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The No. 18 Florida men’s basketball team hopes to show that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts when it competes in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament starting today in the Bahamas.
The Gators (2-1) will play three games in three nights in the Bahamas regardless of the outcomes. First up, Florida will take on the Georgetown Hoyas (3-0) on Wednesday night.
Florida has injuries to deal with early in the year. Redshirt junior Eli Carter is dealing with a sprained foot suffered in practice last week. Junior forward Dorian Finney-Smith has only played in one game this season after sustaining hairline fractures in his non-shooting hand. Both are questionable for Wednesday’s contest.
“My feeling right now going into this is we’re basically going to have the team we had playing against Louisiana-Monroe,” said Florida head coach Billy Donovan.
Senior walk-on Jacob Kurtz will likely get his second-career start. Kurtz grabbed a career-high 13 rebounds in the Gators’ overtime win against Lousiana-Monroe. The injuries open the door for freshman Devin Robinson to get his second straight start but it is unclear whether Donovan will put him in the starting lineup again after Robinson saw limited minutes in the second-half and overtime last Friday against the Warhawks.
Meanwhile, the undefeated Hoyas will be tested nonetheless when they see the Gators in Paradise Island. Georgetown has won its first three games of the season by an average of 17 points but their opponents are a combined 3-12 entering Wednesday.
Georgetown senior center Joshua Smith has been leading the charge for the Hoyas, averaging 17.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, on 69% shooting to start out the season.
“Well (Georgetown head coach John Thompson III) is going to have his system – he takes a lot of the Princeton style things and he’s adding his own things,” said Donovan. “They can play big if they play (senior forward Mikael) Hopkins and Smith together up front. They can go a little bit small if they put Hopkins to the center spot. They’re very, very quick and athletic on the perimeter, they’re a really good driving team, and they get to the free-throw line.
In order for the Gators to find success, sophomore point guard Kasey Hill needs to find his stroke. He’s averaging only 4.3 points per game and is only 3-for-24 shooting (13%) this year.
“I think he’s got to finish a lot better especially at the basket,” said Donovan. “He’s getting in there and certainly for us the last three games we’ve broken down every shot he’s gotten – it’s not like he’s finding three point shots… most are his shots are from 15-feet and most of his shots are in the lane. He’s got to finish better.
Tipoff is set for 9:30 p.m.
**North Central Florida residents can watch the game live on AXS TV channel 199 (Cox Communications).
To listen to audio from the story, click below:
Donovan talks about Eli and Dorian’s status for Wedenesday
