Never Forget Tribute Classic: Florida Gators Battle Cincinnati Bearcats

Gators Look to end 3-game Skid in Never Forget Tribute Classic

The 2017 Never Forget Tribute Classic has a pair of great matchups this year. The first game has the VCU Rams taking on the Seton Hall Pirates at 3 pm EST. The nightcap has the 5th-ranked Florida Gators taking on the 17th-ranked Cincinnati Bearcats. ESPN2 will have the coverage of the latter game at 6 pm EST. This is the first ever meeting between the perennial NCAA Tournament squads. Oddsmakers have the Bearcats as -1.5-point favorites. The total is at 147. The Gators have lost three straight games. The only true “upset” was a surprising 65-59 home loss to Loyola-Chicago on Wednesday. Florida was hammered by a very underrated Florida State team on Monday. They lost 83-66. The streak began with an 87-84 loss to No. 1 Duke on Nov. 26. Florida blew a 17-point lead in the second half. Florida is shooting just 36.6 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from 3-point range during the skid. They have a terrible assist-to-turnover ratio of 14 to 25. You don’t beat many college basketball games with that type of play. The Gators still have the SEC’s highest-scoring offense at 90.2 ppg.  They also lead the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.6, and free-throw percentage at 76.5%. Chris Chiozza leads the SEC with 6.1 assists per game. Egor Koulechov’s .958 free-throw percentage is tops the league. Florida’s four 100-point games are tied for third-most in a season in school history. The Gators had five such games twice previously.They were in the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons. The Gators also had two prior seasons with four back in 1986-87 and 2003-04.

Bearcats Coming into Never Forget Classic off Their Only Loss

The Bearcats are coming off an 89-76 loss to crosstown rival and No. 13 Xavier. The Muskateers shot 47.4 percent from the field and outrebounded Cincinnati 44-27. The Bearcats rank among the nation’s top 10 in scoring margin. They are second with a  plus-25.1 margin. They are ninth in the nation in rebound margin at plus-11.4. The team is ninth in field-goal percentage defense, with opponents making only 36.2% of their shots. They are also among the top 25 in total rebounds per game.  The Bearcats rank 12th with 43.1. They are 15th in scoring defense at at 61.3 ppg. Cincinnati is also 15th in total blocks with 48. They are 19th in blocked shots per game with 6.0 and 24th with 18.4 assists per game. Cincinnati has won 35 of its last 40 regular-season games. That dates back to a 61-54 win over SMU in March 2016. Bearcats senior forward Gary Clark ranks third in the nation with 883 career rebounds. His 20 career double-doubles are the most among all active players in the American Athletic Conference.

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Cincinnati Bearcats

Florida Gators

Never Forget Tribute Classic Supergrid

Title	Stat	Rank	Stat	Rank
Away Team Overall Scoring vs Home Team Overall Defense	86.38	29	79.00	230
Home Team Overall Scoring vs Away Team Overall Defense	90.25	11	61.25	15

Never Forget Tribute Classic Betting Trends

Cincinnati Bearcats
Cincinnati is 7-1 SU in its last 8 games

Florida Gators
Florida is 2-4 ATS in its last 6 games
Florida is 18-7 SU in its last 25 games

Cincinnati Bearcats

Florida Gators

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