Gators Drop in Latest AP Top 25 After Loss to Kentucky

The Florida Gators took their first loss of the season, and it was reflected in the latest AP Top 25

The Gators drop a few spots in the rankings after taking their first loss of the season / Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Gainesville, Fla. — Following their loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday, the Florida Gators men’s basketball team has dropped two spots to No. 8 in the newest update for the AP Top 25. 

They only played this one game since last Monday, and it was an important one that they let slip away, losing 106-100 to the Wildcats. 

Much of the loss boils down to the poor defense on display, turnovers and an inefficient day from the charity stripe. 

Florida’s defense surrendered 14 three-pointers to Kentucky. Additionally, half of them came from just one player. Wildcat guard Koby Brea was 7-of-9 from deep in this contest. 

For the turnovers, they only committed nine of them. The more damaging thing about the turnovers was the points scored off of them, and Kentucky scored 20 points off of these turnovers. 

That brings us to their final infraction. Their free throw shooting. They shot 63% from the line, missing 13 free throws against the Wildcats. If you add just half of them back, then Florida is going to overtime. It makes it even worse considering that eight of the misses came from star players Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin. Both of these guys are too good of free-throw shooters to be missing that many. 

Luckily, they’ll have a chance to rebound from this loss very quickly as they take on the Tennessee Volunteers, the number one team in the country, at home on Tuesday. Then, following their game against Tennessee, they’ll travel to Fayetteville on Saturday to face off against the Arkansas Razorbacks