Week	Gator Bait	Record	USA Today/ESPN	AP Top 25	NCAA RPI
Preseason	-	-	No. 10 (474)	No. 8 (1,086)
2	W 99-59 vs. Jackson State	1-0	No. 8 (519)	No. 7 (1,132)
3	L 74-81 at No. 3 Ohio State W 91-55 vs. North Florida	2-1	No. 9 (480)	No. 10 (998)
4	W 78-65 vs. Wright State W 107-62 vs. Jacksonville	4-1	No. 9 (493)	No. 10 (1,040)
5	W 96-70 vs. Stetson L 68-72 at No. 3 Syracuse	5-2	No. 12 (419)	No. 12 (923)
6	W-OT 78-72 vs. Arizona W 90-69 vs. Rider	7-2	No. 13 (418)	No. 13 (891)
7	W 84-64 vs. No. 22 Texas A&M	8-2	No. 12 (447)	No. 11 (946)
8	W 82-54 vs. Miss. Valley State W 82-64 vs. Florida State	10-2	No. 10 (501)	No. 10 (1050)
9	L-2OT 83-85 at Rutgers W 90-70 vs. Yale	11-3	No. 14 (367)	No. 13 (753)
10	W 79-61 vs. UAB L 56-67 at Tennessee	12-4 (0-1 SEC)	No. 19 (226)	No. 19 (463)	53
11	W 70-48 vs. Georgia W 79-65 at South Carolina	14-4 (2-1 SEC)	No. 14 (304)	No. 17 (596)	45
12	W 76-64 vs. LSU	15-4 (3-1 SEC)	No. 13 (396)	No. 14 (709)	36
13	W 64-60 at Ole Miss W 69-57 vs. Mississippi State	17-4 (5-1 SEC)	No. 11 (445)	No. 12 (861)	15

ESPN/USA TODAY
Last Week 1-25: Duke (31), Ohio State, Kansas, Connecticut, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, Villanova, Georgetown, Missouri, Purdue, Kentucky, Minnesota, Texas, Notre Dame, Brigham Young, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Michigan State, Louisville, Central Florida, Memphis, Baylor, Wisconsin, Illinois
+ Florida received 33 votes, good for 32nd overall

This Week 1-25: Duke (31), Ohio State, Kansas, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, Villanova, Missouri, Connecticut, Purdue, Kentucky, Texas, Georgetown, Brigham Young, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Kansas State, Central Florida, Michigan State, Illinois, Minnesota, Memphis, Louisville, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati
+ Florida received 9 votes, good for 34th overall

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Last Week 1-25: Duke (65), Ohio State, Kansas, Connecticut, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, Villanova, Georgetown, MIssouri, Kentucky, Purdue, Texas, Minnesota, Notre Dame, Brigham Young, Kansas State, Texas A&M, Central Florida, Michigan State, Memphis, Louisville, Illinois, Vanderbilt, Temple
+ Florida received 35 votes, good for 32nd overall

This Week 1-25: Duke (65), Ohio State, Kansas, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, Villanova, Connecticut, Missouri, Kentucky, Purdue, Texas, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Brigham Young, Texas A&M, Kansas State, Michigan State, Central Florida, Illinois, Memphis, Vanderbilt, Washington, Cincinnati, UNLV
+ Florida received 35 votes, good for 31st overall

^ Record at the time the polls were released.
* Numbers in parenthesis represent first-place votes.

LITTLE THINGS MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

Just last week Donovan pointed to Florida’s penchant for turnovers and poor free throw shooting as two of the reasons they unraveled against Jacksonville. Though he still hopes for improvement from the charity stripe, he was pleased with the effort put forth by the Gators over the last two games. Speaking about the Rhode Island victory, Donovan said UF outplayed URI in all but four minutes of the contest.

“We played a pretty complete game – outside the last four minutes of the first half, they beat us by seven the last four minutes,” he said. “The difference in the game tonight was, one, the rebounding margin and, two, the way we defended the three-point line.”

Turnovers were still a minor issue for the Gators on Monday, but improvement in the team’s collective ball handling was evident.

“We’re getting better there. The two guys that have the ball that are our playmakers are Chandler [Parsons] and Erving [Walker] a lot. Erv has five assists, four turnovers; Chandler five assists, three turnovers. So of our 13 turnovers, [seven] come from those two guys,” Donovan said. “It’s hard for me to nit pick at those guys because they both play so hard and they both do a lot of things, but we’ve got to get those two guys in particular to do a better job. We’re moving in the right direction.”

