Rupp is Rough on All Comers

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Four years ago, the Florida basketball team came to Rupp Arena for the game-day shoot-around about eight hours before its prime-time clash against Kentucky. A couple UF players were seeing the 23,000-seat cathedral for the first time. One of them was backup point guard Kasey Hill.

Perhaps sensing Hill's sense of wonderment, senior point guard Scottie Wilbekin took his apprentice off to the side, sat him down and attempted to describe the waves of adversity the rookie should expect that night.

Fast forward to present day.

UF senior point guard Chris Chiozza didn't wait for shoot-around to paint the picture. He already addressed what lies ahead for the young guys. And yet, no matter how descriptive Chiozza, the savviest of veteran, might have been, the only way for a player to understand the Rupp phenomena is to confront it. In the case of the current Gators (12-5, 5-1), both young and old, the next chance to do so comes Saturday night when they'll square up the No. 18 Wildcats (14-4, 4-2) and the maniacal Big Blue Nation in prime-time on ESPN.

"I already talked to them," said Chiozza, whose team sits atop the Southeastern Conference standings by a half-game over Auburn and full game over Kentucky and Alabama. "I told them [Kentucky is] going to make runs. They always do at home. It's just something we have to withstand.."

Chiozza talked candidly, but also confidently.

"I also told them we're going to make some runs, too," he said.

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's 'Pregame Stuff' setup here]

Let the record show that Wilbekin and that 2014 UF team trailed by seven with about five minutes to go and rallied for a 69-59 victory. Let it show that win remains the only one for the Gators in their last 10 trips to Rupp. Let it show that UF is just 9-51 at Lexington in the series that dates to 1927.

And, finally (and dauntingly), let the record show that Kentucky is an astounding 145-6 at home — that's a winning percentage of .960 — in nine seasons under Coach John Calipari and have not lost a home Southeastern Conference game since 2014, a string of 30 straight wins.

Six home losses in nine years.

Six.

UF point guard Chris Chiozza lofts a floater over UK's Isaac Humphries in the 2016 rout at Rupp.

Worth noting: The last three UF teams that beat UK on the road ended their seasons in the Final Four.

"Wow," Florida coach Mike White said when given that last nugget of info. "That's a pretty good example of how hard it is to win there; how hard it is to beat Kentucky in the first place, but especially to win at Rupp. It's a very difficult, great environment, of course. It will be very loud in there. We have a tough task ahead of us."

But also a challenge all true competitors should embrace.

"I heard it's one of the best places to play in the country, so I'm super excited," said fourth-year junior swingman Jalen Hudson, who before transferring to UF from Virginia Tech played in some Atlantic Coast Conference palaces, including's Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium. "Cameron's super loud. You can't hear yourself think in there."

Yet, Cameron would fit inside Rupp.

"I expect craziness," said UF graduate-transfer forward Egor Koulechov, who played bit minutes at venues like Arizona and UCLA as a freshman at Arizona State, but whose biggest road game during his last two years with Rice came playing at Texas Tech. "I've heard good things about the arena. Guys will be excited, but at the same time we know it's a business trip."

Maybe so, but it's never business as usual at Rupp. The place will be BBN insanity well before tip-off. The crowd will be rude. It will know all three officials by name. Every Kentucky basket will bring deafening cheers, every fouled call against the Cats will bring ear-splitting boos.

And eventually the "Rupp Runs" will come.

Seven straight points here. Maybe eight or nine. The object is to avoid the 12- or 15-point blue-and-white tidal waves, like when White's first Florida team in 2016 fell behind 24-5 just six and half minutes into the game.

White had some words of advice for his younger players; words that also apply to his older ones.

"Don't freak out," he said. "There will be times when it gets really loud in there. We'll just have to play with great poise. It's been a strength of this team to this point, [but] we haven't played in an environment quite like this. It will be a factor. Probably a bigger factor will be defending those guys and getting clean looks against a stifling defense."

CHARTING THE GATORS
UF has four players on the active roster who have played at Rupp Arena. All four will starter today. Here's how they've fared on the BBN road.

Year	Chris Chiozza	KeVaughn Allen	Kevarrius Hayes	Keith Stone	Score
2015	0 pts, 0-2 FG, 0-1 3pt, 3 ast, 2 TOs	N/A	N/A	N/A	L 67-50
2016	3 pts, 1-8 FG, 1-4 3pt, 4 ast, 2 TO	3 pts, 1-6 FG, 1-4 3pt, 3 ast, 1 TO	0 pts 2 reb 1TO	N/A	L 80-61
2017	9 pts, 4-9 FG, 1-4 3pt, 5 reb, 5 ast, 2 TO	24 pts, 9-17 FG, 5-11 3pt, 2 ast 1 TO	4 pts, 2-4 FG, 4 reb, 4 fouls	0 pts, 0-2 FG 0-2 3pt 1 reb	L 76-66

That's a fact. There would be no intimidating aura to Rupp without a bunch of intimidating players. The Cats have their usual stacked squad, loaded with freshmen — five of them start — who were McDonald's All-Americans last year and will be NBA first-round picks this year.

Up front, Kevin Knox, PJ Washington and Nick Richards will dwarf the undersized (and injury-depleted) UF "bigs." Guards Hamidou Diallo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and, if available, Quade Green (out the previous three games due to injury) may not have the experience of Chiozza or Hudson or KeVaughn Allen, but they all have mega-game.

"Size. Length. Athleticism. Speed. Quickness. Every year Coach Cal's teams are going to sit down and guard you in a stance," White said. "This team is zoning [on defense] a little bit more. This zone's got a little bit more length than any other zone we've seen or will see. They've got guys, several guys offensively, who can score in a variety of ways. They're a little bit unique in that they've got a bunch of guys that can score on the interior, post you. A bunch of versatility. A very good team."

With an historically powerful home court advantage to match. Again.

"You can't play scared," Chiozza said. "We're older than they are. We need to play like it."

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