In battle of SEC basketball royalty, Kentucky’s a blue-blood, but Florida looks like a champion
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GAINESVILLE — Florida beat Kentucky 92-83 on Saturday in a thrilling battle between the top 2 teams in the SEC standings and 2 of the top 10 winningest programs in college basketball this century.
Florida never trailed, but the game never felt out of Kentucky’s reach.
Kentucky fell into another big hole (trailing by 15 points midway through the first half) but showed the comeback mettle that’s becoming its trademark, clawing its way back within 2 at 43-41 early in the second half behind runs of 10-0 and 7-0, both of which kept the electric Exactech Arena crowd of 11,230 on edge. In fact, Kentucky’s 10-0 run was just the third such kill shot (10-0 run or more) that Florida’s surrendered all season, the second fewest among Power 5 teams (Arizona).
Denzel Aberdeen was steady for Kentucky, scoring 19 points and adding 4 assists in his return to Gainesville, where he played a critical role off the bench helping the Gators win their third national championship a season ago. Collin Chandler, a vital player in Kentucky’s season turnaround, was marvelous, knocking down a career high 5 3-pointers on 7 attempts and scoring 18 points in one of the toughest road environments in college basketball.
“I thought (Chandler) had a terrific performance tonight,” Mark Pope said in his postgame press conference. “I thought it was just a little bit sticky the first few minutes, but I thought he was — I mean, he’s elite. You know, his numbers are impressive, and he’s making hard shots for us.”
After searching for answers beyond Aberdeen and All-SEC wing Otega Oweh (13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals), Chandler’s shot-making and ability as a cutter has given Kentucky a consistent third scoring option, making it easier for the Wildcats to space the floor and attack defenses.
The Wildcats battled Florida’s vaunted frontcourt to a stalemate inside, too, tying the Gators at 36 points in the paint.
When the 2 teams meet again in Rupp Arena on March 7, perhaps the end result will be different. The prospect of a third meeting, in the SEC Tournament, feels reasonable.
But if Kentucky’s pluck and grit made the latest edition of this SEC rivalry a game, it was the Gators who played and fought with the poise of a champion.
The Gators weathered every Kentucky counterpunch, playing with the type of inside-out balance that has defined their current 5-game winning streak.
Kentucky asked hard questions of the Gators. Florida had every answer.
Need a big bucket inside to halt an opposing run?
Tommy Haugh delivered, converting a driving layup for an old-fashioned 3-point play to extend Florida’s lead to 46-41to stop the bleeding.
Need a leader to dive on the floor for loose balls, funnel your offense through, and win physical battles on the glass throughout the second half?
No one in the SEC fits that bill better than Alex Condon, whose relentless motor wore Kentucky’s frontcourt down late, posting a double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds) and helping the Gators out-rebound the Wildcats 25-17 in the second half,
Need perimeter jump shots to swing momentum and eventually, deliver the dagger?
Urban Klavžar is your huckleberry, matching Chander with 5 3-point makes and helping the Gators halt charge after charge from the gritty Cats in the second half.
Need quality minutes off the bench when your big man, Rueben Chinyelu, fights foul trouble? Enter Micah Handlogten, whose traditional box score reads 2 points, 5 rebounds but who led the game with a plus-14 box plus-minus.
Need a guard to keep defenses from sagging into the post to swallow up Florida’s paint offense?
Xaivian Lee capped his best week as a Gator with a 22-point, 3 assist, efficient (7-for-12 shooting) masterpiece, driving the ball so well off Florida’s zoom actions that Kentucky was forced to adjust its ball screen coverages in the middle of the first half. Lee’s splendid Saturday comes days after an 18-point, 7-assist effort in a 20-point win at Georgia.
“Yeah, I mean, he’s playing great, right?” Todd Golden said of Lee following the victory.
“I mean, he was fantastic at Georgia, he was great at Vanderbilt. He’s stacked some really good games over the last couple of weeks, and I thought he was fantastic today. Just got off to a great start knocking shots down. He did a really good job of playing with great patience in the paint, playing off two, making good decisions. And he gave us a big lift. Obviously, him and Urby shooting the ball the way they did allowed us to win the game the way we did today.”
It’s the kind of week Florida’s been waiting for from Lee since it paid top dollar for him in the portal last spring.
It’s also the latest sign that after a sluggish 5-4 start, the Gators are every bit good enough to return to the Final Four and compete for another national championship.
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This Florida team isn’t just a team with the best frontcourt in college basketball, though the Gators are that, too.
It’s a team with emerging backcourt scoring power, a trio of reliable bench players who know and embrace their roles, and a coaching staff that wins at the margins and instills confidence and belief as cultural touchstones.
Golden’s culture of belief has turned Florida back into one of the best programs in the sport in just 4 short years, waking up the echoes of the Donovan era and serving as a reminder that it isn’t just Kentucky in the SEC with a storied basketball history.
Sure, Kentucky is the bluest of the blue-bloods, with the best winning percentage in the history of the sport, the second most NCAA Tournament wins all time, and 8 national championships. To Kentucky fans, almost everyone else, save North Carolina, Duke, Kansas, and perhaps 1 or 2 others, feels like “new money.”
The Gators, though, aren’t interested in how Kentucky fans feel.
Their program stands on its own laurels, and those laurels and the facts that accompany them suggest Florida is the SEC’s most successful basketball program this century.
Florida ranks top 10 nationally in wins and top 5 in NCAA Tournament win percentage this century and leads the SEC with 5 Final Four appearances this century. The Gators have been to 9 Elite Eights in the last 25 years. They’ve won 5 of the last 20 SEC Tournaments. And those 3 national championships? That’s 2 more than the other 15 programs in the SEC combined and more than any program in college basketball this century save UConn (Duke and North Carolina also have 3 national titles this century). As for Kentucky’s 8 national titles? Well, those banners aren’t going anywhere, and Rupp has majestic ghosts, but Florida is just 1 national title behind Kentucky since college basketball became fully integrated.
Kentucky’s a blue blood and Florida’s a football school. These things are true.
But as the reigning champs reminded everyone Saturday leading a scrappy Kentucky team with a $22 million roster wire to wire, things can and often are 2 things.
Kentucky’s a blue-blood, but Florida’s basketball royalty, too.
The Gators just needed Todd Golden and his relentless team to wake up the echoes.
“We had to earn it when we got the job here in terms of getting kind of the excitement back in the O’Dome,” Golden said of the program he inherited from Mike White, who won consistently enough to get to the NCAA Tournament constantly and reached an Elite Eight in 2017 but never matched the halcyon heights of the Donovan era. Those lofty expectations caused White to flee for Georgia. Golden’s embraced them, endearing himself to a demanding but admiring Florida fan base in the process.
“The expectations are why Florida is a great place,” Golden said Saturday. “People really appreciate winning, and they want to be a part of it. They want to be around it. And they’ve shown up for us in a big way.”
The Gators keep showing up, too. One convincing win at a time. A new Golden era.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
