1) What Florida did defensively to Kentucky was nothing short of spectacular. The Gators weren't perfect, but the extent to which they exerted themselves — the energy, playing hard — was the best of the season (Kentucky tends to bring that out in teams) and certainly was aided by a home crowd that was as jacked-up as any in recent memory. Just to review: Kentucky came in as the highest-scoring team in the Southeastern Conference at 91.3 points per game, but its 66 points were a season-low. The Wildcats, the SEC's leaders in field-goal percentage at better than 49 percent, shot a season-low 37.7. Freshmen guard Malik Monk, the league's scoring leader at 22.3 per game coming in, was held scoreless in the first half and finished with just 11 points. Finally, the Gators atomized the SEC's No. 1 rebounding team 54-29, their largest margin of the season. Senior point guard Kasey Hillwas the defensive front man, as usual, but Coach Mike White was ecstatic with the performance turned in by junior forward Devin Robinson, who played — by far — his finest all-around game in a UF uniform, with 16 points, nine rebounds, a pair of blocked shots and held UK wing Isaiah "You Guys Are Soft" Briscoe to just six points, three rebounds and three assists. Briscoe, who had just the third triple-double in Kentucky history two weeks ago, came in averaging 14.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
Devin Robinson, like the rest of the Gators, did some flexing Saturday night.
2) As long as we're talking about Hill, let's talk about point guard play, in general. Good grief! The tandem of Hill and Chris Chiozza — and, yes, sometimes they're playing together — has made a huge difference in converting defense to offense the last couple weeks. If you were seeing Kentucky and Florida both for the first time Saturday, which team would you have thought was the perceived hellions in transition? Chiozza had nine assists off the bench. Hill had six. The Wildcats, as a team, had seven. Over the last four games, Hill and Chiozza have combined to dish 54 assists to just 17 turnovers. Chiozza, alone, has a stunning 33-to-7 ratio, or about 4 1/2 to one, over that span. And one more thing on Hill, a guy who has taken some bullets from the fan base over his four seasons. Kentucky annually has multiple McDonald's All Americans on its roster. This season, the Wildcats have five. Hill, of course, was a McDonald's guy, too. The only one on the UF roster the last two seasons. He was the best player on the floor Saturday.
3) How 'bout that 3D court projection before the game? If you weren't there, maybe you've seen it via social media. If not, check below. Once again, kudos to my colleague, friend and basketball marketing whiz Alicia Longworth for lobbying to make that happen and her higher-ups (mine too), Scott Stricklin and Mike Hill, for signing off on it. Stuff like that ain't cheap, folks. Now, did the Gators need animated alligators swimming around the court to get them psyched for Kentucky? Did the Rowdy Reptiles and rest of the home crowd need it? Of course not. But it added to an uber-cool, unique and colorful twist to what already was a special night in the O'Dome.
OK, SO WHERE WERE YOU GUYS, AGAIN?
The ESPN "Game Day" crew set up Saturday morning at midcourt of Exactech Arena.
ESPN dispatched its "Game Day" crew to Gainesville to seize on the hype and anticipation of a great game. The set took over the O'Dome, had the Rowdy Reptiles, many of whom camped out the night before, as a backdrop and used the forum to pump up the big college basketball storylines of the day. Rece Davis, Seth Greenberg, Jay Williams and Jay Bilas talked about Mike Kzyzewski returning to the sidelines at Duke. Talked about Gonzaga's ascension to No. 1. Talked the controversies swirling around Kansas. Talked Tom Izzo and Michigan State, Virginia and North Carolina, as well.
Oh, and lots about Kentucky, too.
Florida?
Nah.
The Gators were a fraction of the conversation. There was a sentence or two at the show's intro. At the end, Williams played to the crowd by ripping open his shirt to unveil a UF jersey and picking a Florida victory, minus any analysis, though. But during the 60-minute show? Zippo. C'mon, people. White was about 500 yards away at the team's practice facility. You're on campus. Why not have him over for a chat (in front of his fans) about the state of the program?
Of course, UF got plenty of attention by the end of the night. Bilas, who doubled as color analyst for the game, absolutely gushed about the Gators in the second half. "This is a tail-kicking," he said. And it was.
Florida, though, got the tail end as far as national respect during a show it was hosting for the fifth time, which tied Duke, Kansas and Kentucky for the most host visits from the show. Maybe next time they'll acknowledge their host.
CHARTING THE GATORS
Florida and Kentucky played for the first time on Jan. 3, 1927 and over the last 90 years the Gators have beaten the Wildcats just 38 times in 137 meetings. As every Gator in the world knows by now, Saturday's outcome was the most lopsided win for UF in the series history; the 19th time Florida was won by double digits. Below are the top 10 most convincing Florida victories over the Cats.
This UK team reached the regional final against Duke ... and a guy named Christian Laettner.
70-53
3/13/05
Billy Donovan
SEC Tournament title game win came just a week after a one-point defeat of Cats in Gainesville.
90-73
2/8/00
Billy Donovan
Midseason wax job helped fuel run to Billy D's first Final Four.
69-52
1/23/65
Billy Donovan
UK center Nerlins Noel suffers season-ending knee injury.
16
84-68
1/23/65
Norm Sloan
Just the second win over Kentucky in program history (23 games at the time).
