LEXINGTON, Ky. — Florida coach Billy Donovan warned his team before Tuesday night’s 20-point loss that poor shots and quick possessions would allow Kentucky to run wild in transition.
Once those mistakes began to pile up early in the first half at Rupp Arena, it usually took the Wildcats’ 6-foot-7 freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist just two steps from the 3-point line to hammer home Donovan’s point.
“I tell you what, when he gets the ball in the open court, he takes two strides; he’s about NBA line in two strides,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “He’s laying it in through traffic, tucking the ball. He’s pretty good.”
Kidd-Gilchrist, a forward, led the No. 1 Wildcats in transition with six of his 13 points coming off fast-break finishes in the opening half. Florida allowed a season-high tying 16 fast-break points — the most it has given up since Dec. 2 at second-ranked Syracuse — fed mostly by eight first-half turnovers.
The Gators also missed 20 of 30 shots to start the game, giving the Wildcats ample opportunities to flip the court.
“We didn’t shoot it well, but I also thought some of our turnovers there in the stretch, some of their transition hurt us,” Donovan said.
Kentucky blocked six shots, including four by forward Anthony Davis, which forced Florida to take increasingly difficult attempts in the face of the Wildcats’ lengthy frontcourt.
Junior guard Kenny Boynton said the Gators’ struggles to find quality looks drained the team’s energy on defense, causing breakdowns in player assignments once Kidd-Gilchrist and Co. got into the open court.
“The main thing was transition and offensive rebounding,” Boynton said. “We came down some plays and they’d get a block and they were out in transition. They were getting easy points. That kind of deflated us overall as a team.”
Florida guard Brad Beal, who finished with 14 points on 5-for-15 shooting, guarded Kidd-Gilchrist for much of the game but had a hard time containing the much taller forward. Using his four-inch height advantage, Kidd-Gilchrist hauled in a game-high 13 rebounds, including four on the offensive glass.
Kentucky finished with a 38-31 edge on the boards.
“Whenever we don’t shoot the ball well, we have to defend and rebound,” Beal said. “Our rebounding was also terrible because they were getting a lot of offensive rebounds … We weren’t playing the way Florida usually plays.”
While Boynton and Beal said the Gators grew increasingly stagnant on offense throughout the night and did a bad job of moving without the ball, they were able to curtail the Wildcats’ frenetic pace after halftime.
In the final 20 minutes, Kentucky was only able to get behind Florida’s defense for four points, with Kidd-Gilchrist held scoreless in transition.
“We always tell our guys, if he’s ahead of you, you must give him the ball,” Calipari said. “If you don’t, you’ll come out of the game, because he’s always going to make something good happen.”
Contact John Boothe at jboothe@alligator.org.
Kentucky forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist finished with six of his 13 points in transition in Tuesday’s game against Florida.
