The season glance: Games 17-19

Through 16 games, I have the Tigers at 13-3 and already significantly more successful than last season. First, the non-conference schedule is pretty simple and I think last year was more of an aberration than what to expect from the team moving forward.

So let’s keep it going and see how I feel about matchups with Florida, Arkansas and Texas.

(Photo by Christopher Hanewinckel – USA TODAY Sports)

GAME 17: At Florida. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 8 p.m.

I find it hard to believe the conference wanted this game to start at 9 p.m. local time, that’s going to suck for anyone covering it in person.

No. 21 Florida is coming off a season it went 24-12 overall and 11-7 in conference play. The Gators enter the season at No. 26 in the KenPom rankings.

Florida beat Georgia, Alabama and Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, then lost to Auburn in the championship game.

The Gators were a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost 102-100 to No. 10 Colorado in the first round.

Florida beat Missouri 79-67 on Jan. 20 and 83-74 on Feb. 28 in the teams’ two matchups last season.

This will be the lone regular-season matchup between the programs.

Florida will have a lot of production to replace after losing starting point guard Zyon Pullin and big man Tyrese Samuel to graduation and sophomore Riley Kugel to the portal. That’s three of the Gators’ top five scorers and two full-time starters from last year.

But they do return leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr., a senior guard standing at 6-foot, 3-inches and 195 pounds. Last year was Clayton’s first in Gainesville after playing his first two seasons at Iona. He jumped right in and averaged 17.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.58 assists per game.

The Gators also return starting senior guard Will Richard (6-4, 206) who averaged 11.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

Junior center Micah Handlogten (7-1, 235) is also back after starting 32-of-33 games he played in and averaging 6.9 rebounds per contest.

To try to replace some of that outgoing production, the Gators brought…

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Author : Mizzou Today

Publish date : 2024-10-31 11:00:00

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