With the Kentucky Wildcats ranked in the top 10 with an 11-2 record, including big wins over Duke and Gonzaga, it’s been a good start to the Mark Pope era as the non-conference slate comes to an end.

However, the most difficult is yet to come.

Entering conference play in an SEC that is being discussed as one of the strongest conferences in recent memory, Kentucky has one of the toughest remaining schedules in the country. 14 of their 18 conference games will be Quad I opportunities. Their first opponent will be the Florida Gators on Saturday.

Considered one of the best young coaches in the country, Todd Golden has led Florida to a 13-0 record, holding the nation’s longest active win streak and No. 5 national ranking in the Coaches Poll. However, the Gators have played just one top-50 KenPom team in a struggling North Carolina squad.

Is Kentucky ready for the physicality of the SEC? Is Florida for real? Let’s take a look at the matchup.

Pace and Defense

Kentucky and Florida both rank top 10 in field goal attempts and average just more than 15 seconds per possession. Meaning, this is going to be a fast-paced contest with a lot of shots.

Just like Kentucky, Florida prioritizes attacking in transition. The best way to stop that is by scoring. So, in a way, Kentucky’s best defense against Florida is their offense. That means efficient movement, on and off the ball, and good shot selection.

When getting into halfcourt defense, Kentucky needs to be prepared for a lot of ball screens, an area they have been focusing on since the loss to Ohio State. “All of our guys were struggling to remember if there was anything involved in the game of basketball except for ball screen defense. We repped and repped and repped,” Pope said after the Brown win.

Offensive Rebounding Battle

Florida is the best rebounding team in the country by average. Statistically, Kentucky is, too, but there have been times they have lacked effort on the boards, most recently in the first half against Brown.

With Florida, it’s not just one player; it’s a balanced attack, with six players averaging more than five rebounds per game. All five Kentucky players on the floor will need to make the effort to box out and not look to leak out early.

Florida really excels on the offensive glass, rebounding 41% of their misses. That said, they give up nearly 10 offensive rebounds to their opponent per game, an area where Mark Pope prioritizes every game.

If the Cats can be in the net-positive with offensive rebounds, it would be huge for their chances to win.

Free Throws

Statistically, Florida’s biggest weakness is its free-throw shooting, which is 73.4% compared to Kentucky’s 73.8%.

Similar to Kentucky, the Gators have been inconsistent from the charity stripe, shooting nearly 82% on 33 attempts in one game this season to shooting 56% on 25 attempts in another.

All projections expect this to be a close game and taking advantage of FREE throws will always help your chances to win.

Opposing Players to Watch

G Walter Clayton Jr 6-3, 195 lbs

• 17.2 PPG (10th in SEC)
• 3.8 APG
• 37% 3P

G Will Richard 6-4, 206 lbs

• 14.2 PPG
• 5.0 RPG
• 2.2 SPG (8th in SEC)

F Alex Condon

• 11.2 PPG
• 7.5 RPG (10th in SEC)
• 1.5 BPG (8th in SEC)

Time: 11:00 AM ET on January 4th, 2024

Location: Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center in Lexington, Kentucky

TV Channel: ESPN

Online Stream: ESPN+ and the ESPN app.

Radio: Tom Leach and Jack Givens will have the call on the UK Sports Radio Network.

Replay: WatchESPN and ESPN network of channels (check local listings).

Rosters: UK | FLA

Stats to Know: UK | FLA

KenPom: UK | FLA

Team Sheet: UK | FLA

Odds: FanDuel Sportsbook does not yet have a spread, so check back later for that. EvanMiya gives Kentucky a 43.9% chance of winning, Bart Torvik is at 54%, KenPom is at 47%, and ESPN is at 58.8%.

Predictions: EvanMiya has Florida winning 82-77. Bart Torvik has the Cats winning an 83-82 thriller. Haslametrics is going with an 84-78 Florida victory. KenPom has the Gators winning 82-81. I’ll give the home team the edge in this one and predict an 85-83 victory, Kentucky!

How do you see this one going? Send us your Kentucky vs. Florida score predictions in the comments section!

Go CATS!!

Brown decided to schedule its two biggest games of the non-conference schedule within nine days of each other. The Bears first traveled to Lawrence to take on a top-10 Kansas team on December 22 before flying to Lexington to take on a top-10 Kentucky team on Dec. 31 — arguably the two best home environments in college basketball in back-to-back matchups.

Quite the challenge ahead of the Ivy League schedule.

Weirdly enough, they were identical 34-point margins of victory for the blue bloods, KU pulling off an 87-53 win and UK pulling off an 88-54 win. Both games saw sluggish starts before the home favorite pulled away in blowout fashion down the stretch.

How did Brown head coach Mike Martin view the matchups?

“Trying to take a little bit of a step-back and just think of the big picture of the opportunity our programs had the last two games, playing in Kansas then playing here,” he said. “Great experience for our players. Great experience for everyone affiliated with our program.”

In his eyes, the Wildcats are as advertised — closer to the team that beat Duke and Gonzaga away from home than the one that got destroyed by Ohio State in New York City. After the offense hit a wall as of late and the defense regressed, Mark Pope’s group finally got things figured out going into the SEC schedule.

It was noticeable on both ends.

“I think Kentucky did a great job of making us uncomfortable from the very beginning. Offensively we struggled to really get into a flow and run offense. 23 turnovers led to 33 Kentucky points,” Martin said. “Obviously, it’s going to be hard to stay within reach when that happens so. I thought our half-court defense was actually pretty good. They scored a lot in transition off our turnovers. In the second half, they scored in every way possible so, we’ll learn from it, and I know we will be a lot better because of these last two experiences.”

What led to that dominant defensive effort that led to 23 forced turnovers with 14 steals?

“It starts at the point of attack. (Lamont) Butler and (Otega) Oweh are terrific defensive guards and obviously we have a terrific guard named Kino Lilly. You know, Kino was efficient offensively, but I think their pressure at the point of their defense, then obviously (Amari) Williams at the back end made it hard on us. They were trying to take us out of our Zoom action, they denied a lot of hand-offs. Then we got a couple back-cuts early, but it wasn’t enough to loosen them up.

“So, I think it starts with those three guys, then their entire team and scheme defensively deserves a lot of credit.”

For how quickly this Kentucky team was put together almost entirely through the transfer portal, Martin couldn’t be more impressed.

“They were ready, Kentucky, to play and it’s impressive to watch what they’ve done in a short amount of time with so many new players,” he said. “How cohesive they are and how they share the ball, the 18 assists for them and only five turnovers. It’s just super impressive to see.”

Can’t complain about a feel-good win to close out 2024.