Florida scored more than 80 points for only the second time this season (105 on 11/18 vs. North Carolina A&T)

“Our guys offensively…we’re getting better, we’re improving,” he said. “I didn’t know if we could hold them to 59 points because they have so many different offensive weapons, but we did. We’re getting better on offense. Alex [Tyus] and Kenny Boynton didn’t have great shooting nights for us, but Chandler did and we were able to get the ball inside and still able to manufacture 84 points.”

Read the rest of the notes and quotes from Donovan…after the break!

PARSONS TURNS THINGS AROUND

Having posted only one double-digit scoring performance since Nov. 21, Parsons found some consistency and scored 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting Monday.

“Overall I thought Chandler played a really complete game. He shot it well, rebounded it well, made some good decisions, he defended well. He really had a good, complete game,” Donovan said. “The one thing I respect and appreciate about Chandler… We play against Xavier and he goes into that game and only takes four shots in the game and really did a lot of great things. He had 11 rebounds. Here’s a game where he got some open looks. He took his open looks; they went in. He still did the same things against Xavier that he did against Rhode Island, which was encouraging. He rebounded the ball and he made some plays. He just happened to have a pretty good offensive night tonight. A guy like Chandler – at 6’9” – when he’s playing the game, just playing, he can be very effective for us.”

YOUNG GROWING UP BEFORE HIS EYES

Freshman center Patric Young, who has played meaningful minutes all season but struggled with his consistency and offensive game, especially stood out to Donovan when he looked back on his performance after the contest. “I thought Patric really played a good game. You always get nervous when you start a freshman [due to] injuries because you don’t know how they are going to emotionally respond,” he said. “I thought Patric played a great game. He’s really been a different player for us since he’s come back from the break – just his attitude, his work ethic, how much he’s trying to get better.”

SOME BANGED UP GATORS

Sophomore forward Erik Murphy sat out Monday and will miss 5-10 days with a mid-foot sprain that had the coaching staff worried over the weekend. “We thought actually yesterday Murphy had broken his foot, we thought it was going to be 4-6 weeks. It came back the X-ray’s negative,” Donovan said. He is expected to miss Florida next game on Jan. 8 vs. Ole Miss and could also be out for their away game at Tennessee on Jan. 11.

Redshirt senior C Vernon Macklin, who the training staff considered doubtful to play on Sunday with a shoulder injury, felt well enough to come off the bench Monday. He played well for the Gators and is “fine” for UF’s next game.

How freshman F Will Yeguete will feel Saturday is unknown. After taking a charge and getting a knee to his hip flexor area, Yeguete had the wind knocked out of him and was unable to return to the contest. Donovan does not know the extent of his injury but is hopeful it is not a long-term issue. “When we tried to put him back in, he was having pain in his hip flexor/groin area,” he said. I don’t know to what extent or what degree the injury is [or] how long he’ll be out, but he was in enough pain that he didn’t feel like he could go. I’m hoping it was a knee-to-hip flexor bruise and he was just in pain.”

An impressive offensive performance by junior point guard Erving Walker fueled the Florida Gators (10-3) to a close 71-67 victory over the Xavier Musketeers (8-4) in Cincinnati, OH on Friday. Florida’s win snapped Xavier’s 30-game home winning streak at the Cintas Center, a venue the Musketeers have not lost at in more than two years.

UF had never defeated XU in two tries going into Friday’s game but led 31-27 at the half and jumped out to a game-high 15-point lead with 13:23 left in the contest due to an electric 13-1 run while holding their opponent without a basket for 10 game minutes.

Xavier closed the gap in the waning minutes, using a full-court press to take off on a 12-3 run cutting Florida’s lead to four with 1:22 remaining. The Gators, however, went 12-for-14 from the line in the final two minutes to starve off the Musketeers’ comeback.

Florida out-shot (45.1%-40.3%) and out-rebounded (38-30) Xavier but committed eight more turnovers (16-8) in the contest. The Gators scored more than 70 points for the first time in their last eight games but allowed the Musketeers to be only the second team in that span to score more than 60.

Walker led Florida with a team-high 18 points, going 3-for-6 from downtown and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe. He had trouble at times protecting the ball (as he has most of his career), committing six costly turnovers.

The frontcourt duo of redshirt senior center Vernon Macklin and senior forward Alex Tyus was dynamite in the first half with Tyus scoring the team’s first six points. The pair combined for 26 points on 12-of-23 shooting in the contest; Macklin added seven rebounds but injured his shoulder in the second half and was limited.

