Florida vs Kentucky (Saturday, 2 pm)

Florida vs. No. 6 Kentucky

* When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center, Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (19-11, 9-8); Kentucky (24-6, 13-4)
* TV: SEC Network (Brad Nessler and Clark Kellogg)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Mick Hubert and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
CJ Felder	F	6-7 / 231	Junior	2.4 pts / 3.6 reb
Colin Castleton	F	6-11 / 231	Senior	16.0 pts / 9.1 reb / 2.5 blx
Phlandrous Fleming Jr.	G	6-5 / 205	Graduate	10.9 pts / 4.2 reb
Tyree Appleby	G	6-1 / 163	R-Senior	11.4 pts / 2.0 reb / 3.8 ast
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 175	Senior	9.1 pts / 2.7 reb

Kentucky	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Keion Brooks	F	6-7 / 210	Junior	11.2 pts / 4.6 reb
Oscar Tshiebwe	F	6-9 / 255	Junior	16.9 pts / 15.3 reb
Kellan Grady	G	6-5 / 205	Senior	11.9 pts / 2.1 reb
Davion Mintz	G	6-3 / 195	Senior	8.7 pts / 2.2 reb
Sahvir Wheeler	G	5-9 / 180	Junior	10.0 pts / 2.3 reb / 7.0 ast

The Breakdown

Kentucky forward **Oscar Tshiebwe** (34) is the favorite to be named 2022 SEC Player of the Year next week, as well as a first-team All American.

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida is coming off back-to-back road victories, with wins in three of the previous four games, most recently the wild rally from eight down with less than four minutes left to beat Vanderbilt on the road Wednesday night. One of those wins was an upset of second-ranked and Southeastern Conference leader Auburn, with the loss coming to 18th-ranked Arkansas, which is still in the hunt for a share of the regular-season league crown. The Gators can give their NCAA Tournament resume a much-needed punch with another mega-upset, but the Wildcats, with their combination of elite shooting and rebounding, will be a difficult matchup even with the O'Dome expected to be a crazed "White Out" way and on "Senior Day," to boot. Kentucky sits a half-game out of first place in the conference standings and has won eight of the previous 10, with its last outing an 83-72 home defeat Tuesday of Ole Miss. ... Seven UF seniors will be honored in a pregame ceremony, including former forward Keyontae Johnson, who has remained on scholarship and with the team since his haunting collapse Dec. 11, 2020 in Tallahassee. ... Kentucky leads the all-time series 106-41, including three straight wins in Gainesville. The two met Feb. 12 in Lexington, where the Cats blew open a five-point halftime lead with a quick run of 13-2 out of the locker room to open a 16-point lead and run away for an easy 78-57 victory. Forward Oscar Tshiebwe, soon to be crowned 2022 SEC Player of the Year, had a phenomenal performance on his way to 29 points and 19 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end. UK shot 46 percent for the game, but 51.5 in the second half with five 3-pointers. The Gators finished at a decent 45 percent, but made just five of 22 from deep and got crushed on the glass 41-25. The Cats put four players in double-figure scoring compared to just one for the Gators. ... UF is 4-9 against the UK under Coach Mike White, including 2-4 at home.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	2021-22 Stats	Kentucky
70.7	Scoring	80.4
.429	Field-goal percentage	.488
.316	3-point percentage	.357
65.4	Scoring defense	65.8
.436	Field-goal percentage defense	.410
.322	3-point percentage defense	.303
48th	KenPom.com overall ranking	4th
33rd	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	2nd
77th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	22nd
301st	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	160th
51st	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	5th
83rd	Overall strength of schedule ranking	17th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They currently sit in a three-way tie for fifth place in the SEC standings and are on wrong side of the NCAA Tournament, according to most bracketologists. The Gators, though, have some control of the latter, especially Saturday. The No. 5 seed is a best-case scenario for next week's SEC Tournament at Tampa, but to get that spot Florida must beat Kentucky and Alabama must lose its regular-season finale at