UF ALUM UPDATE
CATCHING UP WITH ... YOUNG BILLY DONOVAN Billy Donovan (left) and Teddy Dupay (photo courtesy The Gainesville Sun)
After two seasons playing and attending Division III Catholic University in Washington, D.C., young Billy Donovan decided a path in politics was not for him. So he transferred home to Gainesville and joined the Gators basketball team as a walk-on for his famous father. "Little Billy" or "BD3," as he was known (despite not sharing the same name as dad or granddad) scored just four points in his career, all from the free-throw line. Naturally, through osmosis, he learned a lot of basketball and now is passing on that knowledge as head coach at Gainesville St. Francis, the local Catholic school founded in 1999 by Billy and wife Christine Donovan.
On Monday night, St. Francis hosted Cambridge Christian, out of Tampa. It was quite the sight because Cambridge is coached by Teddy Dupay, the sharp-shooting guard who remains the state's all-time prep scoring leader. Dupay was the first player to commit to Billy D (as in "dad") when he took the Florida job in 1996.
Young Billy was 4 at the time.
St. Francis defeated Cambridge 74-63. It should come as no surprise that Donovan's Wolves hit 10 shots from beyond the 3-point line on the way to improving to 15-6. In should come as no surprise that Dupay's Lancers, whose coach was weaned on old-time Billy D defense from the '90s, stayed in a full-court press virtually the entire game.
Read Kevin Brockway's blog in The Gainesville Sunhere.
Good luck, Young Billy D!
And Teddy, too.
TWITTER PATTER
A sample of some tweets that got the attention of @GatorsChris, as well as his 'Perspective Police' this week.
Is there any big game where "Crying Jordan" doesn't show up on social media?
This one showed up when Egbunu and Hayes had to sit with foul trouble. I like insightful remarks. Yes, Keith Stone would have been the next post option, before Schuyler Rimmer. Gators need him to get healthy (more on that below).
Neither was my daughter, who's currently in grad school. I was covering Lon Kruger's second season as a beat writer for The Tampa Tribune. And Billy Donovan was an assistant coach on that Kentucky team that hammered by Allen Houston and Tennesseee.
Forward Keith Stone is working his way back from the viral illness that, first, affected and limited his play on the floor, then sidelined him the last two games. Stone did very little at practice last week, was limited during Sunday's practice and his status for the Georgia game remains in question. He is, however, improving and getting healhier. ... UF is now 25-35 all-time at home against Kentucky. ... Coming in, the Wildcats had been held under 80 points only three times this season: by Michigan State (69), Louisville (70) and Kansas (73). Florida made it four times, with 66 points a season-low for the Cats. ... UF's 24-point lead in the first half was the largest deficit UK had faced all season -- and by 10 points. Kentucky trailed UCLA by 14 in a home loss to the Bruins in December. ... Gators guard KeVaughn Allen is now 4-0 in high school and college games vs. Monk, a run that includes two Arkansas state championship games. ... Hill's one steal moved him into a tie for seventh place with Andrew Moten (1983-87) on the school's all-time list with 165. ... Kentucky had just seven assists in the game, only the second time this season the Cats had been held in single figures in that category. ... How 'bout Missouri? Two days after a 93-54 debacle at Florida, when the Tigers looked every bit the part of a team that would go 0-18 in league play, Mizzou won at home against Arkansas, which began the day a game behind the Gators and in fourth place in the league standings. Turns out, that outcome put something of a dent in UF's Ratings Percentage Index. The Razorbacks had climbed to No. 25 and represented Florida's lone win against Top 25 RPIs (before the UK game). Then they lost to No. 237. ... Speaking of RPI, the Gators now stand 10th, with a 1-4 mark vs. Top 25s and 5-4 vs Top 50s. Kentucky is seventh. SEC leader South Carolina is 18th.
Todd Golden Media Availability 11-13-25 Todd Golden Media Availability 11-13-25
Thursday, November 13
Florida Men's Basketball | Rueben Chinyelu and Thomas Haugh Post Double-DoublesFlorida Men's Basketball | Rueben Chinyelu and Thomas Haugh Post Double-Doubles
1) What Florida did defensively to Kentucky was nothing short of spectacular. The Gators weren't perfect, but the extent to which they exerted themselves — the energy, playing hard — was the best of the season (Kentucky tends to bring that out in teams) and certainly was aided by a home crowd that was as jacked-up as any in recent memory. Just to review: Kentucky came in as the highest-scoring team in the Southeastern Conference at 91.3 points per game, but its 66 points were a season-low. The Wildcats, the SEC's leaders in field-goal percentage at better than 49 percent, shot a season-low 37.7. Freshmen guard Malik Monk, the league's scoring leader at 22.3 per game coming in, was held scoreless in the first half and finished with just 11 points. Finally, the Gators atomized the SEC's No. 1 rebounding team 54-29, their largest margin of the season. Senior point guard Kasey Hill was the defensive front man, as usual, but Coach Mike White was ecstatic with the performance turned in by junior forward Devin Robinson, who played — by far — his finest all-around game in a UF uniform, with 16 points, nine rebounds, a pair of blocked shots and held UK wing Isaiah "You Guys Are Soft" Briscoe to just six points, three rebounds and three assists. Briscoe, who had just the third triple-double in Kentucky history two weeks ago, came in averaging 14.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists. 
