UF will open the 2015-16 women’s basketball season hoping to get lucky on Friday the 13th.
The team will be tasked with taking down Temple on the road in their first game of the season — a season in which Florida is looking to rebound from a disappointing 13-17 campaign.
The last time the Gators opened on the road, they were handed an 88-86 loss at the hands of Florida Gulf Coast in 2008.
That same season is also the last time Florida met with Temple.
In an NCAA tournament first round game in Storrs, Connecticut, Florida took down the Owls 70-57 and are 5-1 against them all-time.
Neither team is going into the game ranked or with any clout to speak of, but Temple is coming off a deep run in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament and will have home court advantage.
Some might wonder how much of an effect home court advantage has in a women’s college basketball game, but Erica Covile, who led Temple in rebounding a season ago, enthusiastically said that it plays a substantial role.
"It’s a good feeling to have our first game at home," she said.
"We have our home crowd, our fans there to cheer us on."
Covile added that while preparing to face Florida, her team has focused on keeping the Gators away from the basket and keeping plays in front of them.
"They’ve got a lot of people that can score. We’ve gotta keep them off the boards, just play our game and I think we should be alright," Covile said.
Florida assistant coach Muriell Page, who is in charge of scouting opponents, said that Temple is an athletic team that pushes the tempo.
"I think it’s just containing the ball and controlling tempo and not playing their style of basketball but playing our style of basketball," Page said.
Junior forward Ronni Williams echoed Page, saying that Temple’s game flows through its guards.
"They’re very guard oriented so we have to stop their guards like we stop guards in practice … (and) we’ll come out with the win," Williams said.
Williams herself was named to the Preseason All-Southeastern Conference Second Team earlier this week. When asked about it, Williams couldn’t have cared less about her individual accolade.
"I don’t pay any attention to it at all," she said.
"My main focus is to do whatever I can to help our team succeed. We wanna win — that’s our goal, that’s what we’re looking forward to."
One intriguing storyline going into the game for UF is that of redshirt freshman point guard Isis Young, who will see her first game action in nearly two years and her first ever as a Gator after spending last season recovering from a torn ACL.
"This year, I get to make an impact on the court," she said.
"So I’m obviously very excited and they’ve encouraged me a lot, so I feel strong right now coming back from my injury, so I’m really excited to go out there and do something."
While Young’s injury is certainly unfortunate, the location of her comeback couldn’t be more convenient.
"I think I have over about 50 people coming so far, so I’m really excited," Young said.
Young hails from Berlin, New Jersey, which is more than 20 miles from the sight of tonight’s game.
With so many people coming to watch her, Young said that she’s both excited and pressured.
"(It’s) good and bad because you’re excited to play in front of family but you also wanna play so great because you’re in front of family," she said.
It’s obvious that for Young, tonight will be anything but unlucky. For the rest of the team, however, that remains to be seen.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be heard on ESPN Gainesville.
Follow Ethan Bauer on Twitter @ebaueri
January Miller drives into the lane during Florida's 72-58 win against Arkansas on Sunday in the O'Connell Center.
