Florida vs Kentucky (Wednesday, 7 pm)

Wednesday, February 22

Gainesville, FL

7 PM

Florida Gators

Kentucky

Tickets

Chris Harry's Pregame Stuff presented by Ticketmaster

Florida vs Kentucky (Wednesday, 7 pm)

Tuesday, February 21, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

Florida vs. Kentucky

* When: Wednesday, 7 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (14-13, 7-7) / Opponent (18-8, 9-5)
* TV: ESPN2 (Tom Hart and Jimmy Dykes)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley and Lee Humphrey)

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jason Jitoboh	C	6-1 / 300	Senior	2.4 pts / 1.3 reb
Will Richard	G	6-5 / 206	Sophomore	10.3 pts / 4.4 reb
Riley Kugel	G	6-5 / 207	Freshman	8.0 pts / 2.6 reb
Myreon Jones	G	6-3 / 177	5th-Senior	5.1 pts / 3.1 reb
Kyle Lofton	G	6-3 / 188	5th-Senior	8.8 pts / 3.0 reb / 3.4 ast

Kentucky	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Jacob Toppin	F	6-5 / 205	Junior	11.8 pts / 6.7 reb
Oscar Tshiebwe	F	6-9 / 260	Senior	15.8 pts / 13.0 reb
Chris Livingston	G	6-6 / 220	Freshman	6.3 pts / 3.3 reb
Antonio Reeves	G	6-5 / 205	Senior	13.0 pts / 2.1 reb
Cason Wallace	G	6-4 / 195	Freshman	11.8 pts / 3.7 reb / 4.1 ast

The Breakdown

Kentucky forward and reigning SEC and NCAA Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and Kentucky square off in a game (and rematch) between two teams headed in different directions. The Gators, after losing two-time All-Southeastern Conference forward Colin Castleton for the season to a broken hand last week, were manhandled Saturday 84-65 at Arkansas in their first game without their standout big who was leading the team in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. The Wildcats, meanwhile, roughed up 10th-ranked Tennessee 66-54 at home for a second straight win and are back in the NCAA Tournament bubble conversation. ... Kentucky leads the all-time series 108-41, including a 53-30 record at Gainesville. The two teams met on Feb. 4 in Lexington, where the Wildcats got 20 points from freshman guard Cason Wallace, including a pair of free throws with 13 seconds remaining, to ice a game that got close late. The Wildcats led by 14 with eight minutes to play before the Gators made things interesting with a couple runs in the final minutes that drew them as close as three points when fifth-year senior guard Myreon Jones hit a 3-pointer with 36.6 seconds remaining. UF immediately fouled forward Jacob Toppin on the inbound and he missed the front end of a one-and-one at the UK end, with UF rebounding and heading to the halfcourt with a chance to tie. Kentucky's defense forced a contested 3 by Jones that was not close, with Wallace rebounding and icing the game with his two free throws. Leading the comeback was Castleton, who had 25 points, eight rebounds, five assists, three blocks and completely flummoxed UK superstar forward Oscar Tshiebwe on the offensive end. ... Kentucky is 21-9 against Florida under Coach John Calipari, with an 8-5 mark at the O'Dome that includes four straight wins. ... UF coach Todd Golden is 0-1 against the Cats. ... The game has been dubbed an "Orange & Blue Stripe Out" with free T-shirts placed on every seat in the O'Dome, courtesy of Meldon Law. ... The Florida men's and women's swimming teams that won their respective SEC championships at the conference meet last weekend (the first time the two teams have won the league title the same year since 1993) will be introduced and honored during the game.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Kentucky
71.6	Scoring	74.8
.435	Field-goal percentage	.456
.318	3-point percentage	.366
67.6	Scoring defense	68.0
.408	Field-goal percentage defense	.433
.323	3-point percentage defense	.333
54th	KenPom.com overall ranking	36th
129th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	18th
20th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	87th
79th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	279th
53rd	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	33rd
19th	Overall strength of schedule ranking	25th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

They shot 30 percent and trailed by a manageable six at halftime Saturday, but the Gators were outscored 17-2 out of the locker room and were run out of Walton Arena. The defense that was UF's

