One school that has finally begun to receive its due in the lieu of a 15 game win streak is the Gators of Florida. Billy Donovan’s team has attained a top five ranking and appears to be the class of the SEC as they stroll into Knoxville for a battle with an underrated Vols team.
Cuonzo Martin’s Tennessee unit sits at 15-8 (6-4 in conference) and still needs to do some work to get itself squarely positioned as being inside the NCAA tournament field. Winning this game here would go a long way toward that goal.
The Gators have gotten deeper on the inside thanks to the newfound eligibility of freshman Chris “Sky” Walker. But the real key to their success is the dynamic guard depth they possess. They have two formidable point men in Scottie Wilbekin and Kasey Hill. That will be tough for Tennessee to match in this game.
The Vols’ success has been predicated upon a super front line headlined by the trio of Jarnell Stokes, Jordan McRae and Jeronne Maymon. McRae is a fantastic talent and difficult match-up problem for many. The senior is shooting it from deep at a 57% clip in his last four games and has averaged 23 per outing during that time.
Stokes and Maymon are physical bodies who put significant strain on any defense. Florida counters them with Will Yeguete and Patric Young. Florida’s front court still lacks depth as Walker is continuing to progress in the area of game conditioning. He played seven minutes against Missouri and four versus Alabama, leaving the heavy lifting underneath to the pair of veterans.
This will be a battle of two different teams as Florida is more balanced from top to bottom while the Vols are far stronger on the inside. Tennessee is good on defense, but their offensive efficiency has them in the top 15 nationally. It’ll be interesting to see if they can continue to duplicate this success against a defensive unit as good as Florida’s.
Donovan is an excellent defensive mind and cracking his schemes requires steady and effective point guard play. Senior and Memphis transfer Antonio Barton has been okay this year, but he is the only natural point on this roster.
Barton has averaged only 16 minutes or so per game in his last four, but that could well change on Tuesday. Tennessee needs to prove they can handle the ball and beat pressure when it comes if they want to take down the Gators here.
Overall, I have this game at pick’em. The Vols are tempting at home as a 1/1.5 point dog, but I do not trust their guard play or depth in general. Florida could likely struggle to contain their interior dominance at times, but if Donovan is able to dictate the tempo and create turnovers, that will be less of an issue.
I’d also look for Florida to use some match-up zone. Casey Prather and Dorian Finney-Smith are swingmen with size and length. They are not, by any means, post defenders. But they can rotate at either the top of a zone or down at the corner extended area and provide weak side help when needed.
This should be a good one and it will tell us a significant amount about just how ready Tennessee is to play with the big boys. Outside of wins against Xavier and Virginia, this program lacks any other top 50 RPI wins. Their only other top 100 wins came at the hands of N.C. State and LSU. So, while they have been impressive to some extent at times, they have a long way to go in order to prove they are an SEC club worthy of going to the big tournament.
