Florida vs No. 6 Kentucky (Saturday, 12:30 pm)

Saturday, January 6

Gainesville, FL

12:30 PM

Florida Gators

Kentucky

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Florida vs No. 6 Kentucky (Saturday, 12:30 pm)

Friday, January 5, 2024 | Men's Basketball, Chris Harry

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

Florida vs. No. 6 Kentucky

* When: Saturday, 12:30 p.m. (ET)
* Where: Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center / Gainesville, Fla.
* Records: Florida (10-3, 0-0) / Kentucky (11-2, 0-0)
* TV: ESPN (Dan Shulman and Jay Bilas)
* Radio: Gator Sports Network from LEARFIELD (Sean Kelley, Lee Humphrey and Steve Egan) / Stations list
* Ticket info

Projected Starters

Florida	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tyrese Samuel	F	6-10 / 239	Graduate	14.3 pts / 8.8 reb
Micah Handlogten	C	7-1 / 236	Sophomore	6.8 pts / 7.1 reb
Will Richard	G	6-4 / 206	Junior	11.8 pts / 3.8 reb
Walter Clayton Jr.	G	6-2 / 195	Junior	15.2 pts / 3.8 reb
Zyon Pullin	G	6-4 / 206	Graduate	14.1 pts / 3.5 reb / 5.0 ast

Kentucky	Position	Height / Weight	Class	Statistics
Tre Mitchell	F	6-9 / 231	Graduate	12.8 pts / 7.1 reb
Aaron Bradshaw	F	7-1 / 226	Freshman	7.2 pts / 4.2 reb
Justin Edwards	G	6-8 / 203	Freshman	9.8 pts / 4.6 reb
Antonio Reeves	G	6-6 / 195	Senior	19.0 pts / 4.3 reb
D.J. Wagner	G	6-4 / 192	Freshman	11.9 pts / 2.1 reb

The Breakdown

**Will Richard** (5) and **Tyrese Samuel** (4)

Setup / Series / Last Meeting

Florida and sixth-ranked Kentucky face off in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams. The game marks the first time since 1999 the Gators and Wildcats have been paired in their league debuts. ... The Gators have won six straight, which matches the program's longest streak over the previous seven seasons. UF's last outing was a 97-72 home triumph Saturday against Quinnipiac. The Cats have won five straight (and eight of nine), last defeating Illinois State 96-70 on Dec. 29 at home. ... Kentucky leads the all-time series 109-41, including four straight and nine of the previous 10, dating to 2019. The Gators and Cats played two relatively competitive games in 2023, with UK winning 72-67 at Lexington on Feb. 4, then sweeping the season series with an 82-74 on Feb. 22 at Gainesville. In that one, forward Oscar Tshiebwe, the 2022 SEC Player of the Year Oscar, destroyed the Gators (in their second game following the season-ending injury to 6-10 forward Colin Castleton) by going 12-for-13 from the floor on his way to 25 points. The game was tied with nine minutes to go when the Cats went on a run to surge ahead by eight, but the Gators fought back. They cut the lead to two, 72-70, with 1:12 to play until UK forward Chris Livingston answered with an old-time 3-point play off an offensive rebound to push the Cats in front by five with 40 seconds to go for a two-possession advantage. Florida, which shot 50 percent for the game, was led by freshman guard Riley Kugel's career-high 24 points, including 4-for-6 from the 3-point line, plus another 16 points from sophomore guard Kowacie Reeves.

Tale of the Tape

Florida	Statistics	Kentucky
86.3	Scoring	91.1
.472	Field-goal percentage	.503
.337	3-point percentage	.416
73.7	Scoring defense	73.4
.410	Field-goal percentage defense	.413
.341	3-point percentage defense	.312
33rd	KenPom.com overall ranking	18th
29th	KenPom.com offensive efficiency	8th
60th	KenPom.com defensive efficiency	53rd
14th	KenPom.com adjusted tempo	23rd
46th	NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking	22nd
156th	Strength of schedule ranking	177th

