Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 78-57 win over Florida
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Game day: No. 5 Kentucky 78, Florida 57
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s game between Kentucky and Florida in Rupp Arena.
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Five things you need to know from the No. 5 Kentucky Wildcats’ 78-57 win over the Florida Gators in an SEC men’s basketball game at Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington:
1. Another backcourt injury. Once Kentucky got rolling following the early-season losses to Duke and at Notre Dame, about the only thing that has been able to slow the Wildcats down has been injuries to starting guards.
Unfortunately for the Cats, such injuries keep happening.
With 12:51 left in the game, Kentucky star freshman TyTy Washington got tangled up with Florida’s Brandon McKissic and went to the floor in a scramble for a loose ball.
Washington got up from the play emphatically limping and left the court.
He did not return.
After the game, Kentucky Coach John Calipari said Washington had suffered “a lower-left-leg injury” and that he did not know how long the freshman would be out.
Previously this season, UK lost starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler to a neck injury when he blindly ran into an LSU pick at full speed.
Without its floor general, Kentucky went on to lose at Baton Rouge and Wheeler missed the two subsequent games.
Meanwhile, the Cats lost Washington to an ankle injury in the first half at Auburn. Up nine points at the time, UK went on to lose.
Washington missed the next game, vs. Mississippi State, as well.
With a big matchup at No. 19 Tennessee on Tuesday night, Washington does not have much time to recover from his latest injury vs. Florida.
2. Sahvir’s shot. News flash: Sahvir Wheeler hit four of seven shots and scored nine points with six assists in 27 minutes.
That may not seem all that noteworthy, except that the UK point guard entered the game having not made a field goal in three straight games. Wheeler had not seen the ball go through the hoop since going 3-for-7 in UK’s 80-62 beat down of Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse.
The transfer from Georgia had been 0-for-5 at South Carolina, 0-for-4 at Alabama and 0-of-8 vs. Vanderbilt.
Against Florida, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound junior got the suspense over early, as he rolled in a three-point shot only 3:05 into game action.
Kentucky doesn’t need the dynamic Wheeler to be Steph Curry, of course. But it does need him to hit enough shots to keep defenses from sagging off of him.
Wheeler got back to that Saturday.
3. “Oscar Worthy.” Oscar Tshiebwe did a fine job Saturday of backing up the National Player of the Year campaign UK has launched for him.
The 6-9, 255-pound West Virginia transfer went for 27 points and 19 rebounds.
It was his seventh straight points/rebounds double-double and 19th of the season.
Tshiebwe made 11 of 18 shots, five of six free throws and also had two assists and three steals.
One runs out of superlatives for the level of season Tshiebwe is producing.
4. A mystery guest at power forward. Fueling Kentucky’s recent surge has been strong play from the power forward position.
That continued Saturday from an unexpected source.
With Keion Brooks having a quiet game (two points, one rebound in 25 minutes) and Jacob Toppin unavailable due to an ankle injury, UK Coach John Calipari gave Lance Ware some run at the “four spot.”
Normally UK’s backup center, the 6-9, 225-pound Ware contributed four points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes.
Kentucky was plus-16 with Ware on the court.
5. Cats vs. SEC coaches. With the Kentucky victory, Florida Coach Mike White saw his record vs. the Wildcats drop to 4-9. That leaves White with the fourth-highest win total against UK of any active SEC head man.
The record of all current SEC head coaches vs. Kentucky (descending in order of total wins vs. UK):
Bruce Pearl, Auburn 10-16 (6-7 at Auburn; 4-9 at Tennessee).
Rick Barnes, Tennessee 9-9 (8-7 at UT; 0-1 at Texas; 1-1 at Clemson).
Tom Crean, Georgia 5-8 (1-4 at Georgia; 2-4 at Indiana; 2-0 at Marquette).
Mike White, Florida 4-9.
Cuonzo Martin, Missouri 3-8 (2-4 at Mizzou; 1-4 at Tennessee).
Frank Martin, South Carolina 3-9 (3-8 at South Carolina; 0-1 at Kansas State).
Nate Oats, Alabama 2-3.
Will Wade, LSU 2-3.
Ben Howland, Mississippi State 2-9 (1-8 at Miss State; 1-1 at UCLA).
Eric Musselman, Arkansas 1-1.
Kermit Davis Jr., Mississippi 1-2.
Buzz Williams, Texas A&M 0-3 (0-2 at A&M, 0-1 at Virginia Tech).
Jerry Stackhouse, Vanderbilt 0-6.
This story was originally published February 12, 2022 at 6:20 PM.
