With the Florida Gators (19-8, 9-5 SEC) playing some of their best basketball of the season as of late they’ll get a chance to continue to build momentum on February 28 when they take on the lowly Missouri Tigers (8-19, 0-14 SEC).
If you did a double take when you saw the Missouri record and thought it was maybe a typo, let me be clear–the Tigers truly are yet to grab a victory in league play. Coming off an NCAA Tournament berth in 2023 Missouri was expected to take a bit of a step back but still were thought to be competitive. They were picked 9th in the preseason SEC poll, one spot behind the Gators who were 8th, but things haven’t panned out that way whatsoever. Missouri closed out their non-conference against 339th KenPom ranked Central Arkansas so they were able to get a win there, but with three losses preceding that game the Tigers have now lost 17 of their last 18 and their last win against a high-major opponent came against Pittsburgh on November 28th.
In fairness to Missouri despite the fact that they have dropped every SEC game they have been somewhat competitive in a number of these contests. In the previous week they lost to Tennessee by only 5 and Ole Miss by 3, with games earlier in the season against Texas A&M, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and South Carolina that were extremely close (most notably an overtime loss to the Gamecocks). Because of this the Tigers come in at 146th in KenPom which isn’t anything to brag about–but it’s far from the 200’s where most of the bottom teams in the high-major ranks reside.
Florida has also seen that Missouri can be competitive as they already saw the Tigers earlier in the season. It was a 79-67 score which indicates a comfortable win for the Gators but it was only a 56-51 game with 10 minutes remaining, but Florida’s depth won out in the late stages. Leading the Gators in scoring was Tyrese Samuel with 17 in a balanced offensive output that saw six Florida players get 8 or more points. This was one of Florida’s best shooting games of the season at 41% from three and they’ll be looking to replicate that kind of performance once again against a Missouri team that gives up a ton of threes.
There is one thing the Gators will be looking to do much better in this game and that is defending Missouri guard Tamar Bates who had a career game against the Gators with 36 points on 13-21 shooting, putting his team on his shoulders as he nearly single handedly kept the Tigers in the game. Bates only went 1-4 from three in this game and 12-17 from two which tells you everything you need to know about how he gashed the Gators as he got to the rim continually. This is a major concern for the Gators, and not just because Bates could potentially lead the Tigers to an upset win. You see–Bates is far from the only perimeter player to have a career night against the Gators, and stopping downhill guards from getting into the paint has been an issue all year. Bates’ huge performance is just one of several explosive outings from an opponent who was constantly scoring at the rim and it will be interesting to see who the Gators use to try to slow him down. After Bates, Missouri’s next highest scorer was 5’10” Nick Honor who got things done with the outside jumper off the dribble and the Gators aren’t going to be as concerned with that as they are the downhill ability of Bates.
While the defense against Bates left a lot to be desired the Gators do deserve credit for how they slowed down Sean East. East has been Missouri’s highest scorer at 17.0 points and 4.2 assists per game and the Gators made it a priority to keep him off the score sheet and it was effective with East having only 8 points and 3 assists while turning the ball over 3 times. East’s last three games have seen him score 33 against Arkansas, 24 against Tennessee, and 25 against Ole Miss, so he’s currently on a hot streak. During this stretch he has shot 16, 11, and 12 free throws which tells you a lot about his game–not only can he get into the paint like his teammate Tamar Bates, but he’s incredibly crafty and drawing contact and going to the line where he can get the easiest points in the game of basketball. Even if he’s not fouled he’s a talented finisher, and while his 47% from three is misleading (he only takes about two attempts per game, essentially only when they’re wide open) if you allow him to take deep jumpers he can hit them.
Florida’s offense has been humming recently and Missouri, who is 180th in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric, is prone to giving up a lot of buckets. While the Gators could certainly win this game with offense it will be the defensive side of the ball they focus on as they try to get to a point where they’re playing their best basketball of the season in March. Tamar Bates and Sean East are the kinds of players that have given them trouble all season long and if the Gators want to do damage in the postseason they’ll need to be able to guard these types of players so this will be a great opportunity for the Gators to start tightening things up on their own end.
Florida and Missouri will tip off at 6:30 PM ET on February 28th and it will be televised on SEC Network.