Reeling Florida will look to break a three-game losing streak when it hosts Ole Miss on Wednesday night in Gainesville, Fla.
The Gators (13-12, 6-6 SEC) have struggled since posting a 67-54 upset of then-No. 2 Tennessee on Feb. 1. Florida is coming off an 88-80 home loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday, a game in which the Gators allowed the Commodores to shoot 48.3 percent from the field and 52.2 percent (12-of-23) from 3-point range.
“Everybody in our program, staff, players included didn’t feel great about how Saturday ended up and realize everything we want is still in front of us,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “Obviously it’s a little more difficult now.”
The Gators have allowed an average of 85.7 points during their skid.
“We haven’t guarded the last few games, which we need to get right to be the best team we can be,” Golden said.
On offense, Florida will try to continue to feed the ball inside to center Colin Castleton, who has scored 20 or more points in four straight games. Castleton has averaged 24.8 points and 9.5 rebounds during the stretch.
“I anticipate they will throw some different looks at him, whether it’s running a little double at him, or fronting him, making it hard to catch,” Golden said. “But the great thing about Colin is he’s so flexible in the way he can play offensively that if they’re doing that, we can get him catches in different parts of the floor and he can still be really effective.”
Ole Miss (10-15, 2-10 SEC) has dropped 12 of its last 14. The Rebels are coming off a 64-61 home loss Saturday against South Carolina.
Scoring has been an issue for Ole Miss as the Rebels rank 11th in the SEC in scoring offense (67.4 ppg), ninth in field goal percentage (42.3 percent) and 12th in 3-point field goal percentage (29.5 percent).
“We’re not putting the product out on the floor that we need to put,” Rebels coach Kermit Davis said. “We’ve got to keep getting better.”
Florida has won seven of the last 10 meetings and holds an overall series lead of 69-48.
–Field Level Media