‘It was terrible.’ Florida is more physical than UK, again, in SEC Tournament
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Florida outrebounded Kentucky by 21 in Friday’s SEC Tournament win by the Gators.
- Florida also enjoyed a 21-8 second-chance points advantage over the Wildcats.
- UK will enter the NCAA Tournament with a 21-13 overall record.
Much was familiar about the way UK basketball’s time in the SEC Tournament came to an end.
This was true in both the macro and micro.
For the third time this season, Kentucky lost to Florida. Todd Golden’s Gators — the SEC regular season champions and the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament — sent 9 seed UK home with a 71-63 win in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinal matchup.
As was the case in the two prior meetings between the teams this season, the Cats didn’t lead for a single second. Similarly, UK whittled a sizable Florida lead down to single digits in the closing seconds, but a late Kentucky rally wasn’t enough to flip the outcome.
Most concerningly for Mark Pope, Florida once again outmuscled Kentucky on its way to victory.
The Gators enjoyed robust advantages in numbers tied to physicality, especially on the glass: rebounds (50-29), offensive rebounds (18-8) and second-chance points (21-8). Florida outscored Kentucky in the paint 30-28.
“We got beat up on the glass in a massive way,” Pope said. “We were in some foul trouble, trying to manage some foul issues. We ended up being small. Even when we were big, it was hard for us on the glass. Credit Florida for that. They did a tremendous job on the glass.”
Florida’s plus-21 rebounding margin was the worst rebounding discrepancy of Pope’s two-season UK tenure.
It was the third time this season the Gators out-toughed the Cats.
When the teams met for the first time Feb. 14 in Gainesville, the Gators won 92-83. That victory saw Golden’s group claim a 46-37 rebounding edge and a 13-10 gap in second-chance points.
Less than a week ago, Florida spoiled Kentucky’s Senior Day with an 84-77 win at Rupp Arena. In that game, Florida outrebounded Kentucky by a 41-40 margin. Still, the Gators enjoyed advantages in second-chance points (16-14) and points in the paint (38-32).
Florida had its most pronounced advantages in those categories Friday. It means Kentucky will enter next week’s NCAA Tournament following one of its most dispiriting physical showings of the season.
UK has now been outrebounded in four straight games.
“Physicality is not really a game plan. It’s either you are or you’re not,” UK sophomore forward Andrija Jelavic said. “... (Florida was) better positioned, they were attacking the glass all the time and they just took those rebounds, sometimes two, three in a row.”
Some rebounding challenges are specific to Florida’s play style, centered around an imposing starting front line: Junior forwards Thomas Haugh (6-foot-9) and Alex Condon (6-11), along with junior center Rueben Chinyelu (6-10), combined for 28 rebounds. That’s one fewer than UK had as a team.
On top of this, the Gators aggressively crash the glass from the outside.
“They’re not, like, the classic rebounding team. They’re going to get rebounds from the 3-point line, from the outside,” Jelavic said. “The two bigs are already in the paint, always, so it’s hard to sometimes push them out. You need to jump high and try to get the ball. But we didn’t succeed today. It was terrible.”
To Jelavic’s point, the Gators totaled 13 second-chance points solely following misses from 3-point range. That’s more second-chance points than Kentucky had as a team.
That also provided a critical source of offense for the Gators on a day they went just 3 for 20 from beyond the arc.
“I mean, Florida’s Florida. Anybody who watches college basketball has seen they’re big, they rebound, they’re physical,” UK sophomore guard Collin Chandler said. “We forced 17 missed 3-pointers that are long shots, long rebounds. A lot of their offensive rebounds came from balls getting sprayed off the rim and getting tip-outs and things like that. So I think we can do a better job with that.”
Can the Cats use this experience as a growing moment?
That’s the big question with only the single-elimination national postseason ahead.
“We’ve seen everything so far... A lot of losses we’ve had, we learned good lessons from those losses,” UK junior forward Mo Dioubate said. “And no one has been battled tested like us. We had a lot of ups and downs. We know what it feels like to lose in different ways. So going into this tournament, it’s gonna help us a lot.”