**Colin Castleton** (12), **Tyree Appleby** (22), **Brandon McKissic** (23) and **Niels Lane** (44)

LSU. With a loss, the Gators could drop as low as the No. 11 seed, pending on outcomes elsewhere in the conference Saturday. ... The status of senior forward Anthony Duruji (8.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) once again will be a game-day decision. Duruji has missed the last two games with an ankle injury, but may be more motivated to get on the floor for what could be a final O'Dome appearance. ... Eleven days ago, UF was shooting 42.1 percent for the season, including 30.5 from the 3-point line, but has put together a three-game run of its best offensive basketball of the year; 49.7 percent from the floor and 41.5 from the arc. Can the Gators keep trending the right direction against the Wildcats' length? That's one question. The other (and just as important) is whether Florida will allow the array of Kentucky's gifted shooters the kind of looks allowed Vanderbilt, the league's No. 6 long-range team, to drop 15 of 29 from deep or surrender the kinds of blow-by layups and second-chance opportunities that allowed Arkansas to come-from-behind late and take away what would have been a great home win on Feb. 22. Finally, will the Gators allow Tshiebwe free reign to dominate in the paint on both ends like he did last month at Rupp Arena? ... In the last two games, Phlandrous Fleming Jr. has been the straw that stirs the UF drink for this team. The Charleston Southern transfer has combined to make 16 of his 28 shots, six of 13 long-ball attempts, grab nine rebounds, dish 10 assists and block two shots. ... Forward Colin Castleton had another really good game Tuesday, with 19 points, eight rebounds and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line. The senior leader figures (and needs) to be particularly locked in for this one, considering how his previous matchup with Tshiebwe went down. Castleton had 18 and seven in that one, but the Kentucky star dwarfed those numbers and his Florida counterpart admitted as much after the game. Castleton is averaging 17.5 points on 56.5-percent shooting in SEC play (nearly 81 percent from the free-throw line), with six assists and just one turnover his last two games. ... Myreon Jones hit some huge shots at Vandy and also took a forceful leadership role in the final minutes that several teammates acknowledged got the Gators out of their defensive funk late. Since going scoreless in the loss to Arkansas, Jones has hit three 3s in each of the last two games and finished with 13 points in each. His 3-point percentage for the season is nearly 35 percent, up 12 points from when the team entered February. ... Point guard Tyree Appleby's 12 points against the Commodores made for his lowest output in four games, but he's still averaging 19.5 points over that span. Along the way, he hit 24 of his 51 field-goal attempts (.470) and went 16-for-33 from the arc (.484). Appleby, who logged an exhausting 33 minutes at Nashville, had some shaky moments in the second half, but also made some big plays in the comeback. He got injured in the last Kentucky game and was basically no factor. So, like Castleton, Appleby may be looking to make some personal amends. ... Backup guard Brandon McKissic (6.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg) has hit a 3-pointer in each of the last five games, going five of 12 from the arc during that span. That's 41.6 percent and much better than the 24 percent numbers in conference play, and align much closer to the 38.5 percent he shot over four seasons at Missouri-Kansas City. McKissic's defense on Florida's full-court inbounds pressure in the final seconds forced the biggest turnover of the game at Vandy; the one that led to Fleming's go-ahead 3-pointer. ... CJ Felder has started the last two games for Duruji and totaled two points (on just one field-goal attempt), two rebounds and a steal over 17 minutes. ... Backups Niels Lane (1.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg) and Tuongthach Gatkek (1.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg) combined to score 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting over their 34 minutes at Vandy, with terrific defense rolled into their play. Both hit all three of their shots, with Lane logging 24 points and defending all five positions. ... After a run of four games without a 3-pointer (and going 0-for-9 along the way), freshman guard Kowacie Reeves has one in each of the last two games. The hitless run began in the loss at Rupp and ended a fie-game streak with at least one 3 for Reeves.

