Friday, January 19, 2018 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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A nuts and bolts look at UF's weekend road trip to Lexington.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
FLORIDA at No. 18 KENTUCKY
When: Saturday, 8:15 p.m. (EST) Where: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky. Records: Florida (13-5, 5-1); Kentucky (14-4, 4-2) TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Maria Taylor) Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Bill Koss)
STAKES (The Setup)
Florida has won just once in its last 10 trips to Rupp Arena (capacity 23,000) and is 9-51 all-time at Lexington. That's a winning percentage of just .176.
Florida is coming off Wednesday's 88-73 home victory against Arkansas, an outcome that paired with Auburn's loss at Alabama pushed the Gators into sole possession of first place in the Southeastern Conference standings. UF leads Auburn by a half-game, with Kentucky and Alabama just a game back in a third-place tie. Kentucky, meanwhile, is coming off a meltdown 76-68 loss at South Carolina, where the Wildcats blew a 14-point second-half lead. The Wildcats are one of seven teams at either 4-2, 3-2 or 3-3 in the league standings. ... ESPN will air its weekly "Game Day" show from the Rupp Arena floor earlier in the day. ... UK leads the all-time series 100-38, including a 9-51 mark in Lexington, where the Wildcats have won nine of the previous 10, dating to 2008. ... The two teams split last season's series, with the Gators blowing out the No. 8 Wildcats 88-66 on Feb. 4, handing UK its most lopsided SEC defeat as a top-10 team in the program's history. Kentucky returned the favor Feb. 25 in Lexington by erasing an eight-point second-half deficit and winning 76-66. In that one, freshman guard Malik Monk, scored a staggering 30 of his 33 points after halftime. UF got 24 points from guard KeVaughn Allen, plus nine points and 11 rebounds from junior forward Devin Robinson. ... Florida is 1-3 vs. Kentucky under Coach Mike White.
The best of Kentucky's annual haul of freshman superstars and lottery-picks-in-waiting, for now, appears to be 6-foot-9 forward Kevin Knox, who happened to grow up two hours south of Gainesville, Fla. Knox, the son of the former standout Florida State wide receiver of the same name, starred at Tampa Catholic High, where he amassed 2,760 points over his career, and averaged 28.5 points and 11.3 rebounds in guiding the Crusaders to the Class 4A state title game as a senior. A 2017 McDonald's All-America selection, Knox has proved to be the most consistent of the Wildcats' acclaimed rookie class. He's the leading scorer (14.6 ppg) and is tied for tops in rebounding (5.7 pg), along the way shooting 44 percent from the floor. He's only at 30 percent from the 3-point line, but his 24 makes from deep lead a team that struggles to shoot it from the arc. His jumpshot, though, needs to be honored, as does Knox's ability to penetrate into the lane and opt for short jumpers or floaters versus looking for contact.
STUFF (Need-to-Know Info)
KeVaughn AllenABOUT THE GATORS: They've won seven of eight and eight of 10, with four wins over teams in the Top 50 of Ratings Percentage Index over the latter run. ... The Gators lead the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage (.397), turnover margin (plus-4.6) and 3-pointers per game (9.8), rank second in free-throw percentage (.770) and steals per game (7.4), and sit third in scoring offense (82.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.4). They're next-to-last in field-goal percentage defense (.437) and dead-last in defending the 3-point line (.377). ... After becoming pretty much an afterthought the first half the season, guard KeVaughn Allen reminded future opponents that he's still got some explosion to his game by going off for a season-high 28 against Arkansas. Allen was on the offensive attack for nearly all his 35 minutes, making eight of 12 shots, going 6-for-7 from the 3-point line, and hitting all six of his free throws. In that game, Allen became the fourth UF player to score at least 26 points in a game this season. ... With Allen now back on everyone's radar, it can only help swingman Jalen Hudson (who comes off the bench, but still tops the team at 16.5 points per game) and No. 2 scorer and forward Egor Koulechov. Combined, Hudson and Koulechov are shooting 46 percent from the floor and 50.8 from the arc in SEC games. No one is assuming Allen is going to stay red-hot, but if he builds on that aggression he will have to be accounted for on the perimeter, which can only make Hudson and Koulechov more dangerous. Pick your poison. ... Point guard Chris Chiozzahad nine assists against Arkansas, equaling his third-most this season, and now has 38 assists and just nine turnovers in UF's six SEC games. He leads the conference in assists-per-game in league play at 6.3, more than a full assist higher than the next closest player. ... Power forward Keith Stone (12.8 ppg, 6.0 rpg in SEC play) had his string of four straight games of double-figure scoring snapped by the Hogs. Stone finished with seven points and three rebounds. ... Center Kevarrius Hayesis hitting nearly 73 percent of his field-goal attempts in conference (compared to
