First Scouting Report: Can Kentucky deliver Florida some Rupp Arena payback?
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Game day: No. 5 Kentucky 86, South Carolina 76
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s game between Kentucky and South Carolina at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 5 Kentucky (20-4, 9-2 SEC) will face Florida (15-8, 5-5 SEC) on Saturday at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center (capacity 20,545) in downtown Lexington.
The SEC game will tip off at 4 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by ESPN.
Before coming to Lexington, Coach Mike White’s Gators will face Georgia (6-17, 1-9 SEC) on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. (EST) in Gainesville in a game to be telecast by the SEC Network.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Florida 105-41 and has won five of the past six meetings.
Most recent meeting
Florida star Tre Mann scored 21 points and claimed eight rebounds to lead the Gators to a 71-67 victory over Kentucky on Feb. 27, 2021, at Rupp Arena.
Power rankings
Through Monday’s games, the NCAA’s NET Rankings had Kentucky No. 4 and Florida No. 44.
The Kenpom Rankings rated UK No. 2 and Florida No. 49.
Kentucky stood No. 6 in the Sagarin Ratings with Florida No. 34.
Know your foe
1. Florida Coach Mike White has relied heavily on the transfer portal in his roster construction. Of the Gators’ top six scorers, all are transfers:
Colin Castleton (15.5 ppg, 8;9 rpg) came from Michigan; Tyree Appleby (10.8 ppg, 4 apg) from Cleveland State; Philandrous Fleming (10.5 ppg, 4 rpg) from Charleston Southern; Anthony Duruji (9.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg) from Louisiana State; Myreon Jones (8.9 ppg, 3 rpg) from Penn State; and Brandon McKissic (6.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg) from Missouri-Kansas City.
2. The Gators are not an especially-skilled team, offensively.
Florida is making only 42.7 percent of its field-goal tries, 30.5 percent on three-point tries. Florida has committed more turnovers (300) than it has doled out assists (296).
Interestingly for a team with a winning record, Florida is being outshot by opponents 43.5 percent to 42.7 on field goals and 31.4 percent to 30.5 percent on three-point tries.
3. In 12 meetings with Kentucky, Mike White is 4-8 against the Wildcats. White has two wins over Kentucky in Rupp Arena, in 2017-18 and last season.
This story was originally published February 8, 2022 at 9:18 PM.