Senior F Chandler Parsons chimed in with five points and game-highs in rebounds (11) and assists (7), while sophomore guard Kenny Boynton dished six assists and was 2-for-4 from downtown and 7-for-9 from the free throw line for 15 points.

Xavier’s star guard Tu Holloway led the Musketeers with a game-high 26 points on 50 percent shooting to go along with six assists. Center Kenny Frease came off the bench to play 31 minutes, score 16 points and grab seven boards.

UF will have the opportunity to celebrate the new year before facing Rhode Island on Jan. 3 in Gainesville, FL. The game will air live on ESPNU at 9 p.m.

Photo Credit: David Kohl/Associated Press

Location: Cintas Center – Cincinnati, OH [Capacity: 10,250]
Time: 4:00 p.m. (ET)

TV: ESPN2
Online Audio: Yahoo!
Live Updates: @OnlyGators

Odds: Xavier -1.5; O/U 126.5

HISTORY and STREAKS

» Xavier leads the all-time series against Florida 2-0. The Musketeers defeated the Gators 76-64 in Gainseville, FL, last season.
» Florida is only 14-17 all-time against A-10 opponents under Donovan and have lost three straight including two last season.
» The Gators defense has signifigantly improved over the last seven games, holding opponents to just 53.7 points per contest and allowing only one team to score 60. Simultaneously, Florida has failed to score 70 points once in the same seven games.
» Florida has out-rebounded 11 of 12 opponents this season – including in its three defeats – and is doing so by a +7.8 rebound per game advantage.
» The Gators are 80-22 under Donovan in the month of December.
» Florida bests Xavier in three of four major statistical categories nationally including rebounds per game 37.6-35.7 (97th-177th), assists per game 13.8-13.3 (138th-168th) and field goal percentage .467-.440 (57th-168th). However, the Musketeers score more points per game than the Gators 70.8-69.1 (160th-186th).

KEEP AN EYE ON…

» Sophomore guard Kenny Boynton and junior point guard Erving Walker…a backcourt duo that has combined to average 25.9 points per game and has accounted for 46 of their team’s 63 three-pointers this season.
» Redshirt senior center Vernon Macklin…who is shooting a team-high 58.6 percent this season with most of his buckets coming inside the paint.
» Senior F Chandler Parsons…who is averaging 9.7 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and is an integral part to the Gators’ success.
» Xavier G Tu Holloway…who leads his team with 20.8 points, 5.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game in an average of 39 minutes.
» Musketeers F Jamel McLean..who is his team’s biggest presence inside and averages 9.5 rebounds and almost a block per game while contributing 10.5 points.

The Florida Gators officially announced the basketball team’s 2010-11 non-conference schedule on Tuesday. Previously reported by OGGOA the following premiere out-of-conference games have now been confirmed:

Nov. 16 vs. Ohio State (Gainesville, FL)
Nov. 28 at Florida State (Tallahassee, FL)
Dec. 1 vs. Central Florida (Orlando, FL – Amway Center)
Dec. 18 vs. Kansas State (Sunrise, FL – BankAtlantic Center)
Dec. 31 vs. Xavier (Cincinnati, OH)

» And here are the rest:

Oct. 28 vs. Florida Tech (Gainesville, FL)
Nov. 3 vs. Georgetown College (Gainesville, FL)
Nov. 12 vs. UNC-Wilmington (Gainesville, FL)
Nov. 18 vs. North Carolina A&T (Gainesville, FL)
Nov. 21 vs. Morehead State (Gainesville, FL)
No. 23 vs. Florida Atlantic (Gainesville, FL)
Dec. 5 vs. American (Washington, D.C.)
Dec. 9 vs. Kent State (Gainesville, FL)
Dec. 20 vs. Jacksonville (Gainesville, FL)
Dec. 22 vs. Radford (Gainesville, FL)
Dec. 28 vs. Fairfield (Gainesville, FL)
Jan 3 vs. Rhode Island (Gainesville, FL)

» NOTES
- Head coach Billy Donovan on the schedule: “I think we benefited last year from a challenging non-conference schedule and getting a couple of quality wins early in the season. We’re going to stay with the same scheduling philosophy and we’ve put together another competitive non-conference schedule.”
- Florida’s opener against Florida Tech on Oct. 28 is the earliest start in school history.
- UF will face UNC-W, OSU and NC A&T as part of the Global Sports Invitational.
- The Gators play in three more events during the regular season: the Florida Citrus Shootout with UCF, the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic against KSU and the BB&T Classic vs. American.

