Notebook: Florida aiming for rare win in Rupp Arena at Kentucky
------
* McElwain discusses numerous position changes heading into spring football
* Injury Report: Seven Gators out for spring, three non-contact
* Spring Practice Roundtable: Starting Quarterback & Sink or Swim
* All 10 of our Class of 2017 Signing Class Reviews
* Anonymous Player: Breaking down the offense, playcalling
* Anonymous Player: Taking a closer look at the quarterbacks
* Anonymous Player: Florida football behind the scenes
* TOTAL ACCESS: 30 DAY FREE TRIAL
------
Since John Calipari took over as Kentucky’s head coach in 2009, the Gators haven’t had much success against the Wildcats in Lexington, Kentucky.
Florida is 1-6 against Kentucky in Rupp Arena since the 2009-10 season, with its lone win coming during the 2013-14 season when the Gators rode a 30-game winning streak to the Final Four. Since 2000, Florida has gone just 3-14 in Lexington, with two of those wins being earned by the back-to-back national championship squad in 2006 and 2007.
It’s safe to say winning in Lexington isn’t an easy task for any team. Under Calipari, Kentucky is 132-6 at home, but the Wildcats have been beatable at Rupp this year with losses to No. 5 UCLA and No. 3 Kansas.
“I can only make the assumption that it has a lot to do with just being more comfortable in their surroundings that they’re more used to and playing in front of an electric environment that we’re all very familiar with,” Florida head coach Mike White said. “It gets really loud in there. It’s a great college basketball atmosphere. I think everybody’s better at home, and places with the best environments, of course, have even extra advantages built into them.”
Added shooting guard KeVaughn Allen: "I feel like it's the loudest place to play in with a lot of Kentucky fans just cheering and yelling at you and cheering for them and it's kind of hard to hear. So I think I've got to be more aware and like be more focused to details and pay attention to what coach is calling."
For both No. 13 Florida and No. 11 Kentucky, the stakes are high Saturday, when they square off in a 2 p.m. ET matchup in Rupp Arena that’ll air on CBS. Both the Gators and Wildcats sit tied atop the SEC standings with a 13-2 conference record. The winner of Saturday’s contest could very well earn the regular-season league crown – and the No. 1 overall seed in the SEC Tournament.
After Saturday, Florida has contests at home against Arkansas and then at Vanderbilt left to play on the SEC slate, while Kentucky has Vanderbilt at home and Texas A&M on the road.
“Our guys, they’re on social media. They read the internet," White said. "I wish they’d read it less. They know it’s a big game, and it’d be a big game if Kentucky and Florida were both whatever, 10-6, it’d be a big game either way.
"It’s obviously got a lot of implications, but if we’re investing time and energy into those things, as opposed to transition defense and how we’re defending Malik Monk and Isaiah Briscoe and (De’Aaron) Fox, how we’re defending him in the paint, and defending (Bam) Adebayo in the post and those type things is just our game plan, then we’re doing ourselves a disservice.”
The Gators enter Saturday’s contest on a season-best nine-game winning streak, which includes an 88-66 win over Kentucky in the O’Connell Center on Feb. 4. Florida, which has won 16 of its past 18, hasn’t lost since Jan. 21, when the Gators fell at home to Vanderbilt 68-66. During that nine-game streak, Florida has defeated its opponents by an average of 20.9 points per game.
This season, Florida hasn’t lost a game by more than 10 points, with the most significant loss coming against Duke (84-74) in December at Madison Square Garden. The Gators have lost their other four games – Gonzaga (77-72), FSU (83-78), South Carolina (57-53) and Vanderbilt (68-66) - by five points or fewer.
However, the Gators have lost by an average margin of 11 points to Kentucky at Rupp during the Calipari era. Their two most recent losses in Lexington have been the most lopsided. During Billy Donovan’s final season with the Gators, Florida fell to Kentucky at Rupp Arena 67-50. In White’s first season on the job, Florida suffered its worst defeat to Kentucky in years, 80-61 on Feb. 6, 2016.
“Last year, boy, they took it to us,” White said. “We weren't very competitive. We didn't play with much poise. We were a different team of course. We hope to have a very different experience tomorrow, but we'll have to get off to a good start and we'll have to play well for that to happen. It's a great environment, and they're a very, very good team."
White knows the Gators have a challenge on their hands Saturday afternoon - and that it could go much differently than Florida's lopsided victory in both teams' last meeting.
“We’re not 22 points better than them. We know that,” explained White. “They’re very, very good. I think they’re playing well right now. They’re defending at a high level, that they’re tough, that they’re resilient. You’ve got a young group of guys that continue to get better. Some are logging heavy minutes and some of these guys are having great years. There’s a lot of expectation there, as there is at a lot of places, of course. Hats off to those guys for continuing to develop and get better.
“I mean, nothing just glaring. What’d we learn from that game? We played really well, that they’re really good, but it wasn’t a surprise. We’ll have to play awfully well to beat them at their place, of course. We know that.”
INJURY UPDATE
White said graduate transfer guard Canyon Barry (ankle) would play Saturday against Kentucky, but that he doesn’t know whether he’s at 100%. Barry played just nine minutes and went scoreless against South Carolina on Tuesday.
“He’s moving better than he did the other day, for sure,” White added.
Meanwhile, Florida’s frontcourt depth will continue to be thin, with freshman center Gorjok Gak (foot sprain) still out and John Egbunu out for the season with a torn ACL.
“Not going to happen. He didn’t go again today,” White said Friday of Gak. “Didn’t go yesterday. So hopefully we can get him back soon. He’s going through a bunch of rehab, of course, and he’s starting to go through some movement exercises and is just dealing with pain tolerance right now.”
------
Thank you for reading this Inside the Gators article. To discuss it, please visit the Alligator Alley Forum.