FLORIDA at No. 12 KENTUCKY
When: Saturday, 6 p.m. (EST)
Where: Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky.
Records: Florida (17-9, 9-4); Kentucky (21-5, 11-2)
TV: ESPN (
Bob Wischusen,
Dick Vitale and
Kris Budden)
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (
Mick Hubert and
Bill Koss)
THE BASICS
Rupp Arena (capacity 23,000) is one of the greatest home-court advantage in college basketball, with the Gators winning there just 10 times in the previous 92 years.
Florida and
12th-ranked Kentucky face off in a game that could have major ramifications regarding the Southeastern Conference race; big-time ramifications if the Gators can steal one on the road. ... UF, currently in a three-way tie with Auburn and LSU, for second in the league standings, has won three straight (and five of the previous six), most recently a 73-59 home date Saturday against Arkansas. In that one, the Gators jumped to a 19-point first half lead, lost their two leading scorers to foul trouble, then fended up of the Razorbacks after the margin was twice cut to two in the second half. Kentucky is playing its best basketball of the season. The Wildcats are on a five-game winning streak after going to LSU Tuesday night and leaving with a 79-76 victory. The Tigers went into that game knowing a home victory would put them in a tie for first place, but trailed the final 19:36 of the game — and by 15 with four-plus minutes left — before making a late run to make the final score appear close. ... UK leads the all-time series 102-40, including a 51-10 mark at home that includes the last meeting when the Cats defeated the Gators 66-57 on March 9, 2019 at
Rupp Arena. In that one, freshman guard
Tyler Herro scored 16 points, with a half-dozen coming during a 15-2 spurt that erased a one-point UF lead six minutes after intermission and sent the Wildcats to a comfortable double-digit margin that was never threatened. Forward
PJ Washington had 15 points and nine rebounds. Freshman point guard
Ashton Hagans added 14 points, as did backup freshman guard
Keldon Johnson. UF got 19 points and six rebounds from
Kevarrius Hayes, but the Gators finished just three of 19 from the 3-point line and went seven minutes in the second half without a field goal. ... The Gators are 3-5 against the Cats under Coach
Mike White, including 1-3 on the road. ... Florida and Kentucky will play each again March 7 at Gainesville in the regular-season finale for both teams.
PROBABLE STARTERS
| Kentucky |
Pos. |
Ht. |
Wt. |
Class |
Per Game |
| Nick Richards |
F |
6-11 |
247 |
Junior |
14.5 pts / 8.1 reb |
| EJ Montgomery |
F |
6-10 |
228 |
Sophomore |
6.3 pts / 5.4 reb |
| Immanuel Quickly |
G |
6-3 |
188 |
Sophomore |
15.2 pts / 4.1 reb |
| Tyrese Maxey |
G |
6-3 |
198 |
Freshman |
13.9 pts / 4.2 reb |
| Ashton Hagans |
G |
6-3 |
198 |
Sophomore |
12.0 pts / 4.1 reb / 6.8 ast |
ONE TO WATCH
Look no further than forward Nick Richards (4) to understand this Kentucky team is not like the previous ones operating under the John Calipari one-and-done business model. Start with the most obvious difference: Richards is an actual junior. Once a McDonald's All-America signee and projected "O&D" lottery pick from Kingston, Jamaica, the 6-foot-11, 247-pound Richards underwhelmed as a freshman (5.1 points, 4.4 rebounds per game) and returned to UK for his sophomore only to have his numbers slip (4.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg). After going through the NBA underclassmen process last spring, Richards opted to return for a third season and the first six weeks were not all that different than the first two years. In a loss to Ohio State in December, he had two points and no rebounds. A week later, a light came in with a 13-point, 10-rebound effort in a huge overtime win over third-ranked and rival Louisville. Two months later, Richards just may be the favorite for SEC Player of the Year. He's averaging 14.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, with 10 double-doubles. He's shooting nearly 66 percent from the floor (if he gets the ball around the restricted area circle, forget it) and 73 percent from the free-throw line. In a win over Mississippi State, Richards scored a career-high 27 and went 15 of 17 from the line. There was the 14-rebound performance in a road win at reigning NCAA runner-up Texas Tech. Defensively, he is an elite rim-protector whose blocked shots can turn into transition opportunities. On Tuesday, in the final minutes of UK's win at LSU, Richards had a nasty dunk, but twisted his ankle at the end of the play when he landed on the ball. He left the game, returned for one defensive possession, then checked out for good. His his status for the Florida game is to be determined, but here's guessing Richard plays.
TEAM BREAKDOWNS
Freshman backup center Jason Jitoboh (33) made his immense presence felt when called up Saturday against Arkansas.
