Wildcats and Gators Renew Hostilities in Gainesville: Kentucky at Florida

Kentucky Wildcats at Florida Gators, O’Connell Center, Gainesville, FL
Saturday, February 5, 2011, 9:00 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN
Opening Line: Kentucky -1 1/2
Current Line: Kentucky -1
Opening Total: 132
Current Total: 134 1/2
Money Line: Kentucky -120 / Florida -100

The Kentucky Wildcats are a slight road favorite at the Florida Gators Saturday night.

Kentucky is ranked #11 in the country with a 16-5 record overall and 4-3 in the SEC. The Wildcats go on the road to take on the #23 Florida Gators who are 17-5 overall and 6-2 in conference. Kentucky has losses to Connecticut, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Ole Miss. All were on the road or at a neutral location including a 71-69 loss in Oxford Tuesday night against Mississippi. Kentucky has wins over Oklahoma, Washington, Notre Dame, Indiana, Louisville, Penn, Auburn, LSU, South Carolina, and Georgia. Florida has losses to Ohio St, Central Florida, Jacksonville, South Carolina, and Mississippi St. The Gators have wins over Florida St, Kansas St, Xavier, Rhode Island, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn, Arkansas, Georgia, and Vanderbilt. The Gators won at home versus Vanderbilt Tuesday in overtime 65-61. Kentucky leads the all-time series against Florida 88-32. Kentucky swept the series last year, but Florida has won 8 of the last 12 meetings. Kentucky is 3-1 straight up in the last four but Florida has covered 3 of those 4 games. Three of those Four have gone under the total as well. Florida is 2-8 ATS at home this year.

Kentucky is outscoring opponents 78-62 on the season. Kentucky is a very young team with 5 freshmen among the 10 players on the roster. Four Wildcats score in double figures. Freshman forward Terrance Jones leads the team in scoring with 17.9 ppg, rebounds with 9.0 a game, and blocks with 1.9 a game. He also averages 1.6 assists and 1.3 steals a game. Point guard Brandon Knight is also a freshman and scores 17.2 ppg, averages 4.1 rebounds and leads the team in assists with 3.8 a game. Freshman shooting guard Doron Lamb is averaging 14.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 2.2 assists a game. Darius Miller averages 10 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 blocks a game. Junior Guard DeAndre Liggins averages 8.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and leads the team in steals with 1.4 a game. Josh Harrellson is averaging 9 rebounds and 1.7 blocks a game. Kentucky is shooting 45.9% from the field and 39.9% from 3 point range. The Wildcats are holding opponents to 38.1% shooting from the field. The Wildcats are shooting 69.9% from the free throw line. Kentucky averages 39.5 rebounds a game and have a rebounding margin of +5.4. The Wildcats are averaging 13 assists and 11.4 turnovers a game. They force 13 turnovers a game on defense. Kentucky averages 5.9 steals and 6.7 blocks a game.

Florida has no significant injuries right now. The Gators are led by guard Erving Walker. He is averaging 14.5 points to lead the team, 3.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals a game to lead the team. He is shooting 38.3% from 3-point range. Guard Kenny Boynton is averaging 13 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 2.5 assists a game. Center Vernon Macklin is averaging 11.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, and leads the team in blocks with 1 a game. He struggles from the free throw line converting only 22 out of 57 on the year, or 38.6%. Forward Chandler Parsons averages 10.7 points, 7.5 rebounds to lead the team, 3.5 assists a game and 1.1 steals a game. Florida is outscoring opponents 71-62 on the season. The Gators are shooting 45.4% from the field and 33.6% from 3-point range. Gator opponents are shooting 41.1% from the field. The Gators shoot 64.9% from the free throw line. Florida averages 39.1 rebounds a game and has a rebounding margin of +7.0. They average 14 assists and 12.7 turnovers a game. The Gators force 13 turnovers a game on defense. Florida averages 6.2 steals and 4.1 blocks a game.

This is a very important match-up for both teams. Both will probably make the NCAA tournament but a win here will improve their resume and help their seeds as well. The two coaches, Kentucky’s John Calipari and Florida’s Billy Donovan don’t really like each other that much. This should be a pretty physical game. Both rebound and play defense very well. It should be close game that goes down to the wire. One interesting thing is Kentucky struggles on the road but Florida has lost 3 games at home.