The end of the regular season is upon us as the Gators will host their final game of the SEC season against the LSU Tigers. As is generally the case with the final game of a regular season, there are significant standings implications for both the Gators and Tigers in this one.
Currently the Gators sit at 8-9 in the SEC, putting them in 10th place. Mississippi State and Arkansas are in 9th and 8th place, both at 8-9 as well–though they hold tiebreakers over the Gators. In 7th in Auburn who sits at 9-8. If the Gators are able to manage a win against the Tigers and have some luck with other games taking place in the league they could jump a few spots in the standings, something that would be mighty helpful entering the conference tournament. Fortunately for the Gators, they can finish no lower than 10th as Georgia sits behind them at 6-11.
Overall Florida’s record is 15-15, and they’d love to avoid a losing season and hypothetically keep them in the mix for an NIT bid, and to do that they’d likely need to take care of LSU.
LSU is currently last in the SEC at 2-15. South Carolina and Ole Miss are the two teams ahead of them at 3-14, so depending on tiebreaker scenarios the Tigers may be able to avoid finishing in the basement of the league in the first year of the Matt McMahon era.
This has been a bizarre season for LSU who started the season with excellence before completely falling off a cliff. The Tiger started the year 12-1, and though they didn’t play a difficult schedule they did beat a pretty good Wake Forest team on a neutral court, and their only loss was to Kansas State on a neutral floor and it was only by 2 points. They opened SEC play with a win against Arkansas, who was playing great basketball at the time, and came away with a win.
Immediately after, the wheels inexplicably fell off.
Since winning their opening game of the SEC regular season, the Tigers have gone 1-16. They have struggled on both sides of the floor, and have not looked competitive in many of these losses.
LSU’s last game was against Missouri where they had a chance to play spoiler, and it was looking like they may grab one of their biggest wins of the season. They held a 19-point lead, but unfortunately let it slip, allowing Missouri to come away with an 81-76 victory, making it one of the biggest blown leads in college basketball this season.
Given how the seasons have gone for the Gators and Tigers this year, the team that plays more motivated basketball on Saturday could have a major advantage.
One of the storylines for Florida that could contribute to the atmosphere in the building is that, being the last home game of the season, it will be senior day for the Gators. With several players in their final years of eligibility there will be lots of emotion sending these players off, particularly star center Colin Castleton who had his season ended due to injury.
In the first meeting of the season between the two teams, Florida came away with a 67-56 victory. This was back in the middle of January where the Gators were playing their best basketball of the season, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. LSU was unable to create open shots all night long and the Gators’ suffocating defense gave them the win, despite the fact that their offense was struggling. Since then, things have been a little different for the Gators. Their defense is nowhere near as good as it was back in January, a drop off in quality that started even before Colin Castleton got injured. Fortunately for the Gators, LSU isn’t totally built to exploit any defense, no matter how poor it is. The Tigers are currently 147th in the country in offensive efficiency and their inability to go on scoring runs has been part of the reason they haven’t been able to put up wins in SEC play.
One player who has been able to put up points is center KJ Williams. He was the one player on the Tigers who had no problem with Florida’s defense, scoring 23 points and adding 7 rebounds. Williams got it done on the inside going 7-11 from two-point range, though he was ice cold from behind the arc going 1-9. An inside-out threat who uses his 6’10, 250 pound frame to get things done inside but loves to stretch it out, Williams is the heart and soul of LSU’s offensive game plan and considering he’s shooting 43% from three the Gators were lucky he was only able to get 23 points against them. Had he shot his average percentage, that’s an easy 30-point game. Florida will have to have a plan on how to handle Williams, particularly on his pick and pop attempts, as LSU will look to run those plays a ton.
For the Gators, the biggest change between the first meeting of these two teams and now is the play of Riley Kugel. He was a key bench piece back in January who played 18 minutes against the Tigers, but he was largely a role player at that point. Now, both due to his excellent play and the injury to Colin Castleton, Kugel is the most important player on the Gators. He has been on a heater of late pouring on points and getting to the rim at will, and he’ll be the player the Gators look to feature in order to try and finish the regular season off with a win.
The Gators and Tigers play on March 4 at 6 PM ET, and the game will be televised on SEC Network.