Josh White
Kentucky Wildcats vs. Florida Gators
Sunday, March 4, 2012, O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida
12:00 Noon, CBS
It’s the grand finale of the regular season, and it certainly should go out with a bang as the Wildcats travel to Gainesville to take on the Gators.
It’s been a very memorable season in Lexington, as Kentucky is still ranked first in the country after six consecutive weeks and have the chance to go undefeated in SEC play for the first since Tubby Smith’s team did it in 2003. Anthony Davis has to chance to not only win the Freshman of the Year Award, he could also win Defensive Player of the Year AND the Naismith Player of the Year awards. Couple that with the fact that Kentucky is regarded as the early favorite to win it all in the tournament this year, and it’s been nothing short of magical all season.
Florida isn’t going to make it easy for the Cats today. Florida is solidly in the tournament, but a win against the highly-regarded Cats could set them up for a more desirable seed in the Big Dance, especially since losses in their last two games to Vanderbilt (understandable) and Georgia (say what?!?!). That’s not to mention that it’s Erving Walker’s Senior Night in the O’Connell Center, and the Gators are an impressive 14-1 on their home floor this season. They are on a bit of a slide as of late, but there’s no doubt they’ll play this one to the last second against their arch rivals.
It seems that keeping the Gators down is keeping shooting guard Kenny Boynton in check. In their last two losses to Georgia and Vanderbilt, Boynton scored only 11 points in each. He also scored more than 20 points in a loss once this season (in a 72-68 loss to Syracuse on December 2). Boynton is such a high volume shooter that if you can keep him under his magic number of 20 then you’re in good shape.
Don’t discount players playing on their Senior Night either. Walker has played fairly well in the last four games, including 31 in a win against Arkansas on February 18. Emotions will be high for Walker, and he’ll no doubt be playing at a higher gear. He was held to no points and one assist in his previous meeting with Kentucky back on February 7, but should have a better game today.
PREDICTION: This one probably won’t be a walk in the park. Despite it’s head-scratching loss to Georgia last Saturday, Florida is one of the SEC’s best teams and is solidly ranked 16[SUP]th[/SUP] in the polls. Teams just tend to play different on Senior Night, especially when tournament implications are in play. It’ll be rough and tumble from the opening whistle to the final buzzer, but expect Kentucky to walk out of the O’Connell Center with an undefeated SEC record.
Kentucky 72, Florida 66
