Kasey Hill lost his bragging rights on Saturday, but you likely won’t hear him complain.
A senior, Hill came into the weekend as the only Gator on the roster to have beaten Kentucky when he was a freshman in 2013-14.
But when the final horn sounded on Saturday, Hill had carried his teammates and coach to their first win over the SEC’s most storied basketball program.
The fourth-year point guard led No. 24 Florida to a 88-66 win over No. 8 UK on Saturday night in the O’Connell Center, UF’s largest margin of victory ever over the Wildcats.
Fans didn’t expect a 20-plus point win.
Oddsmakers didn’t expect it.
But Hill thought the Gators had a chance to beat them by 30. After all, UF came into the game with three straight 30-point wins.
“Beating them by 30? Yeah. That definitely crossed my mind,” Hill said. “Nobody was saying it, but we were definitely trying.”
UF coach Mike White said Hill had probably the most complete and clutch performance he’s ever seen out of him.
Hill tied his career-high in scoring with 21 points. He made 8-of-16 from the field and added six assists and five rebounds.
“I thought he was fantastic,” White said of his point guard. “The fact that he stepped up and made some big offensive plays to compliment how hard he’s playing defensively.”
White said Hill did a phenomenal job covering SEC leading scorer and Kentucky guard Malik Monk. Monk averages 22.4 points per game but shot just 4-of-14 against the Gators for 11 points and fouled out.
Hill wasn’t the only Wildcat stopper on Saturday, as UF’s defense held Kentucky to a season-low 66 points and 37.7 percent shooting from the field.
Kentucky coach John Calipari said Hill, a player he recruited, was playing above his abilities.
“Kasey Hill is not known as a jump shooter. He made five straight shots,” Calipari said.
UK guard De’Aaron Fox said Hill kept getting to the basket and called him one of the quickest guards in the country.
“The big part was he was making jumpers,” Fox said. “When he’s making jumpers, it’s extremely hard to stop him.”
Hill has now beaten Kentucky four times, after UF’s 2013-14 Final Four squad beat the Wildcats 3-0 in the season series.
But Hill’s had his eyes on the Wildcats long before he was on a college campus, often seeing them on TV as a kid.
“I would watch Kentucky all the time,” Hill said. “I first started watching them when they got John Wall, and I looked up to him.”
While Hill’s win will no doubt be memorable for him, his teammates and the 11,171 in attendance on Saturday, UF coach Mike White reminded reporters that the Gators will have to face UK on their home court on Feb. 25.
“We’ve got a ways to go,” White said.
“We’ve got to go back to Kentucky.”
UF guard Kasey Hill shoots a free throw during Florida's 94-71 win over the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Dec. 21, 2016, at the O'Connell Center.
