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Florida basketball: Gators must refocus to get a win at Rupp

By Will Thomas

Feb 1, 2023; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators guard Kyle Lofton (11) celebrates after a basket against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 1, 2023; Gainesville, Florida, USA; Florida Gators guard Kyle Lofton (11) celebrates after a basket against the Tennessee Volunteers during the second half at Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Florida basketball got their biggest win of the season on Wednesday against the #2 ranked Tennessee Volunteers. 

The bad news is that the road doesn’t get much easier from here. Before the Gators go on the road to Alabama next week, they make a stop in Lexington this weekend to take on the surging Kentucky Wildcats.

Kentucky started the season off slow, but after they went to Knoxville and got their own win over the Vols, they’ve started to look like the Wildcats team we’re used to seeing under Calipari.

They’re 15-7 overall with a 6-3 record in the SEC. Kentucky is led by senior big man Oscar Tshiebwe, who has been terrorizing the SEC since he showed up.

The center is 6’9”-260 and just overpowers defenders down low. He’s averaging 16.5 points and 13.6 rebounds per game, which leads the nation.

Alongside Oscar, Kentucky has three other guys scoring in double figures. Antonio Reeves (13.4), Jacob Toppin (11.5), Carson Wallace (11.3). Both Reeves and Wallace shoot the three-ball better than 40%.

Reeves is coming off of the best game of his season against Ole Miss, where he scored 27 points and was 6-7 from deep. This matchup against Florida would be a great time for three-ball regression from him.

Perhaps the biggest factor going into this one is the environment and atmosphere. Rupp is always loud, but at 8:30 on a Saturday night will be a different animal, especially with how well the team has been playing.

Plus, all those folks have to watch the Gators beat Kentucky in football just about every year so they love watching us play a different sport.

There’s no reason to believe the Gators can’t go win this game though. They just dismantled Tennessee for 40 straight minutes. They can beat anybody.

The key to that win against the Vols was the Gators’ smothering defense. Nothing was easy for Tennessee, forcing them to take bad shots, commit turnovers, and disrupting their rhythm.

If the defense can travel to Lexington, the Gators can quickly take the air out of the crowd and play the game at their own pace.

It would be sweet to see Castleton take over a second game in a row too, especially in Lexington.

Keep up with Florida basketball at Hail Florida Hail.

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