calling card during its stretch of six SEC wins over seven games has vanished and not just because Castleton is gone. The slippage began before his injury and now is just exasperated by it, as Arkansas late in the game was at 67 percent (with 52 points in the paint, minus UF's 6-11 rim-protector) and finished at 57.6. Arkansas, in fact, attempted just 10 shots from the 3-point line because it was getting basically whatever it wanted inside. ... Freshman guard Riley Kugel's improvement on offense continued with his team-high 17 points at Arkansas. Kugel finished five of 12 from the floor, but just one of six from distance, and made six of seven free throws. Make that four straight games of reaching double figures. In that time, Kugel is averaging 15.5 points and shooting 53.3 percent. ... Against the Razorbacks, UF started center Jason Jitoboh, who last year had some pretty good success in stepping in for Castleton by averaging 9.3 points and 5.6 rebounds over four games before suffering a season-ending eye injury. Jitoboh struggled against the athleticism and length of the Arkansas bigs. He finished two of five from the floor with four points, two rebounds and two turnovers over 24 minutes. ... Jitoboh split time with freshman Alex Szymczyk, the 6-10 German post man who had logged just 17 minutes all season, almost exclusively in mop-up duty. Szymczyk acquitted himself well in his first true SEC action, posting career highs of eight points (including two of UF's four 3s), six rebounds and four steals, along with one assist, one block and two turnovers in 20 minutes. He probably bought himself another crack in this game. ... Sophomore 6-9 forward Alex Fudge (4.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg) also took a few turns in the post on his way to six points and one rebound in 17 minutes. The UF coaches will continue to mix and match that spot in a collective effort to find some production in Castleton's absence, with perhaps CJ Felder, who returned two weeks ago from a month-long hiatus for personal reasons, getting more than the three mop-up minutes he played Saturday. … Will Richard had 10 points and four rebounds against the Hogs. OK numbers, but also ones that mirror his season averages. The Gators need more from their front-line players to help make up for Castleton's points and boards, not the same. … Point guard Kyle Lofton had seven points, two rebounds and four assists. … Backup guard Kowacie Reeves had nine points in 17 minutes, going 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. Reeves missed his only 3-point attempt, as the Gators went 4-for-21 from deep (19.0 percent). The starting five was 2-for-13. … After hitting five three pointers for a season-best 15 points in the win last week against Ole Miss, Myreon Jones had a third game over the previous four without a field goal (0-3). He finished with a couple free throws over 23 minutes.

The Wildcats

The 14th season under Calipari had Big Blue Nation on edge just a couple weeks ago. The Wildcats had lost two straight; a 15-point home blowout loss against Arkansas, followed by an upset

defeat on the road against a very average Georgia team. It was gloom and doom in the Commonwealth (again), with fans calling for the coach's head (again). Well, UK has put together a pair of excellent back-to-back victories, winning on the road at Mississippi State (which had won five straight) and then punishing No. 12 Tennessee at home in a game the Cats led 39-19 at halftime. They would appear to be coming together just in time for the SEC and NCAA tournaments -- and just in time to face a wounded Florida squad. ... UK mostly rises and falls on the shoulders of Tshiebwe, but it's certainly worth noting that Castleton, in destroying the PoP and limiting him to a woeful 2-for-14 from the floor last game, provided something of a blueprint of how to defend him. Suffice to say life will be different for Tshiebwe (55 percent from the floor), who nonetheless had 15 rebounds in the previous meeting, facing Jitoboh, Szymczyk, et al this time out. ... Wallace ripped the Gators for 22 last game and had 24 in the loss at Arkansas, but has gone three straight games without a make from the 3-point line, despite shooting 35 percent on the season (46 percent overall from the floor). Calipari has turned the rookie McDonald's All American into his point guard after losing Sahvir Wheeler (7.7 ppg, 5.8 apg) to an injury in the UF game. Wheeler has not played since. ... Freshman guard Chris Livingston has gegun to play to his five-star prep credentials. He had a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double against Tennessee and hit double-figure scoring in each of the previous three games. He's also hit at least one 3-pointer in each of the previous five games after going 3-for-13 through the first eight SEC games. ... Forward Jacob Toppin pounded the Gators in the first meeting for 17 points and 10 rebounds, picking up the scoring slack for Tshiebwe. His 48 offensive rebounds are second on the team. ... Shooting guard CJ Frederick (7.3 ppg), the transfer from Iowa and 3-point specialist, has not played since leaving the UF game after a collision with the stanchion.

Numbers of Note

Kentucky's bench last March 17 as the final seconds of the second-seeded Cats' 85-79 loss to 15-seed Saint Peter's in the first round of the NCAA Tournament ticked away in Indianapolis;

* .000 — Wallace's 3-point shooting over the previous three games, based on 0-for-15 from the arc. He's 2-for-19 in February (10.5 percent), since coming back from a minor knee injury sustained in the home loss to Kansas in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

* 4 — Steals by Szymczyk against Arkansas, which equaled the most by a UF player this season, tying the four by Lofton in the win over Missouri.

* 5.2 — Offensive rebounds averaged by Tshiebwe. The Gators, collectively, average 7.9 as a team in SEC play (and that's with Castleton's 23 figured in, by the way).

* 7 — Times this season the Gators have shot 20 percent or below from the 3-point line in a game, including four times in SEC play

* 2019 — The last year Kentucky won a NCAA Tournament game, a fact BBN has been locked in on since last March's first-round upset loss to 15-seed Saint Peter's.