The Kentucky Wildcats are not one of the best teams in the nation for the first time in years and one more loss could put them out of the mix altogether. Once again operating with a young roster, the Wildcats have struggled to get over the youth hump this season and the results are showing because of it. They do have a 33-game home win streak in their back pocket that they will use on Saturday as the Florida Gators come to town for an SEC showdown.
Kentucky is starting to become no strangers to playing after suffering a loss. The team fell victim to an ugly blowout against Tennessee where they blew a 21-point lead and lost 84-77. That was their second straight loss and a third would push them out of the ranking altogether.They are simply struggling with youth while hitting ugly scoring slumps along the way. Getting a home game could change that. The team is outscoring opponents by an average of 21.3 points, but the Gators are not to be overlooked.
Kentucky will likely ride the success of Tyler Ulis who has been a bright spot for the Wildcats. Ulis has been averaging 22.2 points while shooting 54.5 percent during a five game stretch. That has been just about all the scoring the Wildcats seem to be getting right now as no one else is really pulling their weight and Kentucky is struggling because of it.
The Gators are starting to hit their stride with first-year head coach Mike White. The Gators have struggled on the road where they have lost five of their last six games away from home while averaging 63.8 points. However, over their past two games Florida has looked more experience than ever. The team shot 52.0 percent from the floor along with 43.6 percent from long range. According to White, confidence is high heading into the game against Kentucky.
"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now," White said, via ESPN.com. "We're way more of a confident team than we were earlier in the season."
The Gators are being led by Dorian Finney-Smith who is averaging 20.4 points and 9.8 rebounds in the past five games which is up from the 15.1 points and 8.2 rebounds. That has helped the Gators improve in the recent stretch of games and they hope that carries over when facing Kentucky.