GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- It's officially half way through the SEC schedule. After ending a three-game skid at Vanderbilt, Florida basketball (13-8, 5-3) is returning home to face Georgia (12-9, 2-6).
The Gators' defense showed a more complete performance against Vandy over the weekend, and the group can't afford to miss a step on Wednesday.
Although Georgia is struggling in conference play, the Bulldogs' roster includes one of the best freshman guards in the country.
"Oh, he's going to take his. He's fantastic," Mike White said on Tuesday about UGA guard Anthony Edwards. "What a talent. One of the best talents that I've ever witnessed in this league at his age. He's tremendous."
Edwards was the No. 1 overall prospect by most recruiting services coming out of high school, and he has certainly lived up to the hype.
Edwards scored 23 points against Kentucky this year, and in the last two games, has averaged 26 points and 12.5 rebounds - the first year Bulldog has averaged 19.3 points per game and 5.2 rebounds this season.
"Tom [Crean] does a good job of putting him in space and letting him do what he does," said the Gators head coach. "They run good stuff, of course. One of the best cutting teams that we've scouted here. Athletic. Quick. Fast. Really good in transition offense to complement Anthony. Other good perimeter players. Lot of guys that can face you and drive you. Really good driving team and, again, really good cutting team."
Edwards is talented. According to White, no one guy will be in charge of defending the talented guard who is projected to go high in the 2020 NBA Draft.
"Try to make everything difficult on him," said White about how you defend a player like Edwards. "He's good at driving it either way. He's probably as good as there is in the country I would think at attacking with his weak hand. He doesn't have a weak hand. He's really good going left, scoring it left, drawing fouls going left, finishing with his left hand. So with him you can't really sit on either hand. You can't give him an angle because he's so big and strong. He understands how to draw fouls.
"Again, they've got terrific spacing, so he's in space a lot," added White. "He's good on the offensive glass. They get him shots but he also can create his own shot off the dribble. And he's just got an ability to separate just a little bit and with his length and explosive ability off the floor he can make a contested 22-footer look like a HORSE shot for other guys. It's an easy shot for him."
“We seen that he likes to drive left and use his left hand as his pull-up," said Florida forward Keyontae Johnson. "Just play him straight up but if he drives left, he likes to pull up. Like he’s more comfortable with his rhythm shooter that way, so just play him straight up and listen to the coaches and play like a regular pressure role on defense.”
"I think everyone is excited about the opportunity to potentially have their turn against a guy who's projected, as we all know, to be very high potentially in the upcoming draft," said White. "We'll have to do it by committee with some rotations and some switching and some transition defensive possessions. It'll be a number of different guys and we're going to have to understand how to give ourselves the best chance. But it starts with him."
It's not just Edwards Florida will have to key on midweek. UGA is also home to Rayshaun Hammond, Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris, with the latter two seeing some success against the Gators in previous seasons.
The Bulldogs are one of the quickest offensive teams in the league. They rank 63rd nationally, with only four SEC teams ahead of them on KenPom.
"Hammonds is terrific, one of the more talented guys in our league, in my opinion," said White. "They play a lot of guys and I think that they get good contributions off the bench as well."
Georgia averaged 75.5 points per game while shooting 44.8 percent and 30.1 percent from three-point range. Meanwhile, defensively the visitors have five up 73.4 points per game, 44.4 percent shooting and 32.4 percent from outside the arc - they are 11th in the league and 121st in the nation, according to KenPom.
Florida and UGA are set to face off at the O'Dome on Wednesday with tip off is slated at 7 p.m. EST. The game will be televised on ESPN.