Read the complete and detailed OGGOA game story after the jump!

Florida took their first lead of the game early at 6-5, but Xavier sliced up the Gators defense and used a 10-0 run to go up 11 with 13:49 to go in the first half. A similar 11-3 run put the Musketeers ahead a game-high 16 points with 7:12 remaining on the clock. After going back-and-forth for a few minutes, Florida mounted their first major run of the game in the final minutes of the first half, outscoring Xavier 11-2 to cut their deficit to seven and provide the Gators with some momentum at halftime.

That momentum held as Florida freshman guard Kenny Boynton scored five straight points to cut the Gators’ deficit to four at 16:25. UF then took off on a 14-3 run, capped with a one-handed dunk by redshirt junior center Vernon Macklin to take their first lead since 6-5 at 17:01 in the first half. Florida outscored Xavier 27-11 through halftime to overcome a game-high 16-point deficit before the game began going back-and-forth.

The Musketeers retook the lead at 9:25 and followed up with an explosive 12-2 run to go back up eight with 7:35 remaining. However, the Gators would fight back once again and cut their deficit to three on the heels of a controlled trey from junior forward Chandler Parsons at 3:45. Xavier responded with a 10-1 run of their own, going back up 12 with a minute to go and holding on for the remainder of the contest.

“[Xavier's] overall team speed, athleticism and strength was far better than ours,” head coach Billy Donovan said after the game. “They out (per)formed us, coached us, played us – everything today. [...] I feel bad for our guys sometimes. Depth wise, we only really are playing six-and-a-half, seven guys. We certainly have some physical limitations and some depth limitations. I’m asking them to do everything [...] and the room for error is maybe not what it has been in the past. [...] I would say that there’s definitely a fatigue level. It could it be mental fatigue, it could it be mental fatigue, I don’t know.”

Parsons led the Gators with 15 points while Macklin capitalized with a team-high 10 boards and 12 points. Boynton also contributed 12 points and sophomore point guard Erving Walker shot only 3-for-10 from the field and 1-for-5 from downtown for 11 points of his own.

For the Musketeers, C Jason Love was dominant in the first half, scoring 14 of his game-high 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting. He finished 9-for-12 and added 10 rebounds to his double-double performance. F Jamel McLean gave Xavier a game-high 15 rebounds while guard Jordan Crawford added a solid 18 points.

The best team in the Atlantic 10 from behind the arc, the Musketeers only went 4-for-20 from downtown. Xavier outrebounded the Florida 40-27 and earned six more offensive boards. The Gators continued to struggle from the free throw line, finishing 12-for-23 as a team with Macklin going 0-for-5.

Florida gets five days off after their back-to-back losses before returning to action and trying to save their season against the Auburn Tigers on Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. The game will air live on ESPN.

Location: Stephen C. O’Connell Center – Gainesville, FL [Capacity: 12,000]
Time: 6:00 p.m. (EST)

TV: ESPN / ESPNHD
Online Video: ESPN360
Live Updates: OGGOA on Twitter

Odds: Florida -4, O/U (OFF)

KEEP AN EYE ON…
» The dynamic backcourt of…sophomore point guard Erving Walker and freshman guard Kenny Boynton who are averaging 31.5 points and 7.9 assists per game in conference play this season.
» Speaking of Walker and Boynton…they have hit 51 of the Gators’ 64 treys in SEC play. Walker has gone for 20+ points in five of 10 SEC games.
» Junior forward Alex Tyus…who is dominating the front court, averaging 14.7 points and 7.9 rebounds over the last 15 contests. He has hit double figures in 14 of 15 games and scored 15+ in eight of those. Tyus had a career-best 15 rebounds Wednesday.
» Junior F Chandler Parsons…who has back-to-back double-doubles and four on the season (six for this career). He has also been helping dish the ball with six assists in each of his last two games.
» The duo of Tyus and Parsons…who are combining for 15.6 rebounds per game during SEC play including 26 on Wednesday night.
» Double-digit scoring by Vernon Macklin…the Gators are 11-1 when the redshirt junior transfer center finishes in double figures.
» Musketeers guard Jordan Crawford leads both his team and the A-10 in scoring at 19.7 points per game.

