College basketball

Feisty UK dangerous for foundering Florida

The Wildcats have a confident strut for every faltering Gators step as two teams with opposite fortunes clash in a sold-out game on national TV.

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published February 4, 2006

GAINESVILLE - Picture this:

Kentucky guard Rajon Rondo brings the ball upcourt in the waning minutes of a close game tonight at Florida and finds himself going one-on-one with Garrett Tyler: a walkon guard/forward from Palm Harbor.

Or maybe Brett Swanson, another Gator walkon.

Who would have thought this early last month? How things have changed for the Gators.

When Florida hosts Kentucky in a nationally televised SEC showdown, it will be a tale of two teams whose recent fortunes have taken vastly different turns.

Florida was up to No. 2 in the Associated Press rankings and undefeated four games ago. But with two starters injured and little depth, the No. 8 Gators have lost two of their last four games and are tied for second in the SEC East with Kentucky, one game behind Tennessee.

Kentucky opened the season in November ranked a preseason No. 9, but by Jan. 9 had fallen out of the rankings. The Wildcats were struggling and opened the SEC season 0-2. Most wrote them off, and for good reason, coach Tubby Smith said.

"That's the way we were playing - like we needed to be buried," Smith said. "We were playing like we were dead."

Somehow, they've resurrected themselves.

On a five-game winning streak, Kentucky's resurgence can be traced directly to its improved offensive numbers. It has topped 70 points in four consecutive games, scoring 80 or more in two of its last three. In its first two SEC games, Kentucky averaged 58 points, shot 39 percent from the field, 28 percent from 3-point range and averaged 9.5 assists. In their five league wins, the Wildcats are averaging 75.8 points, shooting 51 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and averaging 15.1 assists.

"Hopefully guys learned their lesson," Smith said. "They are retaining things that we've taught them and they are executing properly. That's the difference."

Although Smith has started eight lineups this season, the current one includes three sophomores, a junior and a senior.

"I think Kentucky is playing as well as anybody in the league right now," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "They've won five straight, they just got Randolph Morris back when the SEC started, and I think they are playing pretty well together."

Tonight Florida will be without starting junior guard Lee Humphrey (dislocated shoulder) for the second game, while starting sophomore forward Corey Brewer will see limited action for the fourth straight game (ankle sprain). He has played 31, 17 and 18 minutes respectively and scored 10 points since his injury Jan. 21.

"We need Corey 100 percent because he's really the heart and soul of this team," sophomore center Joakim Noah said. "We need him 100 percent to do the things we need him to do. I know it's been tough on him because he's really playing on one leg right now."

The Gators' depth is so shallow that at Mississippi on Wednesday night, the Gators' freshmen guards David Huertas and Walter Hodge played 28 and 37 minutes respectively; Tyler saw 14 minutes of action and Swanson also played.

"Right now, we don't have the most experienced, the deepest or the physically strongest team that we could have out there," Donovan said. "We're getting hurt rebounding-wise and we're getting hurt in a lot of different areas, but the one thing about all of them is they are competing and they are really trying to play hard. I said at the beginning of the season, this will be a team that will play ugly and there may be some games that we lose, but we're going to walk off the floor and feel good about them because of the effort they give. Those four guys (Huertas, Hodge, Tyler and Swanson) got thrown into that situation and it was totally unfair to them, but they responded well and were courageous. If we get caught in that situation again, hopefully they can produce like last time."

The game will be surrounded by much hoopla with ESPN's College GameDay in town, but Donovan said he doesn't expect it to affect his players.

"This is one game in a long SEC schedule," Donovan said. "I understand GameDay being here ... but let's be honest right now, neither Florida nor Kentucky is in first place, on our side or the overall race. ... It is only one game and we've still got to play them again."

One game. One very big game.

[Last modified February 4, 2006, 00:33:08]