Missouri Guard again discusses basketball faces in Florida in the dry tournament
The Missouri Caleb Grill goalkeeper discusses what it will take to beat Florida Basketball N ° 4 for the second time this season in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament.
- Florida coach Todd Golden thinks that Missouri is a solid team that will challenge them and prepare them better for the NCAA tournament.
- Missouri’s top scorer, Mark Mitchell, left Thursday’s match with a knee injury and his status for Friday’s match is uncertain.
Nashville, Tenn – Florida basketball Coach Todd Golden should again face the Missouri in the Dry tournament quarter -finals.
In fact, Golden focused his preparation this week on the Tigers.
This ended up the right decision, while the 7 seeded Missouri moved away in the last minutes to beat the Mississippi State 85-73 to 10 strikes Thursday evening in the dry tournament in Bridgestone Arena. The main goalkeeper Tamar Bates scored 25 points to lead the tigers to victory.
He sets up a juicy match between the seeded n ° 7 Missouri (22-10) and the seed n ° 2 Gators from Florida (27-4) In the quarterfinals of the dry tournament Friday evening (7 p.m., dry network).
Missouri delivered Florida His only home loss of the season, beating UF 83-82 at the O’Connell Center on January 14.
“They are one of two or three best teams in the country, in my eyes,” said Missouri coach Dennis Gates. “I think no one has given them the amount of the credit they deserve, I don’t even know if they were classified n ° 1 in the country for several weeks, but I know that this is how I look at them.
“It was a great atmosphere when we played in Gainesville. Todd Golden, I respect, and I respect all their program. It is not the same team as they were, I think they improved.”
Golden said on Wednesday that he had hosted a potential revenge match with the Missouri because of how reading a team in which the caliber will prepare UF for the NCAA tournament.
“It’s a sweet match of 16, right there.” Said Golden. “The Missouri is a very good. And, yes, I think our guys would like another crack by doing them simply because we did not have the impression of having played our best game here – and not to take anything away from the Missouri, because they played well. They beat us that evening.”
Here are three scenarios to watch in the match of the Dry Tournament of UF with the Tigers:
Can Florida Basketball prevent the Missouri Caleb Grill shooter from getting started?
Grill burned UF during the first confrontation between the two teams, marking a top of 22 points on shot 7 out of 11 and shot 6 out of 10 from 3 points.
Florida’s playmaker, Walter Clayton, said the goal this time was to deny to grill basketball and limit the number of attempts he sets up.
“He hit hard the last time he played us here,” said Clayton. “So don’t let him remove them.”
The 3 -foot 3 -inch grill won the sec Sixth Man of the Year Honours after an average of 14.2 points on the bench for the Missouri this season. He experienced a shooting evening on Wednesday against the state of Mississippi, going only 2 out of 11 on the ground and 1 out of 8 on a fork of 3 points for 5 points. But Grill said that he is hosting the challenge of trying to bounce back on Friday against the Gators.
“You have to get into every confident match,” said Grill “I think if you are going to a not confident game, you have lost self -confidence. No matter what you need to think how you can help your team win and go there with confidence to play well.”
Can Florida basketball better take care of the ball in the second match with the Tigers?
The Missouri generated 18 points out of 13 Florida reversals in the first match between the two schools. Clayton will have to be strong with the ball to the point, and pass must be clear and on the target against a Missouri team which has an average of 6.6 interceptions per game and 14.0 reversals per game.
What is the status of the Missouri striker and the top scorer Mark Mitchell before the match in Florida?
The 6 -foot 9 inch and 230 pound mitchells, which leads the tigers by scoring 14.1 points per game, on the left Thursday evening’s match against Mississippi’s state match with a knee injury and did not return. His status for Florida’s game is not clear at this stage.
“Mark knows what he can and cannot do,” said Gates. “He did not want to disadvantage his team if he was not 100%, so at the end of the day, he trusted our substitutions and our depth and he simply did not recover in the game.
“For me, it’s a big leadership and we will see what his prognosis is.”
Prediction
Florida 77, Missouri 70: Florida will avenge its only home defeat of the season and retire in the second half to beat the tigers and qualify for the semi-finals of the dry tournament for the second consecutive year. The depth of the UF will play a factor in victory while the Missouri will be accompanied in its second match in two days.
Kevin Brockway is the writer of Beat Florida de Gainesville Sun. Contact it at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on x @ kevinbrockwayg1
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