Pay attention to this when Kentucky hosts the Florida Gators
The Florida Gators are heading to Rupp Arena, where the Kentucky Wildcats will look to complete the season sweep.
Kentucky opened SEC play with an 87-85 win over the Gators in Gainesville, and now they will have to make the trip to Lexington. Kentucky didn't have its best showing from deep in this game, only shooting 25%, but they did shoot 45.6% from the field, helping the Wildcats leave Florida with a hard-fought two-point win. The defense was the issue in this game, as it has been many times this season. Kentucky defended much better against Arkansas, so hopefully, this will continue against Florida.
The issue for Kentucky when they faced Florida in Gainesville was the second chance opportunities. The funny thing is the Gators only grabbed 11 offensive rebounds in this game, but they turned those into 16 second-chance points. The person causing the Wildcats issues on the glass was Micah Handlogten, who had six offensive boards and six total points. The seven-footer is coming off a game against Georgia, where he had 23 points and 17 rebounds. Seven of those boards were offensive. Kentucky needs to keep Handlogten off the glass to win this game.
Florida Head Coach Todd Golden had this to say about Handlogten's performance against Georgia, “No I didn’t, he played great. He’s clearly coming on and playing some of his best basketball. And what I think is really neat about Micah is if you go back to early on in the year, and I think as a casual fan or someone that watches us, he’d say ‘Man, this guy’s got really good potential, but he looks young out there, he’s getting out-physicaled in some games, whatever’ and then fast forward in the end of January, a guy that looks like he belongs now. You know, you don’t give Georgia a 23-and-17 unless you’re a dude, and he’s just played really, really well for us. I think this is by far the best week he’s had as a Gator, and the great thing for him is he’s just a great young man, and someone that pours into being coached and pours into practice, so I think he will just continue to get better and better and better. I don’t see any regression coming. A lot of his plays are off of effort and hustle, you know, he’s still fighting physicality around the rim, and, you know, when he plays like that, obviously it just gives us a huge lift. I’m proud of him.”
Florida is playing some good basketball right now, which could make this game closer than many expect.
