Preview: Loyola Chicago at Florida

[December 06, 2017]  Gracenote

With back-to-back losses to No. 1 Duke and rival Florida State, fifth-ranked Florida stumbles into its Wednesday matchup with visiting Loyola Chicago, which is off to its best start since it won eight of its first nine contests in 1965-66. The shaken Gators have a short turnaround following Monday night's disheartening 83-66 home loss to the unranked Seminoles, but Mike White's team is 3-1 in Gainesville with a 29.7 point average margin of victory in the three wins.

"They (Florida State) threw the first three or four punches and continued throwing most of them and connected on most of them until the final buzzer. Very disappointing effort," White told reporters afterward. "... I thought they played harder than us; I thought they were tougher than us for 40 minutes." The Gators were beaten every which way by the Seminoles, particularly on the glass, where Florida State completely dominated with huge advantages in offensive rebounds (23-11), second-chance points (24-8) and points in the paint (36-20). "What's really disappointing is, you guys have heard me use the word soft with this team," White said. "And we use the word with our team every day, and it reared its ugly head tonight. Tonight was the epitome of soft." The Gators hope to respond as they did a year ago when they fell to Duke and Florida State in consecutive early December games, using it as a springboard to seven straight victories.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, SEC Network

ABOUT LOYOLA CHICAGO (8-1): The Ramblers are 13-2 in their last 15 games versus non-Missouri Valley Conference opponents and they opened the season with seven straight victories before splitting their last two, including Saturday's 24-point win over Illinois-Chicago. Senior forward Aundre Jackson spearheaded the attack, hitting 10-of-11 shots for a game-high 23 points, his second-highest total of the season and the second time he has topped 20 points in the last four games, while freshman Lucas Williamson chipped in with a career-high 14 points. Through Monday, Loyola ranked eighth in the nation with a 52.2 field-goal percentage but the team has not been nearly as effective on the road, hitting just 42.2 percent of its field-goal attempts and 30.3 percent of its 3-point tries in two true road games.

 

ABOUT FLORIDA (5-2): Four players are averaging in double figures, led by junior guard Jalen Hudson with 20.9 points per game, but the Gators offense couldn't get anything going against Florida State - scoring 33.5 points fewer than its season average coming into the game (99.5). They wound up shooting a dismal 36.2 percent from the field and hitting just 6-of-25 from 3-point range - both their second-worst showings of the young season - with Hudson leading the Gators with 16 points followed by KeVaughn Allen (15) and Egor Koulechov (11). Senior point guard Chris Chiozza didn't score until a free throw in the final four minutes and he finished with just three points on 0-for-5 from the field, with four assists and four of the team's season-worst 17 turnovers.

TIP-INS

1. With their loss Monday, the Gators dropped from first to second in the nation in scoring with an average of 94.7 points per game.

2. This will be the first time these teams meet but Florida is 5-2 all-time versus teams in the Missouri Valley Conference.

3. With four assists against Florida State, Chiozza moved into Florida's all-time top 10 with 408, passing Brett Nelson (406).

PREDICTION: Florida 90, Loyola Chicago 75

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