Florida Basketball: Keys to defeat Xavier in Charleston Classic finals

Pressure the backcourt

Coming off a double-overtime battle with Connecticut, fatigue will begin to set in as the game gets underway. That’ll be Xavier’s third game in four days and the Musketeers have played 10 extra minutes compared to Florida. Not to mention, UF blew out Miami on Friday while Xavier traded body shots in a grueling game with UConn.

Taking advantage of having fresher legs, Florida will need to pressure Xavier’s backcourt of Quentin Goodin and Scruggs.

Turnovers have become an issue for Goodin, who ranks 59th out of 64 players in the Big East, per Kenpom.com (minimum of 40 percent minutes played). He turns the ball over on 29.2 possessions he is involved in and has struggled to make a real impact through six games.

Though Florida has struggled at times, their defensive ability was on display against Miami. The constant pressure on Hurricanes star point guard Chris Lykes proved too much, as the junior turned the ball over six times. In all, Florida scored 21 points off turnovers in the 78-58 win.

Goodin will draw Andrew Nembhard, who happens to be the Gators’ best defensive guard. The 6-foot-5 sophomore leads the team with 1.3 steals per game and finished with four takeaways against Miami on Friday afternoon.

That’ll be the matchup Florida will look to exploit most. Scruggs takes more care of the ball, as his turnover percentage is 16.9, roughly 12 percent less than his backcourt counterpart. But Scruggs played 37 minutes against UConn and was often leaned on offensively before fouling out.

Xavier as a team ranks just 166th in turnover percentage at 19.5 percent, a number that should rise in the championship matchup on Sunday. Keying in on the backcourt will help jumpstart that.