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.”
7 Responses
The thing that makes Florida so hard to beat is they got past their individual agendas that got them beat earlier and now play as a team for Florida. They have all bought into doing what they have to do to be repeat national champions…and I honestly think they will be national champions again in April.
Where does that leave Kentucky? At best co SEC champs with Florida, but more likely the No. 2 team in the league. We seem to have set aside our own personal agendas, but the Gators are too tough inside. You can't coach height and they have roughly four 7 footers, not counting the 7'9" kid who only plays mop up. We might get them in a close game at Rupp, but they will have their way with us in Gainesville and again in Nashville…unless we put up 40 threes and make half of them…something we have not done this season.
What makes florida so hard to beat is that they CRUSH teams inside
Lee and Fland had good games tonight. If they continue to do so, the Gators will be hard to beat.
Florida has the best front court in college basketball. They have 3 NBA players that are 4s and 5s. The only way we have a chance to win is if BG, Jelly, Moreno,and Mo all have good a good game. Or if our guards are hitting 3s. If we're not hitting our 3s we don't have a chance. In fact if we are not hitting our 3s we could easily get blown out. For some reason I think Mo has a good game. I also can see either Moreno or BG having a big game. Chandler, Oweh, and Aberdeen will need to combine for at least 50 points. Florida is the best team in the SEC. I think Kentucky is the second or third best team right now. You could switch around us with Texas A&M. I think the winner of the SEC will either be one of these 3 teams. I don't think Alabama will make much noise. Especially after that NBA player is now ineligible. They were playing good with him but since he stopped playing again they look bad. The only other two teams I could possibly are winning it is Arkansas or Tennessee and we swept Tennessee and beat Arkansas on the road. I think we end up 13-5 in the SEC. Either winning the SEC or tying for first with Florida. The Florida game is a huge game but I'm not saying it's a must win. If we lose we will have to win 5 of the last 6. If we lose we have to win 4 out of the next 6. Chandler or Aberdeen will go for over 20 points against Florida and Oweh will be Oweh and get his average at least.
If we continue to miss the amount of inside shots that we do and not defend the 3 as we often don't, we don't have a chance either. Will Pope ever be able to recruit a 5*?
Our recruiting has taken a hit from various reason the JLM contract that so call Barnhart sign with and in my opinion the way this season has unfolded begin with. That been said if the cats have strong SEC and NCAA showing all that may change. But were running out of time with some of the top recruits were in to get.
We will be 2 deep at every position next year. Why would a high school hot shot want to come to Kentucky and sit on the bench? If Pope can go to the portal and pick up a reserve point guard and big man who wants to play at Kentucky, we will be as good as we can hope to be.