Riding a five-game winning streak the Florida Gators (9-3) will look to close out their non-conference schedule in style why they play the Quinnipiac Bobcats (9-3). A five-game streak is longer than anything the Gators were able to accomplish last season when their highest win streak reached only three games, so they’d love to stretch it even more and carry some momentum into SEC play where they will open against Kentucky.
Quinnipiac is a rare mid-major team that doesn’t have to play a lot of buy games against high-major competition and their contest with Florida will actually be their first high-major opponent. Because of that, the Bobcats have been able to play a lot of competitive games against teams at a similar talent level and they have gained confidence and cohesion throughout the lineup. While the record looks good and the visual quality of play has been improving–it’s worth noting that the Bobcats have lost to the three best teams they have played in UMass, Canisius, and Yale. Currently their best win has come against Albany–a team ranked 256th in KenPom. Perhaps the 9-3 record has been inflated somewhat by an easy schedule but the Bobcats have gotten to taste a lot of victory and that confidence can be huge for a team going to play a high-major opponent.
When it comes to how the Bobcats have been successful, it’s all about sound, fundamental defense. Quinnipiac strives to keep their man in front of them, stay out of rotation, and play a “bend, but don’t break” style of defense. They don’t force a lot of turnovers and aren’t disruptive, though they don’t make a lot of mistakes. Not scrambling around means they don’t commit a lot of fouls, and they have also been excellent on the glass ranking 45th in the country in defensive rebounding rate. That is actually one of the best defensive rebounding rates the Gators have seen this season, but it’s not a statistic that’s adjusted for quality of competition so it’s likely it has been a bit inflated–but we’ll find out for sure when they take on Florida’s 5th ranked offensive rebounding attack. Trying to keep the Gators off the glass will be 6’8”, 225 pound Paul Otieno (a former dominant JUCO player), 6’9”, 235 pound Richie Springs (who was one of Danny Hurley’s first recruits at UConn before transferring to Quinnipiac), and 6’7”, 220 pound Amarri Tice who is sneakily the rebounder to watch from the power forward position. Tice is 50th in the country in defensive rebounding rate and is a player who takes immense pride in that aspect of the game, so watch for how he will compete with Florida’s bigger frontcourt players for missed shots.
Defense might be the priority for the Bobcats but they also have a couple of offensive players who are extremely fun. Matt Balanc leads the way with 18.7 points per game which has been huge for Quinnipiac–especially because they didn’t actually know if he’d stick around to be on the team this year. After a productive senior season Balanc could have been a grad transfer and when he entered the portal he got a number of offers from more well-known programs in bigger leagues. When he announced he would return to Quinnipiac it came as somewhat of a surprise, and predictably he is now a dominant player who could be one of the best in the MAAC. Balanc is a do-it-all type of guard at 6’4” who can shoot it from deep, get downhill for drives, and post up smaller defenders–and that versatile skill set is why he can put up numbers.
Perhaps the most fascinating player to watch on the Bobcats is 6’1” point guard Savion Lewis. Lewis leads the country in a very important category for point guards–assists. Currently averaging 7.6 per game tied with Minnesota’s Elijah Hawkins and Utah State’s Darius Brown, I’ll give the nod to Lewis as the nation’s assist leader as he is also first in the country in assist rate (essentially the efficiency metric for assists). He is constantly probing the paint looking for teammates on cuts or behind the arc, and somehow it seems like he can always make the required pass. What makes this ability more impressive is the fact that Lewis is essentially a non-shooter–in 67 career games he has only taken 29 threes, and has hit only 28% of them. He has taken less threes than ever in his career this season where will enter the game with Florida 2-5 from behind the arc. Even though teams constantly sag off Lewis and dare him to shoot, he is still able to constantly get into the paint and figure out how to make plays for teammates and it makes him a truly intriguing player to watch.
Closing out their non-conference schedule with Quinnipiac the Gators will have a chance to take care of business and make it an acceptable but not outstanding performance entering SEC play. It will be a quad-4 game, so if the Gators were to lose–it would be somewhat disastrous. Right now the Gators are playing their best basketball of the season and this will be the final chance to get things right for SEC play so watch for them to come out with the same energy they had against Michigan and Grambling State.
Florida and Quinnipiac will tip off December 30th at 1 PM ET and it will be televised on ESPN U.