UK-UF Glance | Cal wants more risk, reflects on Bahamas
FLORIDA (15-15, 8-9 SEC)
AT NO. 1 UK (30-0, 17-0 SEC)
Game time: 2 p.m.
Site: Rupp Arena (24,000), Lexington, Ky.
Favorite: Kentucky by 16
Series: UK leads 95-37. Last meeting: Kentucky won 68-61 on Feb. 7 in Gainesville, Fla.
Television: CBS (Ian Eagle, Doug Gottlieb)
Radio: WHAS-AM 840 (Tom Leach, Mike Pratt, Matt Jones)
FLORIDA
Pos. Player Ht. Cl. Rb. Pts.
G-Kasey Hill 6-1 So. 4.7* 7.0
G-Eli Carter 6-2 Jr. 2.0 8.8
G-Chris Chiozza 6-0 Fr. 2.1 4.1
F-Jacob Kurtz 6-6 Sr. 3.8 4.3
C-Jon Horford 6-10 Sr. 4.9 6.4
* assists per game
G-Michael Frazier II 6-4 Jr. 4.7 13.4
F-Dorian Finney-Smith 6-8 Jr. 5.7 12.8
Key reserves – Michael Frazier II, G, 6-4, Jr., 13.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg; Dorian Finney-Smith, F, 6-8, Jr., 13.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg; Chris Walker, F, 6-10, So., 5.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg; Devin Robinson, F, 6-8, Fr., 6.6 ppg, 2.9 rpg; Alex Murphy, F, 6-8, Jr., 5.2 ppg, 1.8 rpg;
KENTUCKY
Pos.Player Ht. Cl. Rb. Pts.
G-Andrew Harrison 6-6 So. 3.9* 8.8
G-Aaron Harrison 6-6 So. 2.5 11.3
F-Trey Lyles 6-10 Fr. 5.0 8.1
F-Karl-Anthony Towns 6-11 Fr. 6.5 9.6
C-Willie Cauley-Stein 7-0 Jr. 6.4 8.9
* assists per game
Key reserves – Devin Booker, G, 6-5, Fr., 11.0 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.3 apg; Dakari Johnson, C, 7-0, So., 7.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg; Tyler Ulis, G, 5-9, Fr., 5.5 ppg, 3.6 apg; Marcus Lee, F, 6-9, So., 2.8 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.9 bpg.
STORY LINES
1. John Calipari to Cats: Turn it over more. No, really. Kentucky averages only 10.8 per game this season and had single-digit turnovers six times in the last 10 games. The Cats coughed it up only three times at Georgia on Tuesday. That's usually considered a good thing, but it had Calipari pleading with his players to "risk more."
"He wants us basically to turn the ball over more," point guard Tyler Ulis said. "But, you know, I'm not a fan of that. I hate turnovers. He's just saying we have too many great players to come out of a game with four or five turnovers. We're basically being conservative, not taking any risks."
That's exactly what the coach means.
"There are things that these kids have worked on in practice, a lot of it individually, to stretch out their game, that you gotta go try it in the game," he said. "You're going to make some mistakes, you're going to turn it over some. We went back over our stats and in our lowest-turnover games, our points per possession were our lowest. That means that we're not being aggressive enough."
2. It all started in the Bahamas. When did the Wildcats go from thinking they had a good team to a potentially historic squad? "We knew that in the Bahamas, early," said junior Willie Cauley-Stein, who didn't even participate in the six exhibition games there. "You could tell where everybody's mindset was, and once we got everybody back – me and Trey (Lyles) coming back – and we were all together hooping, you could tell the mindset and everything was just different.
"Coach was saying that. We'd have team meetings and he'd just be like, 'This is crazy. We don't even have our whole team here and we still look really good.' (I remember) how excited he was for everybody to be back and the season to get going."
Said Calipari: "It was a good trip, and it served its purpose. We needed to do this to see if the platoon system would work. And not only would it work, would they buy into it and would they allow it to work? All answers were yes on that, and that's where we knew we could do this."
3. Time flies when you're undefeated. Seems like just yesterday the Cats were beating up on grown men in that tiny gym on a tropical island. "The season has flown by," Calipari said. "I told these guys when we were in the Bahamas, 'The next time you turn around, it's going to be Christmas, and then the next time you turn around we'll be starting the conference tournament, and the next time you turn around we'll be hugging each other and saying, "It's done, this was a great year." ' And the players that have been through this all nodded their head. 'He's right. It flies.' "
– Kyle Tucker