The college basketball regular season comes to a close as the Kentucky Wildcats travel to Gainesville to take on the desperate Florida Gators in the regular season finale.
This will be the second game of the season for the Cats and Gators as Kentucky took a 78–57 victory in mid-February.
Why are the Gators desperate?
Well, Florida is currently the definition on the bubble. They are currently in the “Next Four Out” category on ESPN with their current resume, and Saturday’s game is the perfect opportunity for them to make a name for themselves.
Mike White’s team will enter Saturday’s game with a 19-11 (9-8 SEC) score of the season. After a big win over Auburn a few weeks ago, the Gators will be looking to pick up two big home wins in the final month as the rest of the season has been very mediocre.
Most of you remember from the previous game that Florida loves to throw in threes, as they come into the game shooting just over 26 per game.
Unfortunately for Gator fans, they are not the best at what they love to do, as they only succeed in 32% of those attempts.
But when it gets hot, these alligators are hard to stop.
According to KenPom, Florida is currently the 50th best team in the nation as they have the 32nd best offense in the nation and 79th overall in defense.
Florida is individually led by Colin Castleton. After a mid-season injury, the talented big man appears to be back in full force and should give Oscar Chibwa a serious battle at the post all day long.
Entering the game, Castleton are averaging 16.1 points per game on 54% shooting from the field. He also adds 9.0 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in his 24 games played this season.
Along with Castleton, Florida will look to Tyree Appleby (11.4 ppg) and Flandrus Fleming Jr. (10.9 ppg) to keep up with Kentucky’s effective offense. Mireon Jones (9.1 ppg) is also a 3-point threat as he is shooting 35% from 35% this season.
For Kentucky, this matchup will come down to setting the rhythm back up with a fully healthy lineup. These road conditions should be the perfect test as they face a team in need of a win.
In the first match, Oscar Chibwe had one of his best performances of the season, scoring 27 points on 11/18 throws and 19 boards. Similar to the Ole Miss game on Tuesday night, expect John Calipari to try and feed his star big man early and often on Saturday.
After what happened the first time these two teams met, there could be some bad blood in this matchup. It started when T.T. Washington was injured after Florida guard Brandon McKissick fell on his foot while diving for a lost ball. It looked serious at the time, but luckily Washington is back in the lineup and appears to be in good health.
Later in the game, Florida quarterback Flandrus Fleming Jr. pushed Ware in the back, but the sophomore kept his composure as Kentucky beat Florida by 21 points. Ware ended up having perhaps the best game of his young career with seven boards and four points.
Overall, Kentucky is the better team and should be able to pull off a comfortable win in Gainesville with an A-game. But one thing is for sure: it’s an important game for Florida if they hope to turn it into a big dance.
Should be fun.