Kentucky point guard Denzel Aberdeen helped the Gators win a national title last season. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky has a chance to grab a share of the Southeastern Conference lead if it can win at Florida Saturday afternoon. Problem is beating the defending national champion is a lot easier said than done.
Florida is playing as well — or maybe better — than any team in the country and has crushed Alabama, Texas A&M and Georgia in its last three games and won by a combined 62 points.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope certainly understands the various issues that the Gators present for his team — or any team in the country at this point
Florida might have the best frontline in the nation.
SEC Player of the Year candidate Thomas Haugh averages 17.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steals per game. Forward Alex Condon adds 13.3 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.5 blocks per game. If that’s not enough, center Rueben Chinyelu adds 10.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game and could be the SEC’s most physical player.
“I don’t know if they’re the biggest frontline in the country, but they’re definitely the most experienced and tenured and have the most winning under their belts,” Pope said Thursday. “They know exactly who they are. They know exactly how they do this. They’re a dominant force.
“What they’ve done the last several weeks in the league has been really impressive, just the margin of victory. They’re really dominating opponents, and they do it with this frontline. This frontline is deep, big and physically imposing, so it’s a challenge for everybody. It’s going to be a great challenge for us.”
As good as Florida’s terrific trio has been, the backcourt improvement has been a big reason for Florida’s dominant play recently. The Gators lost all their top guards off the national championship team but Xaivian Lee and Boogie Fland were Florida’s top scorers in the 86-66 win at Georgia Wednesday.
Fland, an Arkansas transfer, had 15 points, three rebounds and two steals against Georgia and is averaging 11.4 points, 3.8 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. Lee had 18 points, seven assists and three steals against Georgia. He averages 11 points, 3.5 assists and 1.2 seals per game.
“Their backcourt is playing better. They’re feeling more comfortable. So I think they’re contributing more. I think they’re growing into what they’re doing, too,” Pope said about Florida’s guards. “For both those kids coming in new to this Florida frontline, I don’t know anything about the ins and outs of their program, but just from a distance, I might speculate that it would take that backcourt time to understand what they had, because what they have is really unique. I think it would be understandable if it’s taken some time. I don’t know if it has or not, that would be for them to say, but they’re really talented players, and they’re playing better.”
The numbers show Florida’s dominance. The Gators are the nation’s No. 1 team in rebounding margin and rebounding average and offensive rebounding. They are fourth nationally in defensive rebounding margin.
If that’s not enough, Florida is fifth in defensive efficiency, 12th in scoring margin, 14th in offensive efficiency, 20th in scoring offense, 23rd in free throw attempts and 30th in defensive field goal percentage.
5 Responses
The only way we have a chance in this game is if we are hitting our 3s.
You're right Terry. We need to take them and make them early and throughout the game. Rebounding dominance doesn't mean as much when you are making your shots. I just hope that Aberdeen doesn't go straight into hero mode trying to prove a point. Fast, crisp passing will negate height if it is done by all and could be the edge that we will need in Gainesville to get a W.
Calipari just picked up 5* UK target Jordan Smith. Hey Mark….is you recruiting still in great shape like you said few weeks ago?
If you really think about it. In two recruiting classes Pope has gotten basically 5 kids from Kentucky Collin Chandler from Utah who was basically already committed to Pope and Jelly from Croatia. Perry, Noah, Moreno, Johnson and Hawthorne(west Virginia, Kentucky border where most of the people in west Virginia are Kentucky fans.) Hawthorne grew up a Kentucky fan. So that's 5 recruits from Kentucky. Potter is also from Lexington Kentucky. So that's 6 out of the 11 players that are left on the roster. I'm not including Kam Williams Jaland Lowe and JQ all 3 of them will be out for the year. So over half of the team are Kentucky boys that are left. This is what makes me worry is that its hard for Pope to recruiit players who weren't a Kentucky fan growing up. Mo-D also grew up a Kentucky fan up in New York City. So it seems like most of the players on this team didn't come for the money. They came for the name on the front of the jersey. That is what a handful of Kentucky fans wanted. Now you got what you wanted let's see what this Kentucky team does. Nowadays it's very rare for kids to sign with there state schools as much but Pope has cleaned house in the state of Kentucky. Cal would get the best player in Kentucky every 2-3 years when someone in Kentucky was a high ranked recruit like Reed Sheppard. The #1 player in this years class is from Louisville Kentucky Tyran Stokes. We didn't get Kinney who is a top 15 recruit and is a higher ranked recruit then any of the other kids from Kentucky who signed with us. If Pope can get Stokes a Louisville Kentucky kid I will be very happy. I still think we have a chance to get him. He will make our team next year go from very good with returning players to great. He can come in as a freshman and average more than Oweh did this year as a senior. I think Stokes will be a 20-24 ppg. Type of freshman season. He is considered already better than most of the outstanding freshman class that is playing this year.
Florida if im not mistaken scored 70 + points against Alabama in the paint. Could be tough to stop that.
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