Tennessee is looking to open February strong as it heads to Gainesville to face Florida Wednesday night.
The Vols are coming off four consecutive wins and have climbed to No. 2 in the AP Poll following their disappointing loss against Kentucky two weeks ago.
Florida has been up-and-down in Todd Golden’s first season and finds itself on the bubble and in the need to a marquee victory. Knocking off Tennessee would do just that.
Here’s everything you need to know about Tennessee’s Wednesday night matchup at Florida.
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How to Watch – No. 2 Tennessee (18-3, 7-1 SEC) vs. Florida (12-9, 5-3 SEC)
- Date: Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023
- Start Time: 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT
- Location: Exactech Arena at the O’Connell Center
- TV: ESPN2. PxP: Kevin Fitzgerald, CC: Jimmy Dykes
- Online Streaming: Watch ESPN
- Radio (Knoxville): The Vol Network/The Vol Network App
Team Statistics (via ESPN)
What Rick Barnes said about the Gators
On what stands out about Florida
“Certainly, new coach that’s done a good job with his roster. A post player in Castleton that is as effective as any guy in the country. They do a great job of playing through him and 40% of the game they’re going to play with guards and shoot a high percentage of three-point shots there. Going back to what I just said, transition defense. They’re going to look to get it up quick and to get that early kick out, bust out and look to shoot the three in transition so that’s going to be really really important obviously. But switching, they’ll mainly man but they’ll play some zone. They have some zone presses that they’ll run but they’re going to probably switch it one through four which we’ve seen a lot this year from a lot of different teams and they’re going to play hard, they’re going to compete. Extremely well coached. It’s hard to win, man. I don’t care where you are, what level you’re at, it’s hard to win basketball games and we know that it’s going to be hard to go to Gainesville, Florida and get a win. It’s hard but we have to be locked in and go one day at a time and get better today, tomorrow and go play.”
On preparing for a team with a big man like Colin Castleton
“It doesn’t change— we’ve seen that some this year too already. He (Colin Castleton) is certainly a force and can do a lot of different things. Our post players will have to be on edge because he can do some things and he can really take a game over. He plays well with those guards and our guards are going to have to be able to, there might be a lineup where we play four guards and we think we can do that if we have to so we’ll see how the game— I’ve said many times each game takes on its own personality. We’ll see what personality this one takes on.”
Odds and Statistics
- Spread: Tennessee -6 (-110), Florida +6 (-110)
- Total: Over/Under 131.5
- Spread: Tennessee -8 Florida
- Total: Over/Under 128
Probable Starters (via UT Sports)
Stat Leaders
Tennessee:
- Points: Santiago Vescovi – 12.2 PPG, 40.2 FG%, 35.4 3PT%
- Rebounds: Julian Phillips – 5.1 RPG
- Assists: Zakai Zeigler – 5.1 APG, 2.2 TOPG, 29.1 MPG
Florida:
- Points: Colin Castleton — 14.9 PPG, 49.8 FG%, 15.4 3FG%
- Rebounds: Colin Castleton — 5.3 RPG
- Assists: Kyle Lofton — 3.1 APG, 1.2 TOPG, 30.9 MPG
