player and if you give him an inch he’s going to take advantage of it.”

After going down by 10 after barely three minutes to start the game, Alabama not only clawed back into it, but took a seven-point lead, at 28-21, with just under six minutes to go in the first half. The Gators closed the period well, with Yeguete (12 points in the first half on 6-for-7 shooting) scoring six straight for his team in the final 2:06 to tie things at 36 heading into the locker room.

A Releford 3-pointer, his lone field goal after the break, put Alabama up 41-39 at the 18:45 mark. That was the Tide’s last lead.

Young’s old-fashioned 3-point play, a run-out layup from Prather and 3-pointers from Wilbekin and Michael Frazier II (14 points) accounted for 11 straight over a three-minute span that gave the Gators control of the game. All the points either came off Tide turnovers or missed shots that bounced out and began scramble plays up the floor.

The way the Gators like it.

“Early in the second half, they were able to get out in transition because we were struggling offensively,” Tide coach Anthony Grant said. “They’re at their best when they’re in a transition.”

That second-half spurt, though, was one of the few times in the game that Bama’s offense did, indeed, struggle.

Good thing, too. The Gators needed it.

They also needed those 22 assists; not that anyone was talking about them.

“Coach D is not going to tell us about that,” Yeguete said. “As a coach, he wants us to see what we did wrong and get better from that. I think this game can help us learn. It better. Other teams are going to watch this film and see how we broke down and they're going to run the same stuff.”

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Franz Beard at Gator Country

BIG WEEK FOR GATOR HOOPS:

Tuesday night, the Gators put their 15-game winning streak and unbeaten SEC record on the line in Knoxville against a Tennessee team that has to score some quality wins if it intends to make the NCAA Tournament in March. Next Saturday the Gators will travel to Lexington to face Kentucky, which rarely loses a game at Rupp Arena and has to make up two games on the Gators to earn at least a piece of the SEC regular season championship. It will be quite an accomplishment if the Gators make it through the week 2-0. If Florida is sitting at 23-2 with a 12-0 SEC record at the end of the week, then you can start to believe all this talk about the Gators as one of four #1 seeds when the NCAA Tournament cranks up. It won’t be easy, but it’s certainly do-able.

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UF at UT Tuesday night on ESPN at 7 PM EST - Don't expect another 26 point win, UF won 67-41 in Gainesville, with the game being played in Knoxville. The refs let UF play rough and tumble with Stokes and Maymon while McRae had a horrible shooting night. I'm glad we have Chris Walker for defense/blocked shots and 5 extra fouls (anything on offense is a plus). I'm concerned the refs will penalize UF for trying to match the vols physical intensity, a bit of home cooking from the SEC refs.

I expect the vols to play with a much greater sense of urgency as they need big wins to help them get into the NCAA tournament. Probable starters for both teams:

FLORIDA PROBABLE STARTERS

# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. P/RPG
15 Will Yeguete F 6-8 230 Sr. 5.5/5.3
24 Casey Prather F 6-6 212 Sr. 15.6/5.2
4 Patric Young C 6-9 240 Sr. 10.7/6.4
5 Scottie Wilbekin G 6-2 176 Sr. 12.6/3.6a
20 Michael Frazier II G 6-4 199 So. 12.7/3.5

TENNESSEE PROBABLE STARTERS

# Name Pos. Ht. Wt. Cl. P/RPG
5 Jarnell Stokes F 6-8 260 Jr. 14.0/10.3
34 Jeronne Maymon F 6-8 260 RSr. 11.0/8.2
1 Josh Richardson G 6-6 196 Jr. 9.0/3.0
15 Darius Thompson G 6-5 181 Fr. 3.0/2.8a
52 Jordan McRae G 6-6 185 Sr. 19.3/3.4

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From Gatorzone:

The Florida men’s basketball squad held steady at No. 3 in the Associated Press poll and No. 4 in the USA Today Coaches’ poll for the third consecutive week.

