Florida vs. Vanderbilt, Game Thread: ¿Quien es más desafortunado?

So Florida, already the unluckiest team in America, will play Vanderbilt on Wednesday night (7 p.m., SEC Network / WatchESPN). It will do so without Dorian Finney-Smith, suspended tonight and "likely more" games after it, and without Michael Frazier II, still nursing a high ankle sprain sustained against Kentucky on February 7, and with just seven scholarship players, none of whom score more than 8.8 points per contest.

But Florida's only slightly more unlucky this year than Vanderbilt has been.

The Commodores have lost nine games by single digits to Florida's 10, and matched the Gators' current four-game losing streak in such games over four losses of their own in January, even throwing in an overtime loss for good measure.

Vandy also went to double overtime with the Yale team that Florida mopped up by 38 points at home in Memorial Gym, though Florida got 32 points from Frazier and Finney-Smith in that game, and, also, was not fully infected by whatever version of the T-virus it clearly has at the moment.

Florida's road loss to Vanderbilt just 15 days ago began this four-game skid, and with it a spate of generally awful shooting, with only a fine night of fighting against titan Kentucky producing an Effective Field Goal Percentage over 50 percent in those four games. And, unfortunately, the key to beating Vandy is to outshoot the 'Dores: Kevin Stallings's bunch is 13-4 this season when holding teams to an eFG% at or below 50 percent, and 1-7 when not.

With Finney-Smith and Frazier out, Florida's two best shooters won't see the floor this evening, and its best three-point shooter available, at least by percentage, will be Kasey Hill. Second-best? Eli Carter, who has missed 68 of his 99 threes.

So, all that said: Trevor is writing the recap. I will be spending some of this game at Publix. Yes, that was planned on Tuesday. Yes, I am aware of my good fortune.

Go Gators?