Florida Gators

FLORIDA vs No. 6 KENTUCKY 

When: Saturday, 1 p.m. (EST)
Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.   
Records: Florida (19-11, 11-6); Kentucky (24-6, 14-3)   
TV: CBS (Ian Eagle and Jim Spanarkel) 
Radio: Gator IMG Sports Network (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey) 



THE BASICS  Florida and Kentucky meet for the second time in two weeks and in their regular-season finales, with both teams looking to better their seeding situations; albeit different seeding situations. ... The Gators currently sit in a three-way tie for second place in the Southeastern Conference standings, alongside Auburn and LSU, and hold the tiebreakers against both should that remain the case come Saturday night. A UF win would secure the No. 2 seed in next week's SEC Tournament at Nashville, Tenn. A loss, however, could drop the Gators out of the advantageous double-bye situation, depending on what those two sets of Tigers do, not to mention how Mississippi State fares. Translation: Florida could be anywhere from the No. 2 to No. 5 seed. The Wildcats, meanwhile, have already clinched the conference's regular-season crown and top tournament seed. UK is playing to enhance its NCAA Tournament profile, with sights set on a spot on the No. 2 line, with this game being a "Quadrant-1" opportunity (for both teams) as far as the NCAA Evaluation Tool that will determine the tournament's seeding. ... UF is coming off a 68-54 road win Wednesday night at Georgia, where the Gators came back from an early 13-point deficit to win for just the fourth time on the road this season, thanks to 54-percent shooting in the second half and one of their best all-around defensive efforts. UK (and its fans) are still stinging from a second-half collapse against Tennessee, which rallied from 17 down in the second half by going on a ridiculous 29-9 run to shock the Wildcats on "Senior Night" at Rupp Arena. The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak, was just the second for Kentucky since Jan. 18 and only the 11th at home in Coach John Calipari's 11 seasons. ... UK leads the all-time series 103-41, with a 35-26 advantage in Gainesville. The Cats defeated the Gators 65-59 on Feb. 22 at Lexington behind a career-high 26 points from guard Immanuel Quickley (read on). Kentucky led by eight with 90 seconds to go when Florida forced a trio of turnovers, scoring off each, to twice draw within two points in the final 20 seconds. The Cats, though, made the late free throws to secure the victory. ... UF is 3-6 against UK under Coach Mike White, with a 2-2 mark at the O'Dome. ... Florida grad-transfer forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. and walk-on Chris Sutherland, both suiting up for their final home games, will be honored before the game during the annual "Senior Day" ceremony. 
 

Florida	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Keyontae Johnson	F	6-5	225	Sophomore	14.1 pts / 7.3 reb
Kerry Blackshear Jr.	F	6-10	232	G-Transfer	13.2 pts / 7.5 reb
Scottie Lewis	G	6-5	187	Freshman	8.1 pts / 3.7 reb
Noah Locke	G	6-2	193	Sophomore	10.5 pts / 2.5 reb
Andrew Nembhard	PG	6-5	191	Sophomore	11.3 pts / 2.9 reb / 5.5 ast

Kentucky	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Class	Per Game
Nick Richards	F	6-11	247	Junior	13.9 pts / 7.8 reb
EJ Montgomery	F	6-10	228	Sophomore	6.2 pts / 5.5 reb
Immanuel Quickley	G	6-3	188	Sophomore	16.2 pts / 4.3 reb
Tyrese Maxey	G	6-3	198	Freshman	14.2 pts / 4.3 reb
Ashton Hagans	G	6-3	198	Sophomore	11.5 pts / 3.9 reb / 6.4 ast

ONE TO WATCH  
TEAM BREAKDOWNS   ABOUT THE GATORS: They claimed just the fourth road victory of the season Wednesday at Georgia and did so by maintaining poise after the Bulldogs opened the game by hitting their first seven shots, including four 3s, to put UF in an instant hole. The Gators, despite missing their first 11 shots from the 3-point line, slowly whittled at the margin before tying the game early in the second half and taking control with less than eight minutes remaining with a 10-0 run. Florida hit seven of its last 12 attempts from distance, including four in the final six-plus minutes. The Gators held the Bulldogs, who were averaging just shy of 90 points over their previous three

