The Pinkie Previews Florida at Kentucky: Wink’s Breakdown

On Tuesday, the Wildcats look to put an end to their current three-game losing streak and to avoid the first ever three-game losing streak in the history of Rupp Arena, against Florida in a nationally-televised game on ESPN Super Tuesday. After having their 12-game SEC home winning streak snapped by South Carolina, Mississippi State entered Rupp Arena and dealt the Cats their second straight loss at home.

The Bulldogs placed four players in double-figures, scored over 60-percent of their points from deep, and held Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson to 15 points each. Patterson pulled down a team-high nine rebounds while Darius Miller dished out a game-high five assists. Kentucky shot a season low 35.6 percent from the field, including just 28.6 percent (4-for-14) from behind the three-point arc.

The Gators currently lead the East division with a 6-2 record and have won three of their last four games, including a 97-93 shootout in their most recent win over South Carolina in Gainesville on last Tuesday. They enter the UK game with a 19-4 record overall and they have three players averaging double-figures. In the series history, Kentucky has won 85 of 116, but the Gators have won seven of the last eight.

If forced to characterize the Gators I would say that everything goes through Nick Calathes, they like to get up-and-down the court and the have the ability to shoot the three. But, the true key is the play of Calathes. Without him they are a totally different team and I think the nation saw that in the first half of the Tennessee-Florida game, when he was forced to sit out due to foul trouble.

Simply put, sophomore Nick Calathes (6-6, guard) does a little bit of everything for the Gators. He leads them in scoring (18.1) and he also leads the team, as well as being ranked 10th in the country in assists per game (6.4). He has scored 15 or more in 19 of 23 games and in 11 strait. In those 11 contests he is averaging 21.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists and is hitting 55-percent from the floor. On January 28 against Georgia he finished with the second career triple-double and the third in Florida history, with 20 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.

The key to stopping Calathes is keeping the Gators in half-court and keeping him out of the lane. However, his ability to knock down open threes makes it very difficult to keep him out of the paint.

Inside they are led by sophomore Alex Tyus (6-8, forward) who averages 12.4 points and 6.3 rebounds. Last season, Tyus was the first guy off of the bench much of the year but was pressed into the starting role with the departure of Maureese Speights. He has a big body and is really the Gators only offensive presence underneath.

Florida was supposed to look to sophomore Chandler Parsons (6-9, forward) to knock down open threes off of Calathes’ penetration. However, Parsons struggled from the arc to start the year. He is shooting only 30-percent from deep but in the last six games he has really picked his game up. In those six games he is averaging 15.3 points and is shooting 41-percent from deep. However, his percentage is greatly increased by his 7-fo-8 performance at Vandy. In that game he finished with a team-high 27 points.

Senior Walter Hodge (6-0, guard) is a workhorse defensively and is the only player who gets real minutes who was a part of the two championship teams. Hodge’s scoring is down this year as he is only averaging 7.7 points, but he consistently puts himself in the right place at the right time and always seems to come up with the timely basket.

Although, the Gators are holding opponents to only 66.3 points per game, which is good for sixth in the conference, I think their style of play fits Kentucky more than their last three opponents. Florida will allow Kentucky to get up and down the court and score some easy buckets in transition. At this point the Cats are looking for any type of easy basket.

If they can contain Calathes and find ways to get Meeks and Patterson the ball in the half-court the Cats should be able to avoid the first three-game losing streak at Rupp in Kentucky history. If Calathes has his way and Kentucky still acts as if they don’t know how teams are going to guard them it could get ugly.

If the game against the Gators is ugly, after their week off, I’m afraid to say the rest of the season could be ugly as well.