Kentucky Completes Regular Season at Florida on Saturday
Kentucky head coach John Calipari has never made any secret of the fact that he is always preparing his teams to play in the NCAA Tournament. This year’s team is no different.
Saturday’s game at Florida will be the next, and final, step in Kentucky’s preparation for the postseason. Head coach John Calipari has prepped the Cats all season for what’s ahead of them over the next few weeks.
“All I’m saying to my team – everything I’ve done all year is to prepare you for March,” Calipari said. “You won’t believe this – we’re in March right now. Let’s see what happens.”
Kentucky has won the last three games at Florida and the Cats have beaten the Gators in six of the last seven meetings between the schools. Saturday’s game will be the second meeting this season between the teams. In the first, Kentucky used a big second half to blow open a close game and win 78-57 at Rupp Arena on Feb. 12. Oscar Tshiebwe had 27 points and 19 rebounds for the Cats in the win, while Grady had 15 points.
Calipari knows that Florida head coach Mike White will have his team prepared for the rematch with the Cats.
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| Kentucky at Florida | ||
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Sat., March 4 – 7:00 p.m. ET |
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TV: CBS |
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| UK | Stats | UF |
| 24-6 | Record | 19-11 |
| 13-4 | Conference Record | 9-8 |
| 80.4 | PPG | 70.7 |
| 65.8 | Opp PPG | 65.4 |
| .488 | FG% | .429 |
| .410 | Opp FG% | .436 |
| 40.4 | RPG | 33.3 |
| .358 | 3PT FG% | .316 |
| .303 | Opp 3PT FG% | .322 |
| 16.3 | APG | 12.9 |
| 7.0 | SPG | 8.2 |
| 4.1 | BPG | 5.4 |
“Hard game down there. Always is a hard game,” Calipari said. “Mike’s done a great job with this team. They’re going to be prepared. The things we hurt them with up here, I promise we won’t hurt them down there. Believe me, they watch tape, too.”
According to the experts, Florida is sitting firmly on the bubble to make the NCAA Tournament at this point. UK guard Kellan Grady knows this but hopes that he and the Cats don’t get caught up in it.
“We all understand that. They’re probably a brink bubble team. They may have a bid right now, they may not,” Grady said. “A win against a team like us would probably solidify their spot. But at the end of the day, it’s our next game, it’s a road game, it’s the season finale for the whole SEC, so everybody’s going to give each team their best shot and we expect no less, especially since we’re coming to town. We can’t get lost in that. We have to go out and execute our game plan and be ready for a challenging road game.”
While Kentucky has not been quite as dominant on defense lately, Calipari is not as worried about that as one might think.
“The teams we’re playing are really good, which is why I come back to 75 to 80 points,” Calipari said. “You score 75 to 80, even if we struggle some defensively, that should be enough. The whole point of this is winning.”
Grady said slight mistakes may have caused some defensive miscues.
“I think the biggest thing is that we’ve had some lapses with scouting and being assignment-sound,” Grady said. “But I think ultimately, we’ve guarded at critical times well enough and that’s why we’ve been able to win three of our last four. But those are things that we’ve addressed and that we’ve got to clean up.”
Getting those issues fixed will be just the latest step in getting the Cats ready for the postseason, which, believe it or not, is nearly here.
Last Time Out: Hot-Shooting Cats Top Rebels in Home Finale
Oscar Tshiebwe had 18 points and 15 rebounds, Sahvir Wheeler added 16 points and seven assists, and No. 7 Kentucky shot 60% before holding off Ole Miss 83-72 in its home finale Tuesday night.
Kentucky (24-6, 13-4 Southeastern Conference) took control after four minutes behind hot shooting, hitting 9 of its first 12 attempts including 4 of 6 from long range and finishing 59% at halftime. The Wildcats spread the offense well, with five players scoring at least seven points in the first 20 minutes.
Tshiebwe jump-started Kentucky’s 62% second-half shooting by scoring six points with a couple of dunks. The Wildcats eventually led 70-56 with 6:03 remaining before the Rebels rallied to within 76-70 on James White’s jumper with 2:15 left.
TyTy Washington Jr. (14 points off the bench) followed with three free throws in 20 seconds before Tshiebwe’s steal resulted in two more from the line by Keion Brooks Jr. to make it 81-70. Tshiebwe’s defensive rebound led to Brooks’ jumper with 17 seconds left for a 13-point cushion as the Wildcats finished unbeaten at home.
Matthew Murrell made 5 of 8 3-pointers for 25 points for the Rebels (13-17, 4-13), who dropped their third in a row and seventh in eight games. They fell to 2-56 all-time in Lexington.
Tshiebwe, the national leader in rebounds per game coming in (15.3), helped Kentucky win the boards 30-24 and made 9 of 12 from the field for his 24th double-double this season. Brooks finished with 10 points and five rebounds.
MORE GAME NOTES
• Kentucky finished 18-0 at home for the 2021-22 season. It is the 14th undefeated home season in the 46-year history of Rupp Arena. It is the sixth spotless home record in Coach John Calipari’s 13 seasons at Kentucky.
• Among Tshiebwe’s double-doubles this season are the last 12 games in a row, the first Wildcat to do that since Dan Issel had 12 consecutive double-doubles in the 1969-70 season.
• Kellan Grady and Davion Mintz were honored before the game in Senior Night ceremonies.
SEC Tournament Seeding: UK Will be No. 3 With a Win, No. 4 with a Loss
With one game remaining in the league schedule, Auburn is first with a 14-3 record and Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee are tied for second with a 13-4 mark.
A win at Florida will tie Kentucky for first or second place in the SEC standings. However, because of the tie-breaker scenarios, Kentucky will be guaranteed the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament and play Friday at 8 p.m.
A loss at Florida will tie Kentucky for third place in the standings. Because of the tie-breaker scenarios, Kentucky will be the No. 4 seed in the SEC Tournament and play Friday at 2 p.m.
