Baylor (12-8) and No. 20 Florida (14-6) will kick off the Big 12/SEC Challenge at 11 a.m. CST on Saturday in Gainesville.
After some up and down play in the non-conference, Florida has settled in as one of the best teams in the SEC.
Though they are coming off a surprising home loss to South Carolina, the Gators have been excellent on offense. They are the fourth best in the country in terms of taking care of the ball and are the SEC’s best 3-point shooting team.
Meanwhile, Baylor has had a the opposite start to Big 12 conference play, opening at just 2-6. To be fair to the Bears though, seven of their eight total losses on the season have come to teams in KenPom’s top 31.
To counterbalance Florida’s offensive attack, Baylor owns one of the stingiest defenses in the country.
If Florida wants to secure a victory for themselves and for the SEC, here’s what it’ll need to do:
Continue to avoid turnovers
Florida turns it over less that 14 percent of the time on offensive possessions, which is easily the best in the SEC.
The Gators have an accomplished point guard in Chris Chiozza who leads the league in assists and other talented veterans at guard like KeVaughn Allen and Jalen Hudson.
To be the best in the SEC, you need a great point guard. Think about names like Tyler Ulis and DeAaron Fox (Kentucky), Kasey Hill (Florida) and Alex Caruso (Texas A&M). Those players led their teams to SEC and NCAA Tournament success.
With Chiozza’s ability to facilitate in Mike White’s offense, Florida can be one of those elite teams too.
It’s fortunate for Florida that against Baylor, taking care of the ball shouldn’t be that hard. The Bears rank near the bottom of the country in both turnover rate and steals.
If the Gators continue to take care of the ball, they will gain extra possessions on offense and will be able to put Baylor to bed early, especially if they shoot the ball well in the first half.
Play fast and aggressive offensively
Florida has been a tremendous free-throw shooting team all season.
The Gators make 76.3 percent of their attempts which is good for 2nd in the SEC. Combine that with Baylor’s propensity to foul, and you’ve got a recipe for success.
If you look at box scores very often, you’ll find that the teams who shoot more free throws win more often. Florida needs to force the issue and make this happen.
Baylor will play some zone, and although the Gators are an excellent 3-point shooting team, they can’t allow themselves to get complacent behind the line.
Chiozza and others need to attack the rim looking for contact. This will be especially important when they can attack Baylor’s most important player, 7-footer Jo Lual-Acuil. He nearly averages a double-double with 15 points per game and almost 10 boards.
Pressure the ball defensively
Florida doesn’t just need to be aggressive on the offensive end however.
Defensively, the Gator defenders need to pressure the ball.
Baylor turns the ball over more than any other team in the Big 12. As a team, they have been turning the ball over on more than 20 percent of their possessions.
Because of the tempo at which Florida plays, they already get about three to four more possessions per game than Baylor.
Add in the Gators ability to avoid turnovers and the Bears inability to do so, and Florida has the capability of taking 10-15 more shots in this game.
Florida won’t have to make that many shots in order for those extra possessions to make a big difference in the game.