ABOUT THE GATORS: They're about to enter not only the most difficult five-game stretch of the season, but the most difficult stretch of any team in the SEC this season, with four of the games so-called "Quadrant-1" opportunities, as determined by the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) that eventually will seed the NCAA Tournament bracket. ... UF has gone back-to-back-to-back games making at least 50 percent of their shots and, not coincidentally, won all three. UF hit 51.9 on the road last week at Texas A&M, repeated
Tre Mann
that 51.9 in a weekend defeat of Vanderbilt, then hit 50 against Arkansas, including 63.2 percent in the second half. Over those three games, UF is a combined 28-for-63 from the 3-point line, good enough for 44.4 percent. The Gators lead the SEC in both field-goal percentage (.463) and 3-point percentage (.382) in league play. ... On the season, Florida is scoring 72.8 points, shooting 45.2 overall and 34.5 from deep. Defensively, the Gators are allowing 66.5 points, 41.3 percent and 31.8 from the arc. ... Forward
Keyontae Johnson is coming off a career performance in scoring 24 points (on just seven field-goal attempts) to go with 10 rebounds and a 15-for-17 effort from the free-throw line in the win over Arkansas. The game marked his sixth double-double of the season. In SEC play, Johnson is shooting 53.5 percent, 40.6 from the arc, 85.4 from the line and leads the team with 7.6 rebounds per game. ... Point guard
Andrew Nembhard leads the Gators in scoring against SEC opponents at 13.8 points per game and has made 71 of 142 of his shots (that's 50 percent). As he's become more of an offensive option, Nembhard's assist total in the league has crept down to 4.2 per game (63 total to 42 turnovers). ... Shooting guard
Noah Locke is running away from the SEC field in 3-point marksmanship. He's now at a rip-roaring 52.6 percent (41-for-78), having gone 14 of 21 the last three games. ... Grad-transfer forward
Kerry Blackshear Jr. played just 12 minutes against the Razorbacks due to foul trouble, with three of his four fouls coming on the offensive end, accounting for half his season-high six turnovers. Blackshear is now fourth on the team in scoring in SEC play (12.5 ppg) and shooting 40.4 percent from the floor. ... Wing
Scottie Lewis continued his exemplary defensive play against Arkansas, in addition to scoring seven points and grabbing seven rebounds and tallying a couple steals. Lewis, the McDonald's All American, picked UF over Kentucky, and likely will be matched against a fellow McDonald's teammate at times Saturday night (read on). ... Speaking of McDonald's guys, backup freshman guard
Tre Mann hit some big shots last time out in scoring seven points in his 22 minutes. He's coming around and gaining more confidence at a very good time. ... Reserve 6-11, 300-pound center
Jason Jitoboh (1.8 ppg, 1.3 rpg) went nearly 16 minutes against the Hogs and is rounding into a reliable option in the low post. ... Fourth-year junior forward
Dontay Bassett is the only player on the UF roster ever to experience a win at Rupp. Bassett, both injured and used sparingly this season, had one blocked shot and two personal fouls in Florida's 66-64 victory at Lexington two years ago. ...
ABOUT THE WILDCATS: They're rounding into shape just in time for March, as every other
John Calipari team. It's now Season 11 under Calipari and UK is 326-76 in that time (a winning percentage of .811), with five SEC regular-season championships, six conference tournament titles, four Final Fours, another seven Elite Eights and the 2012 NCAA title. As mentioned above, this Calipari team is different in that it's older. Of the eight rotations players, three are freshmen, but only one plays more
Immanuel Quickley
than 16 minutes. The remaining five: three sophomores, one junior and a grad-transfer, yet
KenPom metrics still rank the Wildcats 336th (out of 353) nationally in the "Experience" category. That's next-to-last in the SEC -- to Florida (346th), by the way. ... Kentucky is scoring 75.2 points per game on 46.1 percent from the floor and 32.7 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Cats give up 65.9 points, 38.5-percent shooting overall and 29.7 from distance.
KenPom rates UK as No. 28 overall, 29th in offensive efficiency and 53rd on defense. ... Oddly, Kentucky's 3-point shooting has been worlds better on the road versus at home. Since December, UK has made 24.4 percent of its 3s at Rupp (including just 3 of 32 the last two games), while converting an eye-popping 49.5 on the road (including 15 of 27 the last two games). Bizarre. ... Guard
Immanuel Quickly, another Cat who opted to return after a so-so freshman season, has emerged as the go-to shot-maker (39 percent from 3) and a clutch free-throw shooter (league-best 91.2 percent). He can create one when the Cats need one. ... Point guard
Ashton Hagans, the odds-on pick for SEC Defensive Player of the Year, leads the conference in assists with 171 and steals with 50. Hagans, though, left Tuesday night's LSU game with what appeared to be a hip injury with about seven minutes to play and did not return. His status, also like Richards', will be determined. ... Guard
Tyrese Maxey, one of four McDonald's guys, is on the roster, is well on his way to one-and-done lottery-pick status. He had 26 points in his first collegiate game against No. 1 Michigan State, a career-high 27 in the big Louisville win, and 25 three games ago against Vanderbilt. He can score at all three levels. ... Backup 6-9 forward
Nate Sestina was the nation's second most-sought grad transfer last summer. The former Bucknell star is averaging 5.8 points and 4.2 rebounds off the bench, but can be a game-changer with his stretch-4 shooting from the arc, where he's gone 19-for-47 on the season (40.4 percent). He hit three of four from deep in the win at LSU.
BY THE NUMBERS
Former UF guard Jalen Hudson jumps for victorious joy after the Gators' game-clinching defensive stop to beat Kentucky 66-64 in 2018, one of only 10 all-time UF road wins in the series.
* .161 — Florida's all-time winning percentage at Lexington, based on that 10-52 record that dates to 1927.
* 5 — All-time road wins for the Gators against opponents ranked in the
Associated Press Top 15. Three of them were against Kentucky, but none this century (1966, 1988, 1998). The other two? At Vanderbilt in 1968 and at Mississippi State in 2003.
* 48 — SEC regular titles either won outright or shared by Kentucky. The remaining 13 teams in the league have won a combined 28 (including seven by Florida).
* 289 — Current
KenPom ranking of Evansville, which has lost 15 straight games to fall to 9-19 on the season. the Purple Aces defeat of Kentucky, then No. 1, back on Nov. 12 will go down as one of the biggest (and most inexplicable) upsets in college basketball history.
* 2018 — The last time (and one of only two times the last 12 seasons) the Gators defeated the Wildcats at Rupp, thanks to 17 points and big last-second blocked shot from fourth-year junior
Jalen Hudson, plus 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds from senior point guard
Chris Chiozza.
LAST WORD
After flailing about at times during the season, Florida now controls its destiny relative to where it finishes in the SEC, including a shot (albeit a long one) at winning the league. In the third week of February, what more could you ask for?
