Florida’s undefeated season came to a close on Saturday as they went on the road at Rupp Arena to start SEC play against the Kentucky Wildcats where they fell by a score of 106-100. As you can tell from that number this game was a full-on shootout between two teams that can put the ball in the hoop but ultimately it was Kentucky who landed more blows late to come away with the win. In a lot of ways it was an impressive effort for the Gators just to stay in the contest given that the Wildcats had three separate 10-0 runs throughout the game which usually would be the recipe for a blowout. Instead the Gators continued to claw back to remain in touch but it was never enough in front of a raucous Kentucky crowd. With the loss the Gators fall to 13-1 on the season, and more importantly 0-1 in SEC play.
Defensive Struggles
Given that Florida played a softer non-conference schedule they haven’t played many offensive powers outside of a North Carolina team that largely gets their scoring done in isolation. Kentucky plays completely differently and moves the ball with all kinds of cutting and off-ball screening and the Gators were not prepared to guard to the level required to stop this attack. Not only did Kentucky score 106 points but they did it shooting 58% from the field and 48% from three while turning the ball over just 6 times, one of the most remarkable offensive performances that college basketball has seen this season. Koby Brea led the way with 23 points off the bench, but six Wildcats had 14 points or more meaning that Kentucky had all kinds of ways to beat the Gators. Florida hasn’t needed to make many adjustments defensively to this point in the season and they weren’t prepared to do it on the road at Kentucky and you’ll hope it’s a learning experience moving forward.
Backcourt Breakdown
It’s no surprise that Florida is led by their backcourt of Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin and against Kentucky you got to see their extreme highs as well as some of the deficiencies that have hurt them so far in their careers. On the positive side, Clayton matched his career high of 33 points with Martin just behind him at 26. On the negative side–both of these players struggled with turnovers combining for 7 which was more than Kentucky’s entire team, and many of them were loud mistakes that turned into layups on the other end. Kentucky had 20 points off turnovers to just 4 for Florida, and many of those points came off of Clayton and Martin’s mistakes. Defensively things did not go well for the duo either with Martin struggling to contain back cuts behind him and Clayton getting relentlessly attacked as a perimeter defender. If these two guards can clean up the turnovers and tighten things up on the defensive end they can be one of the best backcourts in the country as there aren’t many pairs that can score 59 points in a game, and they may have put the SEC on notice even though they weren’t able to come away with the win.
Bright Spot
An unlikely name came out and had his best game as a Gator with Washington transfer State Reuben Chinyelu playing a huge role in keeping Florida close in the first half. While both teams were feeling each other out Chinyelu asserted himself physically with a handful of offensive rebounds (he finished with 5) which turned into easy putbacks at a time the Gators needed points. Defensively he also had 2 gigantic blocks when Kentucky players tried to dunk on him which not only took points off the board but fired up his teammates. Florida’s coaching staff has been loving the work Chinyelu has put in though it hadn’t yet turned into a lot of production but it came together against Kentucky with what was likely the best game of his career and he did it against a team with legit size in the frontcourt. If you’re looking for a positive take away from a Florida standpoint it certainly could be the play of Chinyelu.
Final Thoughts
This game looked a whole lot like a team playing at home who has already tested themselves against some of the best teams in the country against a road team who has played a softer schedule and hasn’t yet learned to take a big punch at the highest level of the sport. A performance like this was probably coming for the Gators at some point after the way their non-conference schedule unfolded and it was impressive for them to keep this game a lot closer than it could have been. Florida will be happy with the scoring power of Walter Clayton and Alijah Martin, and they’ll also be thrilled with the way Reuben Chinyelu stepped up. However, they’ll also have major issues with the defense and turnover issues and that will be something they’ll need to address before taking on Tennessee–a team that many have argued is the best in the country.
Eric, I didn’t really think turnovers was an issue.
I don’t have the exact numbers but to only have 8 turnovers in a game with that many possessions was pretty clean.
Now the fact that they got 20 points off those 8 turnovers was not great.
This was an incredibly high level bball game that I was impressed with both sides.
I just thought that UK shot unbelievably well (ultimately being the difference) I know they shot at an incredibly high percentage but most of the shots were contested.
The only thing that disappointed me was our FT percentage, which could have been a difference maker and made this game even closer.
Playing this game at Rupp was at least a 10 point advantage and it just sucks that we won’t be able to play them at home because I think it would be a difference maker.