STREAKS:
» Xavier leads the all-time series against Florida 1-0, with their sole win coming in the Hurricane Classic in Miami, FL, on Dec. 28, 1959. The Musketeers won 86-74.
» This is the first time the Gators have played a non-conference opponent during SEC play since 2003.
» Under head coach Billy Donovan, Florida is 4-3 against the Atlantic 10; they lost earlier this season to the Richmond Spiders 56-53.
» The Gators have been holding opponents to 58.8 points per game in their 17 wins while allowing the number to jump to 75.7 points per game in their seven losses.
» Florida is 11-2 at home this season and 80-10 in the O’Dome since 2005.
» The Gators are 5-3 in games decided by five points or less compared to 4-6 in such games last season. Florida is 4-1 in the last five contests that were that close.
» UF is now 6-1 in conference play and 12-2 overall when out-rebounding an opponent after losing to South Carolina on Wednesday.
» Xavier has a win over then-No. 19 Cincinnati this season and leads the A-10 in scoring offense (79.4) and three-point shooting (39.4 percent).
» The Musketeers have reached two Elite Eights and a Sweet 16 in the last six years.
» Florida will honor the 2000 NCAA Championship runner-up team at halftime.

Read OGGOA’s Florida Gators vs. Xavier Musketeers preview after the jump!

The Florida Gators (17-7) are trying to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive as they host the Xavier Musketeers (16-7) at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, FL, in the first half of a two-year home-and-home series.

Leading for most of the game Wednesday against South Carolina, Florida folded in the end after turning the ball over a season-high 20 times and shooting poorly from the free throw line. A loss Saturday could send the Gators’ season into a tailspin, but a win could get them back on track for their first NCAA Tournament berth in three years.

Xavier brings a high-powered offense into the House of Horrors, one that leads the Atlantic-10 in scoring offense and three-point shooting. In fact, three of the four best three-point shooters in the conference all play for the Musketeers. Though guard Jordan Crawford leads Xavier most nights, Florida’s leader seemingly changes with every game.

The team’s starting five – sophomore point guard Erving Walker, freshman guard Kenny Boynton, junior forward Chandler Parsons, junior F Alex Tyus and redshirt junior center Vernon Macklin – have all come through in one game or another, but the Gators too often find that they are not all on the same page at once. Consistency and ball control will be the keys for Florida to pull out a victory on Saturday.

Though Florida only missed seven shots in the first half and was shooting 68.2 percent to 37.8 percent for South Carolina, an astounding 12 turnovers (including five in the first 4:17 of the game) left them with only a four-point lead at halftime.

This trend would continue after the break, with the Gators surrendering three turnovers in the first 4:30 of the second half and a five more before the final buzzer sounded. The Gamecocks were stingy, only giving up six all night compared to UF’s season-high 20.

Read the rest of OGGOA’s Florida at South Carolina game story after the jump!

Florida’s miscues continued at the free throw line, where they shot 43.5 percent (10-of-23) as a team after averaging over 70 percent on the season. Though they did outrebound USC 39-27, Florida allowed South Carolina 18 more shot attempts due to the turnover discrepancy. Wednesday marked the first Southeastern Conference game this season that the Orange and Blue lost while outrebounding their opponent.

The Gators initially took the lead on a dunk by junior forward Chandler Parsons with 16:31 remaining in the first half. It would increase to a game-high eight for Florida on a three-pointer by sophomore point guard Erving Walker with 6:45 on the clock. UF would hold on to the advantage for 27:53 of game time before losing it on a trey by Downey that gave USC a 51-50 lead with 8:18 remaining in the game.

An 18-5 Gamecocks second half run that included three three-pointers and 11 total points by Raley-Ross propelled South Carolina to a game-high seven-point lead that they would never surrender. Ross finished with 20 points while Downey led USC with 24. Junior F Sam Muldrow contributed 16 points and eight rebounds.

For the Gators, Walker was 6-for-10 both from the field and at the line for a team-high 20 points. He was one of three Florida players with four turnovers. The other two were Parsons (13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists) and junior F Alex Tyus, who finished with a double-double of 11-points and a game-high 15 rebounds. Freshman G Kenny Boynton tallied 13 points while walk-on sophomore G Kyle McClanahan saw his first meaningful game action of the season (six minutes, two points, one rebound).

The Gators look to rebound from a crushing defeat by returning home Saturday to host the Xavier Musketeers in a rare late season out-of-conference game. UF’s NCAA Tournament hopes may be on the line as the contest airs live at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

2 » Head basketball coach Billy Donovan mentioned that the University of Florida will be honoring the 2000 NCAA Championship runner-up Gators team with a video and posters during Saturday’s home game against the Xavier Musketeers. “[There are] too many guys still playing/coaching to get them [all] back,” Donovan said. “[I] hope people remember what a special team that was.” The game will air live at 6 p.m. on ESPN.