Team Snapshots

The Gators

Some may call this one of those so-called "measuring stick" games for the Gators, but it's more about a tremendous opportunity for Coach Todd Golden's second UF team to

announce itself. A loss to the SEC's only true basketball blueblood would hardly be crippling (especially in the league opener), but a Quadrant-1 victory, per the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET), would be a great springboard into a brutally difficult start to the conference campaign. ... Florida has five players averaging in double figures, leads the SEC in rebounding (45.4 per game), ranks second in offensive rebounding (16.2 pg), fifth in field-goal percentage (47.2), but dead-last in free-throw shooting percentage (65.4). ... UF's last two games have finished with victory margins of 20 and 25 points, respectively, both games coming with grad-transfer Zyon Pullin in the starting lineup and the Gators amassing assist totals of 27 and 19, respectively. Pullin, who replaced sophomore guard Riley Kugel in the first unit, has 50 assists and just 13 turnovers on the season. He's also 6-for-7 from the arc over the last three games and is at nearly 43 percent on the season. ... Guard Will Richard is on an offensive tear, with five straight double-digit scoring games, including a career-high 22 against Quinnipiac. In those five games, he's averaged 17.4 points, shot 52.5 percent from the floor and 43 from the 3-point line. His defense is also at a different level than a year ago. ... Leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr. only took four shots (and just one 3-pointer) in the last game on his way to 12 points. It was another example of how this team can spread around the scoring and lean on different guys on different nights, depending on how the Gators are being defended. ... Forward Tyrese Samuel, coming off a third consecutive double-double, ranks third in the SEC in rebounding and first in field-goal percentage at 64.6. Free-throw shooting is still a major issue for the Seton Hall grad-transfer. He went 1-for-3 against Quinnipiac and has made just 37 of his team-high 71 attempts on the season. That's just 52.1 percent. ... Speaking of free throws, center Micah Handlogten went 0-for-4 from the line, making him 3-for-10 on the season. Weird number, considering he's 4-for-5 from the 3-point line. ... Backup 6-11 freshman forward Alex Condon (8.2 ppg, 6.2 rpg) is 46.2 percent from the floor, but 30 of 46 from the free-throw line (65.2 percent). Fellow freshman reserve forward Thomas Haugh (4.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg) is at 48.1 percent overall 35.3 from 3, but just 8-for-19 from the line (42.1 percent). Haugh, though, had eight and seven rebounds in just 17 minutes last game. ... Against Quinnipiac, Kugel came off the bench for the first time since last Jan. 21 (a run of 26 games) and posted 10 points, four rebounds and drew a team-high six fouls over 21 minutes. He went just 2-for-8 from the floor and missed all three of his 3s, however. Over the last four games, he's 0-for-18 from deep, but still defending at a high level. Against the Bobcats, Kugel clearly was trying to play within the framework of the team, which is exactly what the UF coaches needed to see as Kugel fights to get his shot (and confidence) back. ... Backup guards Denzel Aberdeen (3.8 ppg) and Julian Rishwain (4-for-10 from 3) appear to have made a dent in the regular rotation, though SEC play will provide a different barometer.

The Wildcats

They're in Season 15 under John Calipari, who is 399-115, with six SEC regular-season championships, six tournament titles and the 2012 NCAA championship. Impressive numbers,

