Tuesday night, Kentucky 17-6 (8-2), heads into what is in my opinion, the second toughest venue in the SEC, behind Memorial Gym at Vandy. Kentucky will invade the O'Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida for a match up against the Florida Gators. The odd part about this game, Kentucky is actually playing for a tie for first place in the SEC. Considering how this season has gone, I never thought the Cats would ever be in the position to be playing for first place tie in the SEC. That just goes to show, you can never count out a John Calipari coached team, with him at the helm, anything is possible.
Florida 19-3 (9-1), is coming off a win on the road against Mississippi State 83-58. However, it was just this past Tuesday night that they dropped one to Arkansas 80-69 and looked completely shell-shocked. So they are beatable, it's just that the Cats will just have to play one heck of a perfect game to do it.
Here's a look at how Kentucky stacks up against one of the top five teams in the country in the Florida Gators, the results may surprise you....
Florida Kentucky
PPG: 74 76
RPG: 36 39
APG: 16 15
SPG: 8 6
BPG: 3 8
TPG: 12 13
FG%: 49 48
FT%: 69 64
3P%: 38 36
Erik Murphy (49% from three) and Michael Frazier II (47% from three) is a couple of guys you'll want to pay close attention to.
Florida loses key bench player Will Yeguete to a knee injury. He is expected to be out at least until the SEC tournament. We all hope for a speedy recovery for a great player.
When you look at the numbers, Kentucky stacks up with top five Florida pretty good, really good actually. If Kentucky plays the game the way they have been, they very well could pull off the upset Tuesday night. If that happens, and that's a big IF, it would go a long way in improving Kentucky's seeding in the NCAA tournament.
Here's a little rundown on the history of the University of Florida....
EST: 1853
Location: Gainesville, Florida
Former name: University of the State of Florida
Colors: Orange/Blue
Nickname: Florida Gators
Mascot: Albert (men's) and Alberta (women's)
NOTABLE ALUMNI:
Let's face it, the only alumni worth mentioning is...
Erin Andrews- (the reason is self explanatory)
Kentucky has really turned its season around in a big way. After losing to Texas A&M at Rupp, most of the Big Blue Nation was ready to cash it in and prepare for next season. But, these guys aren't quite ready to give up just yet. Every time you think "well this is it, another loss", they somehow find a way to pull it out in the end.
For Kentucky to have even the slightest chance Tuesday night, they must bring with them the killer instinct and the "refuse to lose" attitude we have seen from them over these last couple of weeks. If, and only if that happens, Kentucky very well could leave Gainesville with a victory. You however must remember, if Kentucky does in fact lose, it's not the end of the world. They have a return game against the Gators in Rupp later on this season. But, man oh man, how sweet it would be to go down and hand the Gators their second loss in league play and make all the "naysayers" take notice that these young Cats are, in fact a good basketball team.
We will find out Tuesday night if this young Wildcat team can shock the Gators and make themselves look like an actual tournament team come March....
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