By Sanderson “Snuffy” Smith
COLORADO GAME NOTES
https://cubuffs.com/documents/2024/3/21/CU_Game_Notes_Florida_NCAA.pdf
*The 10th-seeded Buffs (25-10), winners of nine of their last 10 games — including Wednesday night’s 60-53 win over Boise State in the NCAA First Four — face No. 7 Florida (24-11) in a 2:30 p.m. matchup Friday in the South Regional in Indianapolis.
The game will be CU’s fifth in the last nine days, with the winner advancing to a Sunday matchup against the winner of Friday’s game between No. 2 Marquette and No. 15 Northern Kentucky.
*The Buffs’ 60 points was CU’s second-lowest total in a win this season, barely surpassing last week’s 58-52 win over Washington State. CU shot just 21-for-48 against the Broncos, including a 4-for-15 effort from 3-point range.
But Colorado held BSU to 34 percent shooting (23-for-67), including a 2-for-18 night from beyond the arc. That was just enough to make up for a 10-rebound edge for the Broncos that included 19 offensive boards.
*The Gators finished sixth in the regular season SEC standings with an 11-7 conference mark before making it all the way to the conference tournament final. They love to run and gun and are averaging just more than 85 points per game, with four of their five starters averaging double figures, led by Iona transfer guard Walter Clayton Jr. (17.1 ppg).
The Gators are also tall and long, even without 7-1 regular Micah Handlogten, who suffered a broken leg in the SEC title game loss to Auburn. Forward’s Tyrese Samyuel and Alex Condon check in at 6-10 and 6-11 and are a big reason the Gators have recorded 184 blocked shots this season — tied for eighth-most in the nation and more than twice as many as CU’s 76.
The Gators also average nearly 15 offensive rebounds per game (third in the nation) and have outrebounded opponents by six per game (20th in the nation and tied with the Buffs in that category).
COURTESY COLORADO ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
Florida vs. Colorado
* What: NCAA South Region
* When: Friday, 4:30 p.m. (EST)
* Where: Gainbridge Fieldhouse / Indianapolis
* Records: Florida (24-11) / Colorado (25-10)
* TV: TBS (Kevin Harlan, Dan Bonner, Stan Van Gundy and Andy Katz)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD
(with Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) / Stations list
Series / Last Meeting
Florida and Colorado will meet in first-round play of the NCAA South Region, with the Gators as the No. 7 seed and Buffaloes the No. 10. … UF earned its at-large berth on the strength of an 11-7 run through the Southeastern Conference regular season (good enough for sixth place), topped off by a dash of three straight victories to the conference tournament last weekend in Nashville, Tenn., before falling in the title game 86-67 to 12th-ranked and fourth-seeded Auburn. … CU, meanwhile, posted a 13-7 record (third place) in the final season of the Pac-12 Conference, then reached the league tournament title game, only to be upset by Oregon, 75-68, to snap an eight-game winning streak. … The Gators and Buffaloes have never played in men’s basketball. … Florida is 45-19 all time in the NCAA Tournament, with 11 appearances in the Sweet 16, nine trips to the Elite Eight and five Final Fours, the last in 2014. … The Buffaloes are 12-17 all time in the NCAA Tournament, with four Sweet 16, six Elite Eights, six Elite Eights and two Final Fours, the last in 1955.
KEY STATISTICS
| Florida | Statistics | Colorado |
|---|---|---|
| 85.1 | Scoring | 78.7 |
| .456 | Field-goal percentage | .492 |
| .342 | 3-point percentage | .391 |
| 78.5 | Scoring defense | 70.7 |
| .436 | Field-goal percentage defense | .433 |
| .322 | 3-point percentage defense | .313 |
KEY NOTES
* .730 — UF’s all-time tournament winning percentage, based on that 42-19 record.
* 4 — Active Division I players with at least 1,800 points, 550 rebounds and 550 assists. Pullin is one of them, along with Baylor Scheierman (Creighton), Tristen Newton (UConn) and RayJ Dennis (Baylor).
* 37 — Points scored by BYU guard Jimmer Fredette in the Gators’ 99-92 double-OT loss in the 2010 NCAA Tournament at Oklahoma City, the most ever scored against UF in a tournament game. Fredette went 13 of 26 from the floor, 3-for-8 from the 3-point arc, hit eight of 10 free throws and dished three assists in 46 minutes. UF got 27 from freshman guard Kenny Boynton and a 20/10 double-double from junior forward Chandler Parsons.
* 500 — The Gators have a chance to have three different players hit the 500-point milestone in a season for the first time in program history. Clayton is already there with 600 points. Pullin (499) needs one point and Samuel (489) needs 11.
* 1955 — The last year Colorado was in the Final Four, where the Buffs lost to San Francisco, led by Bill Russell. CU also reached the Final Four in 1942.
COURTESY FLORIDA ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