Improving to 10-0 in conference play, the Gators are the only undefeated team atop the SEC standings, while also becoming one of just 10 teams in the nation to be victorious in all of their conference games thus far.

Florida has won 15-straight SEC home games after defeating Missouri and Alabama last week. With the win over the Crimson Tide, Florida’s senior class of Casey Prather, Scottie Wilbekin, Will Yeguete and Patric Young earned their 105th win as a group, tying them for the third-most wins by a senior class in program history.

The Gators will hit the road this week, taking on Tennessee on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. and Kentucky on Saturday at 9 p.m. The Orange and Blue will return home on Feb. 19 to face Auburn.

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By Chris Harry
GatorZone.com Senior Writer


AT THE BUZZER
FLORIDA 67, TENNESSEE 58

WHAT HAPPENED: In one of their biggest road wins of the last few years, the third-ranked Gators withstood a torrid first-half of shooting by host Tennessee, then completely reversed their defensive intensity in the second half to pull away for their 16th straight victory. Senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin scored 21 points, including another clutch performance down the stretch from the free-throw line to ice the game. He also had six assists, four steals and no turnovers. Both Wilbekin and sophomore guard Michael Frazier (11 points) nailed clutch 3-point shots after the Volunteers had cut a seven-point lead to one with less than five minutes to play.

WHAT IT MEANS: The Gators remained unbeaten through 11 games in Southeastern Conference play and pushed their cushion in the league standings to 2 1/2 games over Kentucky.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Sophomore guard DeVon Walker came into the game averaging 4.0 points and having made just eight of 35 shots from the 3-point line (22.9 percent). He had a 3-pointer in each half, both at critical times, helping justify the coaching staff’s confidence in him. UF wants Walker to shoot when he’s open. Good for him. He’s worked hard in practice to put himself in position to get minutes. He needed some positive reinforcement.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: The Vols shot lights-out in the first half, going 15-for-24 from the floor for 62.5 percent. Roll that into Saturday’s uncharacteristically poor defensive effort in the win against Alabama and UF surrendered 58 percent shooting (including 9-for-17 from the arc) over a 60-minute, 1 1/2-game span.

SUBPLOT: Tennessee had won seven of the last eight against Florida at Thompson-Boling Arena, and nine of the last 11, dating to the 2003 season. That Big Orange monkey is off the Gators’ backs for a while.

UP NEXT: The Gators (22-2, 11-0) get the back end of their toughest two-game road stand of the season, with a date at Rupp Arena to face No. 14 Kentucky (18-5, 8-2) Saturday night. As if the hype won’t be big enough, ESPN’s “Game Day” will be in Lexington to lather up the Big Blue faithful and UK's chance to cut into the UF lead in the SEC.

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Official Basketball Box Score
Florida vs Tennessee
2/11/14 7:00 p.m. at Knoxville, Tenn. (Thompson-Boling Arena)


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: Florida 22-2, 11-0 SEC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
15 Yeguete, Will....... f 2-3 1-1 1-1 2 3 5 0 6 0 2 0 0 25
24 Prather, Casey...... f 2-7 1-1 4-6 3 5 8 2 9 1 4 1 0 25
04 Young, Patric....... c 3-7 0-0 0-0 5 1 6 5 6 0 0 0 0 23
05 Wilbekin, Scottie... g 5-17 1-6 10-12 1 2 3 1 21 6 0 0 4 35
20 Frazier, Michael.... g 4-10 3-6 0-0 1 1 2 2 11 0 0 1 2 32
00 Hill, Kasey......... 2-6 0-2 0-1 0 0 0 1 4 0 2 0 2 20
10 Finney-Smith, Dorian 1-6 0-3 2-2 3 2 5 3 4 3 2 0 1 27
23 Walker, Chris....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 2 0 0 2 0 0 5
25 Walker, DeVon....... 2-2 2-2 0-0 0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 1 8
TEAM................ 2 5 7
Totals.............. 21-58 8-21 17-22 18 21 39 17 67 10 12 2 10 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-33 36.4% 2nd Half: 9-25 36.0% Game: 36.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-14 35.7% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 38.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-6 66.7% 2nd Half: 13-16 81.3% Game: 77.3% 1


