March Madness: Florida vs. St. Bonaventure game preview
Can Florida continue its recent tournament success or will St. Bonaventure send the Gators home winless in the tournament for the first time since 2010?
Florida is making its second tournament appearance in coach Mike Whites third season at the helm.
Last year, White lead the Gators to the elite eight continuing its recent tournament success.
In fact, Florida has won at least three games in their last five tournament appearances and haven’t made a first-round exit since 2010 when they were ousted by the Jimmer Fredette led BYU Cougars.
St. Bonaventure is making its seventh all-time tournament appearance and its first since 2012.
For those that had not seen the Bonnies play this season, they saw just how dangerous this team is as they knocked off UCLA 65-58 in the 11-seed play-in game.
Breaking Down the Match-up
The Bonnies showed against UCLA that they are more than just their dynamic backcourt duo of Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley.
Forward Courtney Stockard led the St. Bonaventure with 26 points, and if it weren’t for Stockard the Bonnies would likely be watching this game from home instead of playing in it.
If the Bonnies expect to beat the Gators, they will have to improve upon the 38.3% they shot from the field against UCLA.
St. Bonaventure was able to make up for their poor shooting by forcing twenty Bruin turnovers which resulted in 14 points for them in the first half alone.
The Gators won’t make it that easy for the Bonnies. Florida has an experienced backcourt of its own featuring guards Chris Chiozza, KeVaughn Allen, Jalen Hudson, and Egor Koulechov.
Florida ended the regular season tied for fifth in the nation averaging only 9.8 turnovers per game.
Prediction:
On paper, this is one of the most evenly matched games well see in the entire tournament.
Whoever can control the glass will have the upper hand both teams rebound at a similar rate, but both are also poor on the offensive glass surrendering over 8 offensive rebounds per contest.
We’ve seen teams lean on a star player to make their way through the month of March before and the Bonnies are going to have to get more out of Adams and Mobley is they want to extend their season.
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In the end, Florida’s superior talent will allow them to escape with a close win.
Prediction: Florida – 73 St. Bonaventure – 69