NEW YORK — Good day from Madison Square Garden, where West Virginia (5-2) is preparing to face Florida (4-3) and assistant coach and former Mountaineers’ standout Darris Nichols in the Jimmy V Classic. It is West Virginia’s first opponent this season against a team from a Power Five Conference, while the Gators have already faced Florida State, Stanford and Oklahoma and are 1-2 against them.
We begin with a scouting report on the Gators and this question that Bob Huggins and his coaches have probably been asking since beating Youngstown State on Saturday: Who is Florida’s best player? The Gators are kind of a hard team to figure out. They shoot 46.3 percent as a team, yet, “They haven’t shot the ball that well, yet,” Huggins said Monday. That might explain how a team can shoot just under 50 percent from the field and average only 72 points per game.
What Florida does do well is play defense, which could be the difference today. The Gators are second in the SEC (and 33rd in the country) in allowing just 62.4 points per game. Opponents are also shooting just 40 percent against Florida. West Virginia’s offense has averaged nearly 96 points per game during its four-game winning streak, but it could be a race to 70 today.
Here’s what you need to know:
TV: ESPN for the 9 p.m. tip-off, but it will actually be closer to 9:30 p.m., since Oklahoma and Notre Dame are playing at 7 p.m. in the Garden. BETTING LINE: Florida is favored by 1.5 points.
THREE GOOD QUESTIONS
Who does West Virginia seriously need to watch? Freshman point guard Andrew Nembhard was the No. 19 overall recruit and a 5-star prospect in last year’s prep class. He’s from Montverde Academy, which West Virginia fans know as the high school that gave them former standout Devin Williams. Nembhard stays on the floor about 30 minutes a game and scores 7.3 points and averages 6.5 assists per game. Also keep an eye on freshman guard Noah Locke, who was moved into the starting lineup three games ago. In those three games, he’s shooting 13 of 28 from the field with seven 3-pointers.
What does the NET say about this one? We discussed the NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) before the Rider game. The NET is the new RPI and it will basically become the guide used by the NCAA selection committee in picking at-large teams for the NCAA tournament. We’ll keep an eye on it throughout the season. For this game, Florida is ranked No. 65 and the Mountaineers are No. 88, which is an improvement from No. 147 last week.
Where does WVU have an advantage? Looks like the answer is rebounding. Florida is not a good offensive rebounding team and the Mountaineers are getting much better in that area. WVU has 102 offensive rebounds heading into this one, while Florida has 65. Florida has outrebounded its opponents by two this season, while the Mountaineers are averaging 6.7 more rebounds per game than their opponents. Crashing the glass for West Virginia wouldn’t be a bad idea in this game.
RANDOM DARRIS NICHOLS QUOTE
Couldn’t find a way to fit this into the Nichols’ feature from earlier, so I’ll put it here. This is Nichols on the “West Virgina” championship T-shirts — they misspelled “Virginia” — that were handed out after the Mountaineers won the 2007 NIT: “I still have it,” he said. “I’ve heard over the years that it’s been used as an example in sports marketing classes of things not to do, which I thought was kind of funny.”
ALLAN TAYLOR’S PICK
Allan is taking the Gators, 74-72.
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