Kentucky will face more physical play against defending national champion Florida. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Florida is not unbeatable.
The defending national champion lost to Arizona, TCU, Duke and UConn before Southeastern Conference play started and has lost to Missouri and Auburn in conference play.
However, the Gators are on a roll going into Saturday afternoon’s game with Kentucky. The Gators thrashed host Texas A&M 86-67. The previous game they blasted Alabama 100-77 coming off a 95-48 win at South Carolina. That’s three wins by a combined 89 points with two of the wins coming on the road.
Florida is the only SEC team with only two losses going into tonight’s game at Georgia.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope was on The Hoops HQ Show with Seth Davis and Andy Katz on Tuesday. They asked him what would have to go well for Kentucky to win at Florida.
Pope admitted that would be a “long list” of things that would have to go well for UK.
“This Florida team is really good. They’re veteran, they’re experienced, their leadership comes — it’s almost like their leadership and their size are one and the same. They’ve just been so dominant physically, on the glass, in the paint, with their pace,” Pope said.
“(Coach)Todd (Golden) does an unbelievable job.
“It’s a road game in the SEC, which, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing the best team or the worst team in the SEC. It takes a miracle to win on the road, and that’s why it’s such a fun league. So it’s all that. We had a real debacle at Vanderbilt recently where there were 100 things that went wrong. But since then, it’s been a mantra of ours that we’re gonna rise to the physicality of the occasion.
“There’s no test probably in our league more significant than Florida in terms of the physicality of standing up and owning some space and engaging in the fight.”
Pope said Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu, who averages 12 points and 11. 5 rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent from the field, is a “special player” that he respects.
“I don’t know anything about him as a human being, except what you can read and how he plays and the physicality and versatility that he brings, especially on the defensive end of their team, is unbelievable,” Pope said.
“They have incredibly skilled and talented players up and down, all around, including (Thomas) Haugh, who, if he’s not the best player in this league, he’s definitely one of the best — I think I might have the best player (Otega Oweh) in the league on my team.”
Haugh averages 17.8 points and 6.4 rebounds per game but also has 45 assists, 23 steals and 21 blocks. He’s a 47.6 percent shooter from the field and 35 percent shooter from 3.
“They’re a great team, they’re defending the national championship,” Pope said. “The place will be rocking, they’re gonna bring all the physicality and we’re gonna have to stand up and try and deal with it.”