obviously for the Hall-of-Famer, yet the Wildcats have won just one NCAA Tournament game over the last four years (and no SEC titles since '18), which has the Big Blue-crazed fanbase a little restless these days. ... UK has another loaded team (one of the best offenses in the country, with nearly six players averaging in double figures), backed by an outstanding senior in Antonio Reeves and yet another marquee freshman class. The Wildcats lost early to Kansas on a neutral floor and fell victim to one of those early upsets to UNC-Wilmington at home, but their current four-game winning streak came against Penn, North Carolina, Louisville and Illinois State. ... For what it's worth (and it's probably worth something), Kentucky has played just one true road game this season and that was against a bad Louisville squad with a heaping helping of Cats fans in the house. The O'Dome atmosphere should be different. ... Reeves, the Illinois State transfer in his second season with UK, is the league's No. 2 scorer. He's shooting 52.3 percent overall and 46 from 3 on a team-high 74 attempts and also goes to the line more than any other Wildcat and shoots 84 percent. ... Forward Tre Mitchell was at West Virginia last season and shoved the Gators in the PK85 in what was the program's worst loss in nearly 24 years. Mitchell finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in that one. When WVU coach Bob Huggins was fired for his off-court troubles last offseason, Mitchell became a late portal entry and was a home-run signee for the Cats. He's at 53.8 percent from the floor and knocking down 38 percent of his 3s. He's a battle-tested vet of Big 12 wars who won't be intimited by the environment and will try to be a settlng force for his youthful teammates. ... Guard D.J. Wagner, grandson of Louisville legend and national champion Milt Wagner and son of Dejuan Wagner, a standout for Calipari at Memphis two decades ago, was the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2023 class. He's been the starter at point guard this season, but eventually gives way to fellow freshman and McDonald's All American Rob Dillingham, (14.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 4.8 apg), who along with classmate Reed Sheppard (12.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.3 apg) are the straws that stir the Wildcats' drink. Dillingham and Sheppard, both play starters' minutes and are the team's assist leaders with 58 and 52, respectively. Dillingham has been wildly efficient as an offensive player, especially for a rookie, in shooting 47 percent overall, 44.7 from deep and 75.8 from the free-throw line, with his 33 attempts ranked third on the team. Those are awfully impressive numbers, until lining them up against Sheppard, whose father, Jeff, is a UK icon since helping lead the program to NCAA titles in 1996 and '98. Reed is the nation's No. 1-ranked player in effective field-goal percentage, thanks to 57.8 overall, a stunning 56.0 from distance (28 of 50) and 90.0 at the free-throw line. He also has 52 assists to just 19 turnovers and defensively ranks 10th in the country in steal percentage. His 2.8 steals per game lead the SEC. ... Guard Justin Edwards and forward Aaron Bradshaw, who turned eligible eight games into the season, are two more '23 McDonald's All Americans in the starting lineup. Edwards is at 47 percent from the floor. Bradshaw, who projects as a lengthy rim-protector, is at 56. ... Sophomore forward Adou Thiero (7.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg) is another reserve who plays starters minutes (24.0) and gives the Cats muscle off the bench.

Numbers of Note

Beloved point guard **Chris Chiozza** and the Gators celebrated a tremendous "Senior Day" on March 3, 2018, which marked the last time Florida defeated Kentucky in Gainesville.

* .273 — Florida's all-time winning percentage against Kentucky, based on that 41-109 record.

* 43 — Points scored by Jeff Sheppard (Reed's dad) in the 1998 Final Four, including 16 for Coach Tubby Smith in the NCAA title game, a 78-69 win over Utah in the Alamodome at San Antonio, Texas. Sheppard was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

* 1998 — The last year Florida and Kentucky played in a SEC opener. The date was Jan. 2. The place was Rupp Arena. The result wasn't pretty; for the Gators, that is. The defending NCAA-champion Wildcats shot 67 percent from the floor, bombed 11 treys in the first half and roared to a 55-27 lead at the break. UK was led by forward Scott Padgett's 19 points, five rebounds and five assists, while UF got a career-high 20 points from forward Brent Wright and went 7-for-7 from the floor. For what it's worth, that Florida team bounced back from the bombardment to go 10-6 in SEC play (with an upset of the Cats in the season's rematch at Gainesville) and became Coach Billy Donovan's first NCAA Tournament team, advancing to the Sweet 16.

* 2018 — The last year the Gators beat the Wildcats at home. The date was March 3 and it was an emotional "Senior Night" for point guard Chris Chiozza, who broke the program record for a career assists with a first-half dish on a 3-pointer by Keith Stone. Chiozza finished with nine points and four assists, as Florida won 80-67 -- for its first sweep of a season series with UK since 2014 -- to finish the regular season at 20-11 and second place in the SEC. That UF team got a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost in the second round to third-seeded Texas Tech at Dallas.

* 2021 — The last year the Gators beat the Wildcats. The date was Feb. 27. The place was a mostly empty Rupp Arena, courtesy of Covid protocols. UF won 71-67, with sophomore guard Tre Mann sinking a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to seal just the 11th win in 63 all-time road games at Lexington. Mann finished with 21 points and eight rebounds. Forward Colin Castleton had 14 points, five rebounds and a career-best four assists, while point guard Tyree Appleby added 11 points, five rebounds, five assists and atoned for his five turnovers with a late go-ahead 3-pointer.

Bottom Line

The Florida program has been mostly spinning its wheels the last few seasons. This one feels different. This game could be a tell-tale sign if such is the case.