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Every weekday, a panel of our college hoops experts discusses the biggest issues, trends and themes in and around college basketball.
1. Florida's first true road game comes at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. How can the Gators stay in the game?
Andy Katz: Make shots. Florida's defense wasn't the issue in the Bahamas. But the Gators couldn't shoot. If Michael Frazier II gets hot, then the Gators have a chance. They need someone to be a shot-maker.
Eamonn Brennan: I don't want to say they can't, because Kansas has shown plenty of flaws of its own this season. The good news for Florida is the Jayhawks aren't forcing any turnovers so far this season -- which was among the Gators' issues in their three losses thus far. The bad news is Kansas is pretty good at disallowing good looks at the rim, and the Gators have shot just 29.5 percent from 3 and 44.1 percent from 2. It would take a totally different performance for Florida to leave Lawrence with a win.
C.L. Brown: The only time the Gators started 3-3 under Billy Donovan was his first year in Gainesville. Their confidence has taken a beating, but staying poised is the only way they have a chance of winning in Phog Allen. Florida will need point guard Kasey Hill to assert some serious leadership in that environment.
2. Both Kentucky and Texas have massive frontcourts. What will be the best big-man matchup?
Katz: Myles Turner versus Karl-Anthony Towns. The Wildcats have a number of choices. But Texas also has options in Prince Ibeh, Cameron Ridley and Connor Lammert. But Towns has ready blossomed on the scene. This is a chance for Turner to measure himself against a familiar foe and steal some headlines.
Brennan: This is the difficult thing about discussing Kentucky's individual players: Because of UK's rotations, you can't really get a good feel for any particular matchup. I'd imagine this is true of opposing players, too. When good big men (and Texas has at least three) play 30 or 35 minutes against the same defender, they have a chance to feel them out. Against Kentucky, you're playing against waves -- which is why I'm not sure the matchup comparisons do much to help us figure this one out.
Brown: I'm actually looking at the small forward battle of Texas' Jonathan Holmes and Kentucky's Alex Poythress. Both players have power forward skills but happened to be versatile enough to be moved to small forward. UK doesn't need Poythress to score in order to win, but the Horns have no chance if Holmes doesn't come up big.
3. Which weekend game are you most interested to see?
Katz: Gonzaga at Arizona. This is the marquee matchup of the weekend. The winner will have an inside track to a possible No. 1 seed out West since both teams should cruise to conference titles.
Brennan: Gonzaga at Arizona, easily. We've got a wider discussion in Weekend Homework this week (shameless plug alert!) but the short version is that a win for the Zags will immediately put them in better prospective position than almost any team in the country to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Yes, it's still just the first week of December, but when you're as good as the Bulldogs, and your league is the WCC, games like Saturday's are season-defining.
Brown: Gonzaga at Arizona. The Zags have looked tremendous at times while the Wildcats haven't always played up to their ranking. Will the Bulldogs continue rolling in their first road game? Is this the game Arizona puts it all together? Questions will be answered in Tucson.
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