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Tennessee 15-9, 6-5 SEC
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 Stokes, Jarnell..... f 7-11 0-0 6-10 5 6 11 4 20 2 0 0 0 35
34 Maymon, Jeronne..... f 1-2 0-0 0-1 2 7 9 2 2 1 8 3 4 34
01 Richardson, Josh.... g 5-11 3-6 0-0 0 4 4 2 13 0 1 2 0 34
15 Thompson, Darius.... g 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 1 17
52 McRae, Jordan....... g 6-16 2-6 3-4 1 2 3 0 17 1 5 2 1 37
02 Barton, Antonio..... 3-6 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 4 6 3 0 1 1 23
04 Moore, Armani....... 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 2 2 3 0 0 0 1 0 11
21 Davis, A.J.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 9
TEAM................
Totals.............. 22-48 5-14 9-17 9 23 32 18 58 8 15 9 7 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-24 62.5% 2nd Half: 7-24 29.2% Game: 45.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 35.7% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-5 20.0% 2nd Half: 8-12 66.7% Game: 52.9% 4

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New four-team event confirmed


Updated: February 12, 2014, 2:14 PM ET

By Andy Katz | ESPN.com

Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis has been an innovator in scheduling unique college basketball events -- most notably being the first to suggest teams play on the deck of an active aircraft carrier.

Now Hollis has done it again, creating a four-team barnstorming event with Michigan State, North Carolina, Florida and Texas agreeing to play three games, one each in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles over an eight-day period in December 2018 while traveling together on a single chartered airplane.

Hollis told ESPN.com Wednesday that all four schools, their coaches and athletic directors have confirmed their participation.

"It's a very cool idea," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said Wednesday. "At first I thought it was crazy, but it's during break so we don't miss any school. It's three big games in a row, and with the ACC-Big Ten Challenge and other events [Champions Classic] we could have six or seven big games."

Izzo said the uniqueness of this event is the camaraderie with the players and staff, as well as the educational and cultural aspects of the trips.

Hollis shared with ESPN.com the itinerary Wednesday.

The teams will arrive in New York City on Dec. 14, 2018, on their own. The first doubleheader, with matchups and times to be announced at a later date, will be at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 15. On Sunday, Dec. 16, the four teams will tour the Freedom Tower at the 9/11 memorial and also visit Wall Street. They will then see Motown the musical on Broadway, assuming it is still running.

The teams will then travel together to Chicago later that night. They will go to a Chicago pizza dinner on Monday, Dec. 17, followed by a Second City comedy show. The second doubleheader on the trip will be Dec. 18 at the United Center.

The teams will then fly to Los Angeles on Dec. 19. Once in L.A., the teams will head to Disneyland and a dinner. The teams will then tour Warner Brothers Studio and the Grammy Museum on Friday, Dec. 21.

The third and final doubleheader will be Dec. 22 at Staples Center.

"The teams will then depart on their own and get to go home for the holidays," said Hollis, who also was instrumental initially in having Michigan State and Kentucky play at Ford Field to test playing in the center of a major football stadium.

Hollis said each of the four teams will get a home game against an opponent to be determined later to make this a four-game event and qualify as a multiteam event.

"So many of these kids know each other from AAU and everything else that we felt this would be a great way to travel," Hollis said. "I worked with [ADs] Steve Patterson at Texas, Jeremy Foley at Florida and Bubba Cunningham at North Carolina on this. They and the head coaches are all excited about the opportunity for the student-athletes."

Hollis joked that this isn't playing a game on the moon, but he was looking for another idea out of the box.

Hollis was one of the creators of the 16-team Nike event in celebration of founder Phil Knight's 80th birthday that will be played at two Portland venues in November 2017. That event will take two Nike-sponsored schools from major conferences, including Michigan State and Ohio State out of the Big Ten.