UNF Game Notes
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The North Florida basketball team opens up its 24th season of play on the road Friday against the University of Illinois. The game is scheduled to tip at 8 p.m. ET from Prairie Capital Convention Center and will be streamed online by the Big Ten Network+.
The Ospreys are coming off an historic season in 2014-15, which included program best records of 23-12 overall and 12-2 in the Atlantic Sun along with conference regular season and tournament titles and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. UNF returns eight players from that squad highlighted by four starters.
Head coach
Matthew Driscoll, the reigning Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year, enters his seventh season at the helm of the Ospreys with a 96 victories, just two shy of becoming the program's all-time leader in victories.
Illinois finished with a 19-14 (9-9 Big Ten) record last season under head coach John Groce.
Following Friday's contest, North Florida is set to make its long awaited home debut Monday against UT Rio Grande Valley.
QUICK HITS- North Florida and Illinois will be meeting for the first time on the hardwood // Ospreys are 1-12 all-time against current members of the Big Ten Conference, but UNF rallied for a 73-70 victory last season at Purdue, marking the program's first victory over a Power 5 team
- Playing Illinois marks the seventh consecutive season that UNF will play a Big Ten school
-
Dallas Moore enters the 2015-16 season needing just 47 points to become the 11th member of the UNF 1,000-Point Club
- Moore has averaged 16 points and 3 assists per game in six contests against Big Ten teams // Moore is also shootinng 50.7% from the field and 59.4% from the 3-point line in those games while boasting a pair of 20+ point efforts (27 at Indiana and 24 at Purdue)
- UNF is 7-16 all-time in season openers including a 1-5 mark under head coach
Matthew Driscoll // Ospreys last debut victory was a 79-65 decision over Edward Waters in 2012-13 // Here's list of season openers for UNF under Driscoll -- @ Notre Dame | @ Florida State | @ Alabama | Edward Waters | @ Florida | @ South Carolina
- North Florida returns 83.7 percent of scoring from last year's A-Sun Championship team including A-Sun Preseason Player of the Year,
Beau Beech.
- Beech averaged 15.9 PPG, 6.4 RPG & 2.9 three's/game in A-Sun play last year, while shooting 46.2 percent from the floor and season 39.2% on three's.
- Four UNF players earned spots on the A-Sun Preseason All-Conference Team; Beech,
Dallas Moore,
Demarcus Daniels &
Chris Davenport.
- Preseason Defensive Player of the Year, Daniels led the league with 55 blocks in 2015. Daniels also earned the A-Sun Championship MVP title.
- Moore finished third in the A-Sun for scoring at 15.8 PPG as a sophomore, which included 13 20-points games and a career-high 36 points on Mar. 5th.
- Davenport added 11.3 PPG, 6.5 RPG & 2.2 APG, while ranking third in the A-Sun for field goal percentage at 53.8%.
- Moore was named on of 30 players listed on the preseason watch list for the Lou Henson Award, presented to the mid-major Div.I player
- Junior center
Romelo Banks will be out until early December following ankle surgery in October
- Six players look to have the opportunity of making their UNF debuts on Friday night:
Ismaila Dauda,
Nick Malonga,
Osborn Blount,
CJ Fisher, Carlos Odum and
D'Andre Bernard
