No. 10 Kentucky handed the No. 6 Florida Gators their first loss of the season on Saturday. The drama was ramped up when Kentucky’s Koby Brea put on a show from behind the three-point line.
Ending with a score of 106-100, Florida’s game plan seemed to not be as effective as in its previous games. Florida’s winning strategy had some flaws, showing that they were not as invincible as previously thought.
Flaw In Previously Successful Strategy For Florida Gators
As the Florida Gators had shown, their game is highly successful when they dominate the boards and hold opponents down on scoring. In fact, the key to their offense is achieved by dominating the glass which leads to scoring an average of 20 points per game in transition. The rebounding game was to their advantage on Saturday night, but their impeccable defense had holes. In fact, Kentucky’s overall shooting had done what other opponents were unable to achieve.
Florida Gators’ Defense Was Missing In Action
Koby Brea put on a shooting clinic off the bench for Kentucky Wildcats’ fans by scoring 23 points, including seven 3-pointers. In 22 minutes of action, he shot 8-of-11 overall.
Kentucky coach, Mark Pope had a lot to say after the game including praise for Brea.
“He was magical tonight, wasn’t he? And I don’t know, you’re hard-pressed to make a real cogent argument that he’s not the best shooter in the country. He just — it’s ridiculous.”
Kentucky Coach Mark Pope
The game was far from a blowout by any means. With 4:40 remaining in the game, Walter Clayton Jr cut Kentucky’s lead to 89-87 with free throws. But they couldn’t muster enough to take back the lead. The only lead that the Gators had held was 20-11 early in the game when they were outrebounding Kentucky 12-2. Further proof that the key to Florida’s winning ways is domination when it comes to rebounds.
Pope seemed to enjoy the suspense of the game on Saturday night. Speaking to the press following the game he was quoted as saying,
“If you guys didn’t have fun tonight, you should quit right now and find a new job,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “That was just an elite level physicality, bloodbath, competitive, just incredible performance after incredible performance going down the line, a great game and it’s just like, how fun is this SEC league going to be? I mean … it’s incredible.”
Clayton ended the game with 33 points. Florida’s Alijah Martin finished the game with 26 points. Twenty of those points came in the second half when Florida attempted to rally to regain the lead.
For Kentucky, Butler finished with 19 points and eight assists. The Kentucky shooting clinic left six players in double digits.
Lessons Learned
The game highlighted why when you have two elite teams, mistakes are the downfall. Fans should assume that the Gators will be returning to their winning ways because the rebounding advantage will clearly be on their side. In the Gators’ previous four games, they had held opponents to 20% shooting from behind the arc. Putting that into perspective, the other teams were averaging just five three-pointers per game.
In Saturday’s game, Kentucky shot 48% and made 14 three-pointers.
Florida had held its previous four opponents to 20% shooting on 3-pointers, giving up about five 3s per game. Allowing Kentucky to shoot 48% from the field cost the Gators the game.
Coach Stan Van Gundy is considered one of the best to ever coach the game of basketball. His words seem to put into perspective what the Florida Gators already knew and received a crash course reminder on Saturday night.
If you defend, rebound and limit turnovers, you’re going to put yourself in a position where you can win games.
Stan Van Gundy
Both teams play their next game Tuesday night. Florida will host top-ranked Tennessee while Kentucky faces the Georgia Bulldogs on the road.
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