games, to a season-low 54 points. … UF is averaging 71.9 points, shooting 45.6 overall and 34.4 from deep. Defensively, the Gators surrender 65.9 points, 42-percent shooting and 31.9 from long range. … KenPom.com puts Florida at No. 32 overall, 28th in offense and 54th in defense. … Shooting guard Noah Locke, who leads the SEC in 3-point shooting at 48.8 percent in league play, went to Kentucky two weeks ago with a streak of 24 consecutive games with at least one 3. The Wildcats' devised a perimeter defense with their three guards that X'd out Locke in the half court, as he struggled to get off just five shots (all 3s) and missed them all. He's 7-for-15 in the three games since (with carryover necessary). … Forward Keyontae Johnson continued his recent tear with 18 points and 11 rebounds at Georgia, giving him five double-doubles in the last seven games. One of the two outliers was a 19-and-9 showing at Rupp (one rebound shy of an eighth dub-dub), but he was 0-for-4 from 3, where he's hitting 37 percent on the season in league play. … Wing Scottie Lewis likely will draw the assignment of sticking Quickley. He was defensive Option 1 against Anthony Edwards and stuck to the scouting report in limiting the UGA standout to just 14 points and three field goals. … Point guard Andrew Nembhard has at least six assists in three of the last four games. … Forward Kerry Blackshear Jr. had 18 points and five boards in more than 36 minutes at Rupp, but also had five turnovers (two on offensive fouls) in the game. … Reserve guard Tre Mann pitched in 18 solid minutes against UGA, scoring five points and grabbing four rebounds. He's hit at least one 3 in six of the previous seven games. … Two backup bigs, fourth-year junior Dontay Bassett and freshman Jason Jitoboh, got the call off the bench against the Bulldogs in a game that required discipline in ball-screen defense. This one, though, may call for more length and rim-protection, meaning 6-10 freshman Omar Payne may be called on. Payne was a DNP/Coaches Decision at Georgia due to matchup issues with Bulldogs stretch-4 Rayshaun Hammods, who Payne struggled to stay with in ball-screen defense the first game and gave up a couple 3s. If summoned this time against the Cats, Payne will need to be more active than the last UK game, when he played seven minutes and did not get a point, rebound, block or even a foul. Payne has totaled just one point and two rebounds over a combined 26 minutes the last four games. ... ABOUT THE WILDCATS: In 11 seasons under Calipari, they're 330-77 (a winning percentage of .811), with a sixth SEC regular-season championship tucked away to go with six conference tournament titles, four Final Fours, another seven Elite Eights and the 2012 NCAA title. This Calipari team is different than his usual ones in that it's older. Of the eight rotations players, three are freshmen, but only one plays more than 15 minutes. … Kentucky is scoring 79.6 points per game, shooting 46.1 percent from the floor and 33.5 from the 3-point line. Defensively, the Wildcats give up 68.6 points, just 39.1 percent overall (first in SEC play) and 30.3 from the arc. … UK's KenPom numbers

put the team at 30th overall, 33rd in offensive efficiency and 49th on defense. … A stunning statistic (and an alarming one for the Gators): Kentucky went 33 of 123 from the 3-point line in home SEC games this season. That's 26.8 percent. The Cats are 53-for-116 from deep on the road — that's 45.7 percent — including 26 of the last 49 (at A&M, LSU and Vanderbilt). That's 53.1 percent. … Guard Tyrese Maxey is the lone freshman getting big minutes (34.2 pg) and of late is getting more reps at the point guard spot due some inconsistency from two-year starter Ashton Hagans. Maxey is shooting nearly 44 percent overall (just 29.1 from deep) and gets to the free-throw line, where he converts at nearly 83 percent. He had 13 points and seven assists vs. the Gators last time. … Hagans is arguably the best on-ball perimeter defender in the league and also tops the conference in assists. UF turned him over six times in the first game, but he also had three steals. … The Gators did a good job keeping Nick Richards from dominating the glass (9 points, 6 rebounds), but the possible 2020 SEC Player of the Year is an elite rim-protector (his 66 blocks are 30 more than UF's best) and must be accounted for in the post and on the pick-and-roll (he's shooting 66 percent from the floor) or else he'll be pulling the rims down on lobs from UK's guards. … Forward EJ Montgomery has 31 blocks and is at nearly 52 percent from the floor. When Montgomery and Richards are on the floor that's a lot of length contend with. That said, the UK frontcourt got worked over by Tennessee's John Fulkerson for 27 points last game. Fulkerson was the best big on the floor that night.… Backup 6-9 forward Nate Sestina was the nation's second most-sought grad transfer last summer. The former Bucknell star is averaging 5.6 points and 3.7 rebounds off the bench, but can be a game-changer with his stretch-4 shooting from the arc, where he's gone 21-for-52 on the season (40.4 percent). 


NUMBERS WORTH NOTING  

* .666 — Florida's winning percentage against Kentucky at home since 2005, based on a 10-5 record that is the best in the SEC against the Wildcats over the last 15 years. 

* 6 — Combined points from the trio of of Nembhard, Locke and Lewis (on 2-for-14 shooting) in the first meeting against Kentucky. Here's betting that's not the case in the rematch.

* 94.6 — Free-throw percentage for Lewis in SEC play, based on 37-for-35 from the line. Outstanding. 

* 129 — Consecutive wins over the last 10 years by Kentucky when leading by double-digits at halftime, a streak that was broken Tuesday night by Tennessee. The Cats led the Vols 42-31 at the break, but got outscored 50-31 in the second half.  

* 2018 — The last year Florida beat Kentucky. It came on Chris Chiozza's "Senior Day," during which the point guard had nine points, four assists and passed Erving Walker (2008-12) became the program's all-time assists leader.  


LAST WORD
If the Gators can beat the Wildcats, without question one of the best teams in the country over the last six weeks, it could be quite a launching pad of confidence into the postseason.