The Wildcats

John Calipari is in his 13th season on the UK sidelines, with a 364-99 overall record and 173-54 mark in SEC play. After posting the program's first losing season in 32 years last year, this Kentucky squad has just one McDonald's All-America freshman and, instead, is getting tremendous production from transfers and players who have been in the program a couple years. ... UK

was on a run of 11 wins over 12 games, including six straight, after defeating the Gators at Rupp, but has since dropped two of four, losing 76-63 at Tennessee and 75-73 in overtime at Arkansas. ... The Cats have led the SEC in scoring, field-goal percentage and 3-point percentage for basically the entire conference season. ...Tshiebwe, who transferred midseason last year from West Virginia, is not only the leading candidate for SEC Player of the Year, but a likely first-team All American. He's shooting 60 percent from the floor (without attempting a 3), has 18 double-doubles, including 12 straight, and needs two more such performances to tie the school record held by Hall-of-Famer Dan Issel in 1970. Tshiebwe has 161 offensive rebounds on the season (UF has 329 as a team). ... Guard Kellen Grady averaged 17.4 points during a 115-game career at Davidson, where he scored 2,002 points over his four seasons. Grady, who made four 3s in the first game against UF, is shooting 44.8 overall and 43.3 from deep, but went just two of his last 12 over the previous three games, including 0-5 in a win over LSU. ... Guard TyTy Washington is UK's superstar freshman this season; really the only one. He was Arizona's Gatorade Player of the Year and now is the Cats' second-leading scorer. His 46 percent from the floor rates third on the team; as does his 34.5 from 3. Washington also has 109 assists, which actually ranks second on the team. That's because UK basically has two point guards, with Sahvir Wheeler, the transfer from Georgia, the SEC leader in assists with 182 to just 77 turnovers. Wheeler, who as a Bulldog torched the Gators for a career-high 27 in a loss last year, is terrific at driving the ball, with an uncanny ability to finish despite his size. He's not known as much of a 3-point threat, but dropped four of seven over the last two games, plus he's accurate enough inside the arc (.440). ... Forward Keion Brooks Jr. has developed into an outstanding all-around player. Along with shooting nearly 49.4 percent from the floor, he's the Cats' second-leading rebounder and second on the squad in free-throw attempts, which he converts at 77 percent. ... Guard Davion Mintz (8.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg), now in his third season since transferring from Creighton, has 40 makes from 3 (at 36 percent), which is second-best on the team. He's in the conversation for SEC Sixth Man of the Year. ... ... Backup forward Jacob Toppin (6.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg) missed the first meeting with an ankle injury, but is very much back in the rotation now, having logged 40 and 39 minutes, respectively, in games against Alabama and LSU.

Numbers of Note

**Egor Koulechov** (4) and **Chris Chiozza** (11) get mugged by freshman **Mike Okauru** after their 80-67 victory over Kentucky on Senior Day in 2018.

* .406 — Florida's all-time winning percentage in home games against Kentucky, based on a 26-38 record.

* 0 — Points scored by Appleby in just seven minutes in the last meeting against Kentucky. He left the game early after aggravating a deep thigh bruise, tried to go to start the second half, but shut it down after just four minutes. He only took one shot during the game.

* 7 — Wins for the Gators this season when they've trailed by at least nine points.

* 789 — Career points scored at Florida by Johnson, who before his malady last season at Florida State had started 55 of 71 games, averaged 11.1 points and 6.6 rebounds, while shooting 52.1 percent from the floor, 37.6 from the 3-point arc and 72.1 from the free-throw line.

* 2018 —The last year UF defeated Kentucky at home. Junior swingman Jalen Hudson scored 22 points, grad-transfer Egor Koulechov added 16 and junior guard KeVaughn Allen had an across-the-board masterpiece performance of 11 points, a season-high seven rebounds, a career-high seven assists, and three steals in the Gators' 80-67 victory. The afternoon, however, belonged to point guard Chris Chiozza on his "Senior Day," as he became the program's all-time leader in assists when he fed teammate Keith Stone for a first-half 3-pointer in transition. Chiozza finished with nine points and four assists and exited the game to an adoring ovation as the Gators completed just the sixth season sweep of the Wildcats in the series' 91-year history.

Bottom Line

Obviously, a Florida victory (and what an upset it would be, given this loaded UK roster) would be a major boost to the postseason resume, but there are no guarantees when sitting this squarely on the "bubble," as results around the country can unexpectedly come into play.

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