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
48.6 in pre-league games), as well as 71.4 percent from the free-throw line (versus 52.0 percent). ... ABOUT THE WILDCATS: They're now 263-57 in Coach John Calipari's nine seasons for a winning percentage of .821. At home under Calipari, UK is 145-6. That's a ridiculous .960 winning percentage. ... Statistically, the Wildcats rank in the middle of the SEC pack in virtually every category, but do check in No. 1 in 3-point field-goal defense, allowing just 29 percent (that's fifth nationally), and third in field-goal percentage on the offensive end, where they convert 49.4 percent. Kentucky is making 3s at a respectable 35 percent, which rates seventh in the league, but the Cats' 89 makes from deep far and away rank last in the SEC. In comparison, the next-to-last team, Georgia, has made 100 long balls and the third from the bottom, Mississippi State, has made 122. Kentucky made just one 3-pointer in its loss Tuesday at South Carolina. ... Point guard Quade Green (10.7 ppg, 40 percent from 3), one of five McDonald's All-Americans on the roster, has missed the last three games with a quad injury, but the buzz is he'll be available against the Gators. ... The Wildcats will have their usual size advantage on the Gators, but that's been the case for UF in a lot of UF games this season. The difference is Kentucky's size comes with more skill than most opponents. Take the backcourt, where point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the one-time Florida commitment who reneged mere days before signing day. He's a long, change-of-speed player that thrives on hesitation moves. His near-7-foot wingspan makes him a nightmare defender on the ball. His 35 steals are nearly twice as many as the next Cat in that category. Alexander had a poor game at South Carolina (6 turnovers), so he'll be looking for atonement at home. ... Both PJ Washington (54.9 percent) and Nick Richards (64.9 percent) will set up inside and try to use their girth on the slimmer Hayes in the post. Both will seek contact. ... Guard Hamidou Diallo is an excitable kid and something of a wild card. He's making 35.7 from the 3-point line, but loves to drive the ball and has been in the verge of some huge scoring nights. ... Forward Jared Vanderbilt, another McDonald's honoree, made his season debut against South Carolina and thus made the Wildcats that much deeper up front.
STATS (Some Numbers of Note)
Casey Prather vs UK in 2014* .765 — UF opponents' collective free-throw percentage this season, which ranked 344th out of 351 Division I programs as of Thursday. Twenty-four hours earlier, before Arkansas went just 6-for-15 from the line, the Gators ranked 351st in the "Free Throw Defense" category, which, frankly, is just unlucky.
* 5 — Games against ranked opponents for the Gators to date, all of which have come away from Gainesville (Gonzaga and Duke in Portland, Ore.; Cincinnati in Newark, N.J.; Clemson in Sunrise, Fla.; Texas A&M on the road). Kentucky on the road will make 6.
* 62 — Consecutive Florida wins it would take to even the series UF-UK series.
* 421 — Points scored by Kentucky in its six league games (70.2 pg).
* 424 — Points scored by Kentucky opponents in those six league games (70.7 pg), a statistic (even in small-sample form) that shows both the balance of the league and, perhaps, that these Cats, despite their overwhelming talent advantage, may not be heads and tails above the field this season.
* 2014 — The last year the Gators won at Rupp, part of that historic 21-0 record against SEC foes on the way to a league regular-season and tournament titles, and run to the Final Four. Forward Casey Prather scored 24 points and point guard Scottie Wilbekin threw in 23, as No. 3 UF came from seven down in the final five minutes for a 69-59 win that tied the school record for consecutive wins at 17. The Gators went on to win 30 straight before falling to Connecticut in the NCAA semifinals.
STATEMENT (Random thought)
Can't win at Rupp without poise and composure. We'll see if this older, more veteran UF group can fare better on that front than some recent teams have.
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