Florida basketball vs. North Florida TV info, odds, preview, prediction
The second-seeded Gators meet in-state foe North Florida in Jacksonville for their first game of the NIT.
This season marks the 10th time in program history that the Florida Gators (19-14) will be competing in the NIT rather than the NCAA tournament — and the first time since 2009.
Overall, the Gators are 11-11 in the three-lettered tourney — 4-5 in the first round and 2-2 in road games.
They’ll enter this contest as the No. 2 seed facing the No. 7 seed Atlantic Sun Conference champion North Florida Ospreys (22-11).
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Florida leads the all-time series 4-0 against North Florida, recording wins in 2006, ’07 and most recently in ’13. But all of those meetings were in Gainesville; that won’t be the case this time around due to the O’Connell Center renovations.
Instead, the Gators will make the nearly 85-mile trek up to Jacksonville to play in a venue with a maximum capacity of 5,800 — a fraction of the O’Dome’s, to say the least.
Against common opponents outside of the SEC, UF went 2-0, beating Florida Gulf Coast 70-50 and Jacksonville 89-65, whereas UNF went 3-1 against those two teams.
Florida basketball head coach Mike White is 5-3 in NIT games dating back to his days at Louisiana Tech. He’s never made it to the semifinals in New York, but he’s notched some quality road wins against Florida State, Georgia and Texas A&M in the past.
Game information
Date: Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2016
Time: 9 PM ET
Location: UNF Arena, Jacksonville, Fla.
TV: ESPNU
Livestream: WatchESPN
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network
Spread: Florida (-9)
Over/Under: 161
Related Story: Analyzing the Gators' 2016 football schedule
Florida only played two games in the Southeastern Conference tournament. They defeated Arkansas in Round 2, but fell to regular-season co-champion Texas A&M in a hard-fought semifinal matchup.
In that meeting, the Gators and Aggies were tied with just over two minutes remaining before A&M raked off seven straight points to put the game out of reach and dash any fleeting hopes Florida had at reaching the NCAA tournament.
UF played solid defense against TAMU, holding the Aggies to just 39.4 percent from the field and a mere 4-for-16 from the three-point line.
That performance was undermined by an unproductive offense, however: 38.7 percent shooting from the floor and 3-of-19 from beyond the arc (.158).
If Tuesday night’s game turns into high-scoring affair, the Gators could be in trouble.
North Florida averages 84.8 points per game and inflicts most of its damage from deep. The Ospreys hit 402 threes this season, ranking No. 1 in the nation. Additionally, 977 of their 2,010 field-goal attempts (48.6 percent) were threes — and they converted on nearly 42 percent of the three-point shots they attempted.
That doesn’t bode well for a Florida defense that was one of the worst in the league in defending the long ball (.345).
Prediction
It’ll be interesting to see how the Gators respond to missing out on the NCAA tournament for the second straight season.
Will they come out and play inspired, or do they just want this season over with as soon as possible?
On the other side, the Ospreys were one game away from going dancing, losing 89-56 to FGCU in the A-Sun conference tournament title game. That crushing defeat will carry over into the postseason for North Florida.
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UNF has a glaring weakness on the defensive end. Their trigger-happy ways leave them exposed to transition defense — and points.
In 2016, North Florida opponents shot 46.2 percent. The Gators will take advantage of their opportunities off of missed shots and utilize their substantial size and athleticism to knock off the Ospreys